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In the US, independent children’s publisher Barefoot Books has announced it will no longer sell books through Amazon, reports Digital Book World. The publisher said in a statement that it intends to focus efforts on its online store and other sales channels, including in-store boutiques and home-based direct sales using its...
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UK bookselling chain Waterstones is restructuring its bookshop management positions to put more emphasis on shop-floor bookselling, reports the Bookseller. Managing director James Daunt has sent an email informing staff that the roles of branch manager, assistant manager, general manager and deputy manager will be abolished, and that a new bookshop...
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In the US, Bowker, parent company of Books+Publishing owner Thorpe-Bowker, has launched SelfPublishedAuthor.com, a website designed to help authors self-publish their work. The website, which says its aim is to ‘guide independent authors to success’, offers industry and marketing advice, checklists, FAQs, a calendar of events and pieces written by successful self-published authors. Bowker...
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European booksellers have urged the European Commission to act over big retailers’ use of closed ebook ‘ecosystems’, reports the Bookseller. At the European and International Booksellers Federation (EIBF) conference held in Brussels on 16 May, booksellers warned against closed ebook systems that lock consumers into buying ebooks from one company. EIBF...
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In the US, another book discovery platform, BookLikes, has been launched. The platform allows users to create a personal webpage complete with blog, virtual bookshelf and reading timeline, and to share book reviews using pre-designed templates. Combining the features of a social network, a blog and a book-cataloguing website, the creators...
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As Apple prepares to face the US Department of Justice (DOJ) in a courtroom on 3 June over the DOJ’s ongoing ebook pricing lawsuit, an email from Apple co-founder Steve Jobs and James Murdoch from News Corporation has emerged, which the DOJ says is evidence that Apple and HarperCollins conspired, along with...
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US novelist E L Doctorow has been awarded one of the 2013 Gold Medals for the Arts by the American Academy of Arts and Letters, reports the New York Times. Sculptor Mark di Suvero also received a Gold Medal during a ceremony in New York this week, in which novelist Ward Just...
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In the UK, Amazon may face new questions in parliament about its British tax status, reports the Guardian. A recent investigation conducted by the Guardian suggests that British authorities could soon ‘take a much tougher line on taxing Amazon’s multibillion-pound British operations’, with MPs ‘ready to haul Amazon back to parliament...
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In the UK, Philip Hensher has won the 2013 RSL Ondaatje Prize, reports the Guardian. Hensher won the £10,000 (A$15,416) award for Scenes from Early Life (Fourth Estate), a novel about his husband’s upbringing in Bangladesh. He is the 10th winner of the Ondaatje Prize, which recognises work that ‘evokes a sense of place’. Five other...
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In the US, author Jeff Kinney and illustrator Robin Preiss Glasser have taken out the top awards at this year’s Children’s Book Council (CBC) Children’s Choice Book Awards. Kinney was named Author of the Year for The Third Wheel, the seventh instalment of his popular ‘Diary of a Wimpy Kid’ series...
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