Amazon published their lists of best books of the year, including their top 100 titles, and 10 favorites, plus “editor’s picks” across 20 categories. Hachette Book Group lands just four titles on Amazon’s top 100, and all four are the only hardcovers offered at full retail price, without any discount. In order, they are: Those Who Wish Me Dead, by Michael Koryta (29); To Rise Again at a Decent Hour: A Novel, by Joshua Ferris (54); The Fever, by Megan Abbott (96); and The Farm, by Tom Rob Smith (97). Their pick for “book of the year” is Celeste Ng’s novel. 1. Everything I Never Told […]
Archives for November 2014
Another Chance
As we have noted before, our sixth annual Digital Book World Conference already features our best programming line-up ever, with an amazing group of timely keynotes that includes: Russ Grandinetti at Amazon in conversation with Mike Shatzkin and Michael Cader; Harper ceo Brian Murray; Houghton Mifflin Harcourt ceo Linda Zecher; serial entrepreneur and bestselling author Seth Godin, bestselling authors Ken Auletta and Walter Isaacson; data analysis expert Hilary Mason; content marketing expert Joe Pulizzi; NYT news analytics director James Robinson; Atria publisher Judith Curr (on the author’s decision between self-publishing and traditional publishing); and still more. And the roster of 30 […]
Nicholls Tops December Indie Next List
The preview version of the December Indie Next List has Us by David Nicholls as indie booksellers No. 1 selection for the month. The rest of the list features: The Boston Girl, by Anita Diamant The Gigantic Beard That Was Evil, by Stephen Collins Enter Pale Death: A Joe Sandilands Investigation, by Barbara Cleverly The Happiest People in the World, by Brock Clarke The Wild Truth, by Carine McCandless Moriarty, by Anthony Horowitz Alphabet, by Kathy Page The Midnight Plan of the Repo Man, by W. Bruce Cameron Small Victories: Spotting Improbable Moments of Grace, by Anne Lamott Irène: The Commandant Camille […]
Harper Gets Limited Injunction, Modest $37,000 Award in JULIE OF THE WOLVES Lawsuit
HarperCollins’ nearly three-year-old lawsuit against Open Road Integrated Media over the ebook rights to Jean Craighead George’s novel JULIE OF THE WOLVES has been resolved, eight months after Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald found in Harper’s favor. In a ruling to address damages, Judge Buchwald granted a permanent injunction that prevents Open Road from selling the ebook edition for JULIE (which the publisher pulled by May, once it was clear both parties would not reach a settlement) and any other Harper titles that contain the exact same contractual language about the publishing rights, but denying HarperCollins’ bid for $1.1 million in legal fees and […]
People: William Morrow to Absorb Harlequin Nonfiction
The first tangible editorial change following HarperCollins’ acquisition of Harlequin has been announced, and Harlequin Nonfiction titles acquired for publication in August 2015 and beyond will become part of the William Morrow list. President and group publisher for the US and Canada Michael Morrison wrote in a memo: “Since the acquisition of Harlequin, we have been looking at ways we can work together in order to be most effective and provide the greatest benefit to our authors. As a result, the one area we have decided to align is nonfiction. We feel that our longstanding expertise and strength in nonfiction publishing will benefit […]
Scribd Adds Audiobooks to Their Subscription Plan
Scribd substantially expanded their subscription reading service on Thursday morning, adding a collection of more than 30,000 audiobooks titles, available for unlimited streaming and downloading as a part of their regular $8.99 subscription service, alongside the ebooks they have offered since October 2013. In contrast to the ebooks, which are mostly backlist titles, the audiobook catalog includes frontlist titles as well from many of the participating publishers. The biggest named participants are HarperCollins and also Scholastic from the trade publishing side (so the Hunger Games trilogy is there), as well as Blackstone Audio and Naxos. The audio collection is supplied […]