Since no one else is reporting on this at all, we’ll continue our tracking. Amazon’s hourly list of the top 100 “paid” Kindle bestsellers appears to be under the steadily growing influence of Kindle Unlimited “checkouts,” which are counted as part of paid sales. In this morning’s check, 45 of the top 100 titles are also available through Kindle Unlimited — and 24 of the top 50 titles. Amazon Publishing’s own titles still appear to be benefitting the most, and self-published authors who are not exclusive to Amazon (and therefore not part of KU) seem to have lost the most […]
Archives for July 2014
People, Etc.: Regan Arts Distribution to S&S
Judith Regan will go back to her roots for distribution of her new line Regan Arts‘ titles. Simon & Schuster will handle worldwide sales and distribution, with Regan Arts expected to begin publishing in fall 2014 (though they have not publicly announced any titles yet). Regan started her book publishing career with Simon & Schuster, first as an author and then as an editor for the company. As she says in the announcement, “I have first-hand knowledge of their powerful and wide-ranging sales and distribution operation. They leave no stone unturned searching for every possible sale on behalf of their authors. […]
Ferris, Fowler, Hustvedt & Powers Add American Flavor to Booker Longlist
The longlist for the Booker Prize was announced Wednesday morning, the first to include American authors after a widely discussed rule change late last year. Titles by four American authors — TO RISE AGAIN AT A DECENT HOUR by Joshua Ferris, WE ARE ALL COMPLETELY BESIDE OURSELVES by Karen Joy Fowler, THE BLAZING WORLD by Siri Hustvedt, and ORFEO by Richard Powers — as well as THE DOG by Joseph O’Neill, a dual Irish/American citizen, made the Booker longlist, along with other notable forthcoming titles by David Mitchell (THE BONE CLOCKS, September), Howard Jacobson (J, September in the UK, March […]
Apple Reports Softer iPad Sales, As iTunes Continues Growth
Apple reported third quarter revenue after the close of market on Tuesday, with sales of $37.4 billion (up 6%, largely due to growth in China), and net profit of $7.7 billion. iPad sales of 13.3 million were down 9 percent (from 14.6 million units a year ago), making approximately 227 million iPads sold since launch in spring 2010. The iTunes store segment (which includes their app stores, as well as “revenue from sales of AppleCare, licensing and other services”) rose 12 percent (or almost $500 million), to $4.485 billion for the quarter. Investors were back and forth at first on […]
People, Etc.
Lance Fitzgerald will join the Crown Publishing Group as vp, director of subsidiary rights on August 4. Previously he was director of subsidiary rights at Simon & Schuster. Succeeding Fitzgerald at S&S is Marie Florio, who has been promoted to director, subsidiary rights, overseeing rights for all books within the Simon & Schuster imprint as well as select Threshold titles. Riverhead director of publicity Jynne Martin will take on the additional role of associate publisher, joining Kate Stark and Catherine Lynch. The new title for Martin, who joined Riverhead in 2011, “recognizes the role she has taken on beyond being […]
Kindle Unlimited “Bestseller” List Encourages Exclusivity, Works Against Independence
A Monday night check of Amazon’s Kindle Bestseller list reinforces what we found in our Monday morning post: Kindle Unlimited looks to be having a significant effect on the etailer’s hourly bestseller list, since KU checkouts are being counted as “sales” for bestseller rank purposes. On Monday evening, 42 of the top 100 titles were KU offerings. 28 of those titles are exclusive to Amazon, either through the Amazon Publishing imprints (15 titles) or through KDP Select (13 titles). Another 14 of the new “bestsellers” are books from traditional and digital publishers, all but one of which (Business Adventures) were not on […]