WH Smith reported preliminary results for fiscal 2014, with sales at their High Street stores falling 6 percent to £684 million. Book sales overall fell more, down 8 percent for the year as the “market continues to be challenging” (after declining 6 percent in the previous year). Same-store sales were down 5 percent, but their cost savings program helped profit for the segment rise 4 percent to £58 million. The company notes: “While the eBooks market continues to see growth, it is evolving as we had expected with rates of growth and value penetration slowing. eBooks remain a relatively small […]
eNews
Today’s Amazon News: Kindle Scout, Pop-Up Stores, and More
Amazon officially went live with “Kindle Scout,” the service we already reported on that invites writers to submit manuscripts for review by readers and then Amazon Publishing editors, for consideration under a templated publishing deal. (The company has been referring to it as a “reader-powered” publishing program.) They are looking for submissions in the romance, mystery & thriller and sci-fi/fantasy genres. Accepted manuscripts will be published under a new Kindle Press banner. The publishing offer is a $1,500 advance and net royalties of 50 percent for a term of at least 5 years. Separately, Amazon confirms to GeekWire that the company […]
Kobo Shares Examples of Reader Data Analysis
Kobo has released a white paper designed to show publishers and authors how reader data that platforms like Kobo compile “can actually help publishers unlock previously hidden equity within their publishing lists and inform decisions on which authors and franchises to invest in, which ones are running out of steam, and where trouble may lie within any individual book.” Multiple examples focus on “completion rates”; books that readers actually finish. Apparently, large numbers of people do not finish their ebooks. As an example, “the industry benchmark for completion in mystery books is 62 percent.” Books with higher-than-average completion rates with […]
New Republic Cover Story: “Amazon Must Be Stopped”
Franklin Foer writes a cover story for the New Republic online now about that marvelous modern monopoly: “Amazon is the shining representative of a new golden age of monopoly that also includes Google and Walmart. Unlike U.S. Steel, the new behemoths don’t use their barely challenged power to hike up prices. They are, in fact, self-styled servants of the consumer and have ushered in an era of low prices for everything from flat-screen TVs to paper napkins to smart phones.In other words, we’re all enjoying the benefits of these corporations far too much to think hard about distant dangers.” Foer […]
Awards, Etc.
Canada’s Giller Prize announced their shortlist on Monday: David Bezmogzis, The Betrayers (Little, Brown/Harper Canada) Frances Itani, Tell (Black Cat (forthcoming)/Harper Canada) Sean Michaels, Us Conductors (Tin House/RH Canada) Heather O’Neill, The Girl Who Was Saturday Night (FSG/Harper Canada) Miriam Toews, All My Puny Sorrows (McSweeney’s/Knopf Canada) Padma Viswanathan, The Ever After of Ashwin Rao (RH Canada) The Governor General’s Literary Awards also announced their shortlists Tuesday in a number of categories, with the winners to be announced on November 18. The fiction finalists include: Michael Crummey, Sweetland (Liveright/Doubleday Canada) Bill Gaston, Juliet Was a Surprise (Hamish Hamilton) Claire Holden Rothman, […]
Amazon: NYT Public Editor Calls For More Balanced Coverage; Supreme Court to Hear Amazon Workers Lawsuit
On Sunday New York Times Public Editor Margaret Sullivan took issue with the paper’s coverage of Amazon and Hachette’s ongoing terms dispute, opining that the paper (and primarily its Amazon beat reporter, David Streitfeld) “has given a lot of ink to one side” and painted Amazon as “a literature-killing bully.” Addressing one reader’s claims that the coverage amounted to “propaganda,” Sullivan said: “‘Propaganda’ is a stretch, and Mr. Streitfeld has done plenty of solid work. But it’s certainly true that the literary establishment has received a great deal of sympathetic coverage.” Streitfeld and his editor Suzanne Spector told Sullivan they “strived […]