Following the discussion at Winter Institute that we covered in Thursday’s lunch, Hachette Book Group ceo David Young formally confirmed their adoption of any agency model in a letter sent to agents. As part of that move, they will indeed drop their strategy of windowed releases and release e-books simultaneously with hardcovers Young writes: “There are many advantages to the agency model, for our authors, retailers, consumers, and publishers. It allows Hachette to make pricing decisions that are rational and reflect the value of our authors’ works. In the long run this will enable Hachette to continue to invest in […]
eNews
A New Message to Macmillan Authors and Illustrators
This message ran as a paid advertisement in the February 4 edition of Publishers Lunch.To: Macmillan Authors and Illustratorscc: Literary AgentsFrom: John Sargent I am sorry I have been silent since Saturday. We have been in constant discussions with Amazon since then. Things have moved far enough that hopefully this is the last time I will be writing to you on this subject. Over the last few years we have been deeply concerned about the pricing of electronic books. That pricing, combined with the traditional business model we were using, was creating a market that we believe was fundamentally unbalanced. […]
Publishing Execs Talk to Booksellers About the Agency Model and More
It’s a safe bet that when David Young of Hachette, Madeline McIntosh of Random House and Drake McFeely of Norton first agreed to discuss the impact of digitization at the ABA’s Winter Institute in San Jose they had no idea of the hot-button issues the timing would bring. For the most part the questions skirted the issues rather than plunging in, but it was the first chance to hear publicly from Random House, which so far has spoken more by not making a deal with Apple than anything else. Young made it clear that at Hachette they “had been considering […]
Macmillan Launches A New eBook Price Point Now–At Amazon As Well As BN.com
Buy buttons for Macmillan’s physical books have yet to return at Amazon (at least in any meaningful way), but the publisher quietly launched what may soon be just a remnant of their earlier strategy to keep up the price of ebooks: the “enhanced” edition. Kristin Hannah’s WINTER GARDEN, which released yesterday, was one of the few (if only) Macmillan books you could buy directly from Amazon, which was offering the Kindle version only and not the trade hardcover. But the book carries the curious digital list price of $29.99–three dollars higher than the print book list price. The Amazon information […]
ScrollMotion Signs on Textbook Publishers for iPad Deal
Pearson, McGraw-Hill, Kaplan and HMH are among several textbook publishers that have signed with Scrollmotion to adapt and develop textbooks as applications, test-prep and study guides for the iPad. Scrollmotion will take and adapt digital files provided by publishers for the iPad, and then add extra features, which the WSJ reports “include applications to let students play video, highlight text, record lectures, take printed notes, search the text, and participate in interactive quizzes to test how much they’ve learned and where they may need more work.” To date textbook adoption on e-readers has been slow (as Amazon could attest with […]
People and Announcements
Howard W. Reeves, publisher of Abrams Books for Young Readers and Amulet Books, will become editor-at-large of the company. Following Brendan Deneen’s departure, FinePrint Literary Management has hired Pouya Shahbazian as a literary manager/producer, specializing in book-to-film and TV deals for clients and also running FinePrint Productions, producing and packaging film and television projects. He co-founded ManDown Pictures & Management in 2007 after working at the Broder-Webb-Chervin-Silbermann Agency. CEO of Activision’s Guitar Hero franchise (and before that chief operating officer at Yahoo) Daniel Rosensweig has joined online textbook rental company Chegg.com as president and ceo. At Publishing Technology, Douglas Wright […]