Looking Back, Looking Forward

from the Publisher's desk   

I can't say it's been the best of years, nor has it been the worst of years. I'll settle for, it's been a year.
Looking back on 2011, Buddhapuss Ink started the year with the discovery of a wonderful new author, Mariam Kobras. We think she will have a long and successful publishing future with us.
Midyear saw the success of our first YA anthology writing competition, Mystery Times Ten 2011 which hit the Amazon Bestseller lists in paperback and in kindle!
The Last Track, by Sam Hilliard - the first book we published - continued to get great reviews and lots of notice. Sam is hard at work on the next Mike Brody mystery now.
2011 saw changes in how we operate as a company, and in our vision for the future.
One thing that didn't change though, was our commitment to finding new authors, and helping them grow their writing careers.

With that in mind, we carefully planned our 2012 list.
First up, Mariam Kobras: Her debut book, The Distant Shore will release on January 17th, 2012. A great way to start the New Year. This is the first book in her Stone Trilogy.
May 2012 will see the publication of Mystery Times Ten 2012. We look forward to what we hope will be a long line of YA anthologies coming from this annual writing competition.
September 2012, well, you'll have to wait a bit to see, but we have something coming out that I think a lot of people will be eager to read.
October 2012 will see the first of our adult Fiction writing competition anthologies - Flash Fiction Favorites. Watch here for more details in the coming weeks.

Two years ago, when Buddhapuss Ink was just an idea some friends were kicking around over coffee, I had no idea just how much work would be involved in the day-to-day care and feeding of this fledgling company. I also didn't know how much I would love being at the helm. Now that our list is finally starting to take shape and grow, I'm excited to see what the next year has in store for us, and more importantly, for you - our readers.

Happy New Year!
MaryChris  

E-book Sales Rose 81% in October

E-book sales rose 81.2% in October, to $72.8 million, at the 20 publishers who supply e-book figures to the Association of American Publishers monthly sales report. The 81% increase was the first time this year that e-book sales did not double over the same month in 2010. For the first 10 months of the year, e-book sales were up 131.1%, to $807.7 million.

 

Religious sales were up in the month at reporting houses, increasing 12.4%, but sales in the other print trade segments were down. Once again, the mass market paperback segment took a major hit, with sales falling 37.6% at reporting houses and sales in the segment were off 33.7% for the year to date. The trade paperback segment has a weak month, with sales down 16.9% and adult hardcover sales fell 7.8%. Children’s hardcover performed marginally better, with sales down 7.3% in October, while children’s paperback segment sales fell 2.4%.

 

Downloadable audio sales increased 15.6% at reporting companies, while sales of physical audiobooks rose 0.1%.

 

*From PW Daily

Print Book Sales on the Rise Since Thanksgiving, But Trail 2010

Thanksgiving weekend may draw lots of media coverage about holiday sales, but book sales of print titles have been trending upward every week since the start of the holiday shopping season. According to Nielsen BookScan, sales of print books in the stores it covers totaled 12.0 million the week ending November 27 and then jumped to 15.5 million units the week ending December 4. The following week, units rose again, to 18.6 million, and increased 26% the week of December 18, to 23.4 million.

 

Compared to the same week in 2010, unit sales the week of December 18 were down 14%, with the closing of Borders and the growth of e-book sales likely the two biggest factors in the decline. During the last week, print backlist was doing better than frontlist, with backlist sales down 9% compared to a year ago and frontlist off 19%.

 

* From PW Daily

Buddhapuss weighs in - "Call me crazy, but buying ebooks as gifts for friends and family is a little less than satisfying, and if you are unsure just what type of ereader they own, it can be difficult as well as confusing. On the plus side - there's fewer gifts to wrap and on the negative side - well, there's fewer gifts to un-wrap too.

Just my opinion but I think when it comes to gift-giving, the print book is going to prevail for a while longer as the present of choice."

Borders Creditors to Get About 10 Cents on the Dollar

Judith Rosen
Dec 20, 2011

 

With this morning's court approval of Borders's liquidation plan and the sale of its Kobo interest and IP addresses, publishers will do better than expected in terms of recouping their losses with the bankrupt chain. While Borders originally anticipated paying 4¢ to 10¢ on the dollar to creditors, it will likely be at the high end and could even exceed that, according to attorney Andrew Glenn.

 

There is expected to be a claim recovery pool of between $80 million to $90 million in funds to pay creditors. In fact much of the hearing was taken up with Kobo, which alone will bring in $27million to $32 million, assuming that lawyers can prevent a tax bite that could be as large as $10 million.

 

Borders's agreement with Next Jump was also approved and the Court gave preliminary approval to the Pinsker settlement. The latter paves the way for a mid-February Fairness hearing and distribution to workers in the company's Michigan facility, who filed for moneys owed under the WARN motion.  

 

Now that the liquidation is just about complete, Judge Martin Glenn took the opportunity to thank the attorneys for both Borders and the Creditors Committee. "I think you've all worked cooperatively in difficult circumstances," he said. "You've all worked rapidly which has maximized the estate, and as in the Kobo sale, the stars were aligned."

 

*From PW Daily

Yes Virgina, we have been playing with our website!

Well, sometimes a cat just can't leave well enough alone. Yarn, catnip, and  websites can be like that! So, yes, we have been working on it and yes, it might look a little rocky until we get all the lumps and bumps worked out but. in the end it will be a better site. We hope a few momentary problems and glitches won't keep you from checking in with us there.
Thanks & cheers!
~The Webmaster Cat

http://www.BuddhapussInk.com

World Book Night

People who want to volunteer to help give away books on World Book Night can apply at this link. Carl Lennertz says: "I most definitely want booksellers, librarians, authors, bloggers, agents, and publishing folks in the mix, partly because so many have said they want to, partly because all those parties have a stake in reading and books. We're looking for people who want to share their excitement about books and how a love of reading expands and enriches our experience of life."

Buddhapuss Ink will be out there, will you? Let us know if you will be participating in this worthy cause.

October Bookstore Sales Fell 6.6%

After posting surprisingly large gains in August and September--likely fueled in part by Borders's going-out-of business sales--bookstore sales fell 6.6% in October, to $886 million, according to preliminary estimates released Tuesday morning by the U.S. Census Bureau. Despite the drop in October, bookstore sales for the first 10 months of 2011 were up 2.0%, to $12.91 billion.

For all of retail, October sales rose 7.2% and were up 8.0% in the January-October period. 

Amazon Backlash Continues to Build

By Judith Rosen
Dec 09, 2011

For many booksellers, tomorrow’s discounts of up to $15 for using Amazon’s price check app is the last straw. Although the app does not apply to books, it does affect bookstore sidelines like toys, music, and DVDs, and it adds to a perception that bricks-and-mortar bookstores grossly overcharge.

The app also comes on top of data that customers regularly scan books with their smart phones and then order discounted copies directly from Amazon, or even use the bookstore’s free Wi-Fi to download Kindle e-books to their devices. The latter caused Diesel Bookstore, which has stores in Oakland, Malibu, and Brentwood, to produce free Occupy Amazon buttons and coasters that picture Amazon founder Jeff Bezos wearing devil horns.

 

Yesterday’s open letter to Bezos from American Booksellers Association CEO Oren Teicher was a bit more tempered. “We’re not shocked, just disappointed,” he wrote. “Despite your company’s recent pledge to be a better corporate citizen and to obey the law and collect sales tax, you created a price-check app that allows shoppers to browse Main Street stores that do collect sales tax, scan a product, ask for expertise, and walk out empty-handed in order to buy on Amazon. We suppose we should be flattered that an online sales behemoth needs a Main Street retail showroom. Forgive us if we’re not.”

 

Other retailers were downright angry. On New England Cable News, David Didriksen, president of Willow Books & Cafe in Acton, Mass., and a member of the board of the Retailers Association of Massachusetts, called it “another in a long series of predatory practices by Amazon. You would think that a company of that size would be willing to just live and let live for small retailers who can’t possibly affect them. But, no, they want it all.”

 

Bookworks in Albuquerque, N.M., is fighting back with a sale to encourage people to show there are alternatives to the Amazon offer. On December 10, customers will receive 15% off their purchases of everything except event tickets, event books, and gift certificates. "We can't compete with Amazon on price, and we are not even trying, says owner Wyatt Wegryzn. "We understand though why shopping on Amazon is so tempting for people, especially in this tough economy. So we want to say 'thanks' to our customers for shopping with us."

 

How the price app will affect holiday sales for independents just two weeks before Christmas is anyone’s guess. As for his relationship with his colleagues on Main Street, Bezos has never been known for being interested in winning friends.