At Abrams, Susan Van Metre has been promoted to svp and publisher and will now oversee all comic arts books in addition to Abrams Children’s and Amulet Books. Charles Kochman is promoted to editorial director for Abrams ComicArts, adding oversight of children’s comics and graphic novels, reporting to Van Metre. Chad Beckerman moves up to creative director and oversee design for all comic arts books, Abrams Children’s and Amulet. Lindley Boegehold is promoted to editorial director for calendars, licenses and custom publishing. Jennifer Levesque is promoted to editorial director for Stewart, Tabori & Chang and Abrams Image (though Abrams Image […]
Nielsen BookScan and PM Offer New Data Service for Agents
Nielsen BookScan and PublishersMarketplace.com announce today the launch of new service for literary agents, Nielsen PublishersMarketplace BookScan. It combines Nielsen’s “industry standard” point-of-sale book sales data and charts with access via the PublishersMarketplace home page, using the look, feel and convenience of the premier publishing resource’s data and news-rich web site. The first premium upgrade service at PublishersMarketplace since it launched almost nine years ago, Nielsen PublishersMarketplace BookScan provides agents with unlimited searches of the BookScan database, weekly updates, complete author reports, and title reports tracking weekly sales, regional sales, and even DMA sales. A complete package of BookScan’s more […]
Kobo Helps Indigo Grow Sales But Lose Money; Will Seek More Digital Investment
At Canada’s retailing giant Indigo, sales rose 3.7 percent to $214.8 million (CA) in their second quarter, even as superstore comps fell 0.7 percent and smaller-store comps dropped 4.8 percent. The company swung to a net loss of $1.7 million, compared to a profit of $2.2 million a year ago, disappointing analysts, who were looking for the company to break even on somewhat higher sales. As with Barnes & Noble, the digital transition is adding costs, even as the company likes their prospects. CEO Heather Reisman says in the release, “we are pleased with our top line revenue growth, particularly […]
Peripatetic Penzler Moves Again, Now to Grove/Atlantic
Otto Penzler, who has been publishing through Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in the US for the past six years, is relaunching the Mysterious Press imprint with his newest publishing partner, Grove/Atlantic. Penzler reacquired the imprint’s name from Hachette Book Group, having sold the original Mysterious Press to Warner Books in 1989. That move parallels Penzler’s relocation in the UK, where moved his line to Grove/Atlantic spin-off Atlantic Books, as part of the new Corvus division led by Anthony Cheetham, last November. (Cheetham has previously set up Penzler’s line at his former company Quercus, after almost setting it up at Random UK’s […]
Chegg Signs with the Available Partner, Borders
With Barnes & Noble College already in the textbook rental business, along with the other big college bookstore operator Follett–which partnered with BookRenter.com–Chegg.com has turned to Borders for an “exclusive partnership.” While Borders does less business with college students, the company did launch an online Textbook Marketplace powered by Alibris in July. The Chegg textbook rentals will be featured in that marketplace. Chegg raised another $75 million in financing in September (making over $160 million in venture capital, and another $55 million in debt poured into the company) and Tech Crunch says they are estimated to have $130 million in […]
eNews: Kno’s Pricing; Grisham’s eBook Makes Up for Hardcover Shortfall; Amazon Said to Negotiate German eBooks; E Ink’s Triton
Kno, the tablet maker focused on the higher education textbook market, has announced pricing for their forthcoming devices. Their giant dual-screen, 14.1-inch tablet will sell for $899, and the single-screen model will list for $599. Their pitch is that “when you do the math, it actually pays for itself and still saves $1,300 in digital textbook costs.” They are taking “limited” pre-orders for first shipments before the end of the year, targeting 10 US college campuses to start. CEO Osman Rashid tells the WSJ that in beta testing they “found that 85 percent of those using the single screen wanted […]