Meanwhile, the surprise bankruptcy filing came yesterday from Canada, where the country’s largest distributor HB Fenn & Company initiated bankruptcy proceedings under the country’s Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act. In a brief statement Fenn said it had “encountered significant financial challenges due to the loss of distribution lines, shrinking margins and the significant shift to e-books, all of which have significantly reduced the company’s revenues.” The company’s Lisa Winstanley told the National Post more bluntly, “we’re ceasing operations effective immediately.” The paper calls it “the largest collapse of a Canadian publishing company since General Distribution Services/Stoddart Publishing went under in August […]
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The New York Times Unveils Their E-Book Bestseller Lists
The NYT’s first-ever e-book bestseller lists will appear in print on February 13 and online on February 11 (reflecting rankings for the week ending January 30), as the paper previewed for publishing people at an event this morning. Not only will the paper publish a separate e-book list, but there will also be a hybrid print and e-book bestseller list. A spokesperson said the paper “wanted to provide more comprehensive lists of which books are selling.” Unlike USA Today’s approach, the hybrid lists give no indication of whether e-books outsell print editions; a note on their methodology says only that […]
OFT Opens Investigation Into UK Agency Pricing
With agency pricing now starting to take hold among some of the largest UK publishers, the Office of Fair Trading is opening an investigation “into whether arrangements that certain publishers have put in place with some retailers for the sale of e-books may breach competition rules”, according to a release obtained by the Bookseller. It’s the first time in four years since the OFT took a long look at industry practices, when the merger between EUK and Bertrams caught its attention and eventually led the Competition Commission to rule it was not anti-competitive. The OFT claims to have received a […]
Announcements: Murakami’s 1Q84 Has a US Pub Date; FCIC Chipped in $40K In Shipping Costs; and More
Knopf has announced that all three volumes of Haruki Murakami‘s novel 1Q84 will be published as a single, 928-page book on October 25. The first two volumes were translated by Jay Rubin and the third by Philip Gabriel, and the combined edition will have a hardcover list price of $30 and an e-book edition published simultaneously. The UK edition of 1Q84 will not include the third volume, but will be published around the same time. The Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission released its final report on Thursday, with Public Affairs’ book version going on-sale the same day. Demand has evidently been […]
DBW Kicks Off With Innovation Awards, 7x20x21
A packed crowd (helped, no doubt, by the drink-ticketed cocktails on tap for the first hour) turned out at the Sheraton Towers ballroom for Digital Book World’s opening ceremonies & reception. After brief remarks from F+W ceo David Nussbaum and a short speech from Harper Collins president of sales Josh Marwell on behalf of the Goddard Riverside Community Center, F+W president David Blansfield hosted DBW’s first ever Publishing Innovation Awards: Fiction: DRACULA: The Official Stoker Family Edition (PadWorx Digital Media) Non-Fiction: Logos Bible Software (Logos Bible Software, Inc.) Children’s: A Story Before Bed (Jackson Fish Market) Reference: Star Walk for […]
With Sale of Day by Day Kiosks to Calendar Club, Borders Raises Some Cash
It remains to be seen whether publishers will accept Borders’ proposed plans for renegotiating credit arrangements by the reported February 1 deadline, but the retailer will get at least some cash from the sale of its seasonal calendar kiosk service, Day By Day Calendars, to competitor Calendar Club LLC. The purchase, under negotiation for some time, closed last Wednesday and was announced to Borders staff on Friday by CEO Mike Edwards. In a telephone interview, Calendar Club CEO Marc Winkelman said the deal has been in the works since the fall, when Borders approached Calendar Club along with other prospective […]