Bloomsbury and PFD have joined forces to republish more than 500 out-of-print titles digitally beginning in September. The Bloomsbury Reader, as the venture is called, will bring back books into print from political diarist Alan Clark, Booker Prize winner Bernice Rubens, and poet & critic Edith Sitwell. Bloomsbury and PFD told the Guardian they hope other literary agencies will make use of the new service as well. 57 remaining Whitcoulls stores and five Borders shops were sold to Farmers Department Store owners the Norman family by administrator Ferrier Hodgson for an undisclosed sum. Owner David Norman told BusinessDay the company […]
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Eisler’s Next John Rain Novel to Amazon’s Thomas & Mercer
At our Publishers Launch Conference Wednesday afternoon, Barry Eisler announced that, rather than self-publishing, his next John Rain novel THE DETACHMENT will be published by Amazon’s new mystery/thriller imprint Thomas & Mercer in both digital and print formats. “What Amazon has offered is everything that was so great to me about self publishing on the one hand, but everything you want from traditional publishing,” including marketing and distribution. “I get the best of both worlds,” he added. Amazon is also paying Eisler an advance, one “that was comparable to what St. Martin’s was offering in the deal I ultimately decided didn’t […]
Amazon Wants You To Know It Has a New Kindle, Too
With Kobo and Barnes & Noble having announced actual new models of ereaders, Amazon announced a new offer of their own on Tuesday night. For people who need their “special offers” on the go, now there’s a Kindle 3G version priced at $164. Kindle director Jay Marine said in the release that the 3G Special Offers, ready to ship on the day of the announcement, was created “in response to customer requests.” Among the forthcoming offers is “$1 for a Kindle book, choose from thousands of books including Water for Elephants and the Hunger Games trilogy.” In other Amazon news, the company […]
Yes, It’s A Panel On the Future of eBooks
A BEA panel convened by Google and moderated by Google Books executive Tom Turvey joined the many forums looking at “the future of ebooks.” Take this as a selection of the most provocative or interesting soundbites rather than an end-to-end chronicle of the panel: Evan Schnittman from Bloomsbury asserted that what’s selling in ebooks is what’s selling in print, which “is exposing that publishing does not know how to market ebooks yet.” He added, “let’s be honest, we’ve never marketed backlist before.”As Perseus Books Group ceo David Steinberger put it, “digital is very good for hunters, not so good for gatherers.” Later […]
BN Presents “Simple, Pure” $139 Reader; Says Nook Color Is No. 2 Tablet
If I’m being honest, as I usually try to do, the working book trade press corp showed up at Barnes & Noble’s Union Square store this morning with a bit of resentment. Why was the company pulling us away from the Javits floor on the opening morning of BEA to introduce an already leaked eInk touchscreen device? Particularly when those nice Canadians from Kobo unveiled their $129 touchscreen reader modestly at Javits Center yesterday. Also odd at first, and then just plain annoying (and a little pathetic), was a claque of roughly sixty people wearing black t-shirts emblazoned with “nook,” apparently […]
Malone Explains to Shareholders Why Liberty Bid For BN
At a meeting with Liberty Media shareholders in Denver Monday to approve the planned spinoff of Liberty Capital and Starz, chairman John Malone explained why the company offered $17 a share for Barnes & Noble last week. He believes there’s a bright future for BN, and not just in terms of its digital growth: “I’ve been a Barnes & Noble customer myself for many, many years. The stores will shift around, but there will be a physical presence for a long, long time to come, and it will be a profitable presence.” Malone expects negotiations could take months rather than […]