Today Penguin launched the public beta of Book Country, a new subsidiary company and website whose aim is to build a writing community and social network centered around genre fiction, especially romance, science fiction & fantasy, and mysteries & thrillers. Membership is free and allows writers to post unpublished manuscripts and receive detailed feedback–ranging from genre categorization to more focused comments on specific craft aspects–from community members, essentially acting as an ongoing online workshop. Starting this summer Book Country intends to generate revenue by having members to self-publish print and e-book editions of their work for a fee, and in […]
Publisher services
Briefs: Quarto Annual Sales Rise; Hay House to Make Their Own Vooks; Planeta Acquires Bertrand; Gardners To Sell Direct to Consumers; and More
Quarto reported an 8 percent rise in adjusted pre-tax profit for the year to December to £7.4m from £6.9m, and a 7 percent jump in revenue to £113.8m from £106.6m. Its publishing division revenue increased 7 percent to £75.1m. Quarto cited “continued focus on developing markets, in particular Brazil and China, and improved trading in the UK and Australasia” for the revenue and profit gains. Release Hay House has become the first publisher to sign on to use Vook’s engine for creating enhanced ebooks at scale (called MotherVook). The product “converts disparate and varied file formats; combines text, video and […]
eNews: A Social Bible, Faber Adopts RoyaltyShare, Libre Launches Digital Intel Service, DBW Awards, and Nook 3G Sells Down
There are a number of announcements timed to coincide with this week’s Digital Book World conference. Among them: RethinkBooks, the start-up backed in part by John Ingram that we wrote about recently, has announced their first publishing partnership for their SocialBooks software. Zondervan will release their NIV Bible as a SocialBooks-enabled ebook for the iOS platform. Release The UK’s Faber and Faber has signed with RoyaltyShare to aggregate and manage their worldwide ebook revenue, for both their regular publishing program and the Faber Factory digital distribution service for independent publishers. In a similar but different vein Mediamorph–which works with clients […]
eNews: Amazon Buys LoveFilm; BDMI Leads Big Investment in Flat World; and More
Today a number of deals-in-progress mentioned previously have been confirmed. Amazon makes its accquisition of all remaining shares of LoveFilm, the “Netflix of Europe,” in which it already held a significant minority stake, official.Release Samsung has confirmed its acquisition of display technology firm Liquavista.Release Flat World Knowledge has received a big endorsement for their open-source textbook model, garnering more than $15 million in Series B Funding led by Bertelsmann Digital Media Investments and Bessemer Venture Partners. Also joining the round are returning investors Valhalla Partners, GSA Venture Partners (formerly Greenhill SAVP), High Peaks Venture Partners, and several angel investors. FT […]
eNews: HBG Joins Net Galley; RoyaltyShare Adds Price Monitor; Dzanc’s eBook Club; Scholastic Adds Nintendo Games
– Hachette Book Group is now working with Net Galley to distribute digital galleys and press kits. – Working with HBG in a different context, RoyaltyShare has added a “sales feed price validation” tool to their ebook sales and royalty tracking service. The new addition is particularly useful for agency publishers in order to determine “whether reported eBook transaction prices are accurate” and “allowing them to potentially recoup tens of thousands of dollars of revenue that might otherwise never be identified.” HBG coo Ken Michaels says in the announcement, “The ability to identify pricing anomalies on a transaction-by-transaction basis in […]