HarperCollins

Thursday Links Round Up: Rupert Murdoch Is Unhappy

In the ereading category: Sony officially announced its two new ebook readers to be available at the end of the month. The more affordable device has a 5″ screen, no external memory card, 512 internal MB on board (that will allow you to load over 500 books depending on the format), and will come in(…)

Harlequin’s Profits Are Up and HarperCollins Profits Are Down

The good news is that Harlequin is following up its successful FY2008 4th quarter with a FY2009 1st quarter profit.   Revenue in the first quarter rose $13.5% and operating income increased 19.1%.   Even including the forex effect, both sales and profits are showing positive gains.   The gains were in North American Retail and Overseas.   (I(…)

Wednesday Mid Afternoon Links

HarperCollins reorganized and announced some layoffs.   First, the Collins imprint lavishly launched just three months ago got the ax.   The entire imprint is being swallowed into HarperCollins with the president and publisher being let go.   Bowen Press, YA imprint started in 2007 and set to launch this spring, is also shuttered.   All Bowen titles will(…)

HarperCollins Closes “Collins” Branch and Layoffs Are Ensuing

Twitterers broke the news this morning that HarperCollins layoffs are occurring right now. No names have been released yet. Following on the heels of two dismal quarters, this should come as no surprise. Harper is also closing the “Collins Division.” According to PublishersMarketplace, the Collins’ imprint president and publisher is leaving as well as the(…)

Video Book Poll

[poll id="149"] HarperCollins debuted its first video book. For $10.00 you can watch a 23 min video of the author of What Would Google Do? Author gets a 25% royalty for these babies. I’m only paying if the authors do dramatic reenactments ala Gena Showalter’s interpretive dance of Kresley Cole books. Send to Kindle

Friday Midday Links of Webtailing

UPDATED LINKS: Rather than make a new post, I’m adding a few links to the existing one:    Greek opposition leader,  George Papandreou, argues for a Kindle for every reader. (Sony, get yourself to Greece Stat!).   Thanks Xandra G. UK’s RNA announces its shortlist which includes India Grey, a favorite of Meljean Brook, and Fiona Harper,(…)

Striking HarperCollins First Quarter Profit Loss from $36 M to $3 M

The numbers in this report is so shocking to me that I still don’t know if I am reading it right.    Unrelenting costs pressures combined with a 4.5% decline in sales to drive down first quarter operating profit at HarperCollins to $3 million from $36 million in the last year’s fiscal first period. Revenue(…)

HarperStudio’s CEO, Bob Miller, Begins a Series on the Broken Publishing Model

Ask anyone with a business degree and they’ll tell you that the business publishing model is broken. For example, isn’t it crazy that unsold goods get to be returned for credit? What other business model allows for the manufacturer to shoulder all the risk? It’s either time to change or watch the traditional publishing industry(…)

Jane Friedman to Leave HarperCollins

Jane Friedman has been the CEO of HarperCollins for over 10 years and has navigated them through record years of profit. She is, however, stepping down immediately with no plans announced for the future. The rumor of her departure was bandied about yesterday and HarperCollins was forced to issue a late press release confirming the(…)

Avon + The Sak = Brilliant

Avon and The Sak has teemed up to give away a handbag and books each month. This month’s giveaway is the Silverlake Canvas Convertible Satchel($99 retail value) filled with two Meg Cabot books, 1 Rachel Gibson book and 1 Marion Keyes book. The giveaway is for 15 sets of the books + bag combo. It’s(…)

Eliminating Returns May Reduce Waste but Might Also Reduce Sales

HarperCollins is experimenting with a no return policy. According to the GalleyCat article yesterday, 31% of books printed are returned to the publishers. Removing the right of return would reduce environmental waste. However, no returns will likely result in fewer books ordered by the chain stores. Independents might eliminate ordering books with no returns altogether.(…)

Dear Author Giveaway You Won’t Want to Miss

I’ve never said that before, have I? Before I get to the upcoming news, let me remind the readers that there were two outstanding Caroline Linden ARC’s for her June book, A Rake’s Guide to Seduction. Two readers didn’t come forward so I am re-opening the opportunity. Caroline Linden writes smart historicals. I’ve always thought(…)

Harper Collins Has Paid an Expert Hacker to Develop Pirating Software for 10 years

This falls into the “how did I miss this article” category. News Corp has been accused of hiring hackers to spy on rival Dish network “in a scheme to deprive a competitors of hundreds of millions of dollars. The big news was that in testimony, a computer hacker admitted that he had been paid on(…)

Harper Collins New Studio to Test New Author Paying System

There was a Publishers Weekly alert about Robert S. Miller, former head of Hyperion, moving to HarperCollins to create a new “publishing studio.” I ignored it because it didn’t seem very interesting but three authors emailed me the story this morning so I thought I would post it. I admit I don’t really understand all(…)

Harper Rebounds

As reported by Publishers Marketplace A Better Quarter for Harper HarperCollins rebounded in their fiscal second quarter after a “terrible” first quarter, with sales rising 3 percent compared to a year ago to $406 million and income of $67 million–up $13 million from the same time last year, though that was the quarter in which(…)