At the Simon & Schuster imprint, both Kerri Kolen and Sarah Hochman have been promoted to senior editor. Both started at S&S as editorial assistants, Kolen in 2002 and Hochman in 2004. As publisher David Rosenthal notes, “That each has risen through the ranks here is a tribute to the strength of this imprint, and its collegiality. It is also, of course, a recognition of the diligence and creativity of Kerri and Sarah – I am very proud of their growth as editors and publishers, their contributions to our list.” At Adams Media, Chelsea King is moving over to become […]
eNews
Market News: K-12 Down Sharply at McGraw-Hill; Market Kicks BN
McGraw-Hill reported third quarter sales, with their education division dropping 11.6 percent to $1 billion compared, as operating profit fell 16 percent to $298 million. The decline came entirely from the K-12 line, which fell almost 20 percent, “in a 2009 state new adoption market that deteriorated all year as budgetary pressures led a growing number of school districts to postpone purchases.”Release Meanwhile, Barnes & Noble can’t catch a break from Wall Street analysts no matter what they do. On Friday Credit Suisse reduced their target price for the company to $16 per share (about two dollars below its current […]
Friday's E-News Roundup
In the UK, a survey of heavy book-buying habits conducted by Book Marketing Limited and Lovereading demonstrated that while 56% of the approximately 1,300 respondents use the Internet to find out about books, social networks were less useful as a recommendation tool – only 34% found social networks as a whole to be helpful, and Twitter even less so (at 17%). The figures contrast with author and retailer websites, which 83% found “useful” when taken in total. (Of course, when Facebook now allegedly accounts for 1 in 4 pageviews, one could argue about what the definition of a website is […]
Stephen King eBook Release Strategy Follows the Palin Model
Scribner disclosed yesterday that they will issue an ebook version of Stephen King’s forthcoming new hardcover UNDER THE DOME, set for hardcover publication on November 10 at $35.00, on Sunday, December 24. Spokesman Adam Rothberg says, “Given the current state of the marketplace and trends in digital book pricing, we believe that this is the most appropriate publishing sequence for this particular 1088 page work of fiction.” Stephen King echoes the last-month pre-price-war strategy of “we’re doing it to help the bookstores,” though at least he recognizes the irony. He tells the WSJ, “I never thought we’d see people preordering […]
E-Stats and More
Amazon has realized it was silly in a competitive world to offer international Kindle for $20 more, while keeping US-only Kindle going. So now the have reduced the price on the international model to $259, and will no longer sell the US-only model. Buyers who already paid more are being issued $20 reunfds. Separately, Amazon spokesman Drew Herdener confirms the obvious–that SuperKindle will acquire the same international capability “sometime next year.” Meanwhile, the promised offers bundling SuperKindle with newspaper subscriptions are just beginning–but it’s hard to see the value proposition for customers. In the Washington Post’s trial offer, SuperK is […]
Barnes & Noble's Nook: The Takeaway
As you probably know, Barnes & Noble officially debuted their new ereader Nook, which corresponds directly to the leaked details: an E-Ink screen for reading plus a color LCD mini-touchscreen for browsing, a pop-up keyboard, and some day Android apps and more. It’s priced to match Kindle at $259, but unfortunately will not ship until November 30, cutting it close to the holidays. (The company can only bring itself to say “late November,” but that’s the reported ship date from a customer.) Although they are obviously following Amazon’s lead the company kept insisting it’s the real innovator. CEO Steve Riggio […]