It’s only appropriate that a Book Industry Study Group (BISG) annual meeting Friday that opened with predictions of continuing tight markets for book paper and manufacturing concluded with Kobo (“often thought of as ‘Kobo-Who-We-Wish-Were-Bigger-In-the-US'”) ceo Michael Tamblyn running down six ways to sell more digital product — and retain readers’ attention — with better metadata. His biggest and most important suggestion/ask — which has been a staple of some of my own speeches for years — was, “Add series data. Every damn time.” As Tamblyn noted, series represent a whopping 52 percent of their ebook sales. Yet it is “one […]
eNews
Digital: Scribd Adds Originals, Microsoft Withdraws Again
Subscription service Scribd is launching Scribd Originals, a “content program that will enable authors to connect with new readers through experimental works published exclusively” on the site. The program launches today with political reporter Garrett Graff’s piece, Mueller’s War. Other participating authors include Roxane Gay, Hilton Als, Paul Theroux, Peter Heller, and Mark Seal. A spokesperson declined to explain the business terms offered to authors, but said the company is focused on “a market opportunity for works that are less than 50,000 words.” Authors and agents can direct submissions or proposals to Scribd’s existing content team. While the work is […]
People, Etc.: Teicher to Retire From ABA
American Booksellers Association ceo since 2009 Oren Teicher announced Monday that he will retire at the end of the year. The ABA board has retained the search firm of Isaacson, Miller and has appointed a search committee, intending to complete the search process by September 30. Teicher said, “To say the least, this was not a decision I reached lightly, as I have cherished every single day over the last 30 years that I have worked at ABA. But the time has come, and I firmly believe it’s the right decision for me, and for ABA. There are also a number […]
People, Etc.
Veronica Park has joined Fuse Literary as an associate agent. She was previously literary agent and marketing specialist at Corvisiero Literary Agency. Alexandra Franklin has been promoted to associate agent at the Vicky Bijur Literary Agency. Maya Baran has joined Viking Penguin as publicity manager, returning to publishing full-time. Most recently she has assisted Broadside PR and The Countryman Press. The ALA has named Melinda Gates the honorary chair of National Library Week, starting April 7. At Porter Square Books in Cambridge, MA, Leila Meglio has joined as events manager. Most recently, she was publicity associate at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Sarah Rettger becomes […]
Wattpad Launches Book Line, Radish Commissions Stories
Wattpad is building on their previous book publishing partnerships and experiments to launch their own book publishing line. Debuting in fall 2019 with six young adult titles, Wattpad Books will be distributed by Macmillan in the US and Raincoast Books in Canada. Ashleigh Gardner leads the division, with recently-hired Deanna McFadden managing operations. But the company says they will rely on machine learning to “identify and publish stand-out stories” from the Wattpad corpus, with the humans adding “special consideration for stories written by diverse authors.” Separately, Wattpad competitor Radish, which focuses on serialized short-form fiction for mobile, has hired Sue […]
A Case Study of Sorts: eBooks at the Free Library of Philadelphia
The Philadelphia Inquirer has an interesting look at ebook lending from area library systems, which looks to be on the rise (in contrast to publishers’ dollar sales from ebooks). In 2018, 28 percent of the total circulation of the Free Library of Philadelphia “came from ebooks and other digital content.” The top ebooks were The Woman in the Window (1,482 ebooks circulated) and Fire and Fury (1,448). Under metered access, providing a maximum of 26 checkouts, The Woman in the Window cost the library $1.04 per checkout, chief of the materials management division Jennifer Maguire-Wright notes. “An average circulation for a printed book is […]