Faber finance director David Tebbutt was killed early Sunday morning and his wife, Judith, was taken hostage by suspected Somali extremist militants at a tourist lodge in the Kiunga marine reserve on the Lamu archipelago off Kenya’s northern coast. Tebbutt and his wife had been on holiday and had only arrived at the resort a few hours before the attack. Tebbutt joined Faber in 2002 and was previously managing director of The Harvill Press and finance director of Routledge. The Bookseller is collecting tributes to Tebbutt from trade colleagues. The Australian At Touchstone, Kaitlyn McCrystal has been promoted to associate […]
eNews
AAP Trade Print Sales Down 36.5 Percent In June
The AAP released somewhat-delayed sales numbers for June. (Once again, this is data from the limited set of publishers who reported monthly to the AAP, not to be confused with the larger pool of annual data and estimates reflected in the Book Stats program the publishers organization runs along with the BISG, debuted in August). In what was a lousy month compared to the same period a year ago, a $50 million gain in ebooks over last year was far outpaced by the $153 million decline in print sales compared to June 2010, a 36.5 percent drop. eBook sales from […]
Bookselling: Waterstone Plans New Dedicated eReader, Moves to Flat-Rate Discounts; and More
Waterstone’s managing director James Daunt confirmed for BBC Radio 4’s You and Yours that the company will launch a dedicated e-reader in spring 2012 in a strategy “inspired” by BN’s Nook, though he offered no additional details beyond that. “We in Waterstone’s need to offer you a digital reader which is at least as good, and preferably substantially better, than that of our internet rival, and you will have a much better buying experience purchasing your books through us,” Daunt said. He added he would be “disappointed” if Waterstone’s couldn’t come up with a digital offer that would at least […]
People, Etc.
Ami Greko from Kobo, Liz Scheier from Barnes & Noble, and Christina Biamonte Faubert from Sony eBooks, will join the advisory board of the Publishing Innovation Awards–the expanded program of honors presented at Digital Book World. This year the initiative is also adding the QED Seal, “a reader-focused standard for ebook quality.” Kobo, BN and Sony have all joined the program as “supporting partners” as well. Further to yesterday’s news of Richard Nash‘s new job at start-up Small Demons, he notes on blog that his RedLemona.de venture is becoming “a fully volunteer-operated enterprise.” He tells us it will “continue as […]
Random House Moves to All-Digital Catalogs In 2012
Random House will move to digital-only catalogs next year, beginning with the summer 2012 children’s lists (for which the selling season begins in early January) and the fall 2012 adult lists. They are using the Edelweiss electronic catalog service, as well their own web sites. The randomhouse.biz site will feature searchable, sortable information for the trade on forthcoming titles, and the divisional consumer sites will integrate and display new title data as well. PDF downloads will be available as well, though some of the site resource enhancements are a work-in-progress, and will be ready for the transition. Random House director, […]
Amazon Wins Tentative CA Sales Tax Reprieve, and Free Romney eBook; French Publishers Drop Suit Against Google
On Wednesday night Amazon and California state legislative leaders reached a tentative deal with respect to the state’s new online sales tax law. Under their agreement Amazon would not have to collect sales tax until September 2012, and in return the retailer would drop its referendum campaign to overturn the law, on which they have spent $5 million so far. “It’s a safe harbor for up to a year,” State Assemblyman Charles Calderon told the LAT of the agreement he helped strike. “If they can’t get Congress to act by next July, then they will start to collect the tax […]