The ABA provides their annual roster of new member bookstores that opened during the previous, listing 40 new stores that opened in 2012 in 24 states. As usual, the list includes brand-new stores selling new books (28); new branches of existing business (5); and new stores that primarily sell used books (7). That compares to 37 new member stores in 2011–which included 23 new bookstores, and 6 new branches of existing members. It’s informal, but since readers often ask us for tallies of stores that closed, in the Publishers Lunch archives we find reports of at least 28 independent bookstores that […]
Archives for January 2013
DBW: Howey Gave Up Exclusivity “Because of the Hate Mail”; Agents on Helping Clients Self-Publish
In a Thursday morning Digital Book World panel, bestselling self-published author Hugh Howey addressed why he moved from Amazon’s exclusive program–KDP Select–to distribution across multiple platforms, even though it meant reduced revenues from his Amazon sales. “I did it because of the hate mail,” Howey said. “I was getting emails from people who owned other devices” and wanted to read his book. “It was hard to explain to them the loss in revenue, but I understood the argument,” Howey noted. “You want to serve your customers; I totally support that now. It is a tricky situation for authors where they […]
People, Etc.
At Random House Children’s, svp, communications & marketing, director, digital publishing Judith Haut has been named to the new position of svp, associate publisher. SVP, marketing John Adamo will now oversee all marketing for the division, and both continue to report to president and publisher Barbara Marcus. Haut will now work with Marcus and leaders throughout the division to “set the long-term publishing strategy and processes for the division, identifying and developing new opportunities for the company’s frontlist and backlist.” She will be in charge of paperbacks, and continues to oversee digital publishing and communications strategy. The digital marketing and school […]
Kobo’s ABA/Indie Customer Is Very Different
In a DBW presentation, Kobo executive Michael Tamblyn reintroduced Kobo as “the largest ebook company that you may not have heard much about”–since, up until recently, “we have for the most part left the US alone.” Tamblyn noted, “we left our US competitors to club each other bloody while we went to other places” to serve unmet demand and expand markets. With the first results in from their new US efforts in concert with ABA stores, Tamblyn reported some of their early observations–which make a clear case that the “indie store” ebook customer is very different than Kobo’s standard US […]
eNews: Penguin Joins Espresso; Kobo Eyes Russia, India, China and Beyond
Penguin Group is making their titles available through the Espresso Book Machine. EVP of business operations Doug Whiteman says in the announcement, “Penguin is always looking for new ways to bring our writers to readers and On Demand Books gives us another channel to further fulfill that mission. We are grateful to have this opportunity to extend the way we serve our booksellers, authors and readers.” Penguin’s self-publishing and workshop community Book Country announced new changes and features, including a free ebook creation tool and a online editor. Book Country has also raised the royalty rates offered to authors who […]
DBW: “Clock Is Ticking” On Industry Consolidation
The morning sessions at Digital Book World closed with a conversation between Providence Equity Partners senior advisor (and former Macmillan president) Brian Napack and Michael Cader of Publishers Lunch, speaking about how private equity views the publishing business, opportunities for scale, and what recent transactions–the pending Penguin Random House merger, other recent news involving McGraw-Hill and HarperCollins, and Barnes & Noble’s investments–may mean down the line. Napack, answering a question about what will be of value, generally believes that private equity opportunities in traditional media “stem from confusion in marketplace.” With respect to the publishing industry, the recent moves are […]