Dear Author caught a plagiarist on Wednesday, and within hours the offending ebook — AMAZINGLY BROKEN by “Jordin Williams” — was removed from online bookselling sites. (The ebook was published June 20.) There is still some mystery around the author. The posted online biography claimed “she” is “a 26 year old ghostwriter turned author…. When she started ghostwriting books they would become popular even though she was never given any credit so she decided to write her own book, Amazingly Broken.” But as Dear Author’s community uncovered, the posted author photo is a stock image. The ebook apparently began as […]
Archives for June 2013
2012 Exports Grow In Line with Trade Sales
The AAP released their second annual report of export sales statistics, extrapolated from the Book Stats data stream and supplemented with additional country-specific data from 150 publishers. As with the previous report, the highlight data provided to us in the press release covers everywhere except Canada — the largest export territory — since some publishers include it within their domestic account. (The full paid report includes information on Canadian sales.) Like the US trade, 2012 exports rose over 7 percent, to $833 million. The unit gain was smaller, at 2.4 percent, and nearly all of the revenue increase came from […]
Sales Rise at OUP
Oxford University Press reported their results for the fiscal year ending March 2013, with sales rising 5 percent (or 4.4 percent on a like-for-like basis) and strong profits. Total sales were £759 million (up £36 million), “in spite of the difficult trading conditions.” Pre-tax profit of £116 million was up slightly, while higher taxes made the net profit a few million pounds lower. Chief executive Nigel Portwood notes, “These results compare favorably with those of our competitors, and are all the more impressive given the difficulties we faced.” PDF report
Hogarth Enlists Well-Known Authors to Retell Shakespeare’s Plays In Prose; Random Resurrects Tastebook
Hogarth is commissioning new versions of Shakespeare’s plays “reimagined for a twenty-first century audience,” set to launch in 2016. They have already enlisted Anne Tyler to write a prose “retelling” of The Taming of the Shrew, and Jeanette Winterston for a new version of The Winter’s Tale. Winterston says in the announcement, “All of us have talismanic texts that we have carried around and that carry us around. I have worked with The Winter’s Tale in many disguises for many years. This is a brilliant opportunity to work with it in its own right. And I love cover versions.” Hogarth […]
People, Etc.
At Macmillan Children’s, Caitlin Sweeny has been promoted to digital marketing manager, taking the lead in managing all digital marketing initiatives for titles and campaigns. Ksenia Winnicki has been promoted to associate digital marketing manager. Also, Susan Dobinick has been promoted to associate editor at Margaret Ferguson Books. Becky Thomas has joined Ben Mason at the literary agency Fox Mason Ltd in the UK. She was previously at William Morris Endeavor. Forbes releases their annual list of the most “powerful celebrities,” which bases rank on a combination of estimated earnings as well as squishier “TV/radio rank; press rank; marketability rank; and social […]
BN Shares Fall 17 Percent, Then Recover Slightly
Barnes & Noble stock fell more than 17 percent on Tuesday after their poor earnings report, falling roughly $3.20 a share to close at $15.61. But the stock has bounced back a little this morning, moving back over $16 a share as part of a general market rally. One thing missing from yesterday’s release and investor discussion was any characterization of Nook’s share of the ebook market. In written testimony offered as part of the recently Apple ebook pricing trial, one prosecution expert witness is said to have concluded from retailer-supplied data that in February 2013 that Barnes & Noble’s […]