Amazon reducing discounts?

Now that Amazon has snared a major part of the market, the time may have come for greater profit-taking...

Now, that's a scary thought, explored by an article in the New York Times.

As they say, "Now, with Borders dead, Barnes & Noble struggling and independent booksellers greatly diminished, for many consumers there is simply no other way to get many books than through Amazon. And for some books, Amazon is, in effect, beginning to raise prices."       

Or, to put it more precisely, Amazon is reducing the discount on the list price of the book.

So far, it looks as if the reduced discounts apply only to slow-selling titles from more obscure and academic presses, but it could turn into a storewide initiative.

Maybe it has been the plan all along?  As Digital Book World comments, the moment that everyone in the book industry has feared could be nigh.

Penguin Random House

Top honchos worldwide announced

The list is in Publishers Weekly...

But what is in store for people who were top-tier until this merger?

CEO of Penguin Random House worldwide, Markus Dohle, is on a worldwide tour to regional offices, undoubtedly to break good or bad news.

There is a surprise already.  Gabrielle Coyle who was named CEO of Asia-Pacific (including Australia and New Zealand) and Gaurav Shrinagesh, CEO of Penguin Random India, are going to be overseen by the deputy CEO of Penguin Random House U.K., Ian Hudson.

The rest of the list:

John Makinson, formerly Penguin Group chairman, has been named chairman of Penguin Random House.

Coram Williams, formerly CFO of the Penguin Group, will now serve in a dual role as chief financial officer for Penguin Random House in the U.S. and worldwide, and will oversee Random House Studio, the film and TV studio; corporate services; and Penguin Random House’s self-publishing service, Author Solutions.

David Shanks, former CEO of Penguin Group USA, who had already planned to retire at the end of 2013, has stepped down and will now serve as senior executive adviser to Dohle and to the U.S. executive team.

Madeline McIntosh, former COO of Random House U.S., has been appointed president and COO of Penguin Random House U.S., overseeing sales, operations, fulfillment, IT, and digital operations companywide.

Kathy Trager has been named executive v-p and general counsel of Penguin Random House U.S.

Brad Martin, formerly president and CEO of Random House of Canada, is now CEO of Penguin Random House in Canada.

In the U.K., Gail Rebuck has been appointed chair of the Penguin Random House U.K. board and to the Global Penguin Random House board, and she will continue as a member of the Bertelsmann Group Management Committee.

Also in the U.K., Tom Weldon, previously CEO at the Penguin Group U.K., is now CEO for Penguin Random House in the U.K.

Ian Hudson has been named deputy CEO of Penguin Random House U.K., a position he held previously at Random House U.K. In addition, Hudson will also serve as CEO of Penguin Random House International (English-language), overseeing Penguin Random House operations in Australia, New Zealand, India, South Africa, and Asia.

In addition, Nuría Cabutí has been named CEO of the PRH operations in Spain and Latin America, where the company will continue to operate under the name Random House Mondadori. And John Duhigg, CEO of Dorling Kindersley, will be responsible for Dorling Kindersley business worldwide.

Also appointed with global and U.S. responsibilities at Penguin Random House are Frank Steinert, chief human resources officer; Stuart Applebaum, communications; and Milena Alberti, corporate development.

Mixed week for women in publishing

HarperCollins and Random lose female heads

 

 

The same week that Gabrielle Coyne was put in charge of the Asia-Pacific arm of the new monster conglomerate, Penguin Random, there was bad news for women in UK publishing.

 

The day after the merger of Penguin and Random House was accompanied by the announcement that Gail Rebuck, chairman and chief executive of Random House UK since 1991, would step down from the day-to-day running of the UK arm of the business to take the strategic role of chairman, the news broke that Victoria Barnsley (pictured) was leaving HarperCollins UK after 13 years as chief executive.

Barnsley's resignation occurred on the eve of her annual summer authors' party at the Orangery in Kensington Gardens (a pleasure house bequeathed by an earlier beleaguered monarch, Queen Anne) which, as she noted on the night, "has become my leaving do". She cited the irony of HarperCollins winning a publisher of the year award under her leadership just a year ago (an award Rebuck's Random House took for 2012 two months ago).

Barnsley joked: "As my colleagues have told me my one great weakness is I'm not really good at managing up, and I think the last few days I have really realised that."

Though her speech was light on bitterness, it tellingly lacked the usual "you'll be in good hands" tribute to her replacement, Charlie Redmayne, from JK Rowling's website, Pottermore.

As Guardian commentators Claire Armitstead and John Dugdale point out, "For those alarmed about the masculinisation of the British book trade, there's no shortage of other examples to point to. A few days earlier, on 30 June, Kate Swann, WH Smith's widely admired boss, stepped down; and six months before that, on 1 January, Marjorie Scardino retired after 13 years running Pearson, the owner of Penguin (it now owns 47% of the merged group). Both, like Barnsley and Rebuck, were replaced by men."

More alarming still is how the focus of power is moving to Manhattan.  As the Guardian also comments, "Last month's splitting up of Rupert Murdoch's media empire included the reallocation of oversight of HarperCollins's operations in India and Australasia from Barnsley in the UK to the worldwide chief executive, Brian Murray, who is based in Manhattan.

"Over at Penguin Random House a similar reorientation has been happening. The new British chief executive will be Penguin's Tom Weldon, with Gail Rebuck as chairman, but the overall group chief executive, Markus Dohle, will be based at the merged firm's headquarters in New York."

 

 

D**** Amazing

It's Angela Merkel's fault.

Since the German chancellor used the term "shit-storm" to describe the Eurozone fall-out, the word has become accepted currency in her homeland.

And now it has been officially included in the standard German dictionary.

Duden, the equivalent of the Oxford English Dictionary, has featured "shit-storm" in its latest update, saying that the (perhaps) controversial move merely reflects the common way of speech of  German-speaking people.

The Duden definition runs: "Noun, masculine - a storm of protest in a communications medium of the internet, associated in part with insulting remarks."

Ray Richards, RIP

I was saddened to read the death notice of Ray Richards, veteran literary agent, publisher and bibliophile

Ray Richards moved into the literary world after surviving the risky life of a Fleet Air Arm fighter pilot during World War II.  After ten years in publishing, he founded his own literary agency, and soon had built up a stable of fine children's writers, including Joy Cowley and Tessa Duder.  He also handled some other genres, and represented one of the best maritime historians around, Harry Morton.

Ray Richards passed away on 1 July 2013, in his 93rd year.  Today, Friday 5 July, there is a service to celebrate his inspirational career as a man of books and the sea, at the Naval Memorial Chapel of St Christopher, HMNZS Philomel, Devonport, Auckland.

Chief wizard quits Pottermore

From Digital Book World

Pottermore CEO Charlie Redmayne has left the company to become CEO of HarperCollins UK, replacing Victoria Barnsley, who had been at the publisher and in the position of CEO for 13 years.

The move comes two years after Redmayne left his position as chief digital officer of HarperCollins to head Pottermore, the Harry Potter digital destination. Redmayne will report to Brian Murray, HarperCollins worldwide CEO.

Redmayne made headlines in the book publishing world in March 2012 when he successfully led the launch of Pottermore, where readers could buy Harry Potter ebooks for the first time. One publishing consultant said Pottermore “changed the game” because it sold books directly to readers, forcing Amazon, Barnes & Noble and other retailers to sell as a third party and then refer customers to Pottermore for download.

So it is Penguin Random

And the CEO of Penguin Random House Asia Pacific is Gabrielle Coyne.

Back in 2003, Gabrielle Coyne (picture taken in 2011) was a mere book publicist, a few months into her job.  In the intervening years the young Australian zoomed into the top job, but news items about her are surprisingly scarce.  She has a linked-in page ... but otherwise her profile is low.

That, most probably, is due to become history.  The future course of Penguin Random, according to yesterday's announcement by global CEO Markus Dohle, is going to be managed by a committee ... and Ms Coyne's name features prominently on that influential list.

And here it is:

Núria Cabutí; Gina Centrello, president and publisher, Random House Publishing Group; Tony Chirico, president, Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group; Gabrielle Coyne; John Duhigg; Leslie Gelbman, president, Mass Market Paperbacks, Penguin Group U.S.; Ian Hudson; Barbara Marcus, president and publisher, Random House Children’s Books; Brad Martin; Maya Mavjee, president and publisher, Crown Publishing Group; Madeline McIntosh; Sonny Mehta, Chairman and editor-in-chief, Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group; Susan Petersen Kennedy, president, Penguin Group U.S.; Andrew Phillips, CEO, Author Solutions; Frank Steinert; Don Weisberg, president, Penguin Young Readers Group U.S.; Tom Weldon; and Coram Williams.

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Shakespeare questioned yet again...

From The BBC: story by Tim Masters

Award-winning author Ros Barber (pictured) spoke on Friday about the anger her debut novel had provoked with its controversial treatment of Shakespeare.

Barber's The Marlowe Papers won the £10,000 annual Desmond Elliott Prize for debut fiction on Thursday.

In the book, playwright Christopher Marlowe is revealed as the true author of Shakespeare's plays.

The judges described the novel - written entirely in verse - as a "unique historical conspiracy story".

The debate over the Shakespeare authorship question has gone on for decades.

Some academics argue that the Bard's plays were actually the work of someone else, with Francis Bacon, Edward de Vere - the 17th Earl of Oxford - and Christopher Marlowe among the most popular candidates.

"I've had more hostility early on and, as the book's become more successful, people have been less unpleasant about the underlying premise," Barber told the BBC, after her win was announced.

"I don't get emotional about it myself," she added. "I don't get cross with people if they lose their temper. If they feel exceedingly strongly about it, I say you can believe what you want to believe.

"It's a work of fiction. You can believe that Shakespeare of Stratford wrote the works and still enjoy it."

Barber said she was "thrilled, and a bit overwhelmed" to win the £10,000 Desmond Elliott Prize, which is named after the publisher and literary agent who died in 2003.

"The fact that it's in verse has caught a lot of people's attention," she said. "I know a lot of people are put off by the idea that it's in verse, but I hope the win will encourage them to read it."

Writing in blank verse, she added, had enabled her to give an "authentic sounding voice" to her characters.

"When I told people it was a story about Christopher Marlowe they'd say it sounded really exciting, and then I'd say it was in verse - and there would be a silence."

The former computer programmer worked on the book for four years as part of a PhD, and even remortgaged her house to help fund her studies.

Jean-Paul Sartre

Jean-Paul Sartre is sitting at a French cafe, revising his draft of Being and Nothingness. He says to the waitress, "I'd like a cup of coffee, please, with no cream." The waitress replies, "I'm sorry, Monsieur, but we're out of cream. How about with no milk?"

With thanks to Jacqueline Church Simonds