Notes: Audio Growth; Expanding Markets; A New Store
In its Personal Journal section, today's Wall Street Journal offers overviews of efforts to cut textbook costs and the ever-increasing popularity of audiobooks.
Concerning audiobooks, the paper notes that the Internet and smaller
playing devices, including iPods, have made it easier to download and
listen everywhere--and that as multitasking becomes more common, "more
people, from all walks of life, are downloading and listening to spoken
versions of information normally found in print, including books,
language courses, magazines and newspapers."
One measure of the growth of the business is Audible's history: the
company has maintained 70%-80% annual sales increases since its launch
in 1997, and in the second quarter of 2006 had sales of $19.1 million.
Science fiction and fantasy publisher Reagent Press used to produce an audio version for half its books but
now does all in audio. Jeannie Kim, v-p and publisher, told the paper
that when considering publishing a book, "we have to ask ourselves, 'Is
this a book that will work well both in print and in audio?' "
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In a move that somehow seems related, the University of Chicago Press is making its Chicago Manual of Style available online for a fee of $25 in the first year and $30 a year thereafer, the New York Times
reported. Book division marketing director Carol Kasper commented on
the perennial seller's popularity: "People use it obsessively. They're
really geeky about it."
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On October 11, Barnes & Noble will open a store in Legacy Place at 11389 Legacy Avenue in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. When the store opens, the B&N at 2480 PGA Boulevard will close. The new store will stock the usual nearly 200,000 books, music, DVD and magazine titles.
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Miraida
Morales has joined Independent Publishers Group as Spanish-language
sales representative and will sell into both traditional and
nontraditional Spanish-language book channels. Morales was formerly
international sales coordinator at Publishers Group West and earlier
was national accounts assistant at Perseus Books Group.
Noting that IPG has tripled its Spanish-language offerings over the
past three years, Jeff Tegge, v-p of sales, said in a statement, "the
hiring of Morales represents a major advance in our strategy of
creating growth for IPG publishers in the Spanish-language marketplace."
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Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez's recommendation of Noam Chomsky's Hegemony or Survival: America's Quest for Global Dominance
(Owl Books, $13, 0805076883) continues to boost sales of the book, the
AP reported yesterday. Holt, which announced a new printing of 25,000
after the initial fuss, yesterday went back to press for another 25,000.
Publicist Tara Kennedy told the AP: "Across every account, we are
seeing a dramatic increase in sales. Demand is not slowing down."
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In a "two-pronged" marketing campaign, Knopf is spending much of its $200,000 ad budget for Letter to a Christian Nation by Sam Harris, which questions the validity of the Bible and religion, on space in expected spots--the New Republic, Atlantic Monthly, etc.--but also in Christian publications and conservative Web sites, today's Wall Street Journal
reported. So far, the strategy seems to be working. In eight days, the
book has gone into its sixth printing and has 110,000 copies in print.
Now if only Knopf could ignite Ann Coulter. . .
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The Virginia Quarterly Review,
winner of this year's National Magazine Awards for general excellence
and fiction, is publishing a newly discovered Robert Frost poem in its
next issue, which will be released Monday, October 2.
Frost wrote the poem, called War Thoughts at Home, in 1918 after his
friend and fellow poet Edward Thomas was killed in World War I.
The poem was discovered by graduate student Rob Stilling in a
collection of books and manuscripts purchased by the University of
Virginia. Stilling has contributed an essay to the issue of VQR. Glyn Maxwell, poetry editor of the New Republic, has also written an essay.
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