After we reported a week ago that Harper told a wide swath of ebook accounts that they would return to full agency for ebooks as of Tuesday morning Pacific time, the big question wasn’t so much Amazon as pricing. In September 2012, when HarperCollins was the first settling publisher to comply with the consent decrees through “agency lite” pricing, they also raised many of their consumer list ebook prices, often by many dollars above the original iBooks pricing “brackets” that pegged ebook prices to print book prices. As it turned out, Harper was the only of the settling publishers to […]
ebookstores
German Giant Media-Saturn Looks to Build On Bankrupt Txtr
Some publishers were recently informed via email that Germany’s txtr, which filed for bankruptcy in late January, will be adopted as the ebook platform for the big consumer electronics retailing group Media-Saturn-Holding as of the beginning of April. (Described as the Best Buy of Germany and/or Europe, the group’s Media Markt, Saturn and Redcoon stores have annual sales of over 20 billion euros.) It’s a logical marriage of convenience, in that txtr was already working with MSH on their ebook plans. MSH is currently working to turn JUKE! — an established streaming music subscription service — into a much broader digital […]
People, Etc.
In the UK, Foyle’s ceo Sam Husain, 67, will retire in April, the Bookseller reports. Former toy retailer Hamley’s coo Paul Currie will take over the leadership for the bookseller, and Husain will stay on as a non-executive director. Also in the UK, Kieron Smith, who had been managing director of bookseller Book Depository before its sale to Amazon, has been hired by Blackwell’s as digital director, starting in February. He fills the slot vacated by Matthew Cashmore. Smith’s recent project, the online Best Little Bookshop, has closed. Hanna Masaryk is joining Greenburger Associates as children’s/YA scout. She was previously an agency assistant at Curtis […]
New Agency Returns
Two of the large publishers that announced new multiyear sales agreements with Amazon late last year have resumed their latest version of agency ebook pricing. Simon & Schuster and Macmillan are both selling ebooks under their newest model of the agency model. (Remember that, given the current Federal Court injunction imposed on Apple, none of the original agency publishers can currently restrict Apple’s ability to discount ebooks — and even new agency sales agreements may allow other accounts a measure of price-matching when Apple discounts.) In keeping with prior practice, Amazon now lists most of the ebooks from those houses with the note, “This price […]
Whatever Is Happening with Tablet and eReader Sales, Apple’s App Store Had Record New Year’s
There are a variety of indications that sales of dedicated ereading devices as well as tablets (or at least non-Apple tablets) were weak over the holiday period — perhaps because those who want them already have them, and the devices are all solid enough that they do not require continuous replacement cycles. Apple announced in a press release that “the first week of January set a new record for billings from the App Store with customers around the world spending nearly half a billion dollars on apps and in-app purchases, and New Year’s Day 2015 marked the single biggest day […]
People, Etc.: Durham to Leave Amazon
Publisher of adult trade and children’s at Amazon Publishing Daphne Durham will leave the company on January 16, PW reports, and will be replaced by head of global marketing for the publishing division Mikyla Bruder, who will serve as publisher for Montlake Romance, Thomas & Mercer, Skyscape, Lake Union, 47North and Jet City Comics. (Durham had taken over Larry Kirshbaum’s responsibilities when he prepared to leave Amazon Publishing in October 2013.) Longtime Kindle singles editor David Blum will take on additional responsibilities as publisher and editor-in-chief of Little A — the literary imprint that was run by Ed Park — and Two Lions, a […]