New Amazon Buy Button Program Draws Ire of Publishers, Authors
publishersweekly.com – Tuesday May 9, 2017
A new program from Amazon is drawing a range of reactions from those across the publishing industry, from fear to downright anger. The e-tailer has started allowing third-party book re-sellers to "win" buy buttons on book pages. The program, publishers, agents, and authors allege, is discouraging customers from buying new books, negatively affecting sales and revenue.
A Tournament of Words: The way publishers discover authors just changed forever.
pressreleaserocket.net – Saturday April 29, 2017
SEATTLE, WA – 29 Apr, 2017 – Before children dreamed of becoming popstars and actors, they dreamed of becoming authors. Social writing platform Prose has announced joining forces with publishing giant Simon & Schuster, whose legacy includes Ernest Hemingway, Carrie Fisher, and Stephen King.
Simon & Schuster’s editing team hopes to discover the next generation of great authors by utilizing Prose’s challenge feature and social integration, initially through a 500-2000 word writing challenge that ends June 1.
Record year for UK publishing
printweek.com – Saturday April 29, 2017
2016 was a record-breaking year for the UK publishing industry, according to the latest figures from the Publishers Association.
Sales of books and journals reached £4.8bn last year – their highest ever level. The increase in sales of 7% on the previous year is the largest growth in a decade, when in 2007 digital was included for the first time.
Physical book sales grew by 8% to £3bn, rising to the highest level since 2012. Overall digital sales, meanwhile, grew by 6% to £1.7bn despite a continuation of the drop in e-book sales, which fell by 3% to £538m.
Famous novelist turned down by over 100 publishers dies
usatoday.com – Thursday April 27, 2017
It was a novel that made history after it was turned down by more than 100 publishers. Robert Pirsig, author of “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance” has died. He was 88-years-old. Aaron Dickens reports.
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