Just two days after Penguin resumed selling digital library copies to OverDrive, the company has relinquished its requirement that library users who borrow Kindle editions from OverDrive must sideload them via USB. As OverDrive announced in a blog post, Penguin titles will be available for wireless download via OverDrive’s “Get for Kindle” button, which redirects to Amazon’s website. A spokesperson for Penguin declined to comment on what persuaded them to change their policy. Sony‘s latest e-reader, the PRS-T3, will not be sold in the US, effectively signaling the company’s exit from the market here after years of apparent decline and disinterest. […]
People, Etc.
At Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, Andrew Smith has been promoted to svp, deputy publisher, executive director of New Business Development, focusing on building the company’s licensing program and expanding its digital initiatives. Of Smith’s promotion, evp, publisher Megan Tingley stated: “In the seven years since he joined Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, the publishing landscape has changed dramatically and Andrew has been a vital and visionary force in developing strategies for success and growth across Editorial, Design, Marketing, Publicity, Subsidiary Rights, and Sales.” Google Play has expanded into nine additional countries in Asia, including Taiwan, Hong Kong, […]
Quercus First-Half Revenue Grows But Profits Decline Further
Quercus announced preliminary results for the first half of the fiscal year ending June 30, reporting £0.52 million in operating profit, a 7 percent drop compared to the same period last year, and revenues of £10.2 million, up 10.9 percent from the previous year. On the growth side, ebook sales were £3.5 million, comprising approximately 34 percent of total revenues for the first six months of the year. Quercus ceo Mark Smith said it had been “a time of preparation for the launch of the company’s inaugural US publishing program”, which now employs four people in its new US office. […]
Penguin Resumes Selling Full Digital Library Catalog to OverDrive, Baker & Taylor
More than eighteen months after Penguin withdrew its digital library catalog from OverDrive and severed their selling relationship — leaving libraries with no way to purchase Penguin’s ebooks, until the company re-entered the market in a pilot program with 3M in June 2012 — the publisher has resumed business with the vendor. According to a brief statement, Penguin has re-instated its relationship with OverDrive as well as with Baker & Taylor, effective immediately. The publisher started ebook lending pilot programs with B&T in November 2012. In a blog post, OverDrive said that “more than 17,000 Penguin eBooks are now live […]
People: MacArthur Honorees, and more
Swamplandia! author Karen Russell and novelist Donald Antrim are among the new class of 24 MacArthur Foundation fellows (now providing honorees with $625,000 over five years). Margaret Rogalski has joined Gotham & Avery as publicist. Previously she was a publicist at Princeton Architectural Press. Australian novelist Christopher Koch, 81, author of The Year of Living Dangerously and a two-time winner of the Miles Franklin Award, died on Sunday. Dave Holton, 66, who worked with BEA for more than 20 years, passed away on September 18 after a long battle with cancer. BEA show director Steve Rosato writes on his blog: […]
People, Etc.
The Jean V. Naggar Literary Agency announced last week at the agency’s 35th anniversary celebration that Jennifer Weltz will succeed Jean Naggar as president of the agency, with Naggar moving to the new position of chair. Naggar noted that her daughter Weltz, who was named partner in 2004 and later vice president, “has been president in all but name these past few years” and that “her incisive intelligence, energy, marketing acumen, love of books, ready humor, and editorial flair have combined to build and lead JVNLA confidently into a future all of us here are reaching to identify.” Director of […]