A small bit of information–Apple is expected to hold a press event in New York some time in January–has launched many columns of speculation. GoodeReader is confident that “sources close to the matter have told us that they intend on launching a new digital self-publishing platform to get peoples content into the iBookstore.” An unnamed TechCrunch source agrees that it “will focus on publishing and e-books.” Kara Swisher at AllThingsD simply says it will be “an important — but not large-scale — event to be held in New York at the end of this month that will focus on a […]
eNews
eNews: Kindle Has “Best Holiday Ever”; 100K Xmas Downloads for Harper UK; and More
Restating the obvious and continuing its tradition of trumpeting nonspecific success, Amazon announced that 2011 “was the best holiday ever for the Kindle family as customers purchased millions of Kindle Fires and millions of Kindle e-readers,” while Christmas day was the “biggest day ever” for Kindle book downloads. Building on their earlier press release, they say that “throughout December, customers purchased well over 1 million Kindle devices per week.” Despite straining to celebrate and overplay the success of KDP authors, the etailer admits that the top ebooks for the holiday sales period were The Hunger Games and Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins […]
eNews: Kobo in Holland, UK Kindle Sales, and More
Kobo has soft-launched in the Netherlands, selling ebooks from Bruna, Querido and De Bezige Bij beginning December 17, at about a 10% discount compared to leading Dutch online bookseller Bol.com. They started selling their Kobo Touch ereaders via Dutch electronics retailer Redcoon as of October 1. Kobo’s official launch in Holland is expected by March 1, 2012. Amazon announced that Kindle device sales in the UK more than doubled during the Christmas holiday. As in the US, an unspecified “millions of UK customers have already discovered the benefits of Kindle.” Though the announcement came a little late for the holidays, Smashwords said […]
eBook Sales Dip Further in October
The AAP announced their tabulation of sales for October from reporting publishers. In the closely-watched ebook sales category–where the AAP’s monthly number is the only standing statistic we have to go on, the now 20 reporting publishers recorded sales of $72.8 million, down from $80.3 million in August. (Rizzoli is now among those contributing data.) It’s the lowest monthly ebook total recorded since April, and lower as an absolute comparison since the matching results that month came from just 14 publishers. Seasonably sizable shipments of print books and flat month-to-month ebook sales trends left digital books in fourth place, trailing […]
Briefs: Digital Accounted for 11 Percent of Random UK Overall Sales; Foyles Profits Up; And More
Random House UK chair and chief executive Gail Rebuck‘s annual letter to staff also went out Tuesday (too late for our dispatch) in which she revealed that ebook sales accounted for 11 percent of the group’s overall sales, and that 2011 would be regarded as a “time of significant digital-led change.” Forecasting 2012 Rebuck said that “increasingly, direct consumer engagement will play a pivotal role in our campaigns as online discoverability and recommendation become ever more crucial to the future success of our books.” Bookseller Foyles reported annual revenues of £22.8m for the year ending June 30, down slightly from […]
Unsecured Borders Creditors to Get Close to 10 Cents on Dollar As Liquidation Plan Approved
Federal bankruptcy court put its official stamp on the end of Borders, as the chain’s liquidation plan was approved by Judge Martin Glenn on Tuesday. Approximately 98 percent of creditors holding $211.5 million in debt voted to approve the plan. As previously reported, unsecured creditors owed between $812 million and $850 million will receive 4 to 10 cents on the dollar, but court papers indicate that recovery may be in the “higher end of the range,” with Borders lawyer Andrew Glenn stipulating in court that percentage may be even higher still, according to Bloomberg. In addition, Borders got the go-ahead to […]