HarperCollins

10 Things Publishers Have Been Doing (That We Should Celebrate)
July 16, 2014

Publishing is all too often, and all too easily, lambasted for all the things it does not do. But we should also acknowledge what has been happening. What publishers have been trying out and in what areas these initiatives have been working. 2014 has already been a sobering year for the business, with the loss of two redoutable indies (both scooped up by Hachette), and a continuing decline in sales of physical books (albeit at a slowing rate). But it has also been a year of innovation

Traditional Publishing Is 'No Longer Fair Or Sustainable', Says Society of Authors
July 14, 2014

After figures released this week showed professional authors' median annual incomes have collapsed to to £11,000, The Society of Authors' chief executive has claimed that traditional publishers' terms "are no longer fair or sustainable".

Earlier this week, the Authors' Licensing & Collecting Society released a survey of almost 2,500 writers which found that the median income of a professional author last year was £11,000, down 29% since 2005 - a period in which median earnings for UK employees have fallen by 8%.

Consumer Review of Oyster & Scribd Ebook Services
July 11, 2014

Two startups are trying to do for ebooks what Netflix does for movies. Oyster and Scribd let you read as many books as you want for a monthly price - $10 for Oyster and $9 for Scribd. I was skeptical at first. I can never find enough time to read, and I'm picky about what I do read. I was worried about their limited book selections.

HarperCollins Launches Direct-to-Consumer Sales Site
July 8, 2014

HarperCollins has relaunched its US website, with direct to consumer print and e-book sales.

On the new US site, e-books will be available to readers around the world if HarperCollins holds rights. Print books will only be available within the US.

In a statement, the publisher said: "The capability to sell directly will enable the company to better understand consumer preferences and, most importantly, further extend the global reach of its authors." It added that authors would be able to use the technology to sell directly through their own sites.

 

Authors' Incomes Collapse to 'Abject' Levels
July 8, 2014

Will Self's lament for the death of the novel earlier this summer has been cast into stark relief by "shocking" new statistics which show that the number of authors able to make a living from their writing has plummeted dramatically over the last eight years, and that the average professional author is now making well below the salary required to achieve the minimum acceptable living standard in the UK. According to a survey of almost 2,500 working writers - the first comprehensive study of author earnings in the UK since 2005

Slowing Ebook Sales May Embolden Publishers in Amazon Spat
June 27, 2014

With Amazon.com (AMZN) CEO Jeff Bezos battling major publishers to divvy up the economic spoils of the book market, both sides could point to seemingly good news in the latest industry statistics.

U.S. publishers collected about $3 billion in trade ebook sales last year, virtually unchanged from 2012, according to the new report from the Bookstats Project, jointly produced by the Association of American Publishers and the Book Industry Study Group. Total revenue from print and digital books in the trade category, which excludes textbooks and journals, declined 2% to $14.6 billion.

The Part of the Hachette-Perseus Deal You Didn’t Hear About: It Involves 400 Leading Indie Publishers
June 26, 2014

In the New York Times coverage, for example, the fact that hundreds of indie publishers were part of the deal doesn’t show up until — well, it doesn’t really show up at all. The fact that Perseus even had a “distribution arm” doesn’t appear until paragraph seven, but you’d have to know what “distribution arm” meant to really get it, and even then it only merits half a sentence: “Under the terms of the deal, Hachette would keep the Perseus publishing business,

Open Road Fires Back at HarperCollins in Copyright Case
June 24, 2014

In a court filing, Open Road attorneys last week assailed what it called HarperCollins' "extreme" proposal for an injunction and more than $1.1 million in legal fees and damages to settle claims stemming from Open Road's unauthorized e-book edition of Jean Craighead George's Julie of the Wolves.

Claiming that the Harper proposal is based on "a misleading portrayal" of the facts, Open Road attorneys argued that not only has Harper not suffered the kind of irreparable harm necessary to justify its proposed remedy, in fact it has not suffered any harm at all.

Hachette Reveals Amazon Digital Sales Share
June 12, 2014

Amazon has a 78% market share of Hachette Livre e-book titles in the UK and a 60% share in the US, an Investor Day presentation by Hachette Livre has revealed. The presentation, made public on the company's website and first reported by Publishers Marketplace, has shed fresh light into how hard the publisher must be being hit by its current row over terms with Amazon in the US, which has seen pre-ordering removed from selected Hachette Book Group titles. The presentation has also discussed a necessary "rebalancing" between the company's US and UK operations.