A year after reviving Loveswept as a digital-only romance imprint, the Random House Publishing Group announced three additional genre-focused digital imprints: Alibi, for mystery/thriller/suspense; Hydra, for science fiction & fantasy, and Flirt, for New Adult (i.e “targeting women in their twenties and thirties.”) Each imprint will publish original short content (ranging between 10,000 and 30,000 words) and short books (40,000-60,000 words) as well as previously published books for which author controls all print and digital rights. The new imprints will be overseen by vp, digital publishing director Allison Dobson working with svp, publisher of digital content Scott Shannon and vp, […]
Nook Growth Remains Moderate in Barnes & Noble’s Second Quarter, Weighing On Share Price
For the second straight quarter, Barnes & Noble beat Wall Street’s diminished expectations, with a reduced net loss of 4 cents a share (or $7 million) versus the predicted loss of 6 cents to 11 cents. EBITDA rose as well at $64.8 million, a 16 percent increase compared to a year ago, and while retail bookstore sales declined, those profits doubled. Though full holiday results won’t be reported until January 3, BN said Nook device sales “doubled over the four-day Black Friday weekend, across all channels” as compared to last year. The biggest likely concern–that we have pointed to before–is […]
Best of 2012: NYT Notables; Slate Staff Selections; Q&Q’s 10 Best
The New York Times Book Review named their annual 100 Notable Books in fiction, poetry, and nonfiction (which will run in this Sunday’s print edition) with their 10 Best list to follow next week. Slate compiled their best books of 2012 list by polling their staff (including their human resources director, who chose Esi Edugyan’s HALF BLOOD BLUES.) The most popular choice was Katherine Boo’s BEHIND THE BEAUTIFUL FOREVERS. From earlier this week, Canada’s Quill & Quire chose their top 5 fiction and nonfiction choices: Fiction Tamara Faith Berger, MAIDENHEAD Tamas Dobozy, SIEGE 13 Alice Munro, DEAR LIFE Alix Ohlin, […]
People and Remembrances
At Berrett-Koehler, Zoe Mackey has been promoted to online marketing and international sales manager. Samantha Dighton has joined D4EO Literary Agency as an agent, based in Washington, D.C. She worked The Sagalyn Agency. Christina (Kit) Ward, 59, founder of the Christina Ward Literary Agency, most recently co-owner of The Ward and Balkin Agency, and formerly an acquiring editor at Little, Brown in Boston, passed away November 19 after a brief illness. Her colleague writes: “Kit was a brilliant editor and champion for her authors whose work ranged from bestselling literary fiction to gardening books and nature writing, to poetry. She was a […]
People, Etc.
Anna deVries joined Picador as senior editor earlier in November, acquiring both nonfiction and fiction hardcovers and trade paperback originals, while also assisting in the publishing of paperback reprints. Most recently, she had worked at Scribner for seven years. At Kobo, Pieter Swinkels has been promoted to vp, acquisition and “will be leading Kobo’s global publisher outreach and content acquisition team” from their Toronto headquarters. Julia Pastore has joined Demos Health as executive editor where she will help grow their list of trade health and self-help titles. She was a senior editor at Crown Archetype and Harmony Books.
eNews: Kobo Has A Date In Brazil; Nook App Updates; Amazon Sells Bonds (and Kindles)
Kobo will officially launch in Brazil under their previously-announced partnership with bookseller Livraria Cultura on December 5. The Brazilian version of the Kobo Touch device went on sale for pre-orders starting today at R$399 (or roughly $190 US). Nook has updated their iOS and Android apps in a variety of ways. Like the recently-added support to the Nook hardware for reading aloud books, the new version of their iOS app supports Apple’s VoiceOver technology (which also reads aloud to aid the visually-impaired). The Nook apps now support French, Italian, German, Spanish and British English, and they are available for download […]