Bloomsbury, which is readjusting its fiscal year, reported results for the 14 months ending February 28. Since the publisher already disclosed 12-month results recently, we’ll only delve into the highlights and what’s new. Their ebook sales continue to accelerate. They were £1.5 million for all of 2010, and have now registered £1.1 million for the first two months of 2011. Chief executive Nigel Newton says in the release, “This is an exciting time for Bloomsbury: demand for digital delivery, including e-books, is increasing significantly; it will change the publishing business model creating one worldwide market. The recent organisation change is […]
Archives for May 2011
More News from Publishers Launch: ABA to Test Bundling; HC Building App Studio; Amazon Readies for Brazil
ABA coo Len Vlahos revealed that they have arranged a bundling test for the fall with one publisher (and are talking to another). “When you buy the print book instore or online, you’ll get the ebook free for a fixed time,” and that ebook will be DRM-free “for this limited time period” to facilitate the bundle. On a separate Google-run panel yesterday, however, the company’s Scott Dougall said “consumers love bundling” and “we’d love to get there” to offier it. “But it’s up to the publishing industry to be more open-minded” about the pricing of bundles. Back at Publishers Launch […]
Briefs: Bloomsbury & PFD Partner On Digital Imprint to Republish OOP Titles
Bloomsbury and PFD have joined forces to republish more than 500 out-of-print titles digitally beginning in September. The Bloomsbury Reader, as the venture is called, will bring back books into print from political diarist Alan Clark, Booker Prize winner Bernice Rubens, and poet & critic Edith Sitwell. Bloomsbury and PFD told the Guardian they hope other literary agencies will make use of the new service as well. 57 remaining Whitcoulls stores and five Borders shops were sold to Farmers Department Store owners the Norman family by administrator Ferrier Hodgson for an undisclosed sum. Owner David Norman told BusinessDay the company […]
USA Bolsters Online Book Pages
USA Today has soft-launched a revised and expanded books section on the newspaper’s web site, complicated with a dedicated sub-domain, books.usatoday.com. Among the features, their bestseller list has a graphics-enriched consumer-friendly new presentation (and is featured on the books home page as well). Importantly for publishers and publicists, the Book Buzz column will now act as a daily blog, with contributions from across the USA Today books department staff. Book reviews have a consistent new page design featuring the jacket and click-to-buy links at Amazon, BN, IndieBound and iTunes, and those review pages pull in reader reviews from GoodReads and […]
If Jesse James Came to BEA, Would He Eat the Foie Gras Or Just Steal It?
The NYT offered such a fresh, informative take on BEA and our industry that we’ve excerpted the merry mix of metaphors for you in this brief recap: The NYT suggests “there is a Wild West quality to the book business these days, and it is on full display at BookExpo America,” recalling the gold rush era, I guess, when the precessors of “the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group gave a party at a French bistro in Midtown, where waiters passed around foie gras on toast.” (If only HarperCollins had positioned their rolled rare roast, also passed by hired servants, as gluten-free.) […]
People, Etc.
Michael Barber has joined Pearson in the newly created position of chief executive adviser, reporting to Marjorie Scardino. Barber is currently a partner at McKinsey & Company and head of its global education practice. John Bond is leaving HarperCollins UK at the end of June by “mutual agreement.” Bond was managing director of Press Books, which will now be run by ceo Victoria Barnsley, assisted by special projects director Katie Fulford, until a replacement is found. Thomas Nelson Gift & Children’s division has announced a number of new hires. Jennifer Barrow joins as editor, Micah Walker moves up to assistant […]