The Washington Post has a piece on the ebook self-publishing “gold rush,” but they include some balancing facts as well. For all the stories of impressive success, Smashwords founder Mark Coker says, “We have less than 50 people who are making more than $50,000 per year. We have a lot who don’t sell a single book.” Amazon’s Jeff Belle concurs: “There are a lot of books, even low-priced, on Kindle that are not selling at all.” Meanwhile, Barnes & Noble says PubIt, launched in October, features 14,500 authors and 90,000 titles (some of which come from Smashwords and others like […]
Self-publishing
Kindle Launches German Store With Over 25K German Titles; Apple Sells Another 4.7 Million iPads
As long expected, Amazon announced today the launch of their first non-English Kindle store, debuting in Germany with “over 25,000 German-language titles,” including “71 of 100 Spiegel bestsellers” and “thousands of German classics downloadable for free.” The store appers to have lots of English-language titles for German customers as well, since the company says the store has over 650,000 titles in total. When the German Publishers and Booksellers Association launched their own ebookstore last November through Libreka.de, they also began with approximately 25,000 German-language ebooks for sale (which is still the count displayed on the site). Amazon says their title […]
People, Etc.
Lynne Missen will join Penguin Canada as publishing director of children’s books on January 31. She has been executive editor at Harper Canada Children’s. Pamela Paul has been named children’s book editor for the New York Times Book Review, starting today. She is a journalist and book critic, the author of three nonfiction books, and is a columnist for the NYT‘s Style section. Her new position with the NYTBR is part-time. Pamela Clements has joined the United Methodist Publishing House as associate publisher for Abingdon Press’s Christian fiction program, and a new Christian Living line that debut in the spring of 2012, […]
Press Drives Sales Burst for Dying Banker’s Self-Published Investment Guide
A Friday NYT piece covered a short self-published investment book from retired banker Gordon Murray, who is dying from glioblastoma. Murray wrote THE INVESTMENT ADVISER in a matter of months this summer with friend and financial adviser Daniel Goldie after being told he had just six more months to live. They self-published the book in August, and are distributing through Baker & Taylor. At first they gave the book away as a free PDF. The Times wrote: “It is plenty useful for anyone who isn’t already investing in a collection of index or similar funds and dutifully rebalancing every so […]
Two Off the Beaten Path Stories: Myhrvold Delays, Ali Experiments
Former Microsoft CTO Nathan Myhrvold’s lavish self-published six-volume cookbook MODERNIST CUISINE, listing for $625, has been eagerly anticipated by some foodies. In a blog posting earlier this week, Myhrvold explained to customers and fans that publication has been delayed and they will miss this Christmas, now looking for a publication date of March 14. It turns out book publishing is more complicated than it looks. The fundamental work of “proofreading and correction 2,400 pages…has been taking longer than we expected to complete.” They have also had to work out the kinks in shipping 40 pounds worth of book without damage: […]
Indiana Publisher Investigated for Not Printing Customers’ Books
The Indiana Attorney General’s office is investigating multiple complaints from authors who worked with New Century Publishing and say they paid for books that they never received. So for negotiations with owner David William Caswell have “failed to lead to restitution to the authors.” The AG’s office has successfully sued Caswell twice in the past, though the Indianapolis Star says he has paid almost none of the money owed under two court-approved settlements.Indy Star