The AAP released somewhat-delayed sales numbers for June. (Once again, this is data from the limited set of publishers who reported monthly to the AAP, not to be confused with the larger pool of annual data and estimates reflected in the Book Stats program the publishers organization runs along with the BISG, debuted in August). In what was a lousy month compared to the same period a year ago, a $50 million gain in ebooks over last year was far outpaced by the $153 million decline in print sales compared to June 2010, a 36.5 percent drop. eBook sales from […]
Archives for September 2011
Bookselling: Waterstone Plans New Dedicated eReader, Moves to Flat-Rate Discounts; and More
Waterstone’s managing director James Daunt confirmed for BBC Radio 4’s You and Yours that the company will launch a dedicated e-reader in spring 2012 in a strategy “inspired” by BN’s Nook, though he offered no additional details beyond that. “We in Waterstone’s need to offer you a digital reader which is at least as good, and preferably substantially better, than that of our internet rival, and you will have a much better buying experience purchasing your books through us,” Daunt said. He added he would be “disappointed” if Waterstone’s couldn’t come up with a digital offer that would at least […]
People, Etc.
Ami Greko from Kobo, Liz Scheier from Barnes & Noble, and Christina Biamonte Faubert from Sony eBooks, will join the advisory board of the Publishing Innovation Awards–the expanded program of honors presented at Digital Book World. This year the initiative is also adding the QED Seal, “a reader-focused standard for ebook quality.” Kobo, BN and Sony have all joined the program as “supporting partners” as well. Further to yesterday’s news of Richard Nash‘s new job at start-up Small Demons, he notes on blog that his RedLemona.de venture is becoming “a fully volunteer-operated enterprise.” He tells us it will “continue as […]
Corporate Briefs: BN, BAMM, and Pearson
In their quarterly SEC filing, Barnes & Noble addressed the would-be class action suit filed in New York last month that includes the bookseller and Amazon along with Apple and the six largest trade publishers, alleging price fixing and conspiracy with respect to the agency model for ebooks. “The company denies liability and intends to vigorously defend its interests.” Books-a-Million filed their quarterly report as well, which confirms the continuing merchandise shift underway at physical stores. Books and magazines now comprise 75.6 percent of sales, down from over 80 percent a year ago. The largest growth area, no surprise, is […]
Random House Moves to All-Digital Catalogs In 2012
Random House will move to digital-only catalogs next year, beginning with the summer 2012 children’s lists (for which the selling season begins in early January) and the fall 2012 adult lists. They are using the Edelweiss electronic catalog service, as well their own web sites. The randomhouse.biz site will feature searchable, sortable information for the trade on forthcoming titles, and the divisional consumer sites will integrate and display new title data as well. PDF downloads will be available as well, though some of the site resource enhancements are a work-in-progress, and will be ready for the transition. Random House director, […]
Google Acquires Zagat
Zagat, which first was put up for sale in early 2008 and failed to close a deal, has been acquired by Google. Terms were not disclosed (for now; they will probably be disclosed when Google files their quarterly report). The company’s Marissa Mayer blogs, “Their surveys may be one of the earliest forms of UGC (user-generated content)—gathering restaurant recommendations from friends, computing and distributing ratings before the Internet as we know it today even existed…. I’m incredibly excited to collaborate with Zagat to bring the power of Google search and Google Maps to their products and users, and to bring […]