At a conference last week Hachette Livre CEO Arnaud Nourry told Le Figaro that Hachette Book Group USA ebook sales since January “are in line with the national average,” which the AAP reported as comprising approximately 23.5 percent of the total trade in January. Indeed, HBG is one of the 14 publishers who report ebook sales to the AAP to begin with. Le Figaro Some Borders stores in the midst of closing-out sales have discounted the Kobo Wi-Fi reader to $59.99. CNET Taiwan International Airport will open arguably the first airport e-bookstore, which stocks four hundred titles available in ePub […]
eNews
Pop: AAP eBook Sales Comprise 23.5 Percent of All January Trade, Outpacing Hardcover and Mass Market Books for First Time
The much-anticipated January 2011 AAP ebook sales report shows the spike that many expected: among the 14 publishers who contribute data, wholesale ebook sales jumped to a new all-time high of $69.9 million. As a result, ebooks comprised 23.5 percent of all trade book sales for the month. (In December, ebook sales of $49.5 million comprised just under 8 percent of trade sales.) That big increase is consistent with the surge of new ereading devices and a traditionally slow month for new print book shipments–and is in step with reports from Sourcebooks that digital sales hit 35 percent in January, […]
ALA Says Harper’s Policy “Threatens Libraries,” Plans Site to Help Develop New Model
The American Library Association (ALA) took a position for the first time yesterday on HarperCollins’ new library ebook licensing restrictions in a short statement. They led: “As libraries cope with stagnant or decreased budgets, the recent decision by publisher HarperCollins to restrict the lending of e-books to a limited number of circulations per copy threatens libraries’ ability to provide their users with access to information.” ALA President Roberta Stevens says, “The announcement, at a time when libraries are struggling to remain open and staffed, is of grave concern. This new limitation means that fewer people will have access to an […]
Briefs: BN Stock Drops to All-Time Lows; Former Mobster’s Book Events Cancelled; And More
Wall Street’s hate affair with Barnes & Noble‘s stock has continued. Shares fell more than a dollar yesterday, declining more than 9 percent, to finish at what was an all-time low. Until the market opened this morning, with prices down another 4 percent in early trading, standing at about $10.25 a share. (The overall market is down broadly today, with major indices down over 2 percent.) The company’s stock has fallen over 45 percent in less than a month. Two Chicago-area Borders book signings for former mobster Frank Calabrese Jr.‘s book Operation Family Secrets: How a Mobster’s Son and the […]
eNews: Analysts Estimate iPad 2 Sold Out Within A Day
Based on phone calls to stores and interviews with people in line, two different analysts concluded that Apple sold out their inventory of iPad 2s in just over a day. Gene Munster at Piper Jaffray guesstimates that Apple sold 400,000 to 500,000 units, up from the 300,000 iPads sold over the launch weekend a year ago. In their customer interviews, 70 percent of the buyers were new iPad buyers, and 24 percent of those buyers already own a Kindle. Deutsche Bank also called about 100 stores and said, “Our checks pointed to a shocking 100% stock out rate across Apple/authorized […]
Briefs: ‘Heaven Is For Real’ A Sleeper Hit; Whitcoulls For Sale; Continuing Fenn Fallout; And More
Heaven Is For Real, recounting evangelical pastor Todd Burpo‘s the-four year old son Colton’s otherworldly experience while undergoing surgery for a burst appendix, has proven to be a sleeper paperback hit for Thomas Nelson. The publisher tells the NYT the book (co-written with Sarah Palin ghostwriter Lynn Vincent) had “broken company sales records”, going back to press 22 times on an initial print run of 40,000 copies since the book’s November release. There are now more than 1.5 million copies in print (and “hundreds of thousands of copies” sold) with strong sales in both Barnes & Noble and Christian specialty markets. […]