Old habits are hard to break. With BEA’s switch to a mid-week show and just two days of floor exhibits, a number of veteran fairgoers were confused to learn this morning that the show floor does not open until tomorrow. Sufficiently so that BEA pushed out an e-mail reminder on this point. Today is for conferences only (though the Rights Center is open, and remainders buyers are allowed on the floor.) But the conference sessions are crowded indeed. With digital publishing very much top of the agenda, the realignment of the IDBF conference to run concurrently with BEA has been […]
Archives for May 2010
Disney Takes Over Marvel Publishing; Cursor Signs with PGW
Disney Publishing announced today that they are taking over management of–and aiming to expand–subsidiary Marvel Entertainment’s children’s licensed book publishing business worldwide. “Working with key licensees around the world, including the U.S. market, DPW will create original new content for coloring and activity, novelty, gift and sound books as well as for high end storybooks and chapter books.” Richard Nash’s start-up line has officially confirmed their distribution deal with PGW, starting July 1–though their first print title, Lynne Tillman’s Some Day This Will be Funny, won’t publish until spring 2011.
As BEA Opens, CEOs Miss the Way Things Were
It could be the best of times but mostly it’s the worst of times, at least as viewed for the majority of this morning’s opening conference panel at BEA featuring a variety of executives from across the business: Moderator Jonathan Galassi from FSG, Esther Newberg at ICM, Bob Miller at Workman, author and Authors Guild president Scott Turow, Skip Prichard at Ingram, and David Shanks at Penguin USA. For the better part of the one-hour and twenty-minute session, most panelists–with no offense a senior, and not exactly youthful group–were weighed down by the challenges and obstacles of the digital transition […]
Survey Says Indies Need to Discount Bestsellers, Broaden Selection to Expand Sales
Verso Digital presented ABA members with results a new online survey conducted in April targeted at consumer intelligence relevant to independent booksellers. (They surveyed 9,300 book buyers, with an estimated margin of error of 1.5 percent.) The focus was to follow up on a finding from Verso’s earlier survey that indie “mindshare” is a lot bigger than indie market share–since 23 percent of book buyers list indie stores as one of their “favorite places to shop for books,” even though indie stores are estimated to have 5 percent or less of the actual dollar market for books. (At least one […]
Buzz by the Numbers
As you consider this year’s “official” Buzz Panel books–and all the other titles clamoring for buzz on the show floor during BEA–we thought it would be interesting to take stock of the performance of last year’s selections. Bear in mind that part of the point of the panel is to shine a light on a broad selection of books of potential merit and audience appeal that might not be top-of-the list sure things. So absolute sales numbers are not the only measure of success. But by most yardsticks, nearly all of the books featured last year met with some kind […]
People, Etc.
Tom Spain is now vp, editorial director at Simon & Schuster Audio. He will add oversight for their children’s audio program, oversee audio sub rights, and is working on creating “audio-based applications that take full advantage of all that evolving technologies and platforms have to offer.” At distributor NBN, director of rights and permissions for the Rowman & Littlefield group Clare Cox will now be available to work with clients to sell foreign rights on their behalf. Weldon Owen publisher and chief executive in Australia Sheena Coupe will retire in August after 25 years with the company. She will be […]