New winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature Mo Yan is listed on The Wylie Agency’s website as a current client and, as we reported yesterday, when contacted for comment Andrew Wylie said by e-mail that the agency was “in discussions with publishers in all territories” about Yan’s work. (This was confirmed by some publishers reporting from Frankfurt.) But Sandra Dijkstra at the Sandra Dijkstra Literary Agency reports that “we were Mo Yan’s American and international agents from the beginning. Starting with his classic novel RED SORGHUM, we sold his first 6 books worldwide.” She notes that “we are very […]
International News
Kindle Library Heads to Europe; Nook UK Now Headed Towards End of the Month
Amazon announced yesterday that their Kindle Owners Lending Library will expand to the UK, Germany and France “later this month,” available to Prime members (as is the case in the US). They promise “over 200,000 books to borrow,” which probably means the large collection of exclusive self-published titles (and Amazon Publishing imprint books) that form the core of the program in the US, alongside the Harry Potter books in multiple languages. They promise “thousands of local-language titles” as well, but did not indicate how many European titles are being contributed by publisher license rather than by Amazon paying per “borrow.” […]
Once Again, A Sale Is Likely for Springer
The plaything of private equity, academic publisher Springer is headed for a sale yet again, with a speculated price that doesn’t seem to reflect much change in value. In late 2009 Sweden’s EQT Partners and the Singapore government took it off of Candover and Cinven’s hands for a small amount of cash and assumption of 2.2 billion euros in debt. (Candover and Cinven had bought what was Bertelsmann Springer in 2003 and merged it with Kluwers Academic Publishers. As de rigeur now, the report says the owners are looking at a possible IPO on the German stock market in addition […]
Quercus to Try Again With Freestanding US Line
The UK’s Quercus will try again with a US publishing operation after their first effort, a joint venture with Sterling called Silver Oak, withered at Sterling after that company lost its ceo and some of the focus of its parent company Barnes & Noble. The new freestanding Quercus US venture will be run out of a New York office of their own and sold and distributed by Random House, aiming to launch in fall 2013. They plan to launch with 40 titles from across the Quercus UK list. When announced in September 2010, the Sterling joint venture was set to […]
Kobo Acquires French Digital Service Company Aquafadas; Expands Self-Publishing and Adds New Zealand Partners
Kobo has a definitive agreement under which they intend to acquire Franch-based digital services and rich media provider Aquafadas, which develops software for digital publishing to tablets and smartphones, and user-friendly software for Flash, HTML5, photo and video editing. Their AveComics is used by French publishers and other to publish comics to tablets and smartphones. Kobo CEO Michael Serbinis says, “Digital Reading is rapidly evolving now to new rich media categories. This transaction will strengthen both Kobo’s and Aquafadas position in our current markets and allow us to accelerate the growth of rich media with the Aquafadas Digital Publishing system.” […]
German Bookstores Are Down 4.7 Percent; Fnac’s French Owners Reported to Look for Sale At Any Price
Even with ebook adoption in its very early stages outside of the English-language world, brick-and-mortar bookstores all over are feeling the pressure of a changing world. As head of the Association of German Publishers and Booksellers Gottfried Honnefelder said at the opening press conference of the Frankfurt Book Fair, so far this year the German book market as a whole is down two percent, but physical bookstores are down 4.7 percent and “one of our leading retailers said 50 percent of the retail space [for books] has to be abolished.” eBooks are not yet to blame, as they are expected to double […]