Product Launches

NORTH CAROLINA last month began an audit of online businesses, assuming that millions of dollars in sales taxes owed to the state had disappeared into the Internet.

(Press Release) San Mateo, Calif., May 3, 2010—BookRenter, the leading online textbook platform company, today announced that it is joining the fight against youth illiteracy by providing new books to the children who need them most. Starting today, with every rental order placed, BookRenter will fund the donation of new, age-appropriate books for children in need. Also, to enable customers to truly act locally, customers can choose the specific U.S. state where children will receive the books funded by their order.

181% Increase from 2008 to 2009 in the number of titles produced by self-publishers and "micro-niche" publishers, according to Bowker, a provider of bibliographic information management solutions. These types of publishers produced 764,448 titles last year.

Christian publishers have reported increased sales for the month of March over the same month last year, according to the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association (ECPA). These publishers also are showing an increase in net sales (sales-returns) for the first three months of this year. The month of March saw a gross-sales increase of just more than one percent, and a net sales increase of eight percent for March and two percent for the quarter. This is the first time the ECPA has seen a positive change in net sales in more than a year.

(PRESS RELEASE) LONDON, 26 April 2010 - International freight forwarder SBS has found a simple, "greener" way to fit more books inside the traditional sea container. It is a solution that allows publishers to save money (15% on freight costs) and trees (200 million) by allowing up to 30% more books to be loaded into the container.

Check out the video highlights from the 2010 Publishing Business Conference & Expo, featuring comments from conference chairs Chris Foster, President & COO, GIE Media; Samir Husni, aka "Mr. Magazine" and founder and director of the Magazine Innovation Center; and Clint Greenleaf, president and CEO, Greenleaf Book Group, as well as from other attendees.

The London Book Fair has said that it will begin exploring "a number of options in recognition of the knock-on effect of reduced attendance" after the fair has closed today (21st April). Publishers and agents spoken to by The Bookseller on the final day remained surprisingly upbeat about the show, with widespread relief that overseas exhibitors could at least have easier return journeys after UK airspace finally reopened overnight.

On the morning of January 27th—an aeon ago, in tech time—Steve Jobs was to appear at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, in downtown San Francisco, to unveil Apple’s new device, the iPad. Although speculation about the device had been intense, few in the audience knew yet what it was called or exactly what it would do, and there was a feeling of expectation in the room worthy of the line outside the grotto at Lourdes. Hundreds of journalists and invited guests, including Al Gore, Yo-Yo Ma, and Robert Iger, the C.E.O. of Disney, milled around the theatre, waiting for Jobs to appear. The sound system had been playing a medley of Bob Dylan songs; it went quiet as the lights came up onstage and Jobs walked out, to the crowd’s applause.

(Press Release) Ann Arbor, Mich., April 20, 2010—Above the Treeline is pleased to announce that Macmillan has selected Edelweiss, Above the Treeline's interactive publisher catalog system, to publish selected frontlist catalogs on the web. Macmillan will pilot a number of key imprints for the fall 2010 selling season with an eye toward expanding to additional imprints in 2011. With the addition of Macmillan's frontlist titles, Edelweiss' web-based publisher catalogs will encompass more than 50,000 titles across 750 imprints from over 27 publishers.

MUMBAI (Reuters) — With the excitement around the launch of Apple's iPad and the growing popularity of other digital devices, it is a challenge to retain the romance of the printed book, according to the head of publisher Penguin.

The iPad, a cross between a smartphone and a laptop, is helping foster a market for tablet computers that is expected to grow to some 50 million units by 2014, and with it, also expand the market for e-books, which has been hard to crack.