Australia’s publishing (and bookselling) business has remained protected by “parallel import restrictions” that have kept the country relatively de-Amazoned — but just as American antitrust law has been favoring low consumer prices over market consolidation, the Australian government is prioritizing lower prices for books over protecting the local publishing business. The Australian Government Productivity Commission just issued a draft report on intellectual property arrangements that recommends repeal of parallel import restrictions for books “in order for the reform to take effect no later than the end of 2017.” Authors and publishers are lining up quickly in opposition to the proposal. Authors Thomas Keneally, […]
International News
Google Play Gains Again, Even As Earnings Are Below Analysts’ Estimates; Apple China iBooks Shutdown Confirmed
The headline from Thursday afternoon’s earnings release from Alphabet/Google was that earnings came in below analysts’ expectations, with first quarter sales of $20.3 billion up 17 percent. In the segment we follow, the glamorous “Other revenue” that incorporates the Google Play store, sales of $2.1 billion were up 24 percent (though 1 percent below the previous, holiday quarter). In the investor conference call, the company said, “Year-over-year performance was driven by Play as well as continued strong growth in cloud and apps and a nice contribution from hardware.” Apple‘s earnings report was postponed until next week. In the meantime, the […]
People, Etc.
Malcolm Bouzi has joined Open Road as junior front end developer. Previously he was a web developer at the Araca Group. Farideh Koohi-Kamali has joined Peter Lang Publishers as senior vice president. She succeeds Christopher Myers, who has left the company after over 25 years as managing director and education editor. Koohi-Kamali spent the past 14 years as editorial director of Palgrave Macmillan’s US academic program. New Ventures Hachette Book Group announced it has sold 51 percent of its Yen Press manga imprint to Japanese publisher Kadokawa, creating a joint venture, overseen by publisher and managing director Kurt Hassler. The […]
People, Etc.
Stacy Creamer will join Regan Arts as svp, executive editor on April 15. Most recently she was executive editor at Hachette Books and before then was publisher at Touchstone. Andy Hunter has been named publisher of LitHub.com, overseeing the growing site — which is a collaboration between Hunter’s Electric Literature and Grove/Atlantic. (Hunter also serves as publisher of Catapult.) Krishan Trotman has joined Hachette Books as senior editor. Previously she was a senior editor at Skyhorse. In addition, Hallie Patterson moves over to Hachette Books as publicity and marketing manager, from Little, Brown Children’s. At Chronicle Books, Molly Krauss has […]
HarperCollins Officially Expands in France, and More
It’s book fair time — as the Bologna Book Fair officially opens — so Harper Collins has announced another expanded international unit. This time it is the formation of Harper Collins France. Previously, Harlequin SA was a joint venture in France with Hachette Livre, but Harper Collins bought out their partner. They will continue to work with Hachette in an “ongoing partnership for distribution and sales.” (They bought out Mondadori’s share of Harlequin Mondadori in September 2015, and they ended their joint venture in Brazil with Record Publishing Group — pairing instead with Ediuoro Group, last August. The new business will continue to publish […]
Briefs: More James Patterson Library Grants; DRM-Free Star Trek eBooks; and More
For the second year in a row, James Patterson will award $1.75 million in grants (of $1,000 to $10,000) on a rolling basis throughout the year to school libraries. Once again the initiative is run in partnership with Scholastic Reading Club. Aligned with the 50th anniversary of Star Trek, Pocket Books has announced the release of more than 700 tie-in novels and novelizations in DRM-free ebook editions. Pocket president Louise Burke says in the release, “We’re excited to re-introduce many classic stories and to enable discovery and the ease of purchase that DRM-free provides.” New visitors to the site will be eligible for a […]