Harlequin will expand its digital-first offerings (which began in 2010 with the launch of Carina Press) beginning this fall. Harlequin-E will introduce short digital works (minimum 10,000 words) in categories that don’t fit in existing series lines. Harlequin Teen will launch its digital first program on October 1 with STIR ME UP by debut author Sabrina Elkins, a contemporary young adult novel with New Adult crossover appeal. And both Mira and HQN will launch digital-first programs in the first quarter of 2014. Meanwhile, add to the list of growing ebook operations from literary agencies the full-service efforts from Renaissance Literary […]
eNews
Digital: May 2014 Apple Trial; Late-August Kobo Event; Chegg Files for An IPO
Judge Denise Cote formally set the damages trial against Apple in the ebook pricing case for May 2014. Also, the full transcript from the August 9 conference on the proposed injunction has been posted. “What I’m trying to do here is to fashion as narrow a remedy as possible to create, restore, promote, price competition in ebooks,” Judge Cote. “We do need an injunction here. There was blatant price fixing. There was structural collusion by the publisher defendants.” She acknowledges again that agency by itself is a legal selling arrangement — but she also clearly prefers a world in which […]
Now In E: A Borgia, Garner, More Cartland
Showtime cancelled their series The Borgias (starring Jeremy Irons), but creator Neil Jordan is providing fans some closure via an ebook. THE BORGIA APOCALYPSE is based on Jordan’s script for a two-hour series finale that he never got to shoot (though apparently he says in the book that he had planned an entire fourth season). The 16,000-word ebook is published through literary agency Inkwell Management (which represents Jordan’s fiction). Harper UK is issuing the nine-title backlist of British fantasy writer Alan Garner in ebook editions for the first time on August 15. The house controls world English rights to Garner, […]
Barnes & Noble Increases Historical Earnings, Pays Lynch Severance, and Postpones Nook International Rollout
Barnes & Noble filed restated historical financial statements with the SEC after concluding that they had “overstated certain accruals for the periods prior to April 27, 2013, as a result of inadequate controls over the accrual reconciliation process at its distribution centers.” The company made a few other historical restatements as well. The primary effect was to increase their reportable earnings from the past three years–so the 2012 net loss got $4 million smaller; the 2011 loss got $5 million smaller; and the 2010 earnings rose $6 million. With those corrections, the company also filed their delayed annual report with […]
eNews: Google Adds Textbooks, and More
For most people Google’s Chromecast (a dongle that lets you display video from computers and tablets on a TV screen) was their most enticing product announcement on Wednesday. But those announcements included the news that digital textbooks will be added to the US Google Play store in August. Google will join Kindle, Nook, iBookstore, CourseSmart and others in providing “a full catalog of higher education titles in math, science, history and more” for purchase or rental. For now they make the same claim as Kindle and others on pricing — that digital rental can provide “up to [an] 80 percent […]
eNews: Feeding Book Buzz; Apple Touts School iPad Sales; Kobo Self-Publishing Stats
BuzzFeed.com added a books section, Poynter discovered. Managing editorial director Summer Anne Burton is the “point person” for the feature, and she indicates, “We’re running it kind of informally because we already had a ton of book content on BuzzFeed and now it’s just the space for that to live.” Burton says that librarians and YA fans are already viewing the section in discernible numbers. Apple reported third quarter results after the close of the market on Tuesday, moving another 14.6 million iPads in the period — lower than sales of 17 million tablets a year ago (though iPhone sales were […]