Hachette UK has expanded its distribution facilities in Oxford, nearly doubling the space to almost 300,000 sq ft and increasing its distribution business through the UK and elsewhere. The company added a storage facility in the Milton Park community, and the expansion will allow them to add up to 50 jobs, increasing the workforce by 15 percent. According to Insider Media, “Hachette currently ships 65 million copies, more than 25 per cent of its books globally, from the Milton Park facility.” Matt Wright, CEO at Hachette UK Distribution, said, “We have an ambitious goal to deliver one in every two […]
Archives for December 2024
Amazon Aspires (and Hires) to “Enhanc[e] the Book Publishing and Reading Experience Using Cutting-Edge AI Technology”
Amazon has a job listing for a position in India for a senior applied scientist, book content experience, as part of a “Publishing & Reading Science team,” looking for people “who are passionate about Reading and are willing to take Reading to the next level.” The goal is “leveraging advances in AI to improve the Reading experience for Kindle customers, and the Publishing experience for book content creators and distributors” by “making publishers lives easier through AI.” The corpus appears to be book content that was provided for a far different purpose (and might be restricted, depending upon your agreements): […]
Imprints: Sofia Coppola Launches Important Flowers
Sofia Coppola has partnered with UK publisher Mack to launch an imprint called Important Flowers with a visual focus. The first title, a book of photos taken on the set of Coppola’s first film, The Virgin Suicides, will debut in April. The second title, to be released in September, will be a visual history of the Chanel fashion house. Coppola told Vogue, “I just really love putting a layout together. Photo books have always been so important to my creative process, so I thought it could be fun to have a hand in making some more.” Elsewhere, Bonnier Books UK […]
People 12/13
The Next of the Best of the Best Books of 2024
With about 50 “votes” counted, we are closing in on our final aggregations of the very best of the “best books of the year,” now with full lists in all of our tracked categories. The fiction picks remain dominant, in keeping with the year’s sales and mood, and Percival Everett’s JAMES towers above all others. The rest of the adult lists are pretty firm at this point, with a little room at the bottom, particularly among nonfiction. Next week we’ll share the PM staff’s own picks and at the end of the week we will publish the final lists, with editor, […]
Sourcebooks Audio to Launch In 2025
In January a new Sourcebooks Audio line will release its first titles, initially producing audio versions of mysteries from Poisoned Pen Press and romance novels from Sourcebooks Casablanca, as well as nonfiction from the Callisto imprint. Catherine Bucaria is vp, publisher of Sourcebooks Audio, having previously served as director of audio strategy & acquisitions at Penguin Random House, and Almeda Beynon is director of audio production, after working as executive producer of audio at Harper Collins. The Sourcebook Audio lines will operate as imprints within Penguin Random House Audio. (PRH owns 75 percent of Sourcebooks, though the publisher operates independently.) […]