The latest set of top 10 lists comes from Time magazine, which names John Green’s YA novel their No. 1 work of fiction and joins GoodReads as the first critics list to rank JK Rowling’s novel for adults among the year’s best: Fiction 1. The Fault in Our Stars, John Green 2. Bring Up the Bodies, Hilary Mantel 3. Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk, Ben Fountain 4. At Last, Edward St. Aubyn 5. The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There, Catherynne Valente 6. The Casual Vacancy, J.K. Rowling 7. Building Stories, Chris Ware 8. NW, Zadie […]
Archives for December 2012
Amazon Contest Drops Penguin, Boosts Top Prize; Curtis Brown UK to Launch Hundreds of Titles As KDP Exclusives
Amazon’s “breakthrough novel” contest returns for the sixth year, this time dropping the unlikely partnership with Penguin Group for a “new publisher”: “Amazon Publishing is the official publishing sponsor for 2013 — which means a faster publishing timeline, higher royalties, ability to launch the books in multiple formats (print, audio, ebook) and worldwide distribution.” The grand prize advance has been raised to $50,000. Given all the success that Amazon’s self-publishing programs and house imprints have brought to some authors, it’s surprising that the contest winners have such a consistently modest track record. (The fiction winners have been The Beautiful Land […]
People
Mark Bloomfield has joined Regnery as director of sales. Previously he was associate publisher at Harvard Business School Press. Deputy publisher of Gallery, Threshold and Pocket Anthony Ziccardi has left the company after seven years. His last day was December 3. Going forward, Ziccardi’s responsibilities will be handled by an associate publisher and a marketing director, both of which will be newly created positions within the group. Colin McGee is no longer with Sellers Publishing. He can be reached at colinmcgee@maine.rr.com. Longtime literary agent Robert Lescher, 83, died November 28. Christopher Davis, 71, who worked at Dorling Kindersley since its […]
GoodReads Choice Selections and More Best of Lists
GoodReads announced the winners of their contest asking readers to vote for their favorite titles of the year across 20 categories. If you just look at the topline results, JK Rowling’s THE CASUAL VACANCY actually came out on top in the fiction category, well ahead of runner up, Emily Giffin’s WHERE WE BELONG. But we pulled up the actual votes within each of those 20 categories instead of just copying over the winners list. The single-largest vote recipient was YA winner John Green’s THE FAULT IN OUR STARS, with almost 37,500 votes, more than three times Rowling’s total. Mystery/thriller winner […]
Meet the New News Corp., As Publishing Spinoff Looms
News Corp. set many of the wheels in motion to spin off a separate publishing company sooner than previously expected, announcing this morning the new unit will keep the News Corp name while the entertainment division will go forward as The Fox Group. Robert Thomson will be ceo of the new publishing-focused News Corp., which will include HarperCollins, as of January 1. He has spent the past five years as Dow Jones editor-in-chief and managing editor of the Wall Street Journal. As previously announced, Rupert Murdoch will be chairman of the new News Corp. while also remaining ceo and chairman of […]
August AAP Sales Rise, As eBooks Continue to Moderate
The AAP reported sales for August from the nearly 1,200 publishers they track, with overall trade sales of $562.1 million up 10.4 percent versus $509.1 million. This time both adult and children’s sales rose, and both sectors had higher shipments as well. In adult books, the growth came from trade paperbacks (e.g. 50 Shades) and ebooks. Consistent with Barnes & Noble’s recent report and the trend we have been underscoring all year, however, ebook sales continue to grow at a far slower rate: Adult ebook sales of $118.6 million were up 34 percent from a year ago, and children’s ebooks […]