Kensington has acquired digital publisher Lyrical Press, which has published more than 250 romance, YA, and other genre titles. They will operate it as a digital-first imprint under the oversight of Adam Zacharius, Kensington’s director of special projects and alternative media. Lyrical Press founder Renee Rocco will remain with the imprint as managing director. All books published by the imprint will be DRM-free, with print-on-demand editions available for titles that exceed 60,000 words. Kensington ceo Steven Zacharius said in the announcement that he had been looking to acquire “a digital imprint that works efficiently like a small independent press.” He […]
eNews
People, Etc.: Smashwords and Scribd, Duck Commander “On Hiatus” for Anti-Gay Comments
Smashwords‘ catalog of over 225,000 ebooks will be incorporated into Scribd.com‘s ebook subscription service. As part of the deal, the roughly 70,000 Smashwords’ authors and publishers will receive a free one-year subscription to Scribd’s service. Also, Oyster will include “select titles” from the Perseus Book Group in their subscription service. One of the 2013’s unlikely stars, Phil Robertson of the Duck Dynasty, will be “on hiatus” in the year to come. Following his anti-gay remarks in a GQ interview, the A&E network “has placed Phil under hiatus from filming indefinitely.” Robertson tried to ameliorate the situation with a formal statement, […]
People, Etc
Rosetta Books announced multiple promotions: Nav Khalsa has been appointed digital marketing director; Greg Freed is production and distribution director; Michelle Weyenberg has been named digital marketing and promotions manager; Hannah Bennett is now production manager; and Peter Clark is production manager. Also, the head of Rosetta’s UK office Jonathan Ward will relocate to Beijing in January, where his duties will include supervising a new, exclusive partnership with the China National Publications Import and Export Group to distribute their english-language ebooks catalog to libraries, schools, and other institutional accounts in China. Rosetta ceo Arthur Klebanoff notes that “The market in […]
Murray Says Extra Digital Margin Is Shared By Everyone
HarperCollins CEO Brian Murray was one of many executives presenting to UBS’s annual Global Media and Communications Conference on Wednesday. (You can listen to the full webcast and view the slides via this link on the News Corp. site. The royalty discussion starts about 19 minutes and 30 seconds in.) Consistent with an investor presentation earlier in the year as News Corp. was preparing the spinoff of the freestanding company that houses Harper, Murray told investors that “the opportunities before us have never been as positive as they are today.” Among the slides, this one shows the variations in ebook […]
New Author Survey Results
Among the multiple presentations of original data due at January’s Digital Book World is the return of last year’s closely followed author survey, from DBW and Writer’s Digest. This year’s survey drew participation from over 9,000 authors, and the conference presentation will include analysis from author and professor of data analytics and applied social research Dana Beth Weinberg. For now, DBW.com has posted a sampling of the some of the results, ahead of the event. Discounted pricing to the biggest-yet Digital Book World Conference expires a week from tomorrow, so this is a great time to grab your ticket and […]
Amazon Unveils Hopes for Delivery Drones
Amazon ceo Jeff Bezos attracted attention for a Sunday night appearance on 60 Minutes, where he introduced the world to the company’s prototype “octocopters”: small “Prime Air” delivery drones they hope to deploy. A promotional video from Amazon describes it as “something the team has been working on in our next generation R&D lab. The goal of this new delivery system is to get packages into customers’ hands in 30 minutes or less using unmanned aerial vehicles. Putting Prime Air into commercial use will take some number of years as we advance technology and wait for the necessary FAA rules […]