Industry News

Megan DiMaria is Novel Rocket’s industry news columnist. An author and speaker, she enjoys cheering on writers and loves to encourage others as they journey through life’s demands and delights. Megan is the author of two women’s fiction novels, Searching for Spice and Out of Her Hands. 

Welcome to the June edition of industry news. Is anyone else freaked out about 2015 nearly being half over? 

Enjoy the nice weather, and check out this month's news:

• Interesting. HarperCollins Christian expands its focus on backlist titles. For more info . . . 
• Family Christian Stores will likely remain open. For more info . . .  
• American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW) announces the 2015 Genesis Contest semi-finalists. For more info . . . 
• The first national Independent Bookstore Day was such a success there will be another in 2016. For more info . . . 
• This is a bit depressing. Books with female protagonists are less likely to win a major award. For more info . . .  
• “… to restore balance to the author-publisher relationship and help authors achieve a fair return for the efforts . . .” The Authors Guild is rolling out a Fair Contract initiative. For more info . . .  
• “Is Subscription the Future of E-Books?” For more info . . . 
• If there’s travel in your future, you might want to check the partnership between Southwest Airlines and Kobo that provides free in-flight e-books to passengers. For more info . . .  
• A drop in e-book sales blamed for sales decline at Hachette Book Group USA. For more info . . . 
• Romance fiction imprint Avon Impulse (HarperCollins' digital-first publishing platform) announces it has sold more than three million e-books since its launch in 2011. For more info . . . 
• The Evangelical Christian Publishers Association (ECPA) announced the winners of the 2015 Christian Book Awards and the 2015 Christian Book of the Year. 
• Digital platform provider Rakuten Kobo announced a program created to boost its partnership with the American Booksellers Association (ABA) by enticing customers to try eBooks. For more info . . . 
• Total revenue rose for Canada’s Indigo Books & Music. For more info . . . 
• Web development company Mess to launch Momentum, a turnkey subscription service that generates social media campaigns and manages and track the fan social engagement with them. For more info . . . 
• This will make you smile, sing along, and dance. “All About Them Books." 
• Streaming media service hoopla digital adds e-books and comics to its platform. For more info . . . 
• E-book creator, Vook, rebrands itself as Pronoun. For more info . . .
• Indie bookseller, Books Inc., has announced plans to open a store in Santa Clara in July 2016. For more info . . . 
• Harlequin and HarperCollins Publishers announced the launch of Harlequin Audio, a new imprint that will produce audio versions of Harlequin titles. The imprint will release its debut titles on June 30, 2015. For more info . . .  
• Shop local, San Francisco— the mayor launches B2B campaign that will also aid bookstores. For more info . . . 
• Interested in buying a piece of literary history? F Scott Fitzgerald’s home, where he wrote The Great Gatsby is on the market for a cool 3.8 million. For more info . . .  
• In case you missed it, Dante’s 750^th birthday just passed. For more info . . . 
• Streaming media service for libraries, hoopla digital, announced the addition of E-books and comics to its platform. For more info . . . 
• “Did [Author Solutions] engage in a fraudulent scheme to sell authors worthless marketing services?" For more info . . .  
• Publisher Alfred A. Knopf turns 100. For more info . . . 
• Have you heard of #ThisBookClub, a celebration of the modern-day book club and all the ways that novels can bring people together? For more info . . . 
• Kensington Publishing Corp had added two new sub-imprints to Lyrical Press: Lyrical Shine, contemporary romance, and Lyrical Underground, thriller, mystery, and horror titles. For more info . . .  
• 2015 Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction finalists announced. 
• Atlantic Book Awards winners announced! 
• Barnes & Noble to close one of its stores in Queens, NY. For more info . . .
• Interesting. Wal-Mart is taking on Amazon Prime by starting their own subscription shipping service. For more info . . . 
• Guideposts has reached agreement with HarperCollins Christian Publishing’s Zondervan division to license devotionals for retail sales. For more info . . . 
• “Simon & Schuster is partnering with mobile content delivery service Foli to offer customers complimentary access to a selection of full-text e-books in airports, museums and hotels around the country.” For more info . . . 
• Yay! March bookstore sales rose over 5% from a year ago. For more info . . . 
• Southwest Airlines offers free in-flight access to e-books. For more info . . . 
• Profits rise and sales fall in the first quarter for Simon & Schuster. For more info . . . 
• First quarter sales rose at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt’s trade division. For more info . . . . 
• Harlequin purchase proved profitable for HarperCollins. For more info . . . 
• Gatekeeper Press, a full-service self-publishing platform, offers authors 100% of their royalties, 100% of their rights, and global distribution. For more info .. . 

 Have a great month, friends! Write on!