Penguin asked for–and now has received–permission to shar ein the open court docket the previously “confidential” pre-agency pricing data they referred to in opposing the approval of the federal settlement. Even now that the settlement has been finalized, “Penguin believes it is in the public interest to make evidence like this public,” they told Judge Cote. “Exhibit A, compiled using historical pricing information from Amazon, shows that (1) the average Amazon price, on a title by title basis, for the majority of Penguin new release eBook titles was higher than $9.99 prior to the agency model.” The data comprises the […]
Archives for September 2012
People, Etc.
Kevin Doughten will join Crown as senior editor on September 24, focusing on non-fiction. He was most recently an editor at Viking. Olga Rogozina has joined the Van Lear Agency in Moscow as both a literary agent and contracts manager. Previously she was foreign rights manager at Astrel. Founder of Chicago’s 10-store Beck’s Bookstores, Bob Beck, 91, died last week at Northwestern Hospital. “Today, a marketing major would say he had a business plan. Back then, it was called an angle. He sold books at Beck’s for less than the college bookstores charged, and he paid more when the used […]
Hachette Further Clarifies Higher eBook Library Pricing
In follow-up correspondence Hachette spokesperson Sophie Cottrell clarified some additional points relating to its change of terms with ebook distributors to libraries and the “internal systems issue” that apparently delayed OverDrive’s ability to implement the new terms. Hachette reports that they did indeed realize several months ago that OverDrive had not ingested their library ONIX feed, adding “we don’t know why the OD system had more difficulties than others and have been working with them to resolve their issues.” The other library vendors Hachette works with “experienced no delay in ingesting new ONIX and reflecting new prices to their customers” […]
Higher Hachette Library eBook Pricing Draws Attention
In an email to customers Thursday afternoon, Overdrive told library customers to expect a substantial increase in prices on the catalog of Hachette Book Group ebooks they make available for library purchase (approximately 3,500 titles released prior to April 2010) by what they said is an average of about 220 percent. (A separate post from the distributor cites sample increases for individual titles ranging from 50 percent to 150 percent.) Overdrive said libraries could purchase ebooks at the old, lower prices up until midnight September 30. What’s missing from many other reports–and the Overdrive letter–is that Hachette says they “had […]
Business Book Nominees; September Picks
The shortlist has been announced for the FT/Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year: Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity and Poverty, Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson (Crown Business, Profile) The Hour Between Dog and Wolf: Risk-taking, Gut Feelings and the Biology of Boom and Bust, John Coates (The Penguin Press, Fourth Estate) Private Empire: ExxonMobil and American Power, Steve Coll (The Penguin Press, Allen Lane) Steve Jobs, Walter Isaacson (Simon & Schuster; Little Brown UK) What Money Can’t Buy: The Moral Limits Of Markets, Michael J. Sandel (FSG, Allen Lane) Volcker: The Triumph of Persistence, William […]
eNews: Amazon Publishing Promotes Sales Figures; Kobo Pairs With Livraria Cultura In Brazil; And More
In a letter to agents obtained by paidContent, vp, Amazon Publishing Jeff Belle touted supposed sales figures on a handful of titles released by the company’s West Coast imprints to encourage agents to publish with Amazon, saying he was “energized by the early results.” Among the citations, Belle said the cumulative sales numbers for the 87th Precinct titles by Ed McBain reissued by Thomas & Mercer over the past year exceeded 250,000 units (but that’s across several dozens of books); Sean Chercover’s thriller THE TRINITY GAME, published in July, “is already well on its way to surpassing 100,000 copies,” and […]