BusinessWeek profiles Robert Brunner, the designer of Barnes & Noble’s Nook devices, who was approached by the company in 2008. He was also a consulting designer to Amazon in the development of the first “wedgie” Kindle and had a role in Apple’s Newton handheld as that company’s director of industrial design. When Barnes & Noble approached him, Brunner said, “the company knew ‘nothing’ about digital media, and wanted to know about how you would create a product and bring it to market.” Their shared goal was to keep the device simple and remove as many buttons as possible. “Books don’t […]
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Anthony Cheetham has left Atlantic Books, where he was an associate publisher and director on its board, in what he described as a “joint decision” between himself and Atlantic ceo Toby Mundy. “There wasn’t a huge amount for me to do at Atlantic, and the projects that I had envisaged working on were not really happening because it has been a difficult year for the company,” Cheetham told the Bookseller. He added that he was about to launch a new venture sometime this autumn, and while Cheetham did not give many details, evidently the plan is to “develop a ‘specialist […]
Holland’s Arbeiderspers and Balans Are Merging Into Other Units; HMV Takes Big Writedown on Waterstone’s Sale; and More
Holland’s WPG (Weekblad Pers Groep) is merging some its well-known imprints in response to difficult market conditions. Arbeiderspers is going to merge with Bruna, relocating to Utrecht next January while maintaining a small office in Amsterdam. And Balans is going to merge with De Bezige Bij. Now that Waterstone’s has been sold, former parent company HMV reveals in its annual earnings report that the bookseller’s overall sales fell 14.4 million pounds for the year (with comps falling 3.8 percent) at £499.2 million, but operating profit rose to £9.5 million, compared to £2.8 million the year before. HMV also took a £110.5 million pound writedown […]
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USA Today has added ebook sales data from Kobo in compiling their weekly bestseller list. The paper already includes ebook sales from Amazon, Nook and Sony. Hopkins Fulfillment Services has launched HFS Digital, which will allow clients to sell monographs and scholarly works direct to consumers as ebooks through their websites as a result of a new partnership with Sheridan Books’ new Electronic Content Services division. The program began in May but will roll out in its entirety by January 2012. Irish ebook publisher ePub Direct will enable publishers to access more than 15,000 library outlets in 13 countries. ePub […]
Amazon Ends California Affiliates As New Tax Bill Is Signed
California Governor Jerry Brown signed a bill that requires online retailers with affiliates in the state to collect sales tax. Amazon promptly informed its thousands of California affiliates that it was terminate those relationships, effective immediately. The company said in an e-mail that it is “also working on alternative ways to help California residents monetize their websites and will be sure to contact you when these become available.”
eNews: Open Road Pairs with Bedford Square, and More
Indicated previously as under discussion, the Ed Victor Agency’s new publishing arm Bedford Square Books has formalized a partnership with Open Road, which will digitally publish, market, and distribute Bedford Square titles in North America. At the Publishers Launch Conference in London last week, Ed Victor Agency’s Charlie Campbell indicated that Open Road would serve as publisher on at least some if not all Bedford Square Books (with the Victor entities charging a regular agency commission only) and added that “on those that they don’t want to publish, they may distribute.” At the time, Campbell called Bedford Square “a publishing […]