The New York Times is making what it calls “a significant change” in their children’s bestseller lists, starting with the issue dated August 30. The middle grade and young adult lists will count hardcover sales only going forward – positioned as similar to the adult fiction and nonfiction lists. The paper says the goal is to “better reflect the exciting range of novels for children and teenagers that are newly published.” Separate paperback and ebook bestseller lists for both middle grade and YA books will appear online only, rather than books from across all platforms. As a result, in the first set […]
Archives for August 2015
People
Nicole Tourtelot will join DeFiore and Company as an agent. She was most recently an agent at Kuhn Projects. Former Hachette Book Group CIO Ralph Munsen has joined GroupM, the media buying unit of advertising conglomerate WPP, as managing partner and global head of development. HBG is looking for a new CIO.
Amazon’s Fall Favorites
Amazon has released their Fall Reading Preview package, picking their top books across multiple sub-categories. The highlighted lists include Amazon Editors’ “personal under-the-radar picks”: The Story of the Lost Child by Elena Ferrante The Heart Goes Last by Margaret Atwood Submission by Michel Houllebecq Star Wars: Aftermath by Chuck Wendig Thing Explainer: Complicated Stuff in Simple Words by Randall Munroe: The Thing About Jellyfish by Ali Benjamin Along with the bookseller’s slate of top 20 commercial blockbusters: Pretty Girls by Karin Slaughter The Survivor: A Mitch Rapp Novel by Kyle Mills M Train by Patti Smith Humans of New York: Stories […]
Surprise Bestseller: Self-Published Picture Book that Prompts Yawns to Put Kids to Sleep
Swedish psychologist Carl-Johan Forssen Ehrlin’s crude-looking self-published picture book The Rabbit Who Wants To Fall Asleep: A New Way Of Getting Children To Sleep finds itself at the top of Amazon‘s bestseller list more than a year-and-a-half after publication. It seems to have caught on in the UK first, drawing media attention that spread to the US and has lifted sales here within the last week. (It’s currently No. 1 on Amazon’s hourly list and No. 30 at Barnes & Noble, but until recently was selling just low single digits per week according to Nielsen Bookscan.) Director of Books and Entertainment […]
University of Akron Press Rehires Two Staffers, Promises Continuity
University of Akron president Scott Scarborough said in a statement on Monday that the university press is “re-engaging the services of the two staff members” who were let go earlier this summer, saying they “will help ensure operations of the UA Press.” Former director Thomas Bacher is not being recalled, however, with Professor Jon Miller serving as transitional director of the press. Following high-profile protests, Scarborough said the press “has been and will continue to be a vital part of the academic core of this institution.” He pledged: “As we complete its transition to University Libraries, we will take all steps […]
Corporate: Random House Germany Will Drop DRM in October
Following similar moves from Holtzbrinck, Bonnier Germany, dtv, Hoffman & Campe, Luebbe and others, Random House Germany has joined the trend and announced it will drop hard DRM in favor of digital watermarking (or “soft DRM”) as of October 1. In the announcement, ceo Frank Sambeth explained: “Abandoning harsh DRM facilitates readers and distributors dealing with e-book files, increases customer satisfaction and reduces complexity. At the same time traders and platforms can be supplied, which offer no hard DRM. With the conversion to soft DRM we join also an ever-widening industry consensus.” Germany is the first major ebook market to drop DRM on […]