How will you move your business forward in 2014? Using new streams of data to inform strategic decisions; what to do about Amazon; managing your organization for change; how (or whether) to engage with new subscription services and a steady stream of start-ups; developing more targeted and sophisticated digital marketing and direct consumer insights; reckoning with the burgeoning market of self-published books; and taking cash out of your supply chain are among the many key issues people are wrestling. And those are some of the major themes that will be addressed in-depth next week at the fifth annual Digital Book World […]
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People, Etc.
Sarah Pelz will join Grand Central Life & Style on January 13 as executive editor. Previously she was executive editor at Rodale. Amazon ceo Jeff Bezos was airlifted out of the Galapagos by Ecuador’s navy on New Year’s Day after suffering from a kidney stone, and returned to the US on his jet for treatment. A matter of material interest to shareholders, Bezos commented in an email provided to media by spokesman Drew Herdener, “Galapagos: five stars. Kidney stones: zero stars.” Herdener added, “He got a good outcome. No surgery was required, and he’s feeling well.” Skyhorse’s newest imprint is Yucca […]
Some Numbers
Smashwords reported via their blog that their sales rose by a third last year, to $20 million. Revenues rose less than title volume, which grew 45 percent. eBook data deniers should take careful note, including founder Mark Coker’s warning to authors that “2014 could be the first year where ebook sales, measured in dollars, decrease.” It’s a great business to build from scratch but still very modest in scale. While Smashwords added about 86,000 new titles in 2013, Amazon said recently that “more than 200,000 exclusive books were added to the Kindle store in 2013.” Amazon-owned Goodreads posted their own […]
People, Etc.
Novelist Elizabeth Jane Howard, 90, “who is said to have sparked a love of literature in her stepson Martin Amis,” has died at home following a short illness. Martin, son of her third husband Kingsley Amis, called her “the most interesting woman writer of her generation.” Former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, age 70, “accidentally fell at his home in Washington State Wednesday evening and fractured his first vertebrae.” His book DUTY: Memoirs of a Secretary at War publishes January 14, and “he will be promoting [it] wearing a neck brace.” Byliner editor at larger Will Blythe “was fired the […]
People, Etc.
At Start Publishing, Meghan Kilduff has been promoted to associate publisher for the Salvo Press, Night Shade Books, Start Classics and Start Science Fiction imprints. In addition, Natalie Pao has been named production associate for ebooks. Kate DiCamillo has been named the Library of Congress’ next National Ambassador to Young People’s Literature, succeeding Walter Dean Myers, who was appointed in 2012. DiCamillo will spend the next two years traveling (including required appearances at the National Book Festival and Children’s Book Week) and told the NYT: “It wasn’t until my fifth or sixth book where I realized I’m trying to do […]
People
William Morris Endeavor has hired former Microsoft chief financial officer Peter Klein. He will oversee the global finance operation for IMG Worldwide once that acquisition closes, along with WME. (Approvals for the acquisition are expected to take a number of months). First published last August but only available online now, Esquire ran an extensive look at Proof of Heaven author Dr. Eben Alexander, depicting him as “a neurosurgeon with a troubled history,” including documenting accusations of malpractice and in one case a “purported cover-up” in which he changed his surgical notes to eliminate evidence of an error. Reporter Luke Dittrich quotes […]