The AAP reported sales for December, with net trade shipments of $493 million down 3.5 percent from a year ago. Children’s/YA hardcover was the only print growth category for the month, up 12.3 percent, and per the year’s trend, mass market books declined the most, down 40 percent. eBook sales remained moderate, at $85 million the third-largest category after adult hardcover and adult paperback. Comprising 17.2 percent of overall trade sales, they did climb from $77.3 million in November though on a comparable basis, ebooks less than doubled compared to the same period a year ago (when they were $49.4 […]
Archives for February 2012
For Tucker Max, Self-Publishing Ensues
New on the bestseller lists this month is Tucker Max’s third–and according to the author final–book of “fratire,” HILARITY ENSUES. Overlooked so far is that with this new volume Max joins the ranks of successful authors to turn to self-publishing, issuing the book through his own company Blue Heeler Books. (A blue heeler is a type of dog, which Max owns.) Max’s agent Byrd Leavell helped shop the distribution rights, in which Simon & Schuster prevailed over one other contender as the author’s distribution partner, after the author “turned down a huge offer” from another big six house for a […]
Figment To Acquire Teen Writing Site Inkpop From HarperCollins; OverDrive Will Distribute Harry Potter eBooks to Schools and Libraries
HarperCollins is selling off teen writing website Inkpop, which it created in 2009, to Figment for an undisclosed sum. The move, the WSJ reports, reflects HarperCollins’ conclusion that “the benefits of marketing its titles to a significantly larger combined audience outweigh the advantages of controlling its own teen writing website.” In three years of operation Inkpop built up a base of approximately 95,000 users, while Figment has more than 115,000 teens using its site, with “non-existent overlap” between the two groups, according to Figment co-founder Jacob Lewis. Figment will assume control of inkpop’s operations, activity, and website as of March […]
Maine-Based Mr. Paperback to Close 10 Stores, Lay Off 80
Mr. Paperback, which operates 10 stores around Maine, will close down by the end of April and lay off 80 full-time and part-time employees after more than 50 years in business. “It makes me really sad,” former Augusta store manager Helen Paganucci told the Kennebec Journalover the weekend. “I wish there were some way to keep it open.” Penny Robichaud, who co-owns Mr. Paperback with siblings Ralph Foss and Pamela Williams (another sibling, Robert Foss, retired several years earlier; the store was founded by their parents, John & Evelyn Foss) told the Bangor Daily News they are in negotiations to […]
People, Etc.
At Chronicle Books, Todd Presley has been promoted to executive director of human resources, McEvoy Group. Greg Mortimer joins Scribner Monday in the newly-created position of online marketing manager. He was formerly marketing manager of trade paperbacks for the Random House publishing group. Pulitzer Prize-winner Junot Diaz‘s new story collection THIS IS HOW YOU LOSE HER, “about the heartbreak and radiance that is love,” will be published by Riverhead on September 11, 2012. Diaz will appear at BEA as one of the author breakfast speakers on Tuesday, June 5, and he will do a national book tour in the fall. […]
Per the Trend, Penguin Sales Are Roughly Flat As Profits Rise
Pearson reported full-year results Monday, in line with the “trading preview” offered in January, and Penguin’s results were consistent with the recent trendline for successful trade houses: Sales of 1.045 billion pounds were up slightly on an adjusted basis (and down slightly, by 8 million pounds, on a topline basis, due to very modest strengthening in the pound versus the dollar), while margins rose to another new record: 111 million pounds, up 5 percent overall and 8 percent on an underlying basis. That leaves them with a margin for the year of a little under 11 percent, similar to that just reported […]