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 [...]
Peter W. Olson has run Random House since 1998 but will be stepping down in the next couple of weeks due to lowered profits and “steep losses in its American book clubs.” I have no idea what effect that will have on Bantam/Dell or Ballantine, but I’ve always found those houses to offer great [...]
In one of the industry news pieces I did this past week was a report of Amazon challenging New York State’s intent to impose a sales tax on internet sales. A commenter indicated that this was good because it helped to encourage people to shop locally.
On the surface, this argument is compelling. Force [...]
Amazon wants to be Queen of the World (TM Titanic) and is miffed that publishers in the UK are encouraging consumers to buy directly from the publishers’ sites. To entice readers to buy direct, the publishers are undercutting the prices of the books available at Amazon. This makes perfect sense to me as [...]
Borders has successfully refinanced the terms of the loan from Pershing Square Capital Management. The overseas operations are still for sale which I understand will help Borders quite a bit if they can unload.
More details that I really don’t understand are here at Publishers Weekly.
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 [...]
