The Frankfurt Book Fair said that trade attendance decline 1.6 percent–while total visitors including the German public rose slightly, by 0.6 percent. FBF said in their release that “the fact that the number of visitors declined only marginally during the trade visitors’ days reflects the fact that the industry remains optimistic and is well equipped to face its challenges.” As previously announced, major ebook retailers started notifying qualifying customers by email that they will be entitled to unspecified store credits as part of the settlement of the suit by state attorneys general and the three Settlers. Amazon’s mail landed first, […]
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Amazon Posts Additional Paperwhite Info After Some Customers Complain About Screens
At least some buyers of the new Kindle Paperwhite model have been posting complaints online both about screen performance and screen defects–though “professional” reviews of pre-release models were enthusiastic about demand (or supply) that has resulted in a four-to-six week wait for new orders. Earlier this week, Amazon added a link to a new explanatory “We want you to know…” page that some speculate is in response to customer reaction. The page underscores “there are certain limitations and changes from prior generations that we want you to know about.” The company says: “Under certain lighting conditions, the illumination at the […]
Kindle Library Heads to Europe; Nook UK Now Headed Towards End of the Month
Amazon announced yesterday that their Kindle Owners Lending Library will expand to the UK, Germany and France “later this month,” available to Prime members (as is the case in the US). They promise “over 200,000 books to borrow,” which probably means the large collection of exclusive self-published titles (and Amazon Publishing imprint books) that form the core of the program in the US, alongside the Harry Potter books in multiple languages. They promise “thousands of local-language titles” as well, but did not indicate how many European titles are being contributed by publisher license rather than by Amazon paying per “borrow.” […]
New Sylvia Day eBook Sells 286k Copies In First Week
Sylvia Day’s REFLECTED IN YOU, the follow-up to her bestselling BARED TO YOU, sold 286,000 ebooks in the US in the first week on sale, Berkley reported. It sells for $9.99. The publisher says the trade paperback, which does not go on sale until October 23, will have a 630,000-copy printing.
Corporate: Swann Steps Down as CEO of WHSmith; Final Suitors for McGraw-Hill Education;HarperCollins Moves to Streamline Global Publishing Infrastructure; and More
Kate Swann will step down as ceo of WHSmith on June 30 after more than nine years, the company announced Thursday. She will be replaced by current managing director of Smith’s high street business Steve Clarke. “It is an opportune time to make a change of leadership, and I am sure that the company will continue to thrive under Steve,” Swann told the FT. She didn’t elaborate further on future plans but said she “certainly doesn’t intend to retire.” The news was announced in tandem with the release of WHSmith’s preliminary full-year results, in which pre-tax profits rose 9.7 percent […]
eNews: Consortium Launches Thema Global Codes Standard
In an attempt to streamline book category and classification codes into a unified standard, a group of book industry representatives from 15 companies are joining forces on Thema, which continues the work already begun by the iBIC project jointly owned by Nielsen and the Book Industry Communication. Both entities donated the iBIC intellectual property to Thema’s board of directors for the creation of the global standard. For now, Thema will function alongside such national book-categorization standards as BIC, BISAC, and CLIL, but the plan is to move all involved markets, including the US, UK, Australia, Canada, South Africa, Spain, and […]