Science fiction & fantasy community website Tor.com is expanding its original fiction output with a new imprint devoted to publishing novellas, shorter novels, serializations, and other pieces of fiction exceeding 18,000 words. According to a blog post by the imprint, each DRM-free title will be available exclusively for purchase, and will also be available via POD and audio formats. A “select number of titles” will be considered for traditional print publishing as well. In announcing the imprint at an afternoon presentation at IDPF, Tor/Forge publisher Tom Doherty said: “We see it as a way of science fiction & fantasy to […]
Archives for May 2014
People: Remembering Oscar Dystel, and More
Former ceo of Bantam Books Oscar Dystel, 101, “widely acknowledged as one of the great architects of modern trade publishing”, died Wednesday morning. As chief executive and publisher of Bantam from 1954 through 1978 (with another two years as chairman) Dystel was responsible for some of the most successful paperbacks in the 20th century including EXODUS by Leon Uris; JAWS by Peter Benchley; and Jacqueline Susann’s VALLEY OF THE DOLLS. In a statement Random House paid tribute to Dystel as “a mentor and muse for innumerable authors and past and present colleagues of ours throughout publishing. He was a giant, […]
BEA Data: BookBub Survey Shows Promotion Buyers Are Regular Power Readers
Josh Schanker of fast-growing BookBub presented some data intended to profile “price-sensitive ebook readers” at a BEA panel, based on a random survey of thousands of BookBub members earlier this month. The company “believes BookBub members are representative of bargain readers as a whole.” By their account, bargain ebook buyers are female (84 percent), 45 or older (70 percent); empty-nesters (58 percent); with higher-than-average income (64 percent); who read four or more books a month (59 percent). And most of them buy regularly-priced ebooks (77 percent) as well as discounted ones. Interestingly, their “platform share” is 49 percent Kindle; 26 […]
Patterson Names 43 Stores to Receive $268,000 In Grants
Some of the best experiments for innovations in brick-and-mortar bookselling are coming through the ambitious, ongoing program in which author James Patterson is giving $1 million in personal funds as direct grants to support independent bookstores in a variety of initiatives. In February Patterson announced the first grants, allocating $267,000 to 55 stores and at a Wednesday afternoon BEA panel, booksellers who received some of those grant shared success stories and appreciation. Mitchell Kaplan of Books & Books, who moderated the panel and was among the first round of recipients, said the initiative is “one of the most genuine things I […]
At BEA, Booksellers Further Contemplate Bundling
The closest thing to an opening keynote program on a generally quiet conference day at BEA was an afternoon panel on The Future of Brick and Mortar Retailers — moderated by Dominique Raccah of Sourcebooks and featuring John Ingram of Ingram Content Group; Joyce Meskis of The Tattered Cover; Michael Tamblyn of Kobo; Mike Hesselbach of Readerlink; and Oren Teicher of the ABA. The session’s applause line came at the end, when Teicher reminded everyone, “We want to make books of all publishers equally available, all the time.” And the session’s laugh line when Tamblyn followed up by noting Kobo […]
Carmen Balcells and Andrew Wylie Join Forces for International Agency
Literary agents Carmen Balcells, and Andrew Wylie, are joining forces for a new international agency, Balcells & Wylie, according to a short two-paragraph email sent to clients of the two agencies and seen by Spanish newspapers. They say the email begins: “Yesterday May 27, Carmen Balcells and Andrew Wylie signed a memorandum of understanding in order to create an international agency called Balcells & Wylie.” It notes that, “We have admired each other for years, and we are now able to work more closely. Our goal is to give greater strength, scope and duration to the representation of clients, and we are excited […]