At Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, Andrew Smith has been promoted to svp, deputy publisher, executive director of New Business Development, focusing on building the company’s licensing program and expanding its digital initiatives. Of Smith’s promotion, evp, publisher Megan Tingley stated: “In the seven years since he joined Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, the publishing landscape has changed dramatically and Andrew has been a vital and visionary force in developing strategies for success and growth across Editorial, Design, Marketing, Publicity, Subsidiary Rights, and Sales.” Google Play has expanded into nine additional countries in Asia, including Taiwan, Hong Kong, […]
Archives for September 2013
Quercus First-Half Revenue Grows But Profits Decline Further
Quercus announced preliminary results for the first half of the fiscal year ending June 30, reporting £0.52 million in operating profit, a 7 percent drop compared to the same period last year, and revenues of £10.2 million, up 10.9 percent from the previous year. On the growth side, ebook sales were £3.5 million, comprising approximately 34 percent of total revenues for the first six months of the year. Quercus ceo Mark Smith said it had been “a time of preparation for the launch of the company’s inaugural US publishing program”, which now employs four people in its new US office. […]
Penguin Resumes Selling Full Digital Library Catalog to OverDrive, Baker & Taylor
More than eighteen months after Penguin withdrew its digital library catalog from OverDrive and severed their selling relationship — leaving libraries with no way to purchase Penguin’s ebooks, until the company re-entered the market in a pilot program with 3M in June 2012 — the publisher has resumed business with the vendor. According to a brief statement, Penguin has re-instated its relationship with OverDrive as well as with Baker & Taylor, effective immediately. The publisher started ebook lending pilot programs with B&T in November 2012. In a blog post, OverDrive said that “more than 17,000 Penguin eBooks are now live […]
Ready for Discovery
We are all set for a great full-day conference tomorrow on Modern Book Marketing: Tools, Techniques and Services. As always happens with our New York shows, we’re getting a lot of late enrollments — so if you have been meaning to join us, make sure to claim your place now. More than just a collection of ideas and panels. Digital marketing strategist Peter McCarthy, along with Publishers Launch Conferences partner Mike Shatzkin and the team at Digital Book World, will present a structured curriculum of tested techniques, tools and best practices to guide successful digital book marketing and discovery. The full program also […]
People: MacArthur Honorees, and more
Swamplandia! author Karen Russell and novelist Donald Antrim are among the new class of 24 MacArthur Foundation fellows (now providing honorees with $625,000 over five years). Margaret Rogalski has joined Gotham & Avery as publicist. Previously she was a publicist at Princeton Architectural Press. Australian novelist Christopher Koch, 81, author of The Year of Living Dangerously and a two-time winner of the Miles Franklin Award, died on Sunday. Dave Holton, 66, who worked with BEA for more than 20 years, passed away on September 18 after a long battle with cancer. BEA show director Steve Rosato writes on his blog: […]
Amazon Announces Third Line of Kindle Fires
Amazon announced their updated line of third-generation Kindle Fire tablets early Wednesday, continuing to expand the basic specs, content features and other extras. Now called Kindle Fire HDX, they promise an “exclusive new display” that “goes beyond HD” with “exceptional pixel density.” The 7-inch model starts at $229 and will ship October 18 (the 4G version, at $329, ships November 14) ; the larger 8.9-inch model — “startlingly light at 13.2 ounces, 34 percent lighter than the previous generation” — ships starting November 7, and starts at $379 (the 4G version ships on December 10.) Feature and service additions include […]