The answer to the question “who would want to buy that?” Phoenix-based investment firm Najafi Companies has bought Bertelsmann’s North American Direct Group assets, which include their family of book clubs along with Columbia House. The sale is expected to close in the third quarter and financial terms were not disclosed. (It was subsequently revealed in Bertelsmann’s annual report that the sale “generated proceeds of €19 million,” and Bertelsmann recorded a capital loss of €-18 million.) CEO Jahm Najafi says in the announcement, “We are very excited to enter the direct-to-consumer business and to work closely with Direct Group North America’s […]
eBooks for Apple iDevices: Game On
With the release of Apple’s ambitious App Store today, the company puts themselves in the ebook business without having to go through the messiness of dealing with publishers. Among the free app downloads is Fictionwise’s eReader software (bundled with free copies of the public domain books, Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Tarzan of the Apes and James Fenimore Cooper’s The Last of the Mohicans). As indicated in the comments section of the TeleRead blog, the software was coded by Peanut Press co-founder Lee Fyock and another ex-peanut developer, Chris Eplett. Fictionwise’s Steve Pendergrast notes in the same thread that “in the coming […]
Stephenie Meyer's Vampire Empire
Entertainment Weekly features the author as its cover story, as anticipation builds for her latest release. Borders’ director of children’s merchandising Diane Mangan says, ”I kept saying that there will never be another book in my career like Harry Potter 7. Who would have thought a year later we’d be talking like this again?” EW notes: “Despite wincing over the occasional Amazon.com one-star review, Meyer can’t help but pore over the message boards. She loves her fans and wants to know how they’re responding to her work. ”Sometimes the feedback is helpful,” she says. ‘I want to be a better […]
Mayer's New Book Says CIA Engaged In Torture
Jane Mayer’s book THE DARK SIDE: The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned Into a War on American Ideals–publishing next week from Doubleday but obtained by the NYT–says that “Red Cross investigators concluded last year in a secret report that the Central Intelligence Agency’s interrogation methods for high-level Qaeda prisoners constituted torture and could make the Bush administration officials who approved them guilty of war crimes.” Mayer “acknowledges that Red Cross investigators based their account largely on interviews with the prisoners. But she writes that several C.I.A. officers she spoke with confirmed parts of the Red Cross […]
And Then There Are Online "Open Textbooks"
In contrast to the WSJ story about college textbook companies that sell students lightly customized books and pay colleges royalties to help keep the students locked in to over-priced books, USA Today reports on an alternative approach. Open textbooks “are free textbooks available online that are licensed to allow users to download, customize and print any part of the text. Professors can change content to fit their teaching styles. Some authors offer a print-on-demand service that produces professionally bound copies for $10 to $20.” Eric Frank, who used to work for Pearson Education, launched Flat World Knowledge with a partner […]
UK Market-Share Stats
Here are figures for the first 24 weeks of 2008, according to Nielsen BookScan Total Consumer Market: UK Market-Shate Publisher Sales (pounds) Share 20081 Hachette Livre UK £105,912,663 15.3%2 Random House £104,515,833 15.1% 3 Penguin £68,827,003 9.9%4 HarperCollins £56,790,193 8.2%5 Pan Macmillan £23,543,369 3.4%6 Bloomsbury £17,316,123 2.5%7 Pearson Education £13,023,242 1.9%8 OUP £12,770,894 1.8%9 John Wiley £11,900,951 1.7%10 Simon & Schuster £11,195,056 1.6%