Jofie Ferrari-Adler’s series of interviews with agents and editors continues with Jon Karp at Twelve. “I don’t think it’s right for me to get up on my soapbox and say that my way is the best way. What I do think is that the Twelve model makes a great deal of sense for unknown authors or authors who want to break out.” He adds: “I think that a majority of the projects that are acquired by major houses never have a chance of breaking through. They are flawed in their conception. What I learned from Ann Godoff was to be […]
Archives for October 2009
Amazon Adds Same-Day Delivery; Removes Kindle Data API
Amazon announced same-day delivery of assorted products in New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington DC, Las Vegas, and Seattle. More quietly, and to everyone’s detriment, the etailer confirmed on a forum recently that the data API for Kindle books isn’t broken–it has been removed for good. The post simply states: “We apologize for the confusion surrounding Kindle Books. Kindle books are not available via the Product Advertising API.” What that means is that informational services for searching Amazon’s database (of which our own Amazoom is just one) no longer show any Kindle availability or data. It also means everything about […]
Book Sales Fall 4 Percent at WH Smith
Reporting preliminary annual results for the fiscal year ending August 31, the UK’s WH Smith said sales fell 5 percent at their High Street stores, at 892 million pounds. Same-store sales on books declined 4 percent, but their gross margin increased, with high street operating profit of 49 million pounds, up 4 percent. The company credited itself with “further progress implementing our strategy to build on our authority as a popular book specialist. We saw good market share performance versus the general retail market with strong market shares in kids books and celebrity autobiographies.”Smith statement Bloomsbury offered a brief “interim […]
Random House Settles Billionaire's Vinegar Lawsuit and Apologizes, Though Author Does Not
Random House has settled a lawsuit brought by UK wine expert Michael Broadbent over the book BILLIONAIRE’S VINEGAR by Benjamin Wallace. The publisher apologized for allegations in the book that, as Broadbent’s attorneys put it, he “had behaved in an unprofessional manner in the way in which he had auctioned some bottles [said to have been owned by Thomas Jefferson] and that his relationship and dealings with Hardy Rodenstock, who discovered the original collection, was suspected of being improper.” The NYT says Random “issued a statement in court accepting that they were not true. Random House also paid an undisclosed […]
Library eBook Lending Rises, As Publishers Wonder About the Terms
Following up on Barnes & Noble’s hope to allow limited “lending” of ebooks by customers, the NYT looks at the growing demand for library patrons “checking out” downloadable ebooks from public library web sites. Overdrive says their number of checkouts has passed 1 million so far this year, up from abou 600,000 for all of last year. Of course those downloads don’t work on many of the most popular platforms, like Kindle and iPhone. But publishers are increasingly concerned about the business terms as ebook adoption grows. Simon & Schuster spokesman Adam Rothberg says, “We have not found a business […]
There's Your Barnes and Noble's E-Reader?
Gizmodo has a fine set of leaked pictures of the forthcoming Barnes & Noble eReader.The main screen is a standard black-and-white e-ink display–but at the bottom is a smaller touch-screen color LCD, to use to show for titles (with color jackets) and for other features like a on-screen keyboard. The LCD is said to be inactive while reading, so it probably won’t drain the battery too much. The device is equipped for wireless connections with a to-be-named service provider. The report says that BN will be selling the company’s own books (from Sterling) at a “deep discount.” As for the […]