In a dire quarter for parent company News Corp.–which is taking a total writedown of $8.4 billion, including $2.8 billion against the $5.7 billion acquisition of the Wall Street Journal, and fell well short of analysts’ diminished expectations–publisher HarperCollins only performed poorly. Sales collapsed by 25 percent, down from $406 million a year ago to $305 million, the lowest total for this period since February 2002. The company cites “lower sales driven by the weakening retail market as well as a difficult comparison to a year ago” when they had a trio of strong bestsellers, but Harper hasn’t been below […]
Books on Mobile: Will One Sentence Change the Landscape?
Yesterday Google Book Search announced that they had optimized 1.5 million public domain books for reading on iPhones and the company’s Android mobile operating system. (All of those books are viewable within the US; about 600,000 are accessible in full view worldwide.) The process required converting the image scan files shown on regular GBS with optical-character-recognition so that the mobile devices can display actual text rather than page images. The files are not downloadable, so you need to be connected to the internet via your mobile.GBS post But Google’s announcement was trumped by a potentially game-changing two sentence remark by […]
Store Closings
Pages for All Ages bookstore in Savoy, IL announced their closing in a sign on the window, after more than 20 years in business. And Henderson, Nevada’s Cheesecake and Crime, a mystery book shop and cheesecake joint opened about 14 months ago, will close at the end of February.
March Indie Next List
Fool: A Novel by Christopher MooreAmong the Mad: A Maisie Dobbs Novel by Jacqueline WinspearSonata for Miriam: A Novel by Linda OlssonThe Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon by David GrannStarvation Lake: A Mystery by Bryan GruleyThe Writing on My Forehead: A Novel by Nafisa HajiSleepwalking in Daylight by Elizabeth FlockAll That I Have: A Novel by Castle Freeman, Jr.The Manual of Detection: A Novel by Jedediah BerryThe Missing: A Novel by Tim GautreauxA Grave in Gaza: An Omar Yussef Mystery by Matt Beynon ReesPatient Zero: A Joe Ledger Novel by Jonathan MaberryMy Abandonment: […]
People and Distribution
Hudson Street Press editor-in-chief Luke Dempsey will become editorial director, nonfiction for Ballantine Books on March 3. Former editorial director at Chronicle Books Jay Schaefer will be acquiring projects for Workman and Algonquin Books as an editor-at-large, still based in San Francisco. Unbridled Books is now using McArthur & Company for sales and distribution of its titles in Canada.
Oscar Wilde Next Store to Close
Greenwich Village’s Oscar Wilde Bookshop, “believed to be the oldest gay and lesbian bookstore in the country,” will close March 29. The store has struggled for a long time and “nearly closed six years ago, only to be sold and given a last-minute reprieve.” Owner Kim Brinster notes, “Even if we were rent-free, it wouldn’t be enough for us to cover the bills we have. This is one instance in New York where it’s not a case of the landlord gouging the tenant. Our landlord has always been remarkable with us.”NYT