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AUTHORLINK NEWS/03/11/10--A study by The Journal of Electronic Publishing released last week concludes that "when free e-books are offered for a relatively long period of time, without requiring registration, print sales will increase."
COLORADO/AUTHORLINK NEWS/03/09/10-Amazon.com has notified Colorado-based members of its Amazon Associates program that it will no longer offer the program in the state due to new legislation that will impose a sales tax on online retailers.
NEW YORK, NY/Authorlink News/03/08/10-- Barnes & Noble, Inc. this week named Jonathan Shar as General Manager, Digital Newsstand and Emerging Content, Barnes & Noble.com. Mr. Shar will be responsible for creating and leading the digital newsstand and emerging content business, a large strategic focus for the company. He will work with newspaper, magazine, periodical, blogs and other content publishers, to sell and market their digital editorial products to millions of Barnes & Noble customers.
TORONTO/AUTHORLINK NEWS/03/11/10--The Canadian Booksellers Association last week urged the Ministry of Canadian Heritage to reject Amazon.com's application to enter the Canadian market, claiming that such a move "would detrimentally affect the country's independent businesses and cultural industries."
NEW YORK, NY/AUTHORLINK NEWS/03/11/10--Barnes & Noble Inc. last week named playwright Victor Lodato’s haunting debut novel, Mathilda Savitch (Farrar, Straus & Giroux), and Dave Cullen’s meticulously researched work on the Colorado tragedy, Columbine (Twelve), winners of the 2009 “Discover Great New Writers Awards,” for fiction and non-fiction, respectively. Each writer was awarded a cash prize of $10,000, and a full year of marketing and merchandising support from the bookseller.
Published Thursday, March 11, 2010 (for the sales week ended Sunday, March 7, 2010). Based on reporting from many hundreds of independent bookstores across the United States. For information on more titles, please visit www.IndieBound.org
New York, New York/Authorlink News/March 10, 2010--Susan Petersen Kennedy, President of Penguin Group (USA),has started a new imprint for science books for general readers that will be called Current. Adrian Zackheim, the president and publisher of Penguin Group (USA)’s Portfolio and Sentinel imprints, is adding the same roles for Current, which will share the existing editorial, marketing and publicity staff of Portfolio and Sentinel.
BLOOMINGTON, IN/AUTHORLINK NEWS/03/02/10--Barnes & Noble has agreed to make all self published titles from Author Solutions, Inc . available in its online store, http://www.barnesandnoble.com, and on its e-book reader, nookT.
NEW YORK, NY/AUTHORLINK NEWS/03/02/10—Penguin Group USA, in releasing preliminary results for 2009 (via parent company Pearson), reported an 11% increase in total revenue to just over £1 billion pounds in 2009 ($1.5 billion USD). However, operating profit fell 10% to £84 million ($125 million).
NEW YORK, NY/AUTHORINK NEWS/03/03/10--Reed Business Information, which also owns Publishers Weekly, this week sold three of its properties to Dublin, Ohio-based Media Source.
NEW YORK, NY/Authorlink News/03/03/10--The Random House Publishing Group announced this week the establishment of a new group responsible for the creation of original transmedia intellectual property (IP)-story content that can be accessed through multiple media sources including video games, social networks on the web, mobile platforms, in print and on film-that will be developed and marketed in partnerships with other media companies.
NEW YORK, NY/AUTHORLINK NEWS/03/03/10--The Children's Book Council (CBC) in association with Every Child a Reader, Inc. (the CBC Foundation), yesterday named 2009 finalists for the Third Annual Children's Choice Book Awards. Suzanne Collins, Jeff Kinney, and James Patterson are among the favorite author choices. Favorite book choices include Jarrett Krosoczka's Lunch Lady graphic novel and Gordon Korman's Zoobreak.
Published Thursday, March 4, 2010 (for the sales week ended Sunday, February 28, 2010). Based on reporting from many hundreds of independent bookstores across the United States. For information on more titles, please visit www.IndieBound.org
A decision over the controversial Google settlement with the Author’s Guild and American Association of Publishers, now lies in the hands of U.S. District Court Judge Denny Chin following a fairness hearing that took place in a crowded New York courtroom on February 18.
NEW YORK, NY/AUTHORLINK NEWS/02/25/10—CBS Corporation last week reported financial results for the fourth quarter and full year ended December 31, 2009, including unfavorable results for its publishing arm, Simon & Schuster.
NEW YORK, NY/AUTHORLINK NEWS/02/23/10—Macmillan Publishing this week launched Dynamic Books, a new digital publishing platform and line of interactive books, designed to combat the high price of textbooks and the threat of digital piracy.
NEW YORK, NY/AUTHORLINK NEWS/02/24/10--Barnes & Noble Inc. reported a decline in quarterly profit yesterday. A sharp drop in store sales caused the company performance to fall short of Wall Street expectations.
LA VERGNE,TN/AUTHORLINK NEWS/02/25/10--Ingram Marketing Group Inc., the marketing and advertising agency of Ingram, this week announced the launch of PubLinkSM, a specialized software/CRM tool that gives publishers a robust and flexible platform to manage, track and deliver product catalogs and galleys in both print and electronic formats.
Published Thursday, February 25, 2010 (for the sales week ended Sunday, February 21, 2010). Based on reporting from many hundreds of independent bookstores across the United States. For information on more titles, please visit www.IndieBound.org
SEATTLE/ AUTHORLINK NEWS/February 16, 2010--Amazon.com has released as a free wireless download on Kindle the Budget of the United States Government, Fiscal Year 2011, and Economic Report of the President. The documents became available today in Amazon's Kindle Store (www.amazon.com/kindlestore). The Kindle Store now includes over 420,000 books .
The National Book Critics Circle has begun posting mini reviews of all of its finalists for the NBCC book awards which will be announces on March 11 in New York City. The organization will have posted 30 books in the30 days leading up to the event. A list of finalists is posted on the NBCC site, including five nominees in six categories. The nominees appear in random order.
NJ/Authorlink News/ February 18 --Bowker, the global leader in bibliographic information management solutions, earlier this month expanded its ability to provide business intelligence to the global publishing market with the acquisition of BML Broadcast.
NEW YORK, NY/AUTHORLINK NEWS/February 18, 2010--Goldman Sachs this week gave a small vote of confidence to Barnes & Noble stocks, announcing that it has removed the bookseller from their “Conviction Sell” list while maintaining a “Sell” rating. The global investment banking and securities firm said billionaire activist investor Ron Burkle's efforts to raise his stake in Barnes & Noble are likely to ease the impact of an eroding financial and competitive situation in the near-term, according to Street Insider.
MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA/AUTHORLINK NEWS/February 18, 2010—Cailfornia-based Google Inc. filed a motion last Friday urging a federal judge to accept a $125 million settlement that would allow it to distribute digital books, according to a BusinessWeek report via Bloomberg. District Court Judge Denny Chin was due to hold a fairness hearing today.
WASHINGTON/AUTHORLINK NEWS/02/11/10--The U. S. Department of Justice (DOJ) said in a 26-page legal brief filed last week that many of the initially identified problems in the Google settlement between authors and publishers remain unresolved in the amended document. A fairness hearing is scheduled February 18 in Judge Jimmy Chin's U.S. District Court of New York, however some sources say the DOJ will encourage Chin not to approve the settlement at this time.
NEW YORK, NY/AUTHORLINK NEWS/02/11/10--A new Book Industry Study Group (BISG) survey, opened this week, explores the ways in which new technologies are dictating "points of no return" in how books-both digital and physical-are being acquired, produced, distributed, marketed and sold. The survey is being conducted as part of preparations for BISG's seventh annual Making Information Pay conference, to be held Thursday, May 6, 2010 at the McGraw-Hill Auditorium in New York City.
WASHINGTON,DC/Authorlink News/02/11/10--Arne Duncan, the Obama Administration's popular Secretary of Education, will be the keynote luncheon speaker at the upcoming Annual Meeting of the Association of American Publishers (AAP) in Washington on March 3. Secretary Duncan's appearance is particularly relevant since this year for the first time the AAP Annual Meeting is being held in coordination with the Annual Meeting of the AAP School Division, giving attendees at both events the opportunity to hear him.
The London Book Fair, global marketplace or rights negotiation and the sale and distribution of content across print, audio, TV, film and digital channels, is scheduled in London April 19-21st.
TORONTO, CANADA/AUTHORINK NEWS/02/11/10--E-book consumption grew in excess of 50% in the fourth quarter of 2009, and Mobile consumption grew even faster than PC consumption, according to the Global E-book Metrics Report, just out from Wattpad, a popular e-book community. The report covers both PC and mobile e-book usage of its own subscribers and users from more than 160 countries. Eva Lau, COO of Wattpad announced the new user findings.
Published Thursday, February 11, 2010 (for the sales week ended Sunday, February 7, 2010). Based on reporting from many hundreds of independent bookstores across the United States. For information on more titles, please visit www.IndieBound.org
NEW YORK, NY/AUTHORLINK NEWS/02/04/10--Barnes & Noble stock prices rose 18 percent earlier this week after the bookseller's largest outside shareholder, billionaire Ron Burkle, sought to waive a takeover prevention rule that, if overturned, would allow Burkle to acquire as much as 37 percent of the company-a share equal to the founding Riggio family's ownership.
/02/02/10--Amazon.com this past weekend capitulated to Macmillan publishing company's pressures to let the publisher set higher prices for its e-books. Amazon's blackout of Macmillan's book titles looks as if it has been partially, if not completely, restored. But negotiations continue this week with no further public statements.
GUTERSLOH, GERMANY/AUTHORLINK NEWS/02/04/10--Bertelsmann AG, the international media company which also owns Random House in the USA, is offering to buy back investors' profit
participation certificates for more than their original value when purchased in 2001. The offer would earn shareholders 21% on the closing price of stocks as of February 1, 2010, and exceeds the average price of the past 12 months by 48%.
NEW YORK, NY/AUTHORLINK NEWS/02/03/10--The Authors Guild, advocacy group for writers, is lending its support to Macmillan Publishers in its fight with Amazon over e-book business models.
Published Thursday, February 4, 2010 (for the sales week ended Sunday, January 31, 2010). Based on reporting from many hundreds of independent bookstores across the United States. For information on more titles, please visit www.IndieBound.org
NEW YORK, NY/AUTHORLINK NEWS/February 2, 2010—HarperCollins, owned by News Corporation, increased its operating income by three-fold to $65 million for the second quarter ended December 31, 2009. The year-over-year increase is attributed to higher sales at the General and the Children’s Book divisions which were partially offset by higher royalty and manufacturing costs. Second quarter results included strong sales of Going Rogue by Sarah Palin, Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak and The Vampire Diaries by L.J. Smith. During the quarter, HarperCollins had 48 books on The New York Times bestseller list, including seven titles that reached the number one spot.
NEW YORK, NY/AUTHORLINK NEWS/January 27, 2010—The families of John Steinbeck and Woody Guthrie have decided to opt in to the revised Google Book Search settlement, according to a recent report in PW. Gail Steinbeck, who initially opposed the settlement, and Arlo Guthrie, on behalf of his singer-songwriter father, the late Woody Guthrie, said they would not bring a separate lawsuit against Google. Ms. Steinbeck is the wife of the late John Steinbeck’s son, Thomas, also a novelist. Other groups, however, staunchly oppose the agreement.
BLOOMINGTON, IN /AUTHORLINK NEWS/January 28, 2010--Author Solutions (ASI), with an initiative to become the world’s largest publisher of original digital content, is hitting a few brick walls from traditional writers’ organizations. The company, which has recently signed agreements with Harlequin and Thomas Nelson to develop self-publishing imprints, faces stiff opposition from Romance Writers of America, Mystery Writers of American, and Science Fiction Writers Association, who oppose the move of traditional publishers into the subsidy publishing business.
ANN ARBOR, Mich./Authorlink News/January 26, 2010--Borders Group Board Chairman Mick McGuire today announced that Ron Marshall has resigned as President, Chief Executive Officer and a Director of the company, effective immediately. Marshall has accepted the role of Chief Executive Officer with another publicly held retailer, but will assist Borders in the process of transitioning to new leadership. Only a week ago, Borders issued a statement debunking a debtwire.com article that claimed Borders has extended the length of time it takes to pay its small publisher vendors by 40%.
NEW YORK, NY/AUTHORLINK NEWS/January 25, 2010--HarperCollins Publishers has broadened its digital publishing initiative with the launch this week of inkpop (www.inkpop.com). The company calls it the first interactive writing platform for teens to be backed by a major U.S. publisher. Inkpop, created by HarperTeen to attract young readers and writers, combines community publishing, user-generated content, and social networking to connect rising stars in teen literature with talent-spotting readers and publishing professionals.
NEW YORK, NY/AUTHORLINK NEWS/January 28, 2010—A steady stream of big-name authors are signing exclusive deals with Amazon.com’s Kindle. The latest author (and first from the UK) to sign with Amazon is Booker Prize Winner Ian McEwan, according to The Bookseller. The deal, which reportedly will double McEwan’s royalties to 50% for five backlist titles, was secured through e-book publisher, Rosetta Books. Stephen Covey and Paulo Coelhoe also have signed similar deals at Amazon.
NEW YORK, NY/AUTHORLINK NEWS/January 28, 2010--Barnes & Noble has confirmed that earlier this month the company laid off an undisclosed number of digital-division employees, including its director of digital content, Mike Ferrari, according to an online report at Daily finance.
SEATTLE, NEW YORK /AUTHORLINK NEWS/January 27, 2010—Amazon.com, Inc., Penguin Group (USA) and CreateSpace are accepting submissions for the third annual Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award competition at www.amazon.com/abna now through midnight EST on February 7, 2010.
La VERGNE, TN/AUTHORLINK NEWS/January 20, 2010--Ingram Publisher Services Inc. late last week signed a new distribution agreement with award winning Canadian publisher Fitzhenry & Whiteside.
BOSTON, MASS./AUTHORLINK NEWS/January 19, 2010—Random House carried home six top awards yesterday in the American Library Association’s 2010 Youth Media Awards. Winners of the Caldecott and Newbery awards were announced at the ALA’s conference in Boston.
ANN ARBOR, MICH/AUTHORLINK NEWS/January 18, 2010—Borders Group this week reported that consolidated sales for the 11-week holiday period ended Jan. 16, 2010 declined 13.7% from the same period last year to $846.8 million.
NEW YORK, NY/AUTHORLINK NEWS/January 18, 2010—The American Library Association today announced winners of the 2010 Newbery and Caldecott awards at its midwinter conference in Boston.
NEW YORK, NY/AUTHORLINK NEWS/January 18, 2010—Book sales for the month of November 2009 increased by 10.9 per cent at $808.5 million and increased by 4.9 percent for the year, The Association of American Publishers (AAP) reports.
NEW YORK, NY/AUTHORLINK NEWS/January 20, 2010—Amazon.com announced this week that it will increase royalties for authors and publishers for books sold on the Kindle e-book reader. Effective June 30, authors and publishers will earn 70 percent of a book’s list price, less delivery costs. The new royalty rate is limited to e-books priced between $2.99 and $9.99 and to those titles whose list price is 20 percent below the lowest price for the physical book.
NEW YORK, NY/AUTHORLINK NEWS/01/13/10-- Barnes & Noble College Booksellers, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Barnes & Noble, Inc. has created a multi-channel textbook rental program for college students that the company says could result in millions of dollars of savings for college students across America. Announced this past Monday, Barnes & Noble College is the first nationwide bookseller to offer a multi-channel program.
NEW YORK, NY/AUTHORLINK NEWS/01/13/10--Barnes & Noble, Inc. reported a 5% decrease in store sales over the nine-week holiday period from November 1, 2009, to January 2, 2010. The world's largest bookseller had sales of $1.1 billion for the period, with comparable store sales sliding own 5.4%. The online store, Barnesandnoble.com, however, had a 17% increase for the period, with holiday sales total $134 million.
AUTHORLINK NEWS/01/13/10--The Christian Booksellers Association (CBA), last week asked the Department of Justice to investigate what they call "illegal, predatory pricing" by Amazon.com, Target and Wal-Mart. Similar actions have been taken by the American Booksellers Association.
SAN FRANCISCO/AUTHORLINK NEWS/01/13/10--The majority of local news still originates from newspapers and their web sites, despite the growth of the Internet, according to a study by Pew Research center's Project for Excellence in Journalism, as reported on the blog, Taragana.
NEW YORK, NY/AUTHORLINK NEWS/01/14/10--Farrar, Straus and Giroux will launch an eponymous imprint called Margaret Ferguson Books in 2011, naming the unit after the 30-year editorial veteran at FSG.
Published Thursday, January 14, 2010 (for the sales week ended Sunday, January 10, 2010). Based on reporting from many hundreds of independent
bookstores across the United States. For information on more titles, please visit www.IndieBound.org
NEW YORK, NY/AUTHORLINK NEWS/January 13, 2010--Scott Lubeck has begun his new job as executive director of the Book Industry Study Group and will preside over the January 21 BISG board meeting.
