Up until now Penguin Random House has not participated in any of the major ebook subscription offerings, but the publisher has a new exclusive with Scribd for audiobooks. [N.B.: Scribd described the deal as exclusive, but PRH noted after this ran “that Scribd is not the only retailer offering audiobooks on a subscription basis. Our audio titles have been available for a number of years via a multiple retailers with various subscription models, including Audible, Audiobooks.com, and Overdrive in the library market, among others.”] PRH is making available more than 9,000 audio titles for unlimited listening as part of Scribd’s subscription program (which […]
Audio
People, Etc.
At the Crown Publishing Group, Nidhi Berry has been promoted to associate manager, foreign rights for the Ten Speed, Clarkson Potter, Potter Style, Potter Craft, and Pam Krauss Books lists. In addition, Courtney Snyder moves up to associate director, domestic rights. At Orbit, Laura Fitzgerald has been promoted to online marketing manager and Lindsey Hall has been promoted to assistant editor. At Yen Press, Stephanie Lee has been promoted to assistant editor. At the Fischer Harbage Agency, Christopher Hermelin has been promoted to associate agent. Former vp, director of subsidiary rights at Crown Linda Kaplan has launched Readmore Literary Management, […]
Blinkbox Books, Bardowl to Shut Down
The week begins with the closing of two UK-based digital companies. Blinkbox Books, Tesco’s ebook service, will cease operations by the end of February after failing to find a buyer. The company said, “We’ve learnt a lot since launching the service and whilst we saw encouraging levels of take up, we believe that we can do more for our customers by focusing on our core business….Our focus now is on the colleagues affected and our customers.” Up to 60 jobs are in jeopardy as a result. Tesco was reported to have been in exclusive talks with Waterstones a possible sale of the platform. Tesco […]
Recorded Books Acquires Tantor Media
Recorded Books has acquired audio publisher Tantor Media, with a catalog of approximately 5,000 titles. Sale terms were not officially disclosed but the NYT reports the price was “about $25 million.” Private equity firm Wasserstein & Co. acquired Recorded Books from Haights Cross Communications a little less than a year ago, and then they bought HighBridge Audio from Workman Publishing in April, which was integrated into Recorded Books. Wasserstein co-managing partner Anup Bagaria tells the NYT, “We’ve taken a sleepy business and really accelerated growth” through acquisitions and organic improvements. Tantor will continue to operate out of its current Old Saybrook, CT facility. Jones Day […]
Corporate: Opening Sales of Over 1 Million for Wimpy Kid, and PRH Launches Audio App
Abrams reports another strong opening week of sales for the latest Jeff Kinney book, DIARY OF A WIMPY KID: THE LONG HAUL. CEO Michael Jacobs says in the release sales “out of the gate have been exceptional and are accelerating briskly. Already more than 1 million copies have sold in the first seven days. He adds, “Our strategy of releasing the new book simultaneously in all the English language territories has shown the global power of Jeff’s books. With eight more countries set to publish The Long Haul before the end of the year, we’re confident that Diary of a […]
Scribd Adds Audiobooks to Their Subscription Plan
Scribd substantially expanded their subscription reading service on Thursday morning, adding a collection of more than 30,000 audiobooks titles, available for unlimited streaming and downloading as a part of their regular $8.99 subscription service, alongside the ebooks they have offered since October 2013. In contrast to the ebooks, which are mostly backlist titles, the audiobook catalog includes frontlist titles as well from many of the participating publishers. The biggest named participants are HarperCollins and also Scholastic from the trade publishing side (so the Hunger Games trilogy is there), as well as Blackstone Audio and Naxos. The audio collection is supplied […]