An unusual dip for downloaded audiobooks plays into the November 2020 StatShot book sales figures from the Association of American Publishers.
Rights Roundup: Elephants, Mice, Aliens, and Agatha Christie
Titles in this Rights Roundup include suspense, children’s books, historical nonfiction, a graphic novel, and a tale about Agatha Christie.
Interview: CEO Allen Lau on Wattpad’s $600 Million Merger with Korea’s Naver
The merger between Canada’s Wattpad and South Korea’s Naver, says Allen Lau, is built on audience and platform expansion.
Canada’s Wattpad Announces It’s Being Acquired by South Korea’s Naver
Toronto-based Wattpad will retain its leadership team following its acquisition by South Korean tech company Naver, in a US$600 million cash and stock deal.
‘Crisis and Changes’ in China: Insights From Beijing OpenBook’s Conference
With physical retail down, 2020 was the first year in which Beijing OpenBook tracked a downturn in the Chinese book market since 2000.
Reflections on the 2020 American Market in Sales and Deals
In what NPD’s Kristen McLean calls ‘a remarkable year’ for US book sales, Publishers Lunch reports a decline in 2020 of translation rights deals.
CBC’s 20th Season of ‘Canada Reads’: Five Books and Their ‘Champions’
Discovering ‘which books matter most to Canadians’ is a goal of the annual ‘Canada Reads’ program, now opening its new season.
Book Aid International’s Year: 867,567 Books to 19 Countries
Solar lamps as well as hundreds of thousands of books were in play in 2020 for Book Aid International’s logistics team and donor-publishers.
UK: Translator Kay Heikkinen wins the 2020 Saif Ghobash Banipal Prize
Kay Heikkinen wins the Saif Ghobash Banipal Prize for her English translation of Velvet by Huzama Habayeb, about ‘ordinary Palestinian women.’
Exclusive: Knowledge Unlatched Flips the Pluto Journals to Open Access
In a project to take Pluto Journals to open access, Knowledge Unlatched has used the Libraria Subscription-to-Open model.