Macmillan’s initiative to start selling some of their ebooks to libraries, beginning with about 1,200 Minotaur backlist titles, will begin March 1 according to an OverDrive email cited by InfoDocket. Macmillan had said in the January the program would start “before the end of the first quarter.” Per InfoDocket’s earlier second-hand report, the email confirms that “Macmillan ebooks will be available in the one copy/one user lending model for the earlier of two (2) years or 52 checkouts for $25 each.”
Archives for February 2013
HBG Denounces Bookseller Lawsuit
Another of the publisher defendants in the lawsuit filed last week by three independent booksellers seeking class action status has issued a statement regarding the filing. HBG writes: “The Complaint is absolutely without merit. Hachette Book Group has actively participated in many digital initiatives sponsored by the ABA for the benefit of Indies. We did not take any actions to harm bookstores and Hachette has a strong and long-standing record of support for brick-and-mortar shops, so we are surprised and disappointed that a handful of customers would make these unfounded charges (confusingly, one of the plaintiffs filed a formal comment supporting the very publishers named in this new […]
Bookselling: WSJ on ResultSource and Paid Bestsellers; UK Indies Decline
The old saw of authors “buying” their way onto bestseller lists through carefully timed bulk orders gets a fresh twist in Friday’s WSJ, which reports on the San Diego-based company ResultSource. The marketing firm, according to the paper, charges authors “thousands of dollars for its services” to buy copies of the authors’ own books–mostly as pre-orders–to boost opening week sales (and many of those copies are then returned). The service is particularly popular for business book authors, who can monetize the “bestseller” credit (even when it’s a single week on the list) for years at speaking engagements and other lucrative […]
Books In the News
Just a few days ago it was Clive Davis‘s The Soundtrack of My Life that was everywhere, from disclosing his bisexuality to a rebuke from Kelly Clarkson, but now the Sheryl Sandberg Lean In juggernaut is beginning. As she tells the NYT, the aim is not just to share ideas through a book to “run a social movement.” Her Lean In Circles are “half business school and half book club,” with “precise” membership requirements and guidelines. The question is “will more earthbound women, struggling with cash flow and child care, embrace the advice of […]
Imprints: Little Brown UK Tries Literary Digital Line; Atria Reannounces Rachael Ray Books
Little Brown UK is expanding their digital imprints (which include Crime Vault and Piatkus Entice) with a line focused on literary fiction, Blackfriars. It launches in July and aims to publish nine to 12 titles a year, under the direction of Abacus publishing director Clare Smith and Virago associated publisher Ursula Doyle. One of their first titles is Benjamin Anastas’s memoir TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE, which received some good reviews in the US, but suffered under the limitations of Amazon Publishing. (Ironically, in the UK Amazon still has overwhelming market share for ebooks, so they will still be the primary outlet […]
People, Etc.
Amy Tannenbaum has joined the Jane Rotrosen Agency as a literary agent. She was previously an editor at Atria, and will represent new adult, romance, and commercial women’s fiction authors. Adrienne Brodeur has left Houghton Mifflin Harcourt after seven years to become creative director of the Aspen Writers’ Foundation, a program of the Aspen Institute. She can be reached at Adrienne.Brodeur@aspeninstitute.org. An expanding Simon & Schuster UK has promoted executives Suzanne Baboneau and Kerr MacRae, and hired Russell Evans from Penguin UK for the new role of commercial director. Publishing director Baboneau adds responsibility for illustrated and sports titles, and executive […]