Beginning in March, authors using Audible’s Audiobook Creation Exchange will be able to see data on returns, including number of units per title, both in their account dashboard and in monthly financial statements. The move, announced on the ACX blog, is a response to continuing pressure from the Authors Guild and ACX authors for changes to the company’s returns policy, after its negative financial impact (reportedly reducing sales anywhere from 15 to 50 percent over time) became apparent last fall. This follows Audible’s decision last month to pay authors royalties on returns made more than seven days after purchase, which […]
Archives for January 2021
Gorman’s Inaugural Poem Coming Soon As Hardcover Book
Following the striking recitation by poet Amanda Gorman at the presidential inauguration on Wednesday, Penguin Children’s announced that “due to overwhelming demand” it will issue a special hardcover edition of the work, THE HILL WE CLIMB. They plan a spring release, with an announced first printing of 150,000 copies, with the pub date still to be finalized.
The Complete Buzz Books Spring/Summer Titles
As we previewed Tuesday, our new free ebook Buzz Books 2021: Spring/Summer arrives this week packed with 46 pre-publication excerpts from major authors and exciting debuts. Our sampler is the ultimate way to prepare for the upcoming publishing season. For the trade editions — with publicity and marketing info, and click-throughs for full galleys, you can download through NetGalley or Edelweiss. The consumers editions of are available now on all major ebook platforms, including Kindle, Nook, Apple Books, Google Play, Kobo and the universe of etailers served by Ingram. So join us on social media and share the excitement of the upcoming season using #BuzzBooks2021. Authors to be featured […]
People, Etc.
Derek Gullino has been promoted to senior vice president, executive director of publishing operations for Clarkson Potter, Harmony & Rodale, and Ten Speed Press. Donna Loffredo has been promoted to Executive Editor, Harmony Books and Rodale Books, reporting to Diana Baroni. At Random House, Rachel Kind has been promoted to vice president and executive director of foreign rights; Rachel Berkowitz to director of foreign rights; Donna Duverglas to deputy director of foreign rights; Jessica Cashman to senior manager; and Claire Posner-Greco to manager of foreign rights. Jack Perry has joined Astra Publishing House in the new position of director of sales […]
Pearson’s Sales Down 10 Percent for the Year, as Expected; WH Smith Sees Good Holiday Sales
Pearson issued their traditional January “trading report,” providing sales highlights in advance of a full annual report on March 5. The pandemic year only reinforced the longstanding trend: Global online learning (18 percent sales growth) was weighed down by declines in US higher ed courseware (with sales falling (12) percent). The businesses most heavily hit by pandemic-related closures, global assessment — which means tests — and international, were down (14) percent and (19) percent respectively. All this added up to a sales decline of (10) percent. While profit results await the annual report, the report says both sales and profit […]
South Korea’s Naver to Acquire Wattpad for More Than $600 Million
Further to recent reports that storytelling website Wattpad had put itself up for sale, on Tuesday publicly-held Korean internet conglomerate Naver said it would acquire Wattpad for cash and stock valuing the company at over $600 million. (The mix of cash versus stock is not being disclosed at this time.) Korea’s largest search engine, Naver’s properties also include digital comics publisher Webtoon — said to have 72 million monthly active users — which it sees as pairing well with Wattpad’s community. The deal is expected to close some time in the second quarter. Naver has a market cap of roughly […]