Happy New Year! Welcome to the January edition of Novel
Rocket’s industry news. I hope 2015 is a shiny, happy, productive year for you!
- Novel Rocket announced the 2014 Grand Prize Winner of the LAUNCH PAD Contest: Boosting You Out of the Slush Pile: Sally Bradley for her Contemporary Fiction entry, Kept. For more info . . .
- The Bestselling Books of 2014.
- Is Mark Zuckerberg the new Oprah of the book world? His New Year’s resolution is to read more, and he’s created a new Facebook page to discuss the books. For more info . . .
- Bookstores optimistic for the New Year. For more info . . .
- Authors are unhappy with Amazon’s new subscription service. For more info . . .
- E-book subscription service, Scribd, secured $22 million in financing led by Khosla Ventures. For more info . . .
- Impressive. Anita Eerdmans becomes the third president and publisher of Eerdmans Publishing in its 103 year history. For more info . . .
- Yes, books are “transformational.” E-readers and new partnerships with Worldreader are credited for a boost in literacy rates. For more info . . .
- And now, some truly drool-worthy writing spaces.
- Barnes & Noble buys back Nook stake from Pearson. For more info . . .
- An interesting aside—Scrooge saved Christmas. Thanks, Charles Dickens. For more info . . .
- Five publishing companies that don’t require you to submit via an agent. For more info . . .
- Here’s my first PSA of the year for you. Experiencing a bit of insomnia? It could be your e-reader. For more info . . .
- Macmillian reaches agreement over book pricing with Amazon. For more info . . .
- Well, this is interesting. Teens prefer paper books to e-books. For more info . .
- Like lists? Here's Write to Done's Top 10 Blogs for Writers 2015.
- James Patterson continues his #SaveOurBooks campaign, donating $$$ to independent bookstores. For more info . . .
- E-book sales down, a bit. For more info . . .
- In case you were wondering, culture is Merriam-Webster’s word of the year. For more info . . .
- According to The Library Journal, there are new/more crossover opportunities for Christian fiction. For more info . . .
- You know the Christian Writers Guild has closed, well, here's the rest of the story. For more info . . .
- The drama continues in Apple’s appeal of the 2013 e-book price-fixing judgment. Now they’ve been called a monopolist. For more info . ..
- Looks like Google will win the Authors Guild vs. Google case. For more info . . .
- Sorry to hear this—bookstore sales down in October. For moreinfo . . .
- Bookish.com’s “Best Book Covers of 2014.”
- Nazarene Publishing House is NOT closing. Instead they’ve decided to restructure. For more info . . .
- So, if you write an autobiography or a memoir, it’s best if you’re not a celebrity. For more info . . .
- Curious about what the most downloaded titles in the Apple iBooks Store of 2014 were? For more info . . .
- Hachette is turning Twitter into a retail platform. For more info . . .
- Barnes & Noble cuts ties with Microsoft. For more info . . .
- Check this out, Squirl, a start-up company, provides a “real-life portal into a different world,” to discover books based on physical location. For more info . . .
- E Ink and Kobo team up to extend more e-book access. For more info . . .
- Goodreads Best Books of 2014 have been announced.
- The NY Times named its 100 Notable Books of 2014.
- Penguin Random House unveiled the Penguin Hotline to help folks find that perfect book. For more info . . .
Have a great month, friends!
As we've come to expect, Megan: great work. Thank you.
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