When Bowker first announced their updated 2012 statistics last month about newly issued self-published books and ebooks that carry ISBNs last month, we were asked not to share specifics about individual companies. As we noted, four companies account for over 80 percent of the ISBN-carrying self-published books. There is no data available on the substantial flow of ebooks from the likes of KDP and Nook Press that carry only proprietary identifiers rather than ISBNs. So in the Bowker counts, self-published print books still are in the lead. CreateSpace alone accounted for over 55 percent of the ISBNs, with 131,000 titles […]
Archives for November 2013
Penguin Random House Promises Typhoon Aid for Philippines Staff
Penguin Random House announced they will make “a substantial donation” to the Red Cross, entirely directed to the Philippines in the aftermath of Typhoon Haiyan, which destroyed parts of the country and killed upwards of 10,000 people. The tragedy has a “personal connection” for Penguin Random House, ceo Markus Dohle wrote in a letter to staff, because the company’s Author Solutions division employs more than 1400 people in Cebu, close to where the worst devastation took place. While there have been no reported casualties among Author Solution staff, “we know of more than 100 people in our team with family […]
Houghton Pops, Chegg Drops
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt‘s IPO had a modest start on Tuesday night, when the company priced their stock at $12 a share — below the planned target range of $14 to $16 a share, reflecting a softer reception from investors. But those shares popped when trading began at roughly 10:50 Wednesday morning on the NASDAQ, rising 30 percent or more before settling back to roughly $15 a share when we were finalizing the morning’s mail. The reduction in proceeds from the initial sale has no impact on the company, since all the money raised goes to the existing shareholders, who were selling […]
Chegg’s Hot/Cold IPO
Chegg.com’s initial public offering of stock came to market with stronger than expected demand, pricing 15 million shares at $12.50 a share — above the expected offering range of $9.50 to $11.50 a share. But that initial demand looks to have been driven by speculators hoping for a quick flip on the first dotcom offering to follow Twitter’s big IPO from November 7 rather than investors eager for a piece of the textbook rental business. Chegg’s shares have declined since opening earlier this morning, currently down over 15 percent at 11:00 and trading back at the middle of the expected […]
People, Etc.
Alison Callahan will join Gallery Books on December 2 as executive editor. Previously she was executive editor at Doubleday. Shara Zaval has joined The Book Report Network as Editorial Manager of Kidsreads.com and Teenreads.com. Prior to moving to New York in September, Shara was a publicist with the Independent Publishers Group in Chicago. At Chronicle Books, Victoria Thomas has been promoted to associate sales manager. In the UK, David Higham Associates is taking over representation of the Anthony Burgess estate around the world. In awards news, the winners of Canada’s Governor General’s Literary Awards included: Fiction: Eleanor Catton, The Luminaries […]
New Wimpy Kid Starts with Over A Million Units
Abrams announced that Jeff Kinney’s Diary of A Wimpy Kid: Hard Luck, the eighth book in his bestselling series, sold over 1.3 million copies around the world in its first week on sale. Abrams ceo Michael Jacobs says in the announcement that sales “have exceeded all our expectations. We’re thrilled that the new book has debuted so strongly. This is just the beginning, as there is lots more excitement to come with the tours, the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade balloon, and the holiday shopping season ahead.” Nielsen Bookscan recorded sales of over 80,000 books in the UK, and over 387,000 […]