Two publishers who have decided to offer ebooks in subscription platforms expressed satisfaction with their experience so far at a DBW panel Wednesday afternoon. “I have only good things to say,” said Kensington ceo Steven Zacharius. “We’re making money, we hope they’re making money. Subscription services have been one of the bright spots in ebook sales this year, where other retailers have stagnated or gone down.” Doug Stambaugh, vp, global ebook market development and strategy, praised the breadth of titles getting views and reads. “We’re very happy with the discoverability aspect,” he said, while noting that in the market, subscription […]
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People, Etc.: ICM to Represent Crichton
ICM is now representing rights to “the majority of titles” written by the late Michael Crichton (including most of his best-known novels, with the exception of Jurassic Park). Sloan Harris and Jennifer Joel will lead representation on the literary side, and the agency says it will “work closely with Sherri Crichton and licensees of rights licensed in Michael Crichton’s work to broaden the reach of his stories, worlds, characters and brands across all media.” There is work for potential posthumous publication and exploitation as well. ICM says it will also focus on “the exploration of Crichton’s heretofore unknown and unpublished works […]
DBW: Amazon’s Grandinetti “Happy to Get Back to Growing Our Business”
Amazon vp, Kindle Russ Grandinetti’s on-stage DBW conversation with Shatzkin and Michael Cader started with a question about how Amazon can rebuild bridges with authors after last year’s long-running, now resolved dispute with Hachette. Grandinetti said: “We’re happy to reach new terms and happy to focus on running the business” naming existing programs and platforms like Author Central, “instantaneous” Bookscan availability for authors, and Goodreads a means of connecting as widely as possible with authors. “Disagreement with suppliers is not new. Rarely does it become so public, and our goal is to keep it rare.” With what seems like stability in terms […]
Change on the Mind as Digital Book World Opens
“We gather now at a time where the nature of digital change in publishing is, itself, changing,” co-chair Mike Shatzkin said in opening Digital Book World Wednesday morning, and the nature of that change was a recurring theme through the opening keynote sessions — most especially the notion that “the pace of change is slowing down, at least temporarily, but we’re nowhere near finished developing new best practices for publishers, retailers, or authors.” Houghton Mifflin Harcourt ceo Linda Zecher addressed the rate of change in the education market and, more pointedly, on how there can be more female chief executives in […]
Announcements: Harlequin UK to Integrate with Harper, Ingram Custom, and SelfEspress(o)
Harper UK announced that “it proposes to make Harlequin UK a division of its UK business,” moving in with Harper in their new building in summer 2015. Harlequin UK managing director Tim Cooper, would “continue to lead the team,” reporting to Harper UK ceo Charlie Redmayne and joining the executive committee. In the new scheme, Harlequin “would function as a separate publishing division of HarperCollins UK.” The company says, “The move would provide closer collaboration between the two organizations. It does not have implications for Harlequin businesses in other territories around the world.” Ingram Content Group is unveiling a new product at Digital Book World: […]
Experiments and Optimism Rule the Day at Publishers Launch Kids
The overall message — or attitude — was pretty consistent throughout the day at a lively and informative Publishers Launch Kids conference kicking off Digital Book World on Tuesday. With a robust traditional market for children’s books of all kinds, “it’s a much more interesting place than it was a few years ago,” as Random House Children’s president and publisher Barbara Marcus put it. Previously, children’s publishers “looked at digital as an extension of what we were doing in print” and the results were not promising. Now, as Disney Worldwide publisher Suzanne Murphy agreed on the same panel, there’s an […]