Vancouver-based startup Bitlit, whose app helps publishers bundle ebooks with print books, announced the closing of a round of seed funding. Kobo founder and recently deposed ceo Michael Serbinis’s new venture fund Three Angels Capital is among the funders — along with from BDC Venture Capital, Mike Volker (WUTIF fund) and Jim Fletcher, a Vancouver super angel. The amount of the round was not disclosed. Serbinis says in the release that “Three Angels was founded in 2014 to invest in world class teams looking to disrupt markets and change the world. As books go digital it’s clear that people continue to enjoy […]
eNews
And Then There Were Two: Simon & Schuster Puts Backlist On Subscription Services
Simon & Schuster announced that its entire ebook backlist, comprising over 10,000 titles, is available now through two of the leading ebook subscription services, Scribd and Oyster. The publisher’s participation “is global and will include backlist ebooks from Simon & Schuster companies worldwide, with ebooks made available to consumers in all countries where Simon & Schuster holds ebook rights, and where Oyster and Scribd offer their subscription services to consumers.” Books for S&S are customarily considered backlist one year after initial publication, and up to six months later if there is a second print publication. CEO Carolyn Reidy says in the announcement, “Consumers have […]
Smashwords Pairs with OverDrive, txtr
Smashwords announced two deals this week: 200,000 of their titles will be available for sale to libraries worldwide through OverDrive. To make things easier for librarians, the two are also “creating curated lists of Smashwords bestsellers and popular genres,” offering for sale collections of the top 100, 500 or 1,000 bestselling Smashwords authors. Separately, 250,000 Smashwords ebooks will become part of txtr’s international ebook catalog.
Sales Rise At Bloomsbury, As Profit Softens
Bloomsbury reported results for their fiscal year ending February 28, with sales rising 11 percent of £109.5 million, but profit after tax of £9.5 million was down slightly (from £9.8 million the year before). All three major publishing divisions — adult trade; children’s and educational; and academic & professional — showed gains during the year, which “mitigated a fall in higher-margin rights and services revenues.” Those sales fell 26 percent to £8.5 million, with “fewer [copyright licensing] deals completed and at lower amounts.” Digital sales overall rose by 21 percent to £12.2 million, and now comprise 12.1 percent of revenues […]
NYT Publishes Book On Innovation, Inadvertently
As a tangential part of the still-emerging story of the unceremonious firing of top NYT editor Jill Abramson, a fascinating internal NYT report has appeared online. Ironically for a report that bemoans how disruptive competitors such as BuzzFeed and the Huffington Post can “regularly outperform the NYTimes in terms of traffic simply by aggregating & repackaging Times journalism,” the report itself was not published by the NYT — rather, it was posted by BuzzFeed, which put the entire report on Scribd (thought it’s missing 5 pages). Titled INNOVATION and dated March 24, the 96-page book was prepared by an eight-person […]
Expansions: Alloy Powered By Amazon, and OverDrive’s Network
Just about a year ago Alloy Entertainment paired with Amazon as the first big licensee in the Kindle Worlds fan fiction initiative, and in February Alloy added more licenses to the program. Now, PL has learned via our comprehensive deal reports that Alloy is starting a book imprint as part of the “Powered By Amazon” initiative. That program was first created in late 2010 for Seth Godin’s The Domino Project line. At that time, Amazon described the program as “enabl[ing] authors to use Amazon’s global distribution, multiple format production capabilities, including print, audio and digital, as well as Amazon’s personalized, targeted marketing […]