Here are this month’s picks: #1. Canada, by Richard Ford Heading Out to Wonderful: A Novel, by Robert Goolrick The Chaperone: A Novel, by Laura Moriarty The Yard: A Novel, by Alex Grecian The Watch: A Novel, by Joydeep Roy-Bhattacharya Equal of the Sun: A Novel, by Anita Amirrezvani Gone Girl: A Novel, by Gillian Flynn Capital: A Novel, by John Lanchester The Green Shore: A Novel, by Natalie Bakopoulos Wallflower in Bloom: A Novel, by Claire Cook The Watchers: A Novel, by Jon Steele A Lady Cyclist’s Guide to Kashgar: A Novel, by Suzanne Joinson Istanbul Passage: A Novel, […]
eNews: Target Confirms Kindle Removal; Coehlo’s 99-Cent Backlist Promotion; Bundled Nooks With HMH Textbooks; and More
Target confirmed on Wednesday the report we mentioned in Wednesday’s issue indicating that that 1,800-store chain will stop carrying Kindle devices. Company executives wrote to vendors in January to protest moves such as Amazon’s price check app: “What we aren’t willing to do is let online-only retailers use our brick-and-mortar stores as a showroom for their products and undercut our prices.” Target was first big mass merchant to start stocking Kindle products in 2010. Wal-Mart, Best Buy and Staples are among the big retail chains that still sell Kindle products in their stores. Earlier this week Paulo Coehlo announced on […]
People, Etc.
At William Morrow, Peter Hubbard has been promoted to executive editor. Edward Benitez has joined Random House, Inc. as director, Spanish-language sales. Michele Karlsberg has joined Bywater Books as publisher. A recent winner of the Publishing Triangle’s Leadership Award, she was one of the founders of Amethyst Press and then ran Michele Karlsberg Marketing and Management. Jane Rogers‘ THE TESTAMENT OF JESSIE LAMB won the Arthur C Clarke award, the UK’s top science fiction prize. First published by independent Scottish press Sandstone, Harper Perennial is set to release a trade paperback (and ebook) in the US on May 15.
eNews: More from Lynch on Microsoft’s Nook Investment; Target Will Stop Stocking Kindle Devices On Apparent “Conflict of Interest”
The Kindle Fire may have been Target‘s top-selling tablet device last Thanksgiving, but as of this month it appears the retail chain will no longer stock it, or any Amazon e-reading product, due to an apparent and unspecified “conflict of interest.” According to an internal memo obtained by The Verge, Target “will be removing Amazon hardware from its locations starting this month” and “shipments of Kindles themselves will cease as of May 13.” (In fact, if you search for “kindle” on Target’s website, no results show up at all.) It’s not clear as to what the perceived conflict of interest […]
People, Etc.
At Macmillan, Dan Schwartz has been promoted to vp, digital product services, adding a variety of responsibilities to his current role managing the strategic and day-to-day operations of the trade ebook group, among them college ebook production and helping to set corporate digital strategy. The company says their ebook group now comprises a more than $100 million business. Workman Publishing has formally unveiled the Workman Speakers Bureau, which former Random House executive Carol Schneider has been building since last May. (Schneider ran the Random House portion of the Random House Speakers Bureau among her responsibilities there.) Workman has enrolled 17 of the house’s authors […]
Sales Rise S&S, As Profit Reflects Legal Costs
CBS reported first quarter earnings after the close of the market on Tuesday, with Simon & Schuster recording strong results: sales rose 14 percent, up $21 million to $176 million. It’s a quarter with traditionally thin margins, but OIBDA rose as well, up $3 million to $10 million, with operating income of $8 million, as gains in content sales were “partially offset by higher costs related to legal matters”–which presumably means the settlement discussions with the Department of Justice and state attorneys general. Since those settlements have not been finalized, there is no larger charge against earnings declared yet for the […]