Macmillan announced on Thursday that they have acquired Pronoun, the pivoted version of the company that began life as Vook (originally creating ebooks with embedded videos) in 2009 and over the years incorporated Booklr and Byliner. In its latest incarnation, Pronoun’s focus has been an ebook distribution platform for authors that has said they charge no conversion, posting or distribution fees. Current pronoun ceo Josh Brody, who came to the company with their Booklr acquisition in 2014, will serve as president of Pronoun at Macmillan, and chief product officer Ben Zhuk will be vp, product for Macmillan. Macmillan coo Andrew Weber says in the announcement, “We’ve been impressed […]
Archives for May 2016
Briefs: BookBub to Offer Paid Ads; Applebaum, Potash Honored; and More
Initiatives BookBub, which promotes selected ebook price deals as paid promotions, is now starting to add paid advertisements as well. (Advertised books do not need to be discounted, or subject to BookBub’s other criteria for editorial filtering.) Pricing is based on CPM auctions. Awards The annual UJA-Federation of New York Publishing Division dinner on Wednesday night featured a few twists, honoring a digital reading pioneer for the first time, and celebrating two men with longstanding family connections to the UJA — emeritus evp, corporate communications, Penguin Random House Stuart Applebaum through his father, and president and ceo of Overdrive Steve Potash […]
People
Ruth Alltimes will become managing director of Hachette UK’s consolidated children’s book lines on August 8, reporting to group ceo Hilary Murray Hill, leaving her position as fiction publishing director at Harper UK Children’s. Additionally, Anne McNeil has been promoted to senior publisher for Hodder Children’s, Enid Blyton Entertainment and Quercus Children’s, also reporting to Hill. Sarah Lambert moves up to editorial director for fiction for both Hodder Children’s and Quercus Children’s. Deputy managing director of the group Clare Somerville will become commercial director, continuing to lead rights, marketing and publicity teams. She will “focus on sales across all channels, and will lead the commercial activity for Enid Blyton Entertainment.” […]
People, Etc.
Berlin-based digital publisher Frisch & Co., which has published 13 books in translation, will become an imprint of UK-based Canelo as of June. Publishing director Michael Bhaskar says in the announcement, “We want to take these wonderful, original, eclectic, innovative voices to the wide English speaking audience they deserve.” Author of over 50 English-set historical romances, Jo Beverley died May 23 in Yorkshire, England. She was a five-time Rita Award winner, a member of the RWA Hall of Fame and RWA Honor Roll, and recipient of two Career Achievement Awards from Romantic Times. The Target Book Club pick for June is The Book of Speculation by Erika Swyler.
Waterstones Exits eBooks and Digital Audio; Transfers Customers to Kobo
Waterstones is giving up on ebooks again and — perhaps more importantly in the long-term, also walking away from the still-growing digital audio market. The company told their digital media customers by email and posted site notice that “the Waterstones digital download store is closing,” and digital files are no longer available for sale on their web site. Customers who purchased ebooks are having their libraries transferred to Kobo, as of June 14. Digital audio customers are being abandoned in full; their only recourse is to “please ensure that all the MP3s in your library are downloaded to your chosen […]
People
At Blue Rider Press/Plume, Brian Ulicky is being promoted to director of publicity as of June 1, co-leading the publicity team with associate publisher Aileen Boyle — to whom he continues to report. Milena Brown will move up to senior publicist, reporting to Ulicky. Kayleigh George joins the group on May 25 as associate marketing director, reporting to Boyle. She has been senior marketing manager at Crown, Hogarth, Tim Duggan Books, and Broadway. Kate Keating has joined Random House Children’s Books as director of digital marketing. Previously she was director of social media at L’Oreal USA. Dark Horse vp, book trade sales Michael Martens […]