Bilbary.com Goes Live (via PW) “Bilbary.com, the international e-bookstore launched by former Waterstones head Tom Coates, went live with a beta test this morning with 340,000 titles from about 2,300 publishers. Coates told PW he expects to add approximately 100,000 titles from agency publishers in the next two to three weeks. By the end of April the…
Amazon Reach Agreement To Acquire The Book Depository (Updated With Links)
This is fairly significant breaking news this morning. Amazon has reached agreement to acquire The Book Depository. It is also interesting that Amazon has chosen to release the news on what is a big holiday in the USA. While an agreement has been reached, it remains to be seen how the UK Government and company…
Eason unveils turnaround plans | The Bookseller
Eason unveils turnaround plans The Bookseller Irish union Siptu has said it would “completely oppose” any compulsory redundancies enforced by bookselling chain Eason, as m.d Conor Whelan outlines turnaround plans for the retailer. Last week Eason announced it would invest €20m (£17.6m) over three years in the company, derived from cost savings, cash reserves and…
Easons HR manager secures High Court order against retailer | The Bookseller
Easons HR manager secures High Court order against retailer The Bookseller Eason Group’s human resources manager of six years has secured an interim High Court order restraining the company from removing him from his post. Tony Duggan, 60, has worked at Eason for 24 years. The order will also prevent the Irish bookseller from promoting…
EU raids ebook publishers in price fixing investigation | World news | The Guardian
EU raids ebook publishers in price fixing investigation | World news | The Guardian: I don’t believe this is just confined to France. At heart, this drives a stake through the argument that big publishing houses can price e-books at the current level (Agency Agreement) in place. “The European commission has launched morning raids on…
Easons staff pass no confidence vote | The Bookseller
Easons staff pass no confidence vote The Bookseller “The board of Easons has said it backs Conor Whelan, who has been managing director of Easons since September 2009, after senior staff working in Dublin cast a vote of no confidence in him. Irish union organisation Siptu said around 60 Dublin employees who hold the management…
Borders US: What we hear and need to hear
Today was one of those days at the office. You know the ones. Nothing seems to stir beyond the hum-drum, and then, all of a sudden, the floodgates open. No. Today’s news that the economic doctor – with defibrillator in hand – had finally glanced up at the clock and called the ‘time of death’…
Borders US Files for Bankruptcy with $1.29 Billion Debts (Updated)
Borders US formally applied for bankruptcy under Chapter 11 protection in the New York courts this morning. Borders listed debts of $1.29 billion and assets of $1.275 billion in documentation lodged with the court. Unsecured creditors listed include many book publishers and distributors, estimated to be owed $230 million. [Publishers Weekly] UPDATE (5PM, GMT): Publishing…
Irish Bookseller Waterstone’s To Close Flagship Stores on Sunday
One of the most familiar landmarks in Dawson Street Dublin is Waterstone’s bookshop, a mainstay of the busy thoroughfare for many years. However, the company this morning announced the closure of the Dawson Street branch, as well as its Jervis Street branch and nine other branches in the UK (Colchester, Worcester, Guildford, Stafford, Hemel Hempstead, Coventry,…
Lulu Launch Discount Manager
Lulu (254.65) has launched ‘Discount Manager’, a new service allowing authors to set a discount on their books. The discount will come off the listed price of a book, but cannot be set below the minimun cost of the book set by Lulu. Authors should be aware that this is really just a tool to…