HarperCollins announced an agreement with JD.com and China National Publications Import and Export (Group) Corporation to sell English-language ebooks in China. It is “the first time the company has made its e-books directly available to consumers in China through a local retailer,” though JD.com has partnered with Harper in selling their print books in China for some time. The initiative will start with approximately 800 backlist titles. Amazon UK will relocate all of their corporate employees to London by next summer, spread across three offices for the time being. Then, as of 2017, they will occupy more than two-thirds of a […]
Finance
Slaughter Squares Off with IRS Over Self-Employment Tax On Royalties
Last week Forbes uncovered two previously unreported lawsuits in US tax court which saw thriller writer Karin Slaughter square off against the Internal Revenue Service. While the suits themselves are interesting on their own, they are particularly relevant for authors with respect to the classification of book royalties as self-employment income, something the IRS has held for more than six decades. The first suit, which Slaughter settled with the IRS in July, covered the 2008 tax year, for which the IRS “had been demanding $146,155 in tax and a $29,231 penalty on top of the $1.14 million [Slaughter] originally paid.” […]
Corporate: Bloomsbury Adds Conway; Full Fathom Digital; New Rizzoli Bookstore Lease
Bloomsbury has purchased the 200-title naval and military history list of Conway from Pavilion Books in the UK (the rebranded version of Anova). Bloomsbury will integrate the titles into their existing lines. Terms were not disclosed, but the Bookseller notes that Conway publisher John Lee will leave after 20 years in that position. James Frey’s packaging company Full Fathom Five is launching a digital imprint that intends to issue a new ebook every week starting October 1. Mashable, which reports the news, explains (?) FFF will publish “genre e-books that the new imprint believes wouldn’t fit into a traditional publishing model but […]
Creative Homeowner Sold to Fox Chapel
After years of declining sales and operating losses, Courier Corporation has finally sold “certain of its Creative Homeowner publishing assets” to Fox Chapel Publishing, including “more than 100 active titles in home design, home improvement, landscaping and gardening.” The sale price was not disclosed for now (though likely will be in Courier’s next quarterly report). Creative Homeowner has suffered recently as their “largest distribution customer” went out of business earlier this year, resulting in an $825,000 write-off and reduced sales. And CH has suffered for years due to the economy, and loss of business at other key outlets from Borders to Home Depot. Courier […]
Acknowledging Big Drop in Amazon Sales, Ellora’s Cave Cuts Staff, Expenses
Romance publisher Ellora’s Cave sent a letter to authors — originally picked up by Absolute Write, then republished by Dear Author after the post was taken down — explaining recent cuts that laid off nearly all of its freelance editors and reduced the headcount to three full-time editors. The publisher claimed the cuts were necessary after the “quick, sharp decline of ebook sales via Amazon in recent months.” They said Ellora’s Cave “is not the only publisher experiencing this sudden decrease, and interestingly, we are not seeing the same drastic dip from other vendors. But Amazon is our largest vendor, so […]
People, Etc.
Rick Horgan will join Scribner on August 25 as executive editor, where he will acquire and edit nonfiction, including politics, sports, current events, biographies, business, memoir, and thought leader books, as well as commercial fiction. Horgan was most recently vp, executive editor at the Crown Publishing Group, where he spent the past 10 years, until their reorganization in May. We made a mistake yesterday; our coverage of Tim Whiting’s promotion to head a combined Piatkus Constable & Robinson group at Little Brown UK in places incorrectly said “Quercus” instead of Piatkus. German minister for culture and media Monika Gruetters said […]