A new Audible Romance offering, promises subscribers “unlimited access to over ten thousand romance audiobooks.” The service is offered as a $6.95 a month add-on to existing Audible and Kindle Unlimited memberships, or is available as a standalone service for $14.95 a month. Audible Romance is available at http://www.audible.com/romanceme. The company is also touting a new Take Me to the Good Part feature that “uses data science and machine learning to allow listeners to go straight to the most sought out and memorable sections of a romance audiobook.” Titles are arranged across 41 micro-categories and 131 story and character tropes. […]
Audio
Briefs: Shepard’s Last Book, and More
Forthcoming Sam Shepard‘s final book, Spy of the First Person, will be published by Knopf on December 5. Completed shortly before his death from ALS in July, the book is a work of fiction about a man revisiting memories as he undergoes treatment for a medical condition. Shepard wrote the first drafts by hand, and then relied on a tape recorder and dictation. Knopf says that “his friend Patti Smith worked with him during the final months of his life, to edit and arrange the pieces into a final manuscript.” Bookselling The California legislature has passed new legislation that exempts bookstores from the recent […]
Canongate Acquires Severn House, and More
Canongate announced that it has purchased Severn House, for an undisclosed sum from Edwin Buckhalter and his family. Buckhalter, who founded the publisher in 1974, and Mandy Shaw will serve as consultants going forward. Kate Lyall Grant remains as publisher and the staff will relocate to Canongate’s west London offices. The deal was financed in part by Canongate’s bankers, Handelsbanken. Severn House had sales of £3.26 million in 2016. Additionally, Canongate’s finance and operations director Kate Gibb has been promoted to chief operating officer, and will sit on the Severn House board along with ceo Jamie Byng and chair David Young. Byng says in the announcement, […]
Kobo Adds Audio Subscription, Sales
Kobo has launched a broad program of digital audiobooks, available for individual purchase but also available through a $9.99/month subscription, promising “the best value on a subscription plan in the category.” The service is also available in Canada ($12.99/month), the UK (£6.99/month), Australia ($12.99/month), and New Zealand ($13.99/month). CEO Michael Tamblyn says in the press release, “Last year, we built the Kobo Aura One eReader with the help of our best customers, and our new offering is no different. What we unequivocally heard was that they wanted the best deal on audiobooks, and we are pleased to offer the lowest […]
People, Etc.
CBS chief executive Les Moonves, 67, has extended his contract and is now expected to run the company through June 2021 — after which he can serve as a senior adviser for five years, with an option to set up a production company with CBS’s support. Chip Rolley joined PEN America as director of the PEN World Voices Festival, and also serves as senior director of literary programs. Most recently he was artistic director of the Sydney Writers’ Festival. Abigail Welhouse has been promoted to senior publicist for Scott Manning & Associates. In the UK, Harim Yim and Rachel Richardson have […]
Recorded Books Renames Itself RBmedia
Recorded Books acquired the Audiobooks.com retail platform on December 31, 2016 but has officially “announced” the acquisition on Tuesday. (In turn, the publishing arm of Audiobooks.com now operates as Novel Audio.) Recorded Books has also unveiled a broader rebranding of the parent company as RBmedia going forward. The new “unified brand” will “help us position the benefits of the combined organization and product lines to the market.” CEO Tom MacIsaac says in the announcement, “RBmedia is the only company that brings together all three key elements of spoken audio and digital media distribution. Not only do we produce top-quality spoken audio content, we’ve also […]