The AAP’s annual meeting for Smaller and Independent Publishers, abruptly scrubbed right before BEA due to light publisher interest, has been rescheduled in New York on November 7 at the Scholastic auditorium. Still called Starting….Growing…Maturing….How to Successfully Navigate the Life Cycles of an Independent Publishing House, the program features many of the same speakers and panels originally lined up for the pre-BEA meeting.
Wood Words
Much has been written already about James Wood’s just-released HOW FICTION WORKS, and how it might shape writers present and future. Already Wood himself has weighed in on different venues to explain how his views have been mischaracterized, so you can only guess where this will lead from here. One can imagine that all good and bad writing going forward will be laid at his feet by someone. Writing in a NY Mag comments field about their take on an article in the Observer about his book, Wood says: “I must respond to the nonsense above: my new book is […]
Sony Reader Will Open Up to ePub
Starting today Sony is offering a software upgrade to the newer edition of their Reader that will let it render books in ePub format. That means that other retailers can sell files for the Reader, opening it up beyond Sony’s own online store and the recent offering from Borders.com. And it should add considerably to the number of titles available for the Reader, currently at about 45,000 books. As svp of consumer product marketing for Sony Electronics Steve Haber says, “This upgrade opens the door to a whole host of paid and free content from third-party e-book stores, Web sites and […]
Scholastic Finishes Soft, Will Continue "Headcount Reduction"
Scholastic reported a soft fourth quarter, with sales from continuing operations of $536.1 million, down 2 percent, and higher operating costs and expenses that left earnings from continuing operations down substantially (by a third) at $49 million. Overall, they had a net loss for the quarter of $13.1 million. (Losses from the direct-to-home continuities business–which it is selling–and the school-based continuities business–which it closed in May–show up on the balance sheet as losses from non-continuing operations now.) Those results missed analysts’ expectations 6 cents a share on earnings and $16 million on sales. For the full year, which included the […]
Hosseini Paperback for the Holidays
Khaled Hosseini’s bestselling A THOUSAND SPLENDING SUNS will be published in trade paperback on November 25. So far Riverhead says they have shipped more than 2.3 million copies of the hardcover. Their trade paperback edition of Hosseini’s first novel THE KITE RUNNER has been on the NYT paperback fiction bestseller list “for 175 weeks and counting, with more than 6.3 million copies shipped to date.”
Amazon's Growth Continues in Q2
Amazon reported second quarter sales of $4.06 billion, up 41 percent, and net income of $158 million, more than double what they recorded last year. Those results were ahead of the consensus analyst expectations in both sales and earnings. North American media sales of $1.148 billion were up 25 percent, once again exceeded by international media sales of $1.258 billion, which rose 38 percent, helped considerably by foreign exchange. (International media sales were up the same 25 percent increment excluding exchange rates. Media incorporates “books, movies, music, digital downloads, software and video games, including game consoles.”) The company remained true […]