The Canadian trade continues to be worked up that small “artisanal” Gaspereau Press doesn’t want to change their bookmaking ways now that Johanna Skibsrud’s The Sentimentalists has won the Giller Prize. Award founder Jack Rabinovitch made it clear to co-owner Gary Dunfield, “I would like to see the books out.” And he tells the Globe and Mail, “he’s given me the assurance and he promised to get back to me tomorrow [Friday] night.” But Dunfield tells the paper, “I think at this point we’re deciding early next week,” having already said he and his partner were looking at “three or […]
Archives for November 2010
Wimpy Kid More Nearly Doubles Hefty Bush Opening-Day Sales
Jeff Kinney’s DIARY OF A WIMPY KID: The Ugly Truth, the fifth in his bestselling series, sold over 375,000 copies in its first day on sale according to publisher Abrams. The launch included an event at Book People in Austin, TX, where the author addressed over 1,600 fans to kick off his tour. The specially-branded tour bus will take Kinney to events in Little Rock, Memphis, Nashville, and Birmingham, AL, with up to 2,000 fans expected in the various venues. That opening-day sale is said to be up 50 percent from the big first day for the fourth book in […]
Amazon Bows to Customer and Media Firestorm, Removes Self-Published Pedophilia File
Having encouraged an atmosphere of customer anger over issues like ebook pricing, Amazon experienced a surge of backlash over a reprehensible self-published ebook on pedophilia and reversed position, removing the book from their site. Phillip Greaves’ The Pedophile’s Guide to Love and Pleasure was posted as a Kindle ebook on October 28, and discovered by the internet–and then worldwide media–yesterday. At first Amazon tried defending the product (sorry, but it’s not worthy of calling this file a book) and generally hiding from the media onslaught, reportedly saying the company “believes it is censorship not to sell certain books simply because […]
Ad Recovery Continues to Help Bertelsmann Results
Bertelsmann has reported continuing strength in their business, with sales for the third quarter of 3.649 billion euros and operating EBIT of 265 million euros, yielding after-tax profit of 111 million euros. (In the European tradition, they simply report results for the first 9 months of the year; we subtract out and isolate the most recent quarter, since the other results have already been reported.) The company says results were “fueled by a recovery in the overall economy including an upturn in the advertising industry; long-view cost measures; and a brisk business performance both in conventional and digital media.” They […]
People, Awards, Etc.
Yes, the NYT foray into the wilds of Brooklyn is comedy gold, but we’ll leave the wisecracks up to individual readers. On the straight-faced side, take note that David Black managed to get the city to provide tax incentives of $3,000 per employee per year for the next 12 years to relocate from Manhattan.NYT Children’s publishing veteran Lori Benton has been named vp, publisher for the Scholastic Trade Publishing division, overseeing all imprints and reporting to president Ellie Berger. Benteon starts January 3. Most recently she was general manager and publisher of the fiction division of Capstone Publishers, and is […]
Bookselling: Borders Partners with ShopRunner, Barnes & Noble Tests Toy Boutiques
Borders is continuing their program of scrappy imitation of competitors’ offerings through low-cost partnerships, this time joining ShopRunner.com‘s roster. The site provides the equivalent of Amazon Prime–free two-day shipping in exchange for an annual membership fee of $79–across a network of participating etailers. According to ShopRunner’s site, a similar partnership with Barnes & Noble.com is “coming soon.”Release Reuters reports on Barnes & Noble‘s test program of in-store boutiques for educational toys and games. The 3,000-square-foot prototype “play areas” have opened in recent days at five stores in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, “with plans to open more if the […]