Neal Pollack is the latest traditionally-published author to give self e-publishing a try this September, for his next novel JEWBALL, “a funny, gritty noir about a barnstorming Philadelphia Jewish basketball team in the late 1930s who battle for supremacy on and off the court under the growing shadow of anti-Semitism. He writes about it in the Sunday Times Book Review, with less fire and brimstone than some authors who have gone the same route: “For a writer like me, which is to say, most working writers — midcareer, midlist, middle-aged, more or less middlebrow, and somewhat Internet savvy — self-publishing […]
eNews
3M to Challenge OverDrive In Library eBook Market
3M has announced the ebook library initiative they have quietly been putting together for months, preparing for an official unveiling at ALA in late June, with a beta program in place at 10 libraries by late July or early August and targeting a rollout to “early adopters” in October or November. Library Systems Digital Business Development Leader Tom Mercer says “for people willing to sell ebooks to libraries, we think we bring a lot of value and a good alternative to OverDrive.” All of the beta participants already are OverDrive customers; Mercer says they are “targeting people that are unsatisfied […]
Monsoon to Add Textbook Rental Market
Monsoon Commerce is joining the fast-growing online textbook rental market, which has attracted a lot of venture capital and fast-growing players such as Chegg and BookRenter. Calling it “the first online textbook-rental marketplace”–since it will have multiple vendors offering, and the sellers are also the renters–they are enrolling seller/renters now through Alibris to prepare for next fall’s back-to-school season. They say in the announcement that “current estimates put textbook rentals at nearly 15% of the online textbook market. CEO Brian Elliott says after the Alibris launch, “we’ll extend the book rental capabilities we’’ve built to our Monsoon Commerce retail partners.” […]
ABA Adds Over 100 Members; Publishers, Agents and Retailers Look to Each Other’s Turf Pre-BEA
In other bookselling news, the ABA says in advance of next week’s annual meeting at BEA that their membership increased for the second year in a row–this time gaining a significant 102 members, to 1,502 in all. (A little bit of that gain may also be attributed to the ABA’s merger with the Association of Booksellers for Children.) Repeating a hint he gave in a speech in the UK recently, ABA ceo Oren Teicher says the organization is “working on a project to help some stores where Borders has closed. There is an opportunity in some markets that might be […]
As Expected, eBooks Slide to 17 Percent of Sales In March As Trade Rebounds, But E Is Now Amazon’s Top Format
Monthly ebook sales as measured by the AAP from 14 reporting publishers ebbed in March–which we were expecting–more or less on par with the second-biggest ebook sales month on record (January 2011), at $69 million. That puts ebooks behind adult trade hardcover and trade paperbacks for the month, and they comprised less than 17 percent of all trade sales for March. Why was a pullback from February’s $90.3 million expected? For starters, March is when Random House moved to the agency model, which means their ebook receipts should have declined, all things being equal. Just as important, recent quarterly earnings […]
eNews: Amazon Launches Mystery/Thriller Imprint; Tyndale Launches Digital Imprint; Atwood Tries Again
As expected, Amazon has announced another publishing line, for mysteries and thrillers. Thomas & Mercer (named for streets that flank the company’s Seattle headquarters) is Amazon’s fifth imprint and will launch this fall with four titles by Kyle Mills, D.M. Annechino, John Rector and Blake Crouch co-writing with J.A. Konrath. The release also appears to confirm Victoria Griffith as publisher of all of Amazon’s in-house imprints. Release Tyndale House is launching a Digital First imprint that does just what the name proclaims: publish ebook originals. They will launch with in July with four inspirational novels and one work of nonfiction. […]