This week Adams Media published Newsday sportswriter Alan Hahn’s BRUIN REDEMPTION: THE STANLEY CUP RETURNS TO BOSTON as a $7.99 ebook after a 72-hour turnaround time. The publisher said they had the book “within hours” of the Bruins’ Stanley Cup win on June 15. Powell’s director of strategic planning Darin Sennett talks with Seattle Business Journal about the bookstore’s previously announced mobile app, now set to launch in full by the end of the summer. OverDrive will now supply ebooks to Easons, making the bookstore chain the first OverDrive partner to offer EPUB and PDF eBook content directly to Irish […]
International News
Bookselling: WHSmith Travel Success; Thalia To Open Airport Shops; and More
One apparent bright spot in the UK bookselling landscape is WHSmith Travel, profiled in Publishing Perspectives as “long the jewel in the famous company’s portfolio.” UK publishers point to the experience of the buying team, which cites Christos Tsiolkas’ THE SLAP and Richard Templar’s THE RULES OF LIFE as titles they have done well with, as well as the division’s international expansion: they currently operate 26 units, with another 2 to open, as well as having acquired 12 more locations in India and Kuwait. Germany’s largest bookseller Thalia, working in conjunction with Sweden’s Pocket Shop AB, will add between 15-30 […]
People, Awards, and More: McCann Takes IMPAC
People In the UK, publishing director of Transworld’s crime and thriller books Selina Walker will move over to become publisher for Century and Arrow, starting in mid-July. At Transworld, editorial director Sarah Adams will take over Walker’s role; Cat Cobain is being promoted to publishing director of the women’s fiction list; and nonfiction editor Sarah Emsley is moving up to senior editorial director. At HarperCollins, Leah Wasielewski has been promoted to senior director of marketing for Harper, Harper Business and Broadside Books. Bloomsbury sub-rights manager since 2006 Lauren Shekari has left the company. In disclosure forms, Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown […]
Bertelsmann Folds Remaining Direct Group Business Under Corporate Investments Umbrella
With the three-year dismantling of Bertelsmann’s once globe-spanning Direct Group essentially complete, capped by the sale last month of the French-language clubs to Najafi Companies, the unit will no longer stand as its own business division as of the end of June. Bertelsmann announced Wednesday that the remaining Direct Group businesses in German-speaking countries and Eastern Europe and their 50 percent interest in Spain’s Circulo de Lectores will be folded into Berteslmann Corporate Investments (which also includes BMG and digital media and Asian investment funds), reporting to Thomas Rabe. In addition, Bertelsmann is still exploring a possible sale and other […]
Spain Gets a Big New eBook Player
Spanish telecom giant Telefónica announced on Tuesday that it is launching a new ebookstore and ereader in Spain beginning next week. The reader, called the Movistar BQ, a 169 euro model with the now standard 6-inch touchscreen and wifi, will go on sale in the company’s Movistar cell phone stores and in big box retailers across Spain on June 14, in hopes of catching on with readers this summer. Initially, the ereaders will provide access to about one thousand public domain titles stored in the Movistar eBook cloud store, with paid content to be added in the fall. El País reports the […]
Bookselling: Waterstone’s Deal To Close By End of June; Interest in Angus & Robertson; Store Closings; And More
As part of its announcement that it has secured more than £220 million in fresh financing, HMV has formally asked shareholders to approve the Waterstone’s sale to Alexander Mamut at the company’s next meeting on June 23. Newsagency franchise group SupaNews is reportedly about to bid on the Angus & Robertson franchise network and some shops owned by the administrators of REDGRoup Retail in a deal that would capitalize on “synergies” between the two entities. Interestingly, SupaNews is also owned by REDGroup, but that side of the business did not declare bankruptcy. The deal is contingent on SupaNews acquiring more […]