Philip Jones | The Bookseller

Lending, right?

Publication Date: Fri, 08/02/2013 - 11:50

In this age of “discoverability gaps” and “dwindling shelf space”, we neglect libraries at our peril. As our LibScan feature demonstrates, and the PLR numbers...

Authors | blogs | Home | Katie Allen | libraries | LinScan | Philip Jones
RosettaBooks to open in London

Publication Date: Mon, 04/02/2013 - 12:34

E-book publisher RosettaBooks is to open an office in London, its first outside of the US.

The investment signals an ambition to acquire more titles from UK agents including UK rights, as well as to exploit its growing list worldwide. The UK office will be run by Jonathan Ward.

Arthur Klebanoff [pictured], who founded New...

digital | e-books | Home | International | Philip Jones | RosettaBook
Margin matters

Publication Date: Fri, 01/02/2013 - 16:53

In an open letter, published online this week and in The Bookseller, Foyles chief executive Sam Husain has called for greater publisher support. The bookshop model is broken: it needs a rethink. Big publishers have not exactly rushed...

blogs | Home | Katie Allen | margin | Philip Jones | Retail | Trade
Amazon reports record sales growth - UPDATED

Publication Date: Wed, 30/01/2013 - 09:30

Despite fluctuating margins and slowing growth, Amazon’s shares rose after the giant e-tailer posted its 2012 and fourth-quarter financials. Amazon emphasised the shift in its business away from physical products, describing its e-book business as a “multi-billion dollar category”, compared to physical book sales, which...

amazon | digital | e-books | Home | Jeff Bezos | Kindle | Lisa Campbell | Philip Jones
Penny dreadful

Publication Date: Fri, 25/01/2013 - 10:26

The book business is often accused of sleepwalking into situations it later regrets: Amazon; the end of the Net Book Agreement; the ultimately uneconomic growth of the big-box retailers over the past two decades. Is the 20p e-book another example of this?

The promotion was started by Sony last summer, and went largely unnoticed until...

20p | amazon | blogs | digital | e-books | Home | Philip Jones | Sony
Sony’s 20p offer drives ‘e’

Publication Date: Thu, 24/01/2013 - 09:30

E-book sales figures from trade publishers show the huge impact price continues to have on digital sales, with Sony’s 20p e-book promotion becoming a prime driver of sales for some publishers.

Last week The Bookseller revealed the the top trade publishers saw aggregate e-book growth of around 120%, with agency-model...

50 Sheds of Grey | digital | e-books | Philip Jones
Digital train

Publication Date: Tue, 22/01/2013 - 11:35

The collapse of HMV and of the DVD rental chain Blockbuster provide real lessons to anyone working in the content industries, whether they are retailers, creators or distributors. The Sunday Times may think otherwise (last week it reported that print books were “bouncing back”) but the reality is not nuanced: this digital...

Blockbusters | blogs | HMV | Home | Philip Jones | Retail | Waterstones
'E' market nears £300m

Publication Date: Fri, 18/01/2013 - 09:30

E-book sales at the top trade publishers doubled in 2012, meaning that the UK e-book market grew to £250m, putting the overall book market back in the black after a transitional 12 months for the trade.

Last week, for the first time, The Bookseller published e-book volume numbers for the biggest-selling titles of the...

digital | e-books | Home | Philip Jones | Richard Mollet
Estimating e-books

Publication Date: Wed, 16/01/2013 - 10:40

What is the true size of the consumer e-book market in the UK?

Last week as part of our analysis of the top titles of the year we published e-book volume sales for 2012. It was the first time we've had such data, and the numbers allowed us to take a more reasoned view of this nascent market.

Our analysis is available...

blogs | digital | e-books | Home | Philip Jones
A positive start

Publication Date: Fri, 11/01/2013 - 13:00

Thanks to a strong December based on hard work put in throughout the year, 2013 has got off to a positive start.

Many independent bookshops have talked of Christmas sales growth, as punters rejected Amazon for the high street. Waterstones and Blackwell’s each recorded a sales increase over 2011, while Foyles was not far behind...

2013 | blogs | Home | Independents | Philip Jones | Retail