Sales rose 3 percent at Scholastic, at $685.3 million, as net income of $82.8 million was up $7.9 million, or more than 10 percent. The company said “improved profits reflected higher sales of educational technology and services, children’s books and ebooks, and classroom and supplemental educational materials.” Children’s trade book sales of $68.8 million were up sharply from $53.3 million a year ago–making up for declines in the larger book clubs and book fairs units. Overall the children’s book publishing and distribution division was up slightly, with operating margin of $108.6 million up 11.5 percent. CEO Dick Robinson says in […]
People, Etc.
Sue Ostfield will join Milkweed Editions as sales and marketing director on February 1. Most recently she has been director of national accounts at Publishers Group West. Former Zondervan associate publisher Angela Scheff has an “exclusive relationship to acquire and develop Christian non-fiction titles” for Thomas Nelson as a freelancer. (Nelson and Zondervan will soon be under the same HarperCollins corporate umbrella.) She will focus primarily on the spiritual growth category. Granta will shift distribution of their books in the US to Ingram Publisher Services in two phases. Beginning January 1, 2012, IPS will distribute a “select group of books” (including The […]
Short Sales for Short-Form eBooks?
One of the year’s interesting developments has been the emergence of some kind of market for short-form works sold through ebookstores. Among the highest visibility new players in this particular market is Byliner.com–which launched with a splash in April with free downloads of Jon Krakauer’s Three Cups of Deceit. Co-founder John Tayman reports at least vaguely on Byliner’s results so far in essay for the winter issue of Neiman Reports–which focuses on “how does a journalist make the journey to author” and includes numerous articles of interest. (Short-form reports also discuss The Atavist and Politico’s collaboration with Random House.) It’s […]
Still More Bests of 2011
Kobo named about 30 titles as their ebooks of the year: Fiction The Sisters Brothers, Patrick deWitt 1Q84, Haruki Murakami Ten Thousand Saints, Eleanor Henderson The Free World, David Bezmozgis When She Woke, Hillary Jordan The Night Circus, Erin Morgenstern The Art of Fielding, Chad Harbach The Sense of an Ending, Julian Barnes Touch, Alexi Zentner Snowball Dragonfly Jew, Stuart Ross Blood Red Road, Moira Young Monoceros, Suzette Mayr Caribou Island, By David Vann The Illumination, Kevin Brockmeier The Stranger’s Child, Alan Hollinghurst The Submission, Amy Waldman Ready Player, One Ernest Cline State of Wonder, Ann Patchett The Fates Will […]
Christian Group Calls Barnes & Noble “Naughty” For Not Emphasizing Christmas More
The silly season is here in full. In a Daily Show-worthy announcement, the conservative Christian group American Family Association has released of list of companies they consider “for,” “marginal,” and “against” Christmas, which Barnes & Noble included among the 14 chains they deem “naughty.” (Amazon is deemed “for” Christmas.) The evaluation is based on one important mode of expression: advertising. The list aspires to determine “if a company was ‘Christmas-friendly’ in their advertising.” Different references to secular Christmas symbols (“trees, wreaths, lights, etc.”) were “considered as an attempt to reach ‘Christmas shoppers.” And “if a company has items associated with […]
Samples for the Holidays
Both Hachette Book Group and Penguin have released free holiday sampler ebooks. (The metadata for each is a little strange depending upon which ebookstore you check. At Amazon, HBG‘s is sub-tagged as “Fiction > Action & Adventure.” At Barnes & Noble, Penguin‘s is listed as “age range: 12 years.”) For a mighty digital list price of 99 cents, Houghton has a Best American Sampler from across their annual series of Best American writing. And, to file under TMI from searching, apparently there is also a robust line of “samplers” of dirty pictures available via ebooks as well.