Friday, April 20, 2018

Publishers Lunch


Today's Meal


Amazon ceo Jeff Bezos released his annual shareholder letter on Wednesday, revealing for the first time that has more than 100 million paid Prime members globally. In another, less widely-reported statistic, Bezos wrote that over 1,000 Kindle Direct Publishing authors earned over $100,000 in royalties in 2017 (thus comprising over $100 million).

Beyond that, third-party sellers accounted for more than half of the units sold on Amazon worldwide for the first time -- and over 140,000 small and medium-sized businesses (thus comprising over $14 billion).

Among other things, in reviewing the pipeline for television series on the way through Prime Video, he touted their program Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan starring John Krasinski (which is listed as premiering August 31). Separately, on Thursday Amazon Studios
announced it has greenlit a nine-episode series order for Utopia, for which author Gillian Flynn is now the creator, executive producer and showrunner. Flynn has "also inked an overall deal with Amazon Studios across television." Based on a British, Utopia had been set up a few years ago at -- and controlled by -- HBO, with David Fincher to direct, until the project fell apart over budget negotiations.

At Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Becky Saikia-Wilson has been promoted to svp, trade associate publisher. Lyndsay Calusine has been promoted to lead designer on the creative services, design and promotion team.

Penny Scott-Bayfield will join Bloomsbury as group finance director on July 16, taking over from Wendy Pallot, who will step down on that day. Scott-Bayfield is currently finance director at Conde Nast Britain.

Mary Cate Stevenson and Noah Nofz, who operate a Houston, TX-based digital media marketing company Two Cats Communications, started
working for the ABA in March as part-time social media coordinators.

Book Expo

Book Expo announced two new panels: One, on Thursday morning at 9:45, features Publishers on Publishing, with Penguin Random House ceo Markus Dohle, Simon & Schuster ceo Carolyn Reidy, and Macmillan ceo John Sargent, moderated by AAP head Maria Palanta. The second, State of the Industry: Publishing and Copyright Policy, on Wednesday morning, will be moderated by Associated Press publishing reporter Hillel Italie and features Pallante, Mary Rasenberger, executive director of the Authors Guild; and Keith Kupferschmid, ceo of the Copyright Alliance

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