The American Booksellers Association’s annual Town Hall meeting at Book Expo always provides an interesting window into the issues on booksellers’ minds, and this year’s version was focused squarely on practical matters. First and foremost, booksellers wanted to know what happened to two promised initiatives from the past: Affordable group health insurance for booksellers and their employees, and the launch of a US version of Batch, the UK’s centralized digital invoicing and payment system. ABA ceo Oren Teicher said, “There is nothing more that I want to get done while I’m still at ABA than for stores to have access […]
Archives for May 2019
Representation and Hope for the Future at the Children’s Author Breakfast
Book Expo wound down on Friday with Jenna Bush Hager and Barbara Pierce Bush moderating the children’s breakfast, and promoting their new picture book Sisters First. Barbara told the audience that they conceived of the picture book before their 2017 memoir of the same name, but that that “after waking up the day after election night 2016” they wanted to put the book for adults out first to inspire women and “celebrate sisterhood.” The conversation again turned to representation in publishing when Tomi Adeyemi (Children of Virtue and Vengeance) took the stage. Adeyemi spoke about the narratives she’d loved as […]
Scholastic Sharply Reduces Earnings Guidance
Ahead of formally reporting results for their big fiscal fourth quarter, which ends May 31, Scholastic announced a sharp reduction in their estimates of earnings for the year. The fourth quarter is “typically” when they earn most of their operating income for the year. Shares fell over 10 percent in the first hour of trading on Friday, down about $4.00 a share, which would be the stock’s lowest level since 2014 if it holds. Earnings per share, excluding one-time items, is now expected to range from $0.83 to $1.03 a share — down significantly from the already-softened forecast last quarter […]
In Sweden, Bonnier and Storytel’s Standoff Over Audio Compensation
Swedish publisher Bonnier and the leading digital audiobook service in Scandinavia Storytel have been in a dispute since April — when Bonnier started withholding their new release audiobooks from Storytel, most prominently with the release of Camilla Lackberg’s latest novel. In a posted FAQ, Bonnier said they were retaliating after Storytel started “hid[ing] all the books from the Bonnier publishers in their book tips and category lists” in March. “When Storytel prevents its listeners from finding our books for authors, we need to make sure that the game board changes. We regret that this affects the listeners and hopes for […]
Book Expo Panels: Retailers, Breakfast Authors and More
As predicted, this year’s Book Expo is effectively a one-day show played out over three days. After a quiet start on Wednesday, today at least has attendees filling the very wide aisles, spacious lounges, empty booth slots and open meeting rooms at a convention that is more profoundly than ever a downgraded, modest shadow of its former self. (It’s very sustainable, though; exhibitors are using generous lengths of plain pipe and drape, rented chairs, and simple printed panels over fancy fixtures and displays.) With a generally quiet line-up of panels as well, one Thursday afternoon that still offered some substance […]
People, Etc.: Book Co-Authored with Tony Robbins Is Dropped
Tony Robbins‘ longtime publisher Simon & Schuster declined to comment earlier this month when BuzzFeed first dropped their expose alleging inappropriate sexual advances with employees and more. But now the planned July release of THE PATH: Accelerating Your Journey to Financial Freedom, by Peter Mallouk, writing “with” Robbins as co-author, will not be published. A source at Simon & Schuster confirms, “We are not proceeding with publication of The Path.” Robbins’ lawyers insist the book was “postponed” and tell BuzzFeed that Simon & Schuster has not cut ties with him: “To state or suggest otherwise is absolutely false.” Dana Renert […]