WH Smith issued a brief trading update for the 14 weeks ending June 5. With the UK book market in general decline, their High Street stores declined 4 percent on a like-for-like basis compared to a year ago. Their travel stores were also down 4 percent overall, which they somehow parsed into 2 percent regular decline and 2 percent volcanic ash decline.
Archives for June 2010
Jobs: Agency Publishers Say iBookstore Has 22 Percent Market Share
Speaking at yesterday’s Apple Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC), ceo Steve Jobs said “five of the six biggest publishers in the US tell us that the share of iBooks is up to about 22 percent — in about 8 weeks.” That confirms and also well exceeds our report gauging the market about a month after the iPad launched (on May 6), when large publishers said the iBookstore was capturing ebook market share for them of 12 to 15 percent, and indicates continuing ramp-up as Apple puts more units into the marketplace. Jobs also said, “in the first 65 days, users have […]
Farbey Joins Scholastic In New Global Nonfiction Post, and More People, Etc.
Scholastic has hired Miriam Farbey for the new position of global publisher, nonfiction in their trade publishing division. She will oversee all children’s trade nonfiction publishing, reporting to trade division president Ellie Berger. Farbey was most recently global publisher at DK. Based in Scholastic’s UK off, she started June 1. James Jayo is joining Globe Pequot Press as an editor for Lyons Press. He had been an associate manager of foreign rights at Crown and before that was an associate editor at Arcade. Anna Bliss is joining Globe Pequot Press as an editor-at-large for Lyons Press. She was previously at […]
Online Reading
At noon today Stephenie Meyer‘s novella THE SHORT SECOND LIFE OF BREE TANNER will be readable online for free.Bree Tanner site The New Yorker has three stories from their new 20 under 40 issue–by Gary Shteyngart, Salvatore Scibona, and Rivka Galchen–available at open online links. And the editors of the magazine discuss their choices here. “What we have tried to do, in selecting the writers featured in this issue, is to offer a focussed look at the talent sprouting and blooming around us. These writers (stories by eight of them appear here; twelve more will follow, one at a time, […]
eNews: Amazon Splits Lists, and More
Amazon is live now with separate hourly Kindle bestsellerlists for paid and free titles.Current list Rosetta Books’ latest one-year exclusive ebook deal with Amazon is for four older books by Congressman Ron Paul (but not his latest two, already available at multiple ebookstores from Grand Central).Release In Canada, price comparisons performed by Index/mb show that Kobo’s advertised claim of the “best selection and prices for ebooks in Canada” appears to be fully valid, with a side-by-side look at Kobo and Amazon Canada ebook prices.Post
Lunch Weekly for Monday, June 7
Deal Reports Just e-mail to deals@PublishersMarketplace if you aren’t using the online form linked below. Report a deal using the online form The Key As usual, the handy key to our Lunch deal categories. While all reports are always welcome, those that include a category will generally receive a higher listing when it comes time to put them all together. “nice deal” $1 – $49,000 “very nice deal” $50,000 – $99,000 “good deal” $100,000 – $250,000 “significant deal” $251,000 – $499,000 “major deal” $500,000 and up FICTION Debut Cary Groner’s THE NATURE OF THE BEAST, set in Nepal, about […]