Oxford University Press announced a realignment of its three academic publishing divisions–Oxford University Press USA, the UK’s academic division (essentially their adult publishing operation), and Oxford Journals–under the consolidated leadership of current OUP USA president Tim Barton. He took that post recently, after serving as managing director of the UK Academic Division for four years. Communications director Rachel Goode says that they are recruiting for a new position to take care of day-to-day US management under Barton after he makes the transition. The move reflects a more global, platform-neutral strategy across key divisions. Barton comments, “Digital and competitive pressures make […]
Life Under Agency, Continued: Hybrids Aren't Just for Cars
We’re going to keep grinding our way through the idiosyncracies and challenges of life under the agency model, understanding that all of this is a constantly moving target. While Random House has gotten all the attention as the biggest trade publisher whose titles are not available via the just-launched iBookstore, it should be underscored that so far, very few companies of scale outside of the Agency Five have a presence there. In addition to those already announced–Perseus, Nelson, Workman, Sourcebooks, and F+W–we found lists of titles from Hyperion and Kensington (henceforth known as the Non Five). But the list of […]
Stats: AAP and UK
We don’t put a lot of stock into the AAP’s sales estimates (a hybrid of Census data and reports from 86 AAP member publishers, both of which are incomplete data streams). But for those who like to follow them, today the organization published its 2009 sales estimates. Trade sales of $8.1 billion were “steady,” with adult hardcover rising 6.9 percent and adult paperbacks falling 5.2 percent. Mass market paperbacks totaled $1 billion, down 4 percent. By their count, ebook sales of $313 million–up 176 percent–overtook audio sales, which at $192 million were down 12.9 percent. Religious book sales fell 9 […]
People, Etc.
Jeanne Emanuel will join the Perseus Books Group later this month in the new position of vp of special and gift sales, based in the Cambridge, MA office and reporting to Matty Goldberg. She was previously executive director of sales for Adams Media. In promotions at Bloomsbury/Walker/Bloomsbury Press: Benjamin Adams has become a senior editor; Pete Beatty moves up to editor; Margaret Maloney is now an associate editor; Rachel Mannheimer becomes an assistant editor; Carrie Majer has been made a senior publicist; and Jiyeon Dew was promoted to production manager. At Harper, Maya Ziv and Jason Sack have both been […]
Your iBooks Distribution Options
The distribution picture for getting your books into the iBookstore is becoming clear with a raft of announcements from service providers and an informational page at the iTunes site. While music and music video vendors can fill out an online vendor application for Apple’s review, it appears that book publishers currently have two options only. Either an iBookstore representative has issued you an “application code” to apply for the iBookstore directly, or else you are directed to a list of seven “Apple-approved aggregators.” As Apple notes, “if you choose to work with an aggregator to distribute your content on the […]
Oh, the Taxes You Might Owe
Steel yourself for what may be one of the most tedious yet important stories we have filed yet on the agency model. The scintillating subject matter: sales taxes. As we’ve mentioned in passing previously, one of the biggest transitional issues for the companies moving to an agency model across their account base is grappling with the new sales tax obligations. As Kobo evp Michael Tamblyn confirms, “of all the points of negotiation, issues related to sales tax were by far the most complex and the area of greatest concern for publishers once we got past the establishemnt of new agency […]