It seems the recent chortling rumors about Amazon cutting back on their first party ventures had one effect: the new boss sat down with the mouthpiece of the enemy camp to discuss sales numbers.
In brief: the "high-minded" boycott by B&N and the indie bookstores has simply shifted sales to Amazon:
http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/b...nd-mortar.html
So much for the "bookstores are essential for discoverability" meme.
Quote:
An Amazon Publishing spokesperson said that across all of its imprints, over 10% of the company’s frontlist titles, in a variety of categories and genres, have sold more than 100,000 copies each, and that many have sales over 200,000 copies each, including The Long Way Home by Karen McQuestion, When I Found You by Catherine Ryan Hyde, The Detachment by Barry Eisler, and The Misremembered Man by Christina McKenna.
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Quote:
Durham said Amazon remains committed to publishing, and that anyone who suggests the company is scaling back is incorrect. “We’re a global company with thriving publishing offices in Seattle, New York, Grand Haven [Michigan, home of Brilliance Audio], London, and Munich,” Durham said. She noted that across all 14 Amazon publishing imprints, the company plans to release about 700 frontlist books in 2014.
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They may not be in Randy Penguin territory but they are definitely one of the bigger (semi-)traditional publishing houses out there. And that is without factoring KDP Select sales volume. Add all the indie content sales and there is a lot of books selling without "bookstore discoverability" or showrooming.