Scholastic announced Monday that its Singapore subsidiary acquired Learners Publishing, a Singapore-based publisher of supplemental English-language learning materials which has published more than 400 titles since its founding in 2000. “Through this acquisition, Scholastic’s offering of products in the English Language Learning segment is significantly enhanced,” Scholastic International president, growth markets Shane Armstrong said in the release. “Learners’ talented team and its list of outstanding titles will assist Scholastic in accelerating educational publishing growth in International markets.” Regulators approved Bertelsmann’s deal to sell half of its stake in German e-reading store/platform Pubbles to Weltbild for an undisclosed sum. The deal was […]
International News
Nicholls, Oliver and Pratchett Top UK 2011 Charts
The Guardian has printed their annual look at the Nielsen UK sales charts, this time with more depth and transparency than ever. The presentation includes downloadable files of the top 5,000 or so selling books and data about the leading genres across the market. We’ve simplified some of the highlights below, but you can get the full data here. As in the US, Nielsen only tracks print book sales in the UK and does not currently capture ebook data (though ebooks comprise somewhere between 8 to 10 percent of the UK market right now). Nielsen UK does capture nearly all […]
Nook Headed to UK
Barnes & Noble executive Theresa Horner told the UK Publishers Association’s International Conference today “I imagine that in the not too distant future you’ll be able to find one of these devices here” in the UK. It remains unclear whether BN will be working with Waterstone’s or pursuing another path into the UK market. Horner commented: “I think B&N would say that having a chain of book stores is a great asset for selling book products, and if you think creatively about selling content, there is an endless well of possibilities for doing that.” In early November BN ceo William […]
Luxembourg Decides for Europe, Dropping eBook VAT to 3%
The European debate over whether to grant ebooks the same low VAT rate as print books may have just gotten a lot simpler. Luxembourg, the grand duchy of online tax evaders, has ruled that the “super-reduced 3% VAT” that has applied to print books will prevail for ebooks as well, beginning January 1, 2012. Luxembourg currently levies 15% VAT on most goods, including ebooks. The change will significantly advantage Amazon and Apple against other ebooksellers, since both companies have their European headquarters and tax domiciles in Luxembourg, from which they technically sell digital goods across Europe. (VAT is applied according […]
VAT Remains Taxing In Europe
EU nations continue to wrestle with disparities in sales tax on print and ebooks, and a general need to raise public revenues. On January 1, France will officially defy EU law and lower the VAT on ebooks to match the tax on printed books. That rate has been 5.5 percent–but is scheduled to rise to 7 percent in the new year, which is causing uproar from France’s network of over 3,000 independent bookstores. (VAT on most goods in 19.6 percent.) France24 In the UK, however, the House of Commons was told that under EU law the country cannot reduce or […]
People, Etc.
Hilary Redmon will join Ecco as executive editor, focusing on non-fiction, starting on December 19. She has been a senior editor at Free Press. Literary agent Emmanuelle Morgen will join Stonesong on January 5, representing adult and children’s fiction, including women’s fiction and romance, historical fiction, and young adult fiction, and nonfiction in the areas of psychology, pop science, self-help, and memoir. Morgen has been at Judith Ehrlich Literary Management. In the rapidly-consolidating Dutch publishing world, NDC/VBK will put its imprints Contact, Mouria and Augustus together with the two Amstel imprints LJ Veen and Atlas to form a new publishing […]