Andi Richman has joined Baker & Taylor Publisher Services as director of national accounts. She previously held national account positions at Guilford Press, Hay House, Harlequin and Dorling Kindersley. Matt Warner has joined as director of marketing. He most recently held senior positions at Barnes & Noble.com and Nook. Legal Retired Navy Commander Guy Snodgrass is the latest former government official to find his forthcoming book delayed because of an extended review process — and the latest to sue over that delay. The former communications director and speechwriter for James Mattis when he was Secretary of Defense argues the DOD has […]
Archives for August 2019
Audible Will Delay Captions On Some Publisher Titles As First Court Hearing Is Postponed
Audible agreed that it will not enable the Captions feature “for all audiobooks for which Publishers own, or are the exclusive licensee of, the text or audiobook rights” until a Federal Court rules on the publishers’ motion for a preliminary injunction. Note importantly, however, that “Publishers” in this order is limited to the seven named plaintiffs who brought the suit only. Having given that promise, formalized as an order of the court, the parties agreed to move the expedited hearing — initially set for September 5, given Audible’s intention to launch Captions on September 10. But the timetable remains quick […]
Inkitt Raises $16 Million in New Funding
Berlin-based Inkitt announced a $16 million Series A funding round, led by Kleiner Perkins but including participation from HV Holtzbrinck Ventures. (The company previously raised $5 million.) The new capital will help fund their expansion, which includes plans to add 10 languages in addition to English. With more funding comes ever-greater hype: Founder and ceo Ali Albazaz, Inkitt’s founder and CEO, said the mission is to build the “Disney of the 21st century.” Want more bluster? “Albazaz claims that the average writer on Galatea earns 30 to 50 times more than what would be earned via Amazon, which he calls […]
Penguin Random House Has Strong First Half Profits, Is Lifted by Continuing Bestsellers and Acquisitions
Bertelsmann reported results for the first half of the year on Thursday, with sales at Penguin Random House+ (the PRH joint venture, plus the separate Random House Germany) registering €1.650 billion, up €168 million from a year ago. Operating EBITDA grew to €227 million, up €56 million compared to the first half of 2018. As PRH ceo Markus Dohle celebrated in his letter to staff, “Penguin Random House’s top- and bottom-line revenue is up overall in most of our key markets.” Bertelsmann attributed the gains to strong bestsellers (Michelle Obama’s BECOMING — which sold another 2.8 million units in the […]
People, Etc.
Chuck Deane has joined Sourcebooks as sales director. He was most recently vice president of sales (Americas) at Wiley. At Rebel Girls, Pam Gruber joins as editorial director. She was previously senior editor at Little, Brown Children’s. Grace House joins as project and contracts manager (she was assistant editor at Berkley), and Karen Chau has been promoted to licensing and partnerships associate. At HMH Children’s, Abigail Stahlman has joined as senior marketing designer; previously she was senior designer at Scholastic. Nadia Almahdi has joined as marketing manager; previously she was marketing manager at Little Bee Books. Kaitlyn Spotts has joined […]
Trade Sales Are Decent At Halfway Mark, with Gains in Children’s/Young Adult
The AAP released monthly StatShot data for both May and June on Wednesday. As we have been explaining, you can’t really make comparisons to the previous year, since the final 2018 baseline data for adult trade sales has been lowered month after month. (It appears that some sales were shifted from adult trade to their religious presses category — where 2018 sales through June were revised upwards by $80 million, or a big 37 percent. But adult trade sales for 2018 have been lowered more than that.) This happened a year ago, too, when first half-year adult trade sales for […]