People want stories and that means cultivating a publishing ecosystem where big and small can flourishThis week both the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority and the Department of Justice in the US announced investigations into the planned $2.2bn acquisition of the publisher Simon & Schuster by Bertelsmann, which already owns Penguin Random House. The merger, if allowed, would see Bertelsmann have almost one-third of English-language book sales. The move follows a year when a population cocooned at home, reaching for comfort reading, inflated the profits of big publishers. Bloomsbury and Pan Macmillan recently announced that they would be returning furlough payments; HarperCollins did not take them.Many of the UK’s smaller publishers fared rather differently: a Bookseller survey last summer found 60% feared they would cease to exist by autumn. Indies tend not to have the backlists full of household names that, say, a Penguin has; they depend far more on serendipity, on a customer wandering into a shop intending to buy one thing but coming out with something else as well. This happens far less with online shopping; at least one publisher lost up to 90% in sales. Some also found it difficult to qualify for furlough. They took to social media to announce their plight, or to try new selling tactics; some crowdfunded; some received emergency Arts Council England cash. Many were dragged back from the brink, for which we should be grateful. Continue reading... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2021-03-28 17:25:47 UTC ]
Penguin Random House's parent company Bertelsmann has reported its highest first half for 12 years with €8.6bn group revenues, with PRH’s successful performance attributed to “strong bestsellers, high growth rates in audio formats, and acquisitions”. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-08-29 03:19:02 UTC ]
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Bloomsbury imprint Green Tree will publish a “heartfelt” book about female incontinence by writer Luce Brett entitled PMSL: Or How I Literally Pissed Myself Laughing and Survived the Last Taboo to Tell the Tale. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-08-29 01:52:50 UTC ]
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The calendar of an indie bookseller requires lots of planning ahead, but can cause some seasonal confusion. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2019-08-28 12:00:49 UTC ]
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The Royal Society Science Book Prize shortlist for 2019 has been revealed with nominations for indies Icon, Bloomsbury and Atlantic. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-08-27 01:50:28 UTC ]
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Pan Macmillan has snapped up rights to two new major business books, with plans to publish in 2021. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-08-26 18:00:07 UTC ]
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A heart-warming love letter to books and bookshops, by an amenable fellow turned antisocial old misanthrope“I was in here two years ago and you had a book by Roger Penrose. Do you know what happened to it?” Shaun Bythell – owner of the Book Shop in Wigtown, Galloway – has 100,000 books in stock,... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2019-08-24 10:58:38 UTC ]
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Orion scooped two prizes at The Book Marketing Society’s latest seasonal awards, with wins for Penguin Random House and Pan Macmillan too. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-08-23 01:57:04 UTC ]
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News Corp wants to give people an alternative to Google News and Apple News. The media company that owns Dow Jones Newswires and HarperCollins is working on its own news aggregation service, reported The Wall Street Journal. The service will be calle... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2019-08-22 21:14:00 UTC ]
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In this new era of mutual assistancem a bookseller offers his advice to Amazon regarding the counterfeit books issue. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2019-08-22 11:00:16 UTC ]
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Bookselling Without Borders has given US booksellers international industry contacts, and now a retailer from Germany will be at the ABA's Winter Institute. The post German Bookseller Florian Valerius Is a 2020 Fellow for ABA Winter Institute appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2019-08-22 05:30:29 UTC ]
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Former Bloomsbury publisher Richard Atkinson is joining Penguin Press as publishing director in September. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-08-19 17:59:21 UTC ]
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Little, Brown imprint Sphere has appointed Viking’s Rosanna Forte and Callum Kenny from Bloomsbury as editors working across the fiction list. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-08-14 16:12:18 UTC ]
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Conversations with three-year-olds are just the cure for a case of bookseller doldrums. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2019-08-12 12:00:27 UTC ]
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Cecil Woolf was indeed generous and sociable. Two years ago I visited his home and publishing headquarters off Mornington Crescent in north London, to buy some Bloomsbury Heritage monographs while researching my book Virginia Woolf at Home, on the houses she knew in London, Cornwall and Sussex.I... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2019-08-11 16:09:37 UTC ]
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Scholar working on the show says the author’s estate has refused permission to depict any of the events shown in Peter Jackson’s filmsA JRR Tolkien expert working on Amazon’s forthcoming multi-series adaptation of The Lord of the Rings has claimed that the retail and streaming giant has been... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2019-08-09 15:27:18 UTC ]
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An indie bookseller urges the American Booksellers Association to enhance its website for the good of booksellers everywhere. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2019-08-09 04:00:00 UTC ]
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HarperCollins division HQ is to publish Rising Hope, an illustrated cookbook from Luminary Bakery, founded by Alice Williams. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-08-09 03:04:25 UTC ]
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James Daunt fought Amazon and rescued the country’s biggest bookstore chain. Now comes Chapter 2. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2019-08-08 10:00:05 UTC ]
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Bloomsbury has won a first-hand account of postpartum psychosis by Curtis Brown associate agent Catherine Cho, in a six-way auction. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-08-07 09:49:35 UTC ]
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Bloomsbury has won a 15-publisher bidding war for a book on grief by podcaster Cariad Lloyd, in “one of the fiercest auctions” managed by agent Nelle Andrew of PFD, for a "significant" six-figure deal. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-08-04 20:54:25 UTC ]
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