We noted in late July that RedGroup–the dominant bookseller in Australia and New Zealand under the Whitcoulls, Angus & Robertson and Borders ANZ operations–was talking to its lenders about getting a waiver from an expected breach of their borrowing covenants. (Even so, they were reportedly projecting ebitda of approximately $25 million AU for their fiscal year ending in late August.) A new story in Crikey cites industry sources whom claim the group “has been forced to jack up prices, increase returns and extend trading terms with its suppliers.” One anonymous publisher says the chains have asked for 120 days to […]
Archives for August 2010
eReaders: Asian Producer Predicts More than 10 Million Units, But None of Them, Officially, Will Come from Plastic Logic; Amazon Wants to be Apple?
Chairman of Taiwan-based E Ink Holding Scott Liu says he expects his company’s ereader shipments to double or triple in the second half of 2010 as price cuts drive volume. Liu now anticipates full-year shipments will exceed 10 million units in 2010. He also indicates that “vendors will soon be able to provide sub-US $100 e-book readers judging from the market growth, and E Ink will help clients further lower the production costs.” E Ink Holding produces the screens for clients including Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Sony and Hanvon.DigiTimes Meanwhile, the king of overpriced ereader vaporware Plastic Logic has admitted […]
People
Former Billboard and Hollywood reporter pbulisher and one-time ceo of IDG books John Kilcullen has joined web-based self-publisher FastPencil’s board of directors. Kilcullen is now a brand management consultant based in California.
Library Thing Publisher Pages
LibraryThing.com has launched a new free service, LibraryThing for Publishers, starting with Orbit, Zondervan and three other publishers. Open to all, the new feature is designed to let publishers “showcase their new titles and interact with the LibraryThing community.” The pages display bookshelves of the publishers’ titles, link to LT reviews, and more.DescriptionOrbit Books sample
Publish Film Sell?
The LAT claims that “a movie’s release often leads to only a small uptick in a tie-in book’s sales” while declaring the EAT, PRAY, LOVE tie-in “the big exception this year.” The interesting part is that the book returned to the top of the bestseller lists in late May, well in advance of the movie’s marketing campaign. Separately, Nielsen released a chart on sales for the Elizabeth Gilbert book, which recorded sales of 94,000 units in the week ending August 1 alone. Sales in 2010 of 721,000 copies are more than double last year’ sales (and the movie release August […]
Indigo Sales and Losses Both Rise, As Kobo Costs Weigh
First quarter results of Canada’s biggest bookseller–or “largest book, gift and specialty toy retailer” as they now describe themselves–Indigo carry an echo of what Barnes & Noble faces right. Same-store sales at their superstores rose by 1.5 percent, while smaller-store comps declined just 0.7 percent and overall sales of $204.3 million (CA) were up $10.7 million or 5.5 percent from a year ago. But their online sales remain flat in the face of Amazon’s growing strength in Canada and the net loss more than doubled, from $2.3 million to $5.3 million. CEO Heather Reisman says “the increased loss is not […]