As of Thursday morning, the Harry Potter ebooks and digital audio recordings are available to libraries through OverDrive, as previously promised. Participating libraries can be found via www.overdrive.com/harrypotter. OverDrive is providing EPUB files, and library patrons can borrow Kindle-format files in the US. OverDrive had been taking pre-orders from libraries for what was said to be an April launch, and then mysteriously “temporarily suspended pre-sales and display” through library catalogs on March 20.
Archives for March 2012
People, Etc.: On Adrienne Rich, Uggie the Dog, and More
Pioneering feminist poet and essayist Adrienne Rich, 82, died Tuesday at her home in Santa Cruz of complications from long-term rheumatoid arthritis, her son Pablo Conrad told the LAT. Rich won a number of prestigious prizes for her poetry and prose throughout her career, including the Yale Young Poets prize, the National Book Award, the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize and the Dorothea Tanning Award given by the Academy of American Poets. Uggie, the dog who co-starred in Oscar-winner The Artist, has signed with Alan Nevins at Renaissance Literary & Talent to represent his “autobiography,” currently titled “Uggie, My Story.” British […]
Scholastic Adds 12.5 Million Units of Hunger Games In 2012
Scholastic says that the three Hunger Games titles have over 36.5 million units in print in the US: over 17.5 million copies of THE HUNGER GAMES; 10 million copies of CATCHING FIRE; and 9 million copies of Mockingjay. In January the publisher said they had 24 million units in print, so they have shipped and/or sold 12.5 million units so far in 2012. That squares roughly with the figures in Scholastic’s recent quarterly earnings report on March 15. Trade book sales had jumped from $43.5 million up to $112 million, largely on the strength of Hunger Games sales. That $68.5 […]
AAP Launches Expanded Stats As Trade Reports A Good January
The AAP released sales numbers for January 2012, launching a significantly revised and expanded data set under the new name StatShot. The new counts reflect data from 1,149 publishers overall across all the sectors the AAP tracks, and provide a variety of more granular data breakouts. Trade statistics are enhanced by the inclusion of data from multiple major distributors, including all of Perseus’s distribution lines, IPG (which accounts for 663 publishers), and clients distributed by Random House, Simon & Schuster, and Hachette Book Group. (Previously only 20 to 25 publishers contributed to most of the trade statistical pool.) The University […]
Random House Profit Increases as Bertelsmann Plans To Reshape Company In Next 5-10 Years
Bertelsmann released its full-year earnings statement for 2011, and for Random House the numbers correspond to the trend at other large houses: Revenue fell €79 million or 4.3 percent to €1.749 billion compared to last year, while EBIT rose 6.9 percent to €185 million, compared to €173 million the previous year. The company also recorded “record triple-digital-percentage” digital revenue growth and a “surging demand” for Random House ebooks helped by the “increasing availability of lower-priced e-reading devices and tablets” that offset declines in print sales. (2011 was also the year Random House switched to agency model pricing in the US.) […]
Shareholder Suit Against Riggio and Two Barnes & Noble Directors Moves to June Trial
A shareholder lawsuit against Barnes & Noble chairman Len Riggio and two former company directors, Lawrence Zilavy and Michael Del Giudice, over the public company’s 2009 buyout of BN College will move forward to a trial tentatively set to begin June 18. Delaware Chancery Court Judge Leo Strine dismissed three independent directors from the suit, along with vice chairman Steve Riggio (who had recused himself from voting on the acquisition). As Bloomberg summarizes, “the investors argue that the board allowed Riggio to dictate terms and timing of the 2009 buyout of Barnes & Noble College Booksellers Inc. and didn’t force […]