After lengthy speculation and anticipation, and in advance of announcing its first quarter earnings Tuesday morning, Barnes & Noble said they will finally launch Nook in the UK in mid-October with an online storefront as well as partnerships with "leading UK retailers" that will be announced "shortly." (Waterstones, of course, was long expected to be partnering with Nook, but in the end allied with Amazon instead.)
Nook UK will first sell the company's Simple Touch and Simple Touch with Glowlight devices, with the tablets available at an undisclosed point. The unnamed UK partners "are expected to support the Nook offering there through both established physical and online channels."
In a statement BN ceo William Lynch said the company is "proud to be able to offer our top-rated line of Nook reading devices and our award-winning digital bookstore to the discerning and highly educated consumers in the UK. We're confident our award-winning technology, combined with our expansive content – including books, children's books, magazines, apps, movies and more – will bring UK customers the option they've been waiting for."
Last year Lynch had told the UK publishing to "expect an announcement about the Nook going international" by April 2012, and the company had a presence at the London Book Fair as part of their negotiations of content contracts with UK publishers. Lynch also said in BN's most recent earnings call in June that "they plan to be in several international markets this holiday."
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Macmillan and 21st Century Publishing House have joined forces on a new children's publishing venture in China, Macmillan Century Consulting & Service Company Ltd. The new venture will acquire, develop, introduce and promote children's titles sourced from Macmillan's publishing companies and imprints around the world, and will be led by 21st Century Publishing president Zhang Qiulin and Macmillan managing director for Greater China Charlotte Liu.
"We believe Macmillan Century is in a unique position at the outset, as it has the advantage of combining Macmillan's carefully selected children's classics and bestsellers with 21st Century's strong distribution channels within the Chinese children’s book market," Liu said in the announcement. Quilin added: "For 21st Century, this venture represents a valuable opportunity to broaden our knowledge of international publishing operations through our cooperation with The Macmillan Group."
At Fodor's, Siobhan O'Hare has been promoted to director, content management and publishing technology. In her new role, effective September 10, O'Hare will oversee the tools and process for editing and publishing Fodor's content across all channels.
Updating Friday's announcement by Amazon that THE HUNGER GAMES was the bestselling series of all time on the company's US website, a spokesperson noted to us this figure only includes paid sales and " does not take into account borrows from the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library." In addition, according to Digital Book World, Kindle book sales of the trilogy outsold print editions by a factor of 3.7:1.
Tor announced last week that Harry Harrison, who died last Wednesday, had delivered the manuscript to his memoirs two weeks previously and the company "hope to publish in December."