Foyles to launch subscription book club Foyles is poised to launch a subscription book club as it positions itself to capitalise on Christmas trading in the final quarter of the year. The “Year of Books” will initially be offered in six packages: hardback fiction, paperback fiction, hardback non-fiction, paperback non-fiction, children’s, and fiction in translation,…
Booksellers lose business after AbeBooks.com goes down Indie booksellers around the world suffered lost income over the weekend when the Amazon-owned website AbeBooks.com went down for nearly two days. The “technical” failure meant booksellers trading on the online marketplace for new, secondhand and rare books could not make any sales and customers could not make any…
Australia to tax online overseas book orders Australia will reportedly begin a 10% tax on books ordered online from within Australia and shipped from abroad. Beginning in July 2018, the new regulation follows lobbying from the country’s retailers and the Australian Booksellers Association according to Publishers Weekly. The trade body has argued that its members are…
Amazon UK Services sales soar but corporation tax payments halve Turnover at Amazon’s UK Services arm soared past £1bn for the first time in 2016, accounts filed on Companies House have revealed. However, its corporation tax payments halved to £7.4m after investment in its warehouses and distribution sent operating profit tumbling by over 50%. The…
SoA criticises removal of BBC radio quotas for drama The removal of quotas for radio comedy, drama and readings will have a “significant impact” on the Society of Authors’ members, the organisation has said. As part of its Operating Licence for the BBC, Ofcom – the regulatory authority for the broadcasting industry – has removed…
Amazon’s new rating system for the book market is seeking to challenge the decades-long dominance of the New York Times bestseller status Will Amazon Charts challenge the New York Times bestsellers list? Photograph: Amazon Monday 22 May 2017 18.41 BSTLast modified on Monday 22 May 2017 22.49 BST For nine decades, the New York Times bestseller…
McEwan: Brexit has stirred the lowest human impulses Author Ian McEwan last week likened the UK to “a depressed teenage self-harmer” in a speech to remain supporters in Westminster on Brexit. Not mincing his words, he said the EU referendum had stirred in the nation “the lowest human impulses, from the small-minded to the mean-spirited to the murderous”. According to the…
Kobo brings out new version of waterproof Aura Kobo is releasing a new e-reader, the Kobo Aura H2O – Edition 2, which it says has transformed the best features of the Kobo Aura One into a lighter and smaller size device. It will also be cheaper at £149.99. The reader has the same overall design as the Aura One, including the…
Macmillan backs Bill O’Reilly after Fox News sacking American TV host Bill O’Reilly’s US publisher Macmillan is to stick by him after he was sacked from his Fox News talk show following the revelation that he has settled several sexual harassment cases. O’Reilly left his show The O’Reilly Factor yesterday (19th April) which he has…
Authors offered $5k to join Amazon’s Prime Reading Amazon US is offering authors $5,000 upfront in lieu of royalties to incorporate their books into its unlimited reading programme for Prime members. Prime Reading, an “all-you-can-eat” service for Amazon’s US Prime members, provides unlimited reading from a “curated, rotating” selection of Kindle books, magazines and comics, chosen by Amazon Books’ editorial team, at no…