Amazon’s real-time experiment with the livelihoods they have provided to their exclusive self-published KDP authors through Kindle Unlimited (KU) continues to draw concern on online forums. The most recent scrutiny stems from a post by bestselling author Holly (H.M.) Ward on Kindle Boards from the Friday after Thanksgiving, which continues to draw follow-up remarks. Ward said that her Amazon income dropped substantially when she participated in Kindle Unlimited: “[I] had my serials in it for 60 days and lost approx 75% of my income [from KDP]. Thats counting borrows and bonuses. My sales dropped like a stone. The number of borrows was […]
Archives for December 2014
Harper One Launches Mind/Body/Spirit Imprint
Harper One in San Francisco is adding a new mind/body/spirit imprint, Harper Elixir, launching in fall 2015 under the direction of Harper One associate publisher Claudia Boutote. Libby Edelson has joined the company as senior editor for the imprint (she was at Ecco most recently), and in other respects Elixir will draw on the rest of the team at Harper One. The lead title will by a new book by Don Miguel Ruiz, author of the bestselling THE FOUR AGREEMENTS. The line is expected to build to 15 books a year. Harper One publisher Mark Tauber says in the announcing, “Forming […]
Time Adds YA to their Best of the Year Roster
Time magazine published their annual top 10 lists and added a third books list, covering young adult books: Top 10 YA 1. We Were Liars, E. Lockhart 2. Brown Girl Dreaming, Jacqueline Woodson 3. I’ll Give You the Sun, Jandy Nelson 4. Belzhar, Meg Wolitzer 5. Half a King, Joe Abercrombie 6. Althea & Oliver, Cristina Moracho 7. Skink—No Surrender, Carl Hiaasen 8. No One Else Can Have You, Kathleen Hale 9. The Retribution of Mara Dyer, Michelle Hodkin 10. This One Summer, Jillian Tamaki & Mariko Tamaki Top 10 Fiction 1. The Secret Place, Tana French 2. The Bone […]
People: Schnittman to Leave HBG
Hachette Book Group evp, chief marketing and sales officer Evan Schnittman is leaving the company as of December 12, after two and a half years at the company. Schnittman’s position, which was created for him, is being eliminated. Instead, Chris Murphy is being promoted to svp, group sales director and will also join the company’s executive board. CEO Michael Pietsch calls Schnittman “a powerful agent of change and [he] has improved HBG’s sales processes and organization greatly. Evan brought the sales group into closer collaboration with our publishing groups than ever before. He combined digital and physical book sales, created the Sales Strategy and […]
Where the Kids Are Going
We have added more speakers to the roster for our fourth annual Launch Kids Conference on January 13 — which kicks off what will be our biggest Digital Book World Conference + Expo yet, already breaking pre-registration records. The biggest trade conference focused on the children’s and YA market — which is accounting for all the industry’s growth this year and then some — Launch Kids provides a number of views on building new revenue streams in new ways (since as we have seen, digital opportunities in children’s publishing are primarily additive to existing markets and channels). Across 15 sessions, […]
Goodreads Winners, the NYT’s Notable Books, and More 2014 Bests
Lots of new lists landed today. Goodreads announced their Best Books of the Year, based on over 3 million member votes. E. Lockhart’s We Were Liars was the most searched for book on the site this year, but Rick Riordan’s latest in the Heroes of Olympus series was the top vote-getter of all the category winners, with over 63,000 votes. (Cassandra Clare’s latest Mortal Instruments book was the number two, with over 53,00 votes.) The winners: Landline by Rainbow Rowell (fiction) Mr. Mercedes by Stephen King (mystery & thriller) All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr (historical fiction) […]