Kelly Bowen will join Algonquin as senior publicist on February 24. She has bee a publicist at Simon and Schuster. YA author and agent Mandy Hubbard has joined the D4EO Literary Agency where she will concentrate on YA and middle-grade fiction. on. Simon & Schuster has relaunched their trade web site, www.simonandschuster.biz. It includes a blog for booksellers from their marketing staff and tools for authors to enter customized information about themselves and blog posts that appear on their consumer web site. It also provides handy access to company’s own digital catalog–where we spotted former Bear Stearns ceo Ace Greenberg’s […]
USA Today Adds Barnes & Noble and Sony eBook Data
USA Today has extended their leadership role as the first major national bestseller list to include Kindle sales data with today’s announcement that they will also incorporate digital sales information from both Barnes & Noble and Sony’s estores.
Sales Fall 20 Percent At HBG USA (On Meyer Comp), But Lagardere Finishes Ahead
Lagardere reported preliminary results for their fiscal fourth quarter, ending December 31, with sales at Lagardere Publishing down 2.7 percent at 579 million euros (though the company claims that on a “like-for-like” currency adjusted basis sales rose 0.2 percent in the period and declares it “better than expected”). Sales at Hachette Book Group USA, which had shown “double-digit growth” through the end of September, fell “about 20 percent” in the fourth quarter–due to comparisons to Stephenie Meyer’s big breakout a year ago, when she sold 8 million copies in December 2009. US ebook sales, as previously mentioned by ceo Arnaud […]
Scribd's Mobile Plans
The WSJ reports on Scribd’s long-discussed plans to make their document files portable to all manner of e-readers and mobile devices like iPhones. As they note, the site is “trying to become the universal adaptor for e-readers.” (A little like Google’s let-us-run-your-ebook-cloud strategy.) The Journal says iRex and Cool-er have approved the new efforts, and “an Amazon spokesman said the company approved the addition of a Kindle button to Scribd, but declined to comment further.” The feature will work with nook and Sony’s Readers, “but only when those devices are plugged directly into a computer and the user manually drags […]
Make eBooks Cheap, Or Grandpa Will Steal Them
It’s tempting to dismiss today’s NYT piece on ebook readers preference to pay less money for titles for the unsubstantial work that it is. But since it runs in the Times, some people will automatically take it seriously, despite the anecdotal reporting and absence of any data. (Not that none exists–but there’s no mention here of recently-presented findings on price sensitivity from the BISG and Verso surveys, or Kobo’s presentation that they sell almost as many ebooks at prices greater than $9.99 than they do at $9.99 itself, or the informal accounts of agents who have seen pricing data presented […]
Acquisitions: Buyers for Kirkus, and Teleread
Chairman emeritus of Simon Property Group and owner of the Indiana Pacers as well as co-owner of Tecolote Books in Montecito, CA Herb Simon has purchased Kirkus Reviews. Chief executive of Calendar Holdings and the other partner in that bookstore (as well as former Barnes & Noble employee) Marc Winkelman will be ceo of the new Kirkus Media and hold a small stake in the operation, with Elaine Szewczyk and Eric Liebetrau remaining in their leadership roles. He indicated to the NYT that “the company would continue to publish Kirkus as a print magazine while beefing up its digital offerings. […]