Buddhapuss Ink

The Distant Shore "Love is in the Air" Blog Hop & Giveaways

2012-01-23T12:19:00.000-05:00

Launches on Wed, Jan. 25th! Follow Mariam Kobras as she is reviewed, interviewed or guest blogs her way to Valentine's Day.

What Can I Win?

Each winner will receive a copy of the Amazon Bestseller, The Distant Shore by Mariam Kobras PLUS one of these great prizes!

One Dozen Southern Red Velvet and Cream Cheese - Cake Truffles from HappyBakery on Etsy, to enjoy while reading this luscious book.

Tea Cup & Saucer Scented Candle from PamZFunkyJam on Etsy, to set the mood as you are transported to glamorous locales.

Moonlight Cobalt blue Beach Glass Necklace from MimosaMornings on Etsy, to slip around your neck and play out scenes from the book in your mind.

Pink Silk Rose Applique from ConeldasCreationson on Etsy, to pin on your most romatic hat before heading out for that secret rendezvous.

9 BBJ Mae Rose Bath Fizzles from ButterbyJolez on Etsy, to scent that long, hot bath before your evening out with that someone special, or just for a soak while devouring a good book like The Distant Shore!

Multipetaled Flower Brooch from ClytemnestrasCloset on Etsy, this brooch is 2.5" in diameter and made with vintage ribbon that changes from green to pink. The two leaves are made with vintage ribbon and the stamens in the center are vintage as well. All hand sewn, there is a felt backing with a bar pin. The perfect accent for that dreamy dress or scarf you'll wear. It's guaranteed to bewitch the subject of your affection just as the characters in The Distant Shore will bewitch you!

4 Rose Jasmine Natural Bath Teas from peachycreamcorner on Etsy. Drop one of these in your bath for a relaxing, romantic soak after a day with your beloved.

Buttons and Pearls Retractable Tape Measure from fairbanksfancygoods on Etsy. Does your love "measure up"?

One lucky winner will also win a box of tea directly from Harrod's in London, where Naomi and Jon take tea the day he proposes to her, and a Distant Shore Mug!

Four lucky winners will also receive one small box of Godiva Mini Hearts because love and chocolate just go together!

How Do I Enter?

Visit the each blog on the hop on the day Mariam is featured and leave a comment after that post. One comment per Blog. (possible 13 chances total)

How Can I Earn Additional Chances?

Tweet a link to each blog on the day Mariam is featured. (Must include the twitter tag #TDSBlogHop in order to be counted) (one chance per tweet)

Post a link on your Facebook page to that day's blog stop. Then leave us a comment at the end of THIS post (below) with a link to your Facebook post. (one chance per link)

Like us at Buddhapuss Ink on Facebook (one chance)

Like us at The Distant Shore on Facebook (one chance)

Follow us on twitter @Buddhapuss (one chance)

Visit any or all of the prize links above - then tweet a link to each shop! (by clicking the twitter bird on their shop page. You must include our twitter tag #TDSBlogHop in your tweet to be counted) (one chance per tweet)

Visit any or all of the prize links above - then click the Facebook button on their shop page. Then leave a comment at the end of this post with a link to your facebook post. (one chance per link)

That's a LOT of chances to win some very romantic prizes!

Where Will Mariam Be?
BLOG HOP STOPS

Wed Jan 25 Interview http://pjkaiser.com/2012/01/25/mariam-kobras/#idc-container

Thur Jan 26 Interview http://blog.fayerapoportdespres.com/?p=1408

Fri Jan 27 Guest Post http://chicklitreviewsandnews.com/2012/01/author-article-mariam-kobras-author-of-the-distant-shore/

Mon Jan 30 Guest Post http://serenitywriter.wordpress.com/2012/01/29/five-reasons-by-mariam-kobras/

Tue Jan 31 Guest Post http://www.samhilliard.com/wordpress/2012/01/30/distant-shore-love-is-in-the-air-blog-stop/

Wed Feb 1 Guest Post http://teresasreadingcorner.com/2012/02/01/author-spotlight-mariam-kobras-author-of-the-distant-shore/

Thur Feb 2 Review http://www.junyingkirk.com/?p=1492

Fri Feb 3 Interview http://dawnmkirby.wordpress.com/

Sat Feb 4 Review http://www.amberrisme.com/

Mon Feb 6 Interview http://marcidiehl.com/

Tue Feb 7 Guest Post http://www.elizabethawhite.com/

Wed Feb 8 Review http://www.carrickpublishing.com/

Thur Feb 9 Review http://tweet-treats.blogspot.com/

Fri Feb 10 Guest Post http://insatiablereaders.blogspot.com/

Sat Feb 11 Guest Post http://dudleydorights.blogspot.com/

Mon Feb 13 Review & Interview http://anadventureinreading.blogspot.com/

Tue Feb 14 - WINNERS WILL BE ANNOUNCED HERE, ON THE FACEBOOK EVENT PAGE, AND ON OUR WEBSITE.

NOTE: Contest is limited to US/CANADA Addresses only!

Searching for the Perfect Valentine’s Day Gift? This Author Has the Answer!

2012-01-20T13:57:00.000-05:00

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

January 17, 2012

Buddhapuss Ink LLC, a NJ based book publisher, announces the official release of The Distant Shore, a paperback original by Mariam Kobras.

The author made a splash last summer when she spent six weeks traveling around the US, giving readings and talks at libraries and book clubs, all while staying with friends she made on twitter! Her travels and the book were covered by the press around the country, including a television interview in VA. Buddhapuss Ink Publisher, MaryChris Bradley said, “We are incredibly keen on this series. Our company mission is to ‘Put our readers first’ and this book certainly fills the bill. The Distant Shore has had a fantastic response from our beta-readers who have been clamoring for the release of this book and the sequels.” The story unfolds when Jon—an international rock superstar—receives a letter from a son he never knew existed, and takes the reader along on a roller-coaster ride of fame, wealth, intrigue, and disaster, as he reunites with his long lost love, Naomi. Now, at last, this delicious love story with a light touch of suspense is ready to dazzle readers and just in time for Valentine’s Day!

A Blog Hop with a Valentine’s Day theme will start the last week in January and continue right up to the big day in February. “In addition to giving away books, we will be offering prizes that capture that romantic feeling like truffles, luxury bath and bed products, scented candles, and more,” said Bradley. “The details will be posted on our blog and website soon.”

Kobras, who has a large, close-knit following on twitter and Facebook, will also be doing online chats, and guest blogs promoting The Distant Shore, as well as Skype appearances with book groups and online group chats.

BUDDHAPUSS INK LLC is based in Edison, NJ. Founded in 2009, it is led by Publisher, MaryChris Bradley, a 27 year veteran in the book industry. “Our company mission is to ‘Put our readers first’ and we are committed to finding and growing new authors at a time when the major houses seem to have turned their backs on writers without an already well-established track record. “

Bradley can be contacted at

Publisher@BuddhapussInk.com

www.BuddhapussInk.com Website

http://buddhapussink.blogspot.com Company blog

@Buddhapuss twitter

A NOTE TO THE BOOK GODS AT AMAZON

2012-01-19T13:30:00.000-05:00

Dear Amazon,
I was disappointed and dismayed when you ignored the on sale date of Jan 17, 2012 for The Distant Shore and put it on sale as soon as you received the first shipment from us on Jan 3. But, we hustled around here trying to salvage some of our plans for the official launch date and moved them up, taking it in our stride.
But now, you've gone too far!
You have a shipment of the book sitting in your receiving area still not logged in. You've placed additional orders with us which we have also shipped to you. And now, today, you SOLD OUT of the stock you had logged as received and for some reason you decided to change the status on this book to OUT OF PRINT.
It is not OP, merely Out of Stock because someone hasn't gotten around to receiving the most recent shipment (despite tracking showing it has been on your dock since the 17th!).
You have our Confirmed PO for an additional shipment that goes out today.
Clearly this book is NOT OUT OF PRINT but merely out of stock in your system.
Please get it right Amazon. We have a lot of publicity about to start that features this book. We don't want a lot of confused buyers thinking that the book is no longer available!
Sign me frustrated,
MCB

Book Launch TWEETATHALON for The Distant Shore by @Mariam_Kobras

2012-01-17T07:53:00.000-05:00

Follow @Mariam_Kobras on twitter today as she celebrates the 'official' Launch Date of her new book The Distant Shore by tweeting the entire first chapter, one tweet as a time! Starts at 10AM ET!

ADVICE TO WRITERS

2012-01-14T10:40:00.000-05:00

I get asked this question a lot, "What advice would you give a budding writer?"

My best advice to any writer is to WRITE, a lot, and READ even more.

Read everything, even if it's not your cup of tea. Everything you read imprints itself on you, helping you find new ways to express your ideas.

READ more than you WRITE, and write all the time. Long pieces, short pieces, poems, prose, stories that go nowhere, and ones that take you to places you never imagined when you started them.

Keep a journal, pepper it with your thoughts, storyline ideas, short stories, drawings, pictures that inspire you, depress you, lift your heart and bring it down.

OBSERVE. Learn to keep your eyes and ears open all the time. Soak in everything you can. You never know when something you see, or hear will trigger a story, or character. Pay attention to what's going on around you, how the soft mist of the fog feels on your face, how the soft light of spring casts a different light on a world slowly coming back to life after the gloom of winter.

BE IN THE MOMENT.

This article may be copied and quoted as long as you include the byline below:
© 2012 by MaryChris Bradley, Publisher Buddhapuss Ink LLC, the proud publishers of The Last Track by Sam Hilliard, Mystery Times Ten 2011, the bestselling collection of Mystery Short Stories for the YA audience, and The Distant Shore by Mariam Kobras, Book I in the Stone Trilogy

Authors, be sure to check out our YA Mystery Short Story Competition - Mystery Times Ten 2012. Happy writing!

2012-01-04T13:46:00.000-05:00

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

January 4, 2012

Buddhapuss Ink LLC, a NJ based book publisher, announced today that they have signed Mariam Kobras, of Hamburg , Germany, to a two-book deal. Kobras, the author of The Distant Shore: Book I of the Stone Trilogy, said she was “over-the-moon” with the new deal which covers the next two books in her Stone Trilogy. The Distant Shore, which released on Amazon yesterday, sold out in a matter of a few hours. “I was amazed by how quickly it sold through,” said Buddhapuss Ink Publisher, MaryChris Bradley. “But then, everything about Mariam is amazing.” Bradley first met Kobras on twitter eighteen months ago. “I was intrigued when she posted page 99 of her manuscript. She managed to convey feelings and emotions in one page that take other authors’ a chapter to cover. Her command of the English language, and its nuances, is extraordinary. I immediately requested the manuscript, only to be told I would have to wait. In the end she kept me hanging for 6 weeks before she finally submitted it, and we signed a contract for the first book shortly after.”

The Distant Shore, a contemporary romance with a light twist of suspense, is the story of Jonathon Stone, a rock superstar and Naomi Carlsson, the girl he loved and lost. The story centers on their reunion sixteen years later and takes place in locales from a small fishing village in Norway to LA and New York City. But life in the fast lane comes with its own brand of danger and it isn’t long before their life together is threatened by a jealous fan. “The storyline for The Distant Shore was inspired by my fascination with the limitations fame can impose on people.” stated Kobras. “The book explores the value of love in a world where money and a front-page photo are sometimes more important than a person's soul.”

Kobras, was born in Frankfurt, Germany. She lived in Brazil and Saudi Arabia with her parents as a child before they decided to settle in Germany. She attended school there and studied American Literature and Psychology at Justus-Liebig-University in Giessen. Today she lives and writes in Hamburg, Germany, with her husband, two sons and two cats.

www.BuddhapussInk.com Website

http://buddhapussink.blogspot.com Company blog

@Buddhapuss twitter

Looking Back, Looking Forward

2011-12-30T19:40:00.000-05:00

from the Publisher's desk

I can't say it's been the best of years, nor has it been the worst of years. I'll settle for, it's been a year.
Looking back on 2011, Buddhapuss Ink started the year with the discovery of a wonderful new author, Mariam Kobras. We think she will have a long and successful publishing future with us.
Midyear saw the success of our first YA anthology writing competition, Mystery Times Ten 2011 which hit the Amazon Bestseller lists in paperback and in kindle!
The Last Track, by Sam Hilliard - the first book we published - continued to get great reviews and lots of notice. Sam is hard at work on the next Mike Brody mystery now.
2011 saw changes in how we operate as a company, and in our vision for the future.
One thing that didn't change though, was our commitment to finding new authors, and helping them grow their writing careers.

With that in mind, we carefully planned our 2012 list.
First up, Mariam Kobras: Her debut book, The Distant Shore will release on January 17th, 2012. A great way to start the New Year. This is the first book in her Stone Trilogy.
May 2012 will see the publication of Mystery Times Ten 2012. We look forward to what we hope will be a long line of YA anthologies coming from this annual writing competition.
September 2012, well, you'll have to wait a bit to see, but we have something coming out that I think a lot of people will be eager to read.
October 2012 will see the first of our adult Fiction writing competition anthologies - Flash Fiction Favorites. Watch here for more details in the coming weeks.

Two years ago, when Buddhapuss Ink was just an idea some friends were kicking around over coffee, I had no idea just how much work would be involved in the day-to-day care and feeding of this fledgling company. I also didn't know how much I would love being at the helm. Now that our list is finally starting to take shape and grow, I'm excited to see what the next year has in store for us, and more importantly, for you - our readers.

Happy New Year!
MaryChris

E-book Sales Rose 81% in October

2011-12-23T12:16:00.000-05:00

E-book sales rose 81.2% in October, to $72.8 million, at the 20 publishers who supply e-book figures to the Association of American Publishers monthly sales report. The 81% increase was the first time this year that e-book sales did not double over the same month in 2010. For the first 10 months of the year, e-book sales were up 131.1%, to $807.7 million.

Religious sales were up in the month at reporting houses, increasing 12.4%, but sales in the other print trade segments were down. Once again, the mass market paperback segment took a major hit, with sales falling 37.6% at reporting houses and sales in the segment were off 33.7% for the year to date. The trade paperback segment has a weak month, with sales down 16.9% and adult hardcover sales fell 7.8%. Children’s hardcover performed marginally better, with sales down 7.3% in October, while children’s paperback segment sales fell 2.4%.

Downloadable audio sales increased 15.6% at reporting companies, while sales of physical audiobooks rose 0.1%.

*From PW Daily

Print Book Sales on the Rise Since Thanksgiving, But Trail 2010

2011-12-22T13:43:00.000-05:00

Thanksgiving weekend may draw lots of media coverage about holiday sales, but book sales of print titles have been trending upward every week since the start of the holiday shopping season. According to Nielsen BookScan, sales of print books in the stores it covers totaled 12.0 million the week ending November 27 and then jumped to 15.5 million units the week ending December 4. The following week, units rose again, to 18.6 million, and increased 26% the week of December 18, to 23.4 million.

Compared to the same week in 2010, unit sales the week of December 18 were down 14%, with the closing of Borders and the growth of e-book sales likely the two biggest factors in the decline. During the last week, print backlist was doing better than frontlist, with backlist sales down 9% compared to a year ago and frontlist off 19%.

* From PW Daily

Buddhapuss weighs in - "Call me crazy, but buying ebooks as gifts for friends and family is a little less than satisfying, and if you are unsure just what type of ereader they own, it can be difficult as well as confusing. On the plus side - there's fewer gifts to wrap and on the negative side - well, there's fewer gifts to un-wrap too.

Just my opinion but I think when it comes to gift-giving, the print book is going to prevail for a while longer as the present of choice."

Borders Creditors to Get About 10 Cents on the Dollar

2011-12-20T13:57:00.000-05:00

Judith Rosen
Dec 20, 2011

With this morning's court approval of Borders's liquidation plan and the sale of its Kobo interest and IP addresses, publishers will do better than expected in terms of recouping their losses with the bankrupt chain. While Borders originally anticipated paying 4¢ to 10¢ on the dollar to creditors, it will likely be at the high end and could even exceed that, according to attorney Andrew Glenn.

There is expected to be a claim recovery pool of between $80 million to $90 million in funds to pay creditors. In fact much of the hearing was taken up with Kobo, which alone will bring in $27million to $32 million, assuming that lawyers can prevent a tax bite that could be as large as $10 million.

Borders's agreement with Next Jump was also approved and the Court gave preliminary approval to the Pinsker settlement. The latter paves the way for a mid-February Fairness hearing and distribution to workers in the company's Michigan facility, who filed for moneys owed under the WARN motion.

Now that the liquidation is just about complete, Judge Martin Glenn took the opportunity to thank the attorneys for both Borders and the Creditors Committee. "I think you've all worked cooperatively in difficult circumstances," he said. "You've all worked rapidly which has maximized the estate, and as in the Kobo sale, the stars were aligned."

*From PW Daily

Yes Virgina, we have been playing with our website!

2011-12-19T08:18:00.000-05:00

Well, sometimes a cat just can't leave well enough alone. Yarn, catnip, and websites can be like that! So, yes, we have been working on it and yes, it might look a little rocky until we get all the lumps and bumps worked out but. in the end it will be a better site. We hope a few momentary problems and glitches won't keep you from checking in with us there.
Thanks & cheers!
~The Webmaster Cat

http://www.BuddhapussInk.com

World Book Night

2011-12-16T09:02:00.000-05:00

People who want to volunteer to help give away books on World Book Night can apply at this link. Carl Lennertz says: "I most definitely want booksellers, librarians, authors, bloggers, agents, and publishing folks in the mix, partly because so many have said they want to, partly because all those parties have a stake in reading and books. We're looking for people who want to share their excitement about books and how a love of reading expands and enriches our experience of life."

Buddhapuss Ink will be out there, will you? Let us know if you will be participating in this worthy cause.

October Bookstore Sales Fell 6.6%

2011-12-14T11:52:00.000-05:00

After posting surprisingly large gains in August and September--likely fueled in part by Borders's going-out-of business sales--bookstore sales fell 6.6% in October, to $886 million, according to preliminary estimates released Tuesday morning by the U.S. Census Bureau. Despite the drop in October, bookstore sales for the first 10 months of 2011 were up 2.0%, to $12.91 billion.

For all of retail, October sales rose 7.2% and were up 8.0% in the January-October period.

Amazon Backlash Continues to Build

2011-12-10T05:42:00.001-05:00

By Judith Rosen
Dec 09, 2011

For many booksellers, tomorrow’s discounts of up to $15 for using Amazon’s price check app is the last straw. Although the app does not apply to books, it does affect bookstore sidelines like toys, music, and DVDs, and it adds to a perception that bricks-and-mortar bookstores grossly overcharge.

The app also comes on top of data that customers regularly scan books with their smart phones and then order discounted copies directly from Amazon, or even use the bookstore’s free Wi-Fi to download Kindle e-books to their devices. The latter caused Diesel Bookstore, which has stores in Oakland, Malibu, and Brentwood, to produce free Occupy Amazon buttons and coasters that picture Amazon founder Jeff Bezos wearing devil horns.

Yesterday’s open letter to Bezos from American Booksellers Association CEO Oren Teicher was a bit more tempered. “We’re not shocked, just disappointed,” he wrote. “Despite your company’s recent pledge to be a better corporate citizen and to obey the law and collect sales tax, you created a price-check app that allows shoppers to browse Main Street stores that do collect sales tax, scan a product, ask for expertise, and walk out empty-handed in order to buy on Amazon. We suppose we should be flattered that an online sales behemoth needs a Main Street retail showroom. Forgive us if we’re not.”

Other retailers were downright angry. On New England Cable News, David Didriksen, president of Willow Books & Cafe in Acton, Mass., and a member of the board of the Retailers Association of Massachusetts, called it “another in a long series of predatory practices by Amazon. You would think that a company of that size would be willing to just live and let live for small retailers who can’t possibly affect them. But, no, they want it all.”

Bookworks in Albuquerque, N.M., is fighting back with a sale to encourage people to show there are alternatives to the Amazon offer. On December 10, customers will receive 15% off their purchases of everything except event tickets, event books, and gift certificates. "We can't compete with Amazon on price, and we are not even trying, says owner Wyatt Wegryzn. "We understand though why shopping on Amazon is so tempting for people, especially in this tough economy. So we want to say 'thanks' to our customers for shopping with us."

How the price app will affect holiday sales for independents just two weeks before Christmas is anyone’s guess. As for his relationship with his colleagues on Main Street, Bezos has never been known for being interested in winning friends.

KDP Select, The $6 Million Fund For Kindle Direct Authors, Is Live

2011-12-08T11:16:00.001-05:00

Amazon has made it official: Authors who publish their work through Kindle Direct Publishing exclusively will have the option of putting their titles in the Kindle Owner's Lending Library, and will be compensated through pro-rated shares of a fund "expected to be at least" $6 million for all of 2012 (beginning with $500,000 allocated for the month of December).
Titles must be exclusive to the Kindle store for a minimum of 90 days (which is a reduction from the 180 days Amazon initially sought from some authors). If books are currently available through multiple retailers, authors must withdraw the titles from competitors and restore exclusivity to Amazon in order to participate. VP of Kindle Content Russ Grandinetti claims that the "short 90-day commitment allows authors and publishers to experiment at very low risk."
Participating authors will also be allowed to promote their books for free without jeopardizing their high-royalty status, for up to 5 days each 90-day period. (This allows those authors to try to boost their visibility and ranking within the Kindle store.) There are no "rollover days" from one 90-day period to the next; it's use-it-or-lose-it, according to Amazon documents shared with us.
The monthly royalty payment for each KDP Select book is based on that book's share of the total number of borrows of all participating KDP books in the Lending Library. Amazon cites a representative example of 100,000 total borrows in a month of all KDP Select titles. If an author's book is borrowed 1,500 times - or 1.5 percent of the total - then the author would earn $7,500 from the pool of $500,000. (If your book is not borrowed, you do not share in the pool; but in this example, a single borrow earns $5.)

Release

AAP Sales for September: Slight Gain, but Mass Markets Dive

2011-12-02T08:41:00.001-05:00

Net sales of books in September rose 0.4% to $1.116 billion as reported by 80 publishers to the Association of American Publishers. The star category again was e-books, whose sales rose 100.9% to $80.3 million. While doubling, the rate of growth was lower than in most previous months.
The biggest category to decline--by far--was mass markets, whose sales fell 54.3% to $31 million.
Net sales for the year to date have fallen 3.6% to $8.171 billion.
Sales by category:

CATEGORY	SALES	% CHANGE
E-books	$80.3 million	100.9%
Professional	$66.2 million	12.9%
Higher education	$459.7 million	8.8%
Children's/YA hardcovers	$78.5 million	2.1%
Downloaded audiobooks	$7.9 million	0.4%

Adult paperbacks	$111.6 million	-0.1%
Audiobooks	$10.4 million	-1.7%
Religious books	$64 million	-6.3%
University press hardcovers	$4.4 million	-8.6%
University press paperbacks	$5.3 million	-11.3%
Children's/YA paperbacks	$44.7 million	-14.6%
Adult hardcovers	$148.3 million	-18.1%
Adult mass markets	$31 million	-54.3%

Smashwords Courts Literary Agents

2011-11-30T09:32:00.001-05:00

Smashwords, the California-based company that converts and digitally distributes Word files uploaded through its interface, is offering a suite of services to literary agents. The company will allow agents to digitally convert their authors' files, for free, and also provide agents with metadate on the files, as well as merchandising at Smashwords.com.

Speaking to the decision to court agents, in particular, Smashwords founder Mark Coker said many authors, with out-of-print titles, would prefer to let their agents handle things like digital publication. "Agents represent the most commercially successful authors. These authors are now asking their agents to add e-publishing services to exploit the potential of their reverted-rights works and unpublished works. Although all authors have the freedom to self-publish, many would prefer to delegate the e-publishing and back office duties to their agent so the author can focus their energy on writing."

Through a change in its metadata tagging, Smashwords will now have a field for publisher and agent, where previously there was only the option to indicate a publisher for a title. Agents, who can create an account for free, will also be able to have the titles they upload onto Smashwords appear in a co-branded Smashwords bookstore that will group represented titles by agency.

Smashwords does not charge to convert files, but does take a 10% commission on the list price of books it converts and then sells through other retailers, such as Apple and B&N; it takes a 15% commission on titles sold directly through Smashwords. A number of agencies have titles available on Smashwords, including Dystel & Goderich and the Beverly Slopen Agency.

*From PW Daily

Barnes & Noble Sees Bright Future in Digital

2011-11-18T12:53:00.001-05:00

Barnes & Noble sees it sales of e-books rising from about $250 million in 2010 to over $2 billion in 2015, according to a presentation made by CEO William Lynch at Liberty Media’s investor meeting Thursday. While e-book sales are expected to skyrocket, sales of print books through B&N are expected to fall from about $3.6 billion in 2010 to about $2.8 billion in 2015, Lynch reported.

Despite the decline in print sales by 2015, B&N sees its share of the print book market growing over the years from an estimated 17% in 2010 to 20% in 2015 due in part to the closure of Borders and what it believes will be the decision by large chain stores that currently sell books as a sideline to abandon the business. As the company said in September when it reported first quarter results for fiscal 2012, it expects the demise of Borders to boost store sales between $300 million to $400 million on an annual basis. Based on industry forecasts, B&N sees the overall print book business falling from an estimated $21 billion in 2010 to $14 billion in 2015, while e-book sales rise to $7 billion from $1 billion.

B&N’s growth won’t come from just sales of e-books, however, but from gains across the digital spectrum. It anticipates that in fiscal 2012 it will sell $1.8 billion in Nook devices and content (e-books, magazines, apps and PubIt! services) compared to $880 million in fiscal 2011. It put its share of the digital newsstand business at about 30%, and Lynch reiterated what he said in September that PubIt! is B&N’s fastest-growing digital business.

He also once again stressed the importance of using Nook displays in its stores as a competitive advantage in selling digital devices and content as well as its 35,000 booksellers. With Borders gone, Lynch noted is the only national bookstore chain remaining for developers, leading to favorable deals. Lynch also repeated B&N’s strategy of expanding in the educational toys and games business.

For its part, Libery laid out some of the reasons it made its $204 million investment in B&N earlier this year during the investor meeting. It too cited B&N as being the only national bookseller that operates profitable stores with short-term leases and with a good chance to profit from the liquidation of Borders. The physical stores will drive sales of digital goods, Libery said, and noted that it believes B&N is "cracking the code of e-book service, e-reader and low-end tablet market."

* From PW Daily

September Bookstore Sales Rise Slightly

2011-11-15T11:26:00.001-05:00

Bookstore sales continued to do better than expected, at least as measured by the U.S. Census Bureau. According to preliminary estimates, sales in September rose 0.7%, to $1.55 billion and were up 2.8% for the first nine months of 2011. Revenue includes all sales made at stores where at least 50% of its sales come from books and also reflects the final going-out-of business sales at Borders.

For the entire retail segment, September sales rose 8.5%, and were up 8.1% in the first nine months of the year.

The Long Road to a Final Cover Design

2011-11-14T17:17:00.001-05:00

Sometime, when I have a week free, I'll tell you all the long and twisting tale of how the cover of The Distant Shore changed and changed and changed. Suffice to say there were over 30 different versions at one point! All that is over now, thank goodness, and we have a stunning new cover.

Now I have to make sure all the online files on different sites (Amazon, BN.com, Bowker, Ingram, B&T, et al.) get changed!

Taking Extreme Measures to Find the Self-Publishing Holy Grail

2011-11-12T17:47:00.001-05:00

By Jeremy Greenfield, Editorial Director, Digital Book World

In early 2011, Alex de Campi approached literary agent Ethan Ellenberg with a graphic novel.
De Campi, a 39-year-old music video and commercial director and graphic novelist based in Durham, NH, hoped that a publishing house would pick up Ashes, a follow-up to her critically acclaimed 2005 graphic novel Smoke. After making the rounds at publishers with Ellenberg, de Campi realized she would have to fund the Ashes project herself; while some publishers were interested, they would not agree to pay the artist while the book was being drawn, she said.
These days, self-publishing is common. Once stigmatized as “vanity publishing,” the practice has lost some of its stink with authors such as Amanda Hocking and Barry Eisler self-publishing their way to big-time book-sales and commercial success.
What is less common are some of the extreme measures authors take to fund their self-publishing projects. Some sell their possessions – even the clothes off their back – while others enlist the help of their family, friends, clients and colleagues. The point isn’t, as the name “vanity publishing” would suggest, merely to see one’s name in print – the rewards today for a successfully self-published book, some authors believe, are potentially great: a deal with a major publishing house. Hope springs for this self-publishing set, despite the fact that the number of self-published authors who are picked up by a major publisher is dwarfed by those who are not.
Getting creative in the case of de Campi, meant turning to Kickstarter, a crowd-sourcing website where entrepreneurs can raise money from the public for their projects. As was widely reported in book blogs, de Campi set up an account on Kickstarter to raise $27,000 to publish her book. Much of the money is to be spent paying James Broxton, the graphic artist for the book. Through Kickstarter, those who want to support de Campi’s book can buy a limited-edition hardcover copy plus a serialized digital edition for $30, or a cameo for themselves as a minor character in the book for $1,200, for instance.
“Next year there will be this little club of people getting chapters of the book,” said de Campi. “Once the book is done, we’ll be sending out hardback editions. This then lets us still have room for a trade edition down the line.”
For de Campi and others, this is the goal: Get picked up by publishers who once rejected them and reach a mass market.
Michelle Dunn, a 45-year-old author who writes about credit and debt collection in Plymouth, NH, risked nearly everything she had for a shot at this goal.
In 2007, she sold her profitable debt collection business and in an ironic twist the buyer soon failed to make his monthly payments to her. High and dry and running out of money, Dunn tried her hand at writing. Publishers weren’t biting and her family needed an income.
To bridge the gap, Dunn literally sold the clothes off her back – on eBay.
“I had some nice, quality, expensive clothing because I had worked in corporate America,” she said. “I was writing and so I didn’t need it anymore.”
Her book, Become the Squeaky Wheel, came out soon after. The title is almost out of print and its success, in part, helped her secure a deal with John Wiley & Sons for her most recent book, The Guide to Getting Paid, which came out in May of 2011 in hardcover and as an e-book. The Guide is Dunn’s 14th book.
“I self-published 12 books. By doing that, I gained a platform,” said Dunn.
It’s the “Blair-Witch” model all over again.
In the late 1990s, Mike Monello, now-executive creative director and partner at New York-based creative agency Campfire, was a struggling filmmaker. He and his film-school friends were just about ready to give up their dreams of careers in movies.
“Blair Witch was one, true, last-ditch effort,” Monello said. “We thought we got to make one last one and make it work or else we have to get real jobs.”
Monello and his film-school friends raised $30,000 from friends, family and other investors to make The Blair Witch Project.
Due in part to a strong grass-roots marketing campaign and a product that was called by critics “the scariest movie ever made” and “ingenious in its simplicity,” the movie was optioned by a major studio for $1 million, plus a percentage of the overall take for the filmmakers, an unheard-of deal for first-time content-creators like Monello and his team.
Anthony Meindl, a 40-year-old acting teacher and writer-director in Los Angeles, also hopes that he can tap the resources and creativity of his family, friends and colleagues to hit it big.
When Meindl met with agents and publishers about his project, At Left Brain, Turn Right, a book meant to help readers achieve success by activating the creative sides of their brains, he was told it was too niche to work for a mass market.
Undeterred, Meindl convinced some of his contacts to provide services usually handled by a traditional publisher. His acting student, Randy Raphael, for instance, designed the cover for the book. In exchange, Raphael is taking classes from Meindl for free.
With the help of those around him, Meindl hopes to publish the book in print in January with an e-book roll-out soon to follow. He and his team plan on sending out review copies and organizing an online advertising campaign.
The goal? Build a publishing empire a la Timothy Ferriss, the self-help author who has sold millions of copies of The 4-Hour Workweek and similar titles. Until recently, Ferriss was published by The Crown Publishing Group, a New York-based imprint of publishing giant Random House. In a twist of the narrative – self-published obscurity to big-time publishing house – Ferriss announced in August that his next book would be published by Amazon, a company that has been a platform used by so many who publish their own work.
Will de Campi’s Kickstarter gambit work? For the funding to kick in and the project to move forward, the graphic novelist will have to raise $27,000 by Sunday, December 18 at 5:02 p.m., according to her Kickstarter page. She has raised almost $12,000 as of November 8. With 40 days to go, she has to raise nearly $400 a day to make it.
Even if she does make it, her agent, Ellenberg, said that there’s no guarantee her novel will then be picked up by a publishing house and re-released to the mass market.
“There are a limited number of slots of the three or four or five publishers who do graphic novels,” he said. “There is a percentage of worthy projects that don’t get published.”
De Campi is optimistic, which is why she left the door open to trade rights in the first place, and, besides, “Part of making art happen is leaning on friends and family,” she said.

Borders Gone But Not Forgotten, at Least Not by Random

2011-11-11T03:19:00.001-05:00

The Borders estate has yet to determine how much unsecured claims will be paid on the dollar, at least one large publisher is still scrutinizing what it is owed. At the time of Borders’s bankruptcy filing in February, Random House’s unsecured claim was listed as $35,414,969.25. In May, Random filed a claim stating that it is owed $37,191,889. On the eve of a bankruptcy hearing to determine voting procedures for Borders’s Chapter 11 plan, Borders has filed a settlement agreement that, if upheld in court, would bring Random’s claim to $36,402,158. A confirmed bankruptcy plan could be in place before Christmas, as early as December 20.

Publishers Weekly

Amazon Launches Lending Library Without the Big Six

2011-11-03T13:47:00.000-04:00

By Calvin Reid with additional reporting from Rachel Deahl

As rumored for months, Amazon is getting into the digital book lending business, announcing the launch of Kindle Owners Lending Library for Amazon Prime members. Amazon Prime members—who pay $79 a year for free shipping on products and streaming movies—can now borrow one book a month for free. But there’s a hitch: none of the big six publishers, all of which use the agency model to sell their titles, are participating in the program.

Nonetheless, the model isn’t quite the all-you-can-eat lending subscription service many observers had rumored. Amazon Prime members can only borrow one book at a time, even though the service claims to have “no due dates” for finishing the book. While Amazon touts that the service offers “thousands” of books to borrow and at least “100 New York Times bestsellers,” none of the titles in the program are from the largest trade publishers--Random House, Simon & Schuster, HarperCollins, Macmillan, Penguin and Hachette. The program features titles from a variety of mid-size houses that continue to sell their books using the wholesale model, including W.W. Norton, Scholastic, and titles by well-known self-published authors such as Seth Godin.

Publishers using the agency model have complete control over the pricing of their books and, as some have noted, the model does not allow for the price to be changed or discounted. With the wholesale model, publishers cannot dictate final retail pricing. Amazon's statement in launching the lending program said it is either paying a flat fee to publishers to feature its titles, or paying the standard wholesale discount for each book that is borrowed.

Nevertheless, PW has learned that some non-agency houses have declined to be a part of the lending program. One mid-size publisher that sells wholesale said the “fee” Amazon mentions is a “lump sum” payment that the publisher must allocate to its authors. The fee is said to be determined by Amazon by looking at the 12 month sales history of the titles in question. And according to our sources, some agents are starting to complain about the payment plan.

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, which is testing several titles in the lending program, said in a statement: “Of course these days we are testing many things and many programs. When Amazon first approached us about prime lending, the terms were not something we could accept. Our position is, our authors need to be protected, we do not want lending to replace selling in the retail environment if our authors lose out. We are not at liberty to disclose the terms of our agreement for this limited test of eight titles, but rest assured, our authors are protected.”

Several big six publishers contacted by PW either declined to comment on the Kindle Lending Library or did not respond to our calls. One industry insider, though, questioned the soundness of a model in which publishers allow retailers to give away their premium content as a loss leader.

Bloomsbury USA, a publisher which sells it titles wholesale, and has books featured in Amazon's Lending Library, said its involvement in the program has less to do with choice, and more to do with its current sales model.

In a phone interview from London, Evan Schnittman, Bloomsbury managing director of group sales and marketing, print and digital, said that since Amazon buys Bloomsbury titles on the wholesale model, he and other publishers like Bloomsbury, really have no say in how a book is ultimately priced—or not priced—by Amazon. He said the Kindle Lending Library can be classified as a "promotion," which is allowed under the Bloomsbury contract terms. However, Schnittman said Bloomsbury was in the process of examining their contacts to make sure that giving away a book for “free” is allowed. But as long as Bloomsbury receives its wholesale fee, Schnittman said, Amazon can offer the book for what it chooses. “If Amazon, or B&N or anyone who buys from us using the wholesale model wants to sell at a loss, we have no say,” Schnittman said.

Schnittman called the lending program “a classic loss leader.” He said, “If you’re Amazon, your view is to make the Kindle as attractive as you can and to enhance Amazon Prime for its customers. They’ll lose money on every sale simply to promote more Kindles. Amazon PR says that it will increase sales, so we’ll have to see.” But Schnittman was quick to add, “I woke up this morning answering questions about a giant promotional push for my books that I had nothing to do with!”

*From PW Daily

Kobo Unveils Kobo Vox, $200 Color Tablet e-Reader

2011-11-01T12:53:00.000-04:00

by Calvin Reid

Publisher's Weekly

Responding quickly to Amazon’s Kindle Fire e-reading tablet, e-book retailer Kobo is releasing Kobo Vox, a seven inch, full-color, multimedia digital reading device for $200. Reminiscent of both the Kindle Fire and B&N’s NookColor, the new device runs the Android 2.3 OS and offers access to 15,000 free apps.

The new Kobo Vox is available for pre-order and offers all the functionality—read books, magazines and newspapers, play games and use apps, listen to music, watch videos and movies—consumers expect from tablet devices. It also looks like B&N’s NookColor has really set the standard for competing in a tablet marketplace utterly dominated by the iPad. B&N’s notion that a seven inch, reasonably priced tablet (half the price of an iPad) with full multimedia functionality; designed for a targeted range of media consumption, seems to have hit a sweet point in the digital marketplace and is driving the development of these new reading/media devices.

The new device supports Kobo’s Reading Life, a social media application that lets you see what your friends are reading, keeps stats of your reading habits, offers amusing badges for reading accomplishments. The device also supports Kobo Pulse, a more recent addition to Kobo's reading social media that allows readers to start conversations with other readers on any page of any Kobo e-book. The device also allows users to web browse and access their email.

In a phone interview, Kobo CEO Michael Serbinis said Kobo believes in “open platforms” and the Android 2.3 operating system will support standard Android apps—including other reading and selling apps. “We're an open platform and the Android 2.3 OS we're using is not locked down. Of course we expect people will use the Kobo reading app,” he said. Serbinis said the devices can be pre-ordered right now and shipping will begin late next week.

Kobo Vox will have a branded app store offering 15,000 free apps optimized for the Kobo Vox, including pre-loaded apps from RDIO (streaming music), Zinio (magazines, including 12 free promotions), PressReader (newspapers) and social media (Twitter and a Facebook app on the home screen). There are pre-loaded apps for games and an installed dictionary as well as more content (including comics and graphc novels, cook books and other color illustrated works) and more applications through both the Kobo app store and Android Market. Serbinis said the Kobo Vox app store will eventually offer more for-pay apps optimized for the device and that developers can develop and submit apps for the device.

Serbinis acknowledged that Kobo Vox also offers more opportunities for self-publishing, a service which Kobo does provide although it is not marketed. Currently Kobo does not offer the easy self-service approach of Amazon or B&N’s self-publishing services. “Self-publishing is an exciting category,” Serbinis said, “We do some self-publishing and its growing but we don’t have a self-service program. We’ll have more news coming on self-publishing but no announcements today.”

”

E-book Sales Rose 116% in August

2011-10-28T12:06:00.000-04:00

E-book sales from publishers that report to the AAP rose 116.5% in August, to $88.8 million, compared to August 2010. The gain marked an acceleration in e-book growth compared to July when sales of the format increased 105%, the slowest in 2011. All trade print segments had a decline in August sales with the largest coming in mass market paperback where sales from reporting companies fell 36.4%. Sales of digital audio rose 30.2% at 12 digital audio publishers.

For the first eight months of 2011, e-book sales increased 144.4%, to $649.2 million, from 18 reporting publishers to the AAP monthly statistics program. Sales were off by double digits in all trade print segments in the January-August period, although sales in the religion category were up 9% in the year to date at the 22 reporting houses.

*From an article in PW Daily