Pearson’s new ceo John Fallon has created a new organizational and leadership team under him, “designed to accelerate Pearson’s push into digital learning, education services and emerging markets” — and reflecting the coming disposition of Penguin into the joint venture with Berteslmann. Fallon says, “This is a significant change in the way we run the company that will take time and sustained commitment, but it is one we must make to be able to accelerate the execution of our global education strategy.” (That doesn’t sound like a company that owns FT for the long-term, does it?) The new structure begins […]
Archives for May 2013
Still More Fall/Winter Buzz Books: Young Adult & More
In addition to presenting substantial excerpts of 40 highly anticipated titles, our free Buzz Books 2013 fall/winter ebook also includes an extensive preview of additional upcoming titles put together by editor Sarah Weinman. By itself it’s a great overview of important books and authors to look for at BEA and throughout the big fall publishing season, and another reason why downloading this free ebook now is a great way to prepare for the convention. We have been featuring extracts from that preview of the season as part of our run-up to BEA. Last week we started with the fiction overview, and, […]
Getting Ready for BEA
Here is our quick guide for your BEA preparations: – Our free ebook Buzz Books 2013: Fall/Winter is the biggest galley giveaway you’ll see, featuring substantial excerpts from 40 forthcoming book (running about 750 pages in all). It includes work from many featured BEA speakers, such as Amy Tan, Jonathan Lethem, Wally Lamb and Elizabeth Gilbert. – Our master BEA Schedule provides the comprehensive, day-by-day, hour-by-hour schedule that BEA’s site does not – Tickets are still available for very timely Publishers Launch BEA conference on Wednesday, May 29 (on scale, consolidation and more). Register at BEA’s site or use our […]
New Dan Brown Opens with A Million Units In the US
Doubleday reports to us that Dan Brown’s INFERNO sold 1 million units in the US and Canada in its first five days on sale, through Saturday, in print and ebook sales combined. The company did not break out the distribution between formats, but the Nielsen Bookscan count would indicate that ebooks slightly outsold print versions. The actual first printing was 2.3 million copies, so Doubleday should have ample print inventory for now. In 2009, Brown’s THE LOST SYMBOL sold “more than 2 million units” in the first week on sale, but that was inclusive of the UK edition, which sold […]
Last to Settle Pays the Most: Penguin Agrees to Pay Over $90 Million to Settle eBook Pricing Suits
Penguin’s hard-to-fathom delay in settling the state and class-action lawsuits over ebook pricing (after settling with the Department of Justice in December 2012) was down to the wire, with the company forced to join in the trial starting June 3. But on Wednesday, it was announced that the publisher has agreed to settle those remaining suits — paying a whopping $75 million in restitution to affected consumers. They are paying another $7 million to the states themselves in litigation and investigation costs, and the class action attorneys are finally getting paid as well, collecting $8 million from Penguin, plus additional […]
With Kindle Worlds, Amazon Turns Fan Fiction Into A Business
A little more than a year ago, EL James spun what originally began life as Twilight fan fiction into one of the most successful book series ever. Now Amazon.com is tapping into the energetic world of fan fiction with the first broad, legally licensed, commercial model. Wednesday morning the company announced Kindle Worlds, a new digital publishing program that allows writers to upload and sell fan fiction based on well-known entertainment properties with characters that inspire fans. The initial properties all come from Alloy Entertainment — PRETTY LITTLE LIARS, GOSSIP GIRL, and THE VAMPIRE DIARIES — and Amazon “plans to […]