After a somewhat confoundly-sluggish stretch, monthly ebook sales collected by the AAP and IDPF from 12 publishers (thus dominated by the six largest trade publishers) have risen again–popping from $29.8 million in June to $40.8 million in July. That’s a new monthly highpoint, well surpassing the previous high of $31.9 million from January. (The month-by-month 2010 recap is below.) What could have changed so much in the marketplace in July? In the last week of June, Apple released iOS 4, extending the iBooks app and store to iPhones and iPod Touches (and they released the newest iPhone as well). But […]
Archives for September 2010
Hachette UK Underway with Agency Transition
As previously announced, Hachette UK is currently executing its transition to an agency model for selling ebooks. Unlike in the US, however, where the five big houses switched terms on a designated day, Hachette UK is making the change via a “short transition period” according to company spokesperson Clare Harington. The Bookseller reported on an e-mail from wholesaler Gardners to customers communicating about the change and identified today as the switchover day, but the company indicates its an ongoing process. Right now Hachette UK ebooks no longer appear on major sites like Waterstone’s and WH Smith, while Amazon UK continues […]
Biggest Proxy Firm Supports Burkle Nominees to Barnes & Noble Board
Perhaps the most-watched proxy advisory Institutional Shareholder Services broke ranks this morning with two other firms in supporting Ron Burkle’s slate of alternate directors for Barnes & Noble. The NYT says the move “could be crucial” since “many large institutional investors are required to vote their shares along the lines of ISS’s recommendations.” In their summary, ISS says “based on BKS’ deteriorating operating performance, poor shareholder return, less-than-enthusiastic analyst recommendations, inadequate transparency into and disclosure on a very large related-party transaction which appears to have exacerbated performance problems [i.e. the purchase of Barnes & Noble College], and significant concerns about […]
People, Etc.: Rumseld’s Book Is KNOWN, Wiley Repurchases, and More
Stephanie Gorton has joined The Overlook Press as editor. She was previously managing editor at Canongate UK. Tom Willshire has joined Overlook as national accounts manager. He was previously at Continuum. At St. Martin’s, Monique Patterson has been promoted to executive editor. At HarperCollins, May Chen has been promoted to senior editor. Also at the company, John Jusino has been promoted to director of production editorial for the Harper, Harper Business, and Collins Reference imprints. Joan Slattery is joining Pippin Properties as an agent and contracts manager. She has been at Random House for 20 years, most recently as senior […]
Debut Novel Breaks Out in Canada, with Help from Costco
Shilpi Somaya Gowda’s debut novel SECRET DAUGHTER has had only modest sales in the US since its release in March despite being an Indie Next selection, but in Canada the book hit No. 1 on the Globe and Mail bestseller list in late spring and it continues to top lists there. The Globe and Mail says the book has “sales of about 6,000 copies a week and still climbing,” calling “its surprise success the juiciest mystery in Canadian publishing.” By their account, the trigger was the book’s selection by an “anonymous buyer” at Costco’s Ottawa office. Harper Canada vp of […]
Lunch Weekly for Monday, September 20
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 Taylor Polites’s untitled novel in the Southern Gothic tradition set in […]