At an event in Paris, Spotify announced an expansion of their audiobooks efforts, now providing premium subscribers in France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg with 12 hours of included free audiobook listening every month. Managing Director, Spotify Western Europe Antoine Monin says in the announcement, “Spotify’s reach presents a significant opportunity to expand the audiobooks market across France, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg.” He indicates they have added 15,000 French and 15,000 Dutch and Flemish titles to their catalog. Spotify launched their offering of free audiobook listening a year ago, and they say in the release, “While it’s still early […]
Archives for October 2024
Unionized BN Employees Protest At Bloomington, IL Store
Unionized employees at Barnes & Noble in Bloomington, IL walked off the job site to protest in front of the store for seven hours on October 11 over contract negotiations with the company. The union is asking for fair wages, healthcare and union benefits, protection from store closures, and more. This is the first time a B&N union in the midwest has gone on strike. Employees said in a local news report that the store is understaffed and not keeping up with the state’s minimum wage requirements. Senior bookseller Thaddeus Stoklasa said, “We are walking off the job today to […]
Third Quarter Deals Set More New Records
Tomorrow we’ll provide the full report on deal activity in the fall/pre-Frankfurt sales period — Spoiler Alert: It has been a record season. But first we need to catch up on deal trends for the third quarter, which has also set multiple records. The visualizations below will make it more obvious than usual, but: – Overall deals reached a new high for the period, up 8.7 percent over last year – Nonfiction deals recovered, reaching a new high for the period, up 22.5 percent over last year – Fiction deals continued their growth and accelerated, reaching a new high again, […]
James Patterson Launches Substack
James Patterson has launched a Substack called Hungry Dogs. He writes in an introductory message that he plans to post three days a week. Content will include excerpts from his books; interviews with authors like David Baldacci, Elin Hilderbrand, T. J. Newman, and Kwame Alexander; and a column called “Stop The Insanity” on topics like book banning. The name of the newsletter comes from something his grandmother used to say: ““Hungry dogs run faster.” Patterson tells the WSJ notes, “Patterson said he has found it difficult to get opinion pieces into major newspapers. And when he has attempted to get […]
New Books Publishing October 15
This week’s fiction releases include new titles by Mark Haddon, Daniel M. Lavery, Susan Minot and Ian Rankin, plus a reissue of Hernan Diaz’s debut novel in hardcover, while Al Pacino, John Grisham, and Bob Woodward publish nonfiction. Also publishing this week are new books by Stephanie Booth and John Larison, both excerpted in our Buzz Books 2024: Fall/Winter sampler. 26 works of fiction https://bookshop.org/lists/new-fiction-publishing-october-15 13 works of nonfiction https://bookshop.org/lists/new-nonfiction-publishing-october-15 From Buzz Books https://buzz.publishersmarketplace.com/ We consult a number of sources in compiling our weekly lists and PM members can see […]
Pre-Frankfurt Press Conference Sets Stage for Discussions on Politics, Conflict, AI
While exhibitors were preparing for the official start of the Frankfurt Book Fair on Wednesday, the opening press conference on Tuesday morning—featuring speeches by German Publishers and Booksellers Association chair Karin Schmidt-Friderichs, Frankfurt Buchmesse director Juergen Boos, and Turkish author Elif Shafak—foreshadowed what will likely be topics of discussion across the event—politics, global conflict, and technology. Schmidt-Frederichs noted that diversity has always been part of the fair, and that it is “an event where clear distinction is made between fact and fiction,” “where debate is cultivated, freedom of opinion is practiced.” While she did not reference the US election or […]