Amazon officially announced and made live its Kindle Unlimited subscription program, which was previewed earlier this week and which we have written about extensively already. Notably, the announcement does not specify which publishers have opted in by specific agreement (as opposed to having Amazon include some of their books without direct consent; we already reported on the example of Scholastic’s Hunger Games series). Like competing services, Amazon is offering a 30-day trial period (which will likely be a more expensive promotion for Amazon than their smaller competitors. A KU subscription also includes up to three free months of an Audible subscription. Participants […]
Archives for July 2014
McGraw-Hill Trims Output, Cuts 18 Jobs
The McGraw-Hill Professional division laid off 18 employees this week — more from the Chicago office, we are told by someone at the company, but with additional reductions from the New York office. President of McGraw-Hill Education Professional Philip Ruppel confirmed, in answer to our query, the “elimination of positions in editorial, marketing, and production.” He noted by email: “we are announcing a portfolio shift of our front list publishing to our employees this week. The changes impact our general interest publishing of new titles for the foreseeable future and have resulted in” those layoffs. Ruppel added: “As the normal course of […]
Roth and Green Drive Trade Sales Growth In First Quarter
The AAP has released sales statistics for both February and March 2014, showing overall trade sales of $1.414 billion, rising 7 percent compared to a year ago, up $92 million. All of the market growth and then some (another $6.5 million to be exact) is due to children’s/YA books, thanks to robust sales for both Veronica Roth and John Green. (As usual, AAP data is based on the roughly 1,200 publishers that report their sales to the organization.) In formats, hardcover sales rose the most during the first quarter, up 13 percent. Adult ebooks were down slightly, by $2 million, […]
People, Etc.
At Putnam, Katie McKee has been promoted to senior publicity manager, while Elena Hershey moves up to associate publicist. At Chronicle Books, Will Schrom has been promoted to national accounts manager, Barnes & Noble and Calendar Club. At Crown Publishing Group, Hanna Glidden has been promoted to associate managing editor. Katie McHugh has left her post as editor, brand development at Time Home Entertainment to become a freelance nonfiction editor. She can be reached at mchugh.katie@gmail.com. Christina Rodriguez has left Hudson Street Press, where she was associate editor, to pursue an opportunity outside of the publishing industry. She can be […]
This Is Not A Test: More on Kindle Unlimited
Somehow the idea that Amazon is “testing” Kindle Unlimited got inserted into early stories yesterday, and has been repeated through much follow-on coverage. This is not a test, people. A proper test would be a live, actual offer to a selected group of people, or for a clearly limited period of time. We still don’t know whether yesterday’s offering page that went live and then was pulled down was a glitch or an intentional glimpse, but it was not a test. We have reported multiple times, starting in early May, on discussions Amazon has had with publishers about their ebook subscription plans. […]
Authors and Kindle Unlimited
Authors understandably have questions about Amazon’s not-yet-officially-released Kindle Unlimited subscription service. To expand more explicitly on what we wrote in our first post on Wednesday morning: For Authors/Publishers Participating By Direct Agreement These credits/payments will work in a manner similar to other ebook subscription terms, we are told. Any time a reader goes beyond an agreed upon threshold of a particular book — 10 percent to 20 percent is the range that we have heard — it is then treated as a full “sale” and the publisher is paid the normal wholesale price of the ebook (and will report that […]