Interesting News in Publishing, August 2016

Interesting News in Publishing, August 2016

Companies

ADVENT
Advent sells book retailer Thalia to German publishers
family

The German Herder family acquired a majority stake in Thalia, which has 280 stores in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, making it the biggest book…
Reuters

AMAZON
Amazon Denies Server Hack As Kindle User Data Goes Up For Sale
E-commerce giant Amazon said a trove of user data recently published online did not come from its servers, while a computer security analyst said the…
TechWeekEurope UK

How Jeff Bezos Is Hurtling Toward World Domination
“The clouds surrounding Amazon.com are thickening,” began the….It has tried this before, with Amazon Publishing, but these new ventures are far…
Newsweek

Amazon Launches Kindle Singles Classics
Amazon announced today the launch of Kindle Singles Classics, a new…Fulfillment by Amazon, AWS, Kindle Direct Publishing, Kindle, Fire tablets…
Digital Book World

Amazon’s Career Choice Program Helps 7000 Employees Pursue New Careers in High-Demand
Since its inception four years ago, more than 7,000 Amazon employees in 10…In addition to the Career Choice Program, full-time hourly Amazon…Fulfillment by Amazon, AWS, Kindle Direct Publishing, Kindle, Fire tablets, Fire TV…
Business Wire

APPLE
Apple App Store Anti-Competitive? Spotify, Sen. Warren Think So
After being punished for antitrust violations in the e-books field, Apple (AAPL) is facing renewed accusations of anti-competitive behavior related to…
Investor’s Business Daily

BARNES & NOBLE
Barnes & Noble Announces Exclusive Publishing Partnership with Adaptive Studios
Through this exclusive partnership, Barnes & Noble is the only retailer to offer a leading selection of titles from Adaptive Books, the publishing imprint…
Business Wire

BOOKBABY
BookBaby Launches e-Book Editing Service for $1200
BookBaby has just announced that they have a new editing service available to self-published authors. They will copy edit a 60,000-word eBook for…
Good E-Reader

BOOKSHARE
Bookshare Extends Ebook Access to TX Students with Print Disabilities
That’s central to the mission of Bookshare, a free, cloud-based ebook library that provides print-disabled readers with access to more than 440,000…
School Library Journal

CHATEBOOKS
ChatEbooks Breaks New Ground with E-Marketplace
It is no surprise that downloadable ebooks have revolutionized the publishing industry over the…
Newswire

GOOGLE
Google Play Matches Apple on Family Sharing of Apps, Books and Video
Android users will finally be able to do something that iPhone owners have been able to do for the last two years: share apps, games, books and video…
Wall Street Journal

HACHETTE
Hachette, Booktrack Partner to Offer Teens E-Books with Music
Hachette’s Little, Brown Books for Young Readers is partnering with Booktrack, a technology platform offering customizable soundtracks and sound…
Publishers Weekly

Hachette Book Group Reorganizes Sales Staff
Hachette Book Group has restructured its sales staff in the wake of its…has added Laura Fernandez as coordinator working on Hachette U.K. titles.
Publishers Weekly

Hachette’s Profits Up 180% So Far This Year
…went live with a major new distribution client, opened a new warehouse, and created a joint venture,” stated Michael Pietsch, CEO at Hachette Book…
GalleyCat

E-book revenue drop hits Hachette UK’s first half
Hachette UK’s revenues for the first half of 2016 fell 4.7% like-for-like, due to “negative comparison effects” and falling e-book revenues, parent…
The Bookseller

Hachette Partners with Tapas in Push for Mobile Reading
Tapas Media announced today that it has partnered with Hachette Book Group and will release several of the publisher’s titles, including Ben Winters’s
Digital Book World

Hachette US adds titles to mobile platform Tapas Media
Hachette Book Group has signed a new deal in the US with online mobile platform Tapas Media. Tapas will be releasing several titles by Hachette…
The Bookseller

HOUGHTON MIFFLIN
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Appoints Tracey Weber to Board of Directors
Learning company Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH) today announced that Tracey Weber, former…
PR Newswire

IDW
Drew Ford Launches New Graphic Novel Reprint Line – Using Kickstarter Funding – at IDW
The book’s Kickstarter edition raised $19,785 (the goal was $15,000). It will be released to Kickstarter backers in November and IDW’s bookstore trade…
Publishers Weekly

LBRY
Blockchain content sharing app LBRY declares independent from Google, Apple and Amazon
LBRY, the decentralised content sharing and publishing platform owned by its users, has released a Beta version of its app, coinciding with more…
International Business Times UK

MICROSOFT
Annual Free Microsoft eBooks Giveaway
Eric Ligman, Microsoft’s Director of Sales Excellence, is once again kicking off his annual effort to give away as many free Microsoft eBooks as…
Windows IT Pro

Microsoft waves goodbye to Microsoft Press Editorial Team, as it lets all of its staff go
The Microsoft Press editorial staff was a group of individuals tasked with creating Microsoft-related book projects for publication. Editorial staffers were…
WinBeta

PEARSON
First-half sales leap for PRH, but Pearson drops
Pearson commented on PRH’s “solid performance”, with the business benefiting from hits including the UK-originated The Girl on the Train which…
The Bookseller

SIMON & SCHUSTER
S&S Profits Up But Sales Slip
Second quarter revenue fell 6.0% at Simon & Schuster compared to the second period of 2015, but operating income rose 4.0%, parent company CBS…
Publishers Weekly

S&S India steps up local publishing with new editorial director
Simon & Schuster is stepping up its local publishing in India and has hired an editorial director to head up a new list. Dharini Bhaskar will join S&S…
The Bookseller

Simon & Schuster and Hazelden Publishing Enter Distribution Agreement
Hazelden Publishing was founded in 1954 with the publication of Twenty-Four Hours a Day, a book of meditations that is now a mainstay in recovery…
Yahoo Finance

International

Publishing industry remains confident post-Brexit
More than 70% of publishers remain committed to their business investment plans despite Britain’s vote to leave the European Union, a survey of UK…
Booktrade.info

Brexit: The ripple effect
But we’ve got to acknowledge that in publishing we have something…book publishing worldwide, children’s literacy outreach); on the other, Millie…
The Bookseller

UK’s biggest publisher on the hunt for talented BAME authors
A nationwide campaign to find, mentor and publish new writers from under-represented communities has been launched by the UK’s book…
The Voice Online

Fearing Islamist reprisal, French publisher revises decision to publish book critical of Islam
But after the attack in Nice, the publishing house decided not to publish the book at all, as it fearful of the consequence — as stated in [their] email…
legal Insurrection

Publishers take on China at Hong Kong book fair
Hong Kong’s feisty publishing industry vowed to take on China by selling books critical of Beijing, despite the disappearances of five city booksellers…
Daily Mail

Chinese Court Sentences American Publisher to Prison
Another book publisher, Yiu Mantin, was sentenced to 10 years in prison in 2014 — for smuggling industrial chemicals — just as he was preparing to…
New York Times

Watchdog to prosecute publishers of indecent content in the wake of Hong Kong Book Fair
The Office of Film, Newspaper and Article Administration has confirmed prosecutions against one publisher and seized hundreds of other titles at the…
South China Morning Post

Trends

US Publishing Industry’s Annual Survey Reveals Nearly $28 Billion in Revenue in 2015
Publishers saw increased revenue from trade book sales at physical retail stores, growing 1.8%. More than 610 million trade book units were sold in…
Yahoo Finance

Publishers’ Dilemma: Judge A Book By Its Data Or Trust The Editor’s Gut?
Publishing is a notoriously risky business. A publishing house might give a first-time author a six-figure deal, only to see the book flop.
NPR

Here’s Why E-Book Sales From Major Publishers Are Plummeting
U.S. publishers took in $2.8 billion from sales of trade e-books in 2015, down 11% from the prior year, according to an annual report from Association…
Fortune

US publishers saw February revenue rise
Children’s/YA books had $101.2m in sales in February 2016, up 17% from…In terms of formats for trade books, paperback, downloaded audio and…
The Bookseller

The Top New e-Reading Apps for Android – 2016
With tons of FREE eBooks and NYT Bestsellers, BookShout is a top reading app for book lovers! Now integrated with the Spritz speed reader, you can…
Good E-Reader

What booksellers might learn from airlines
But what if the same seat-pricing model were to be applied to books?…Book publishers already offer hardbacks, paperbacks and the occasional…
The Bookseller

Scholastic Reports Q4 and Fiscal 2016 Results and Fiscal 2017 Outlook
“Strong children’s book publishing, available both through retail and our school-based clubs and fairs channels, along with customized curriculum…
PR Newswire

PRH hunts for writers from ‘under-represented’ communities
The WriteNow scheme aims to find and publish new writers who are “under-represented in books and publishing”. Targeted groups are writers from…
The Bookseller

Can serialized fiction convert binge watchers into binge readers?
As TV dramas get better and better, book publishers are hoping to convert binge TV watchers into binge readers. Serialized books have a long history…
Minnesota Public Radio News

Author incomes halved in past 15 years
Falling book prices have dramatically reduced the capacity for writers to…Over 15% of authors have self-published a print book or an e-book in the…
ArtsHub

Publishing Scam Artists: How to Spot Them
Vanity presses, otherwise known as “self-publishing companies” or “subsidy publishers,” will publish any book written by anyone with a large bank…
Huffington Post

Trusted Media Brands Cuts Children’s Book Publisher
Trusted Media Brands Inc., formerly known as the Reader’s Digest Association, is closing Studio Fun International US, a publishing property that…
Booktrade.info

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