From Publishing Perspectives: [F]our primary member-publishers of the Association of American Publishers have filed a motion for judgment against the Internet Archive in this case that has international implications because of the reach of Internet connectivity. A “summary judgment” is a way for one party to win a case without a trial. As Publishing Perspectives readers will … Read more
From Vice: For years, the digital media service Hoopla has given library patrons access to ebooks, movies, and audiobooks through bulk subscriptions sold to public libraries. But more recently, librarians have started calling for transparency into the company’s practices after realizing its digital ebook collection contains countless low-quality titles promoting far-right conspiracy theories, COVID disinformation, … Read more
From A Writer’s Notebook: At least once a month, there’s a big discussion online about something or other that has happened in publishing. It might be about where novelists find inspiration, or how authors use sources in nonfiction, or the research practices of journalists versus academics, or the intent of a memoirist, or how much … Read more
PG managed to get round the NYT paywall today. The OP was published two days ago. From The New York Times: Brandon Sanderson, a prolific sci-fi and fantasy author, started an online fund-raising campaign this week to self-publish four of the novels he wrote during the pandemic. His goal: to raise $1 million in 30 … Read more
From Anne R. Allen’s Blog with Ruth Harris: Who could have predicted the bright ray of light that shined on publishing during this pandemic! But it did shine, and will continue to shine, as people rekindle their love of reading and writing! Publishing is more profitable than ever before in its history…for the second year … Read more
From The New York Times: Penguin Random House, the largest book publisher in the United States, said in a court filing on Monday that its plan to buy a competitor, Simon & Schuster, would be a boon for the industry, benefiting authors, booksellers and readers. The Justice Department has disagreed. Last month, it sued to … Read more
From Nathan Bransford: Now that Workman has been acquired by Hachette and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt has been acquired by HarperCollins, where have all the midsized book publishers gone? Jim Milliot at Publishers Weekly surveys this dying breed and cites the difficulty of building a backlist, the capital needed to grow into midsized publisher, and ongoing … Read more
From The Hill: The largest book publishing companies in the U.S. are facing pressure from Democrats over e-book lending contracts with libraries that advocates and librarians have criticized. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.) sent letters to the publishers, Penguin Random House, Hachette, HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster and Macmillan, on Thursday asking … Read more
From Book Riot: Earlier this year, Fight for the Future — a group of technology experts, policymakers, and creatives — launched a tool called Who Can Get Your Book, meant to highlight the challenges of accessibility and availability of ebooks in public schools and libraries, rural areas, and other communities where these disparities create burdens … Read more
From Publishers Weekly: In separate motions this week, Amazon and the Big Five publishers asked a federal court to dismiss the latest iteration of a potential class-action price-fixing claim filed against them on behalf of indie booksellers. According to court filings, the booksellers’ Amended Complaint, which was filed in July, accuses Amazon and the publishers … Read more
PG will note upfront that this is an excerpt from a much longer and more detailed essay. He’ll have a couple of comments at the end, but doesn’t have the time to respond to every one of Mr. Doctorow’s points contained in this review of publishing history and traditional publishers. From Cory Doctorow: Publishing is … Read more
From The Bookseller: Online indie retailer Bookshop.org is calling for publishers and authors to link to independent bookshops and its own site for the duration of Independent Bookshop Week (IBW). Running from 19th to 26th June and sponsored by Hachette UK, IBW is an annual celebration of independent bookshops run by the Booksellers Association. It … Read more
From The Washington Post: As it happens, Crenshaw and his publisher, Hachette Book Group, got a little help from the Texas Republican’s friends. The National Republican Congressional Committee, which works to elect GOP candidates to Congress, spent nearly $400,000 on bulk purchases of the book. The organization acquired 25,500 copies through two online booksellers, enough to fuel … Read more
From The Chicago Sun Times: An Evanston bookstore owner wants to take on Amazon. Nina Barrett, owner of Bookends and Beginnings, signed on as the named plaintiff in a class-action lawsuit filed last week that accuses Amazon of orchestrating a price-fixing scheme with the nation’s leading book publishers that makes it impossible for other retailers … Read more
From The Bookseller: With the levelling off of e-book sales, many have begun to wonder whether the book publishing industry will be spared the kinds of disruption experienced by other sectors of the media industries. But the digital transformation of the book publishing industry was never fundamentally about e-books anyway: e-books turned out to be just … Read more
From The New York Times: If you were a certain kind of distinctly Trumpy public figure — say Donald Trump Jr. or Corey Lewandowski — looking to sell a book over the last four years, there were surprisingly few options. The Big Five publishing companies in New York, and even their dedicated conservative imprints, had … Read more
From Publishing Perspectives: The Association of American Publishers has announced this afternoon (January 27) that its directors have reelected Wiley president and CEO Brian Napack as AAP’s chair, with Hachette Book Group CEO Michael Pietsch chosen as vice-chair. The board’s actions coincide, of course, with a sea-change in Washington, where the AAP is seated. With … Read more
From Personanondata: Attorney’s Sperling & Slater acting on behalf of three eBook buying plaintiffs are suing Amazon and the “big 5” publishers (Hachette, Macmillan, Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, Harpercollins) for eBook price collusion in the Southern District Court in Manhattan. These plaintiffs are deemed representative of the following class: All persons who, on … Read more
From The Wall Street Journal: Connecticut is actively investigating how Amazon.com Inc. sells and distributes digital books, according to the state’s attorney general, the latest of several state and federal probes into the tech giant’s business practices. The investigation is examining whether Amazon engaged in anticompetitive behavior in the e-book business through its agreements with … Read more
From the Associated Press: Book publishing in 2020 was a story of how much an industry can change and how much it can, or wants to, remain the same. “A lot of what has happened this year — if it were a novel, I would say that it had a little too much plot,” said … Read more
From The New York Times: Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp is making a play for Simon & Schuster, the venerable home to best-selling authors like Stephen King and Hillary Clinton that raised a ruckus this year after releasing a string of hit titles critical of President Trump. The powerhouse publisher was put up for sale by … Read more
From veteran publishing consultant Mike Shatzkin: My brilliant friend Joe Esposito has written a piece to explain why Penguin Random House would want to acquire Simon & Schuster. I have also been thinking about why PRH, or any of the other three of the “Big Five”, would want to acquire S&S. In fact, two of … Read more
From Ars Technica: Before Sarah Adler moved to Maryland last week, she used library cards from her Washington, DC, home and neighboring counties in Virginia and Maryland to read books online. The Libby app, a slick and easy-to-use service from the company OverDrive, gave her access to millions of titles. When she moved, she picked … Read more
From The Bookseller: Amazon has been accused of anti-competitive practices in a scathing report into US tech giants by Democratic politicians. The online retailer has rebutted the claims, saying “the presumption that success can only be the result of anti-competitive behavior is simply wrong”. The 450-page report written by Democrats on the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust, … Read more
From The Bookseller: Last month, 58 writers, journalists and artists signed a letter in the Sunday Times in support of JK Rowling, condemning the ‘onslaught of abuse’ she has received regarding her views on sex, gender and trans rights. Signatories included Tom Stoppard, Ian McEwan and Lionel Shriver. Three days later, more than 200 writers, … Read more
From The Nation: hen Covid-19 struck, hundreds of millions of students were suddenly stranded at home without access to teachers or libraries. UNESCO reported that in April, 90 percent of the world’s enrolled students had been adversely affected by the pandemic. In response, the Internet Archive’s Open Library announced the National Emergency Library, a temporary … Read more
From Smart Bitches, Trashy Books: As we continue to stay home as much as possible, even the most die-hard “give me paper or give me death” readers have been dipping their toe into the ebook waters. And they’re discovering what long-time users have known forever. Good news! You can get ebooks from your library! But … Read more
From Esquire: When I set out to write my first book, I wanted to write a book that examined the very nature of facts and how we turn them into stories. To do this, I knew, I would have to get every fact that was verifiable correct. The more you want to ask the big, … Read more
From Publishing Perspectives: Since 2012, traditionally published romance has been in “a steady decline.” Much of this, of course, parallels the rise of self-publishers’ entry into the velvet-roped arena. If there’s a category in which self-publishing can claim to have walked away with the goods, it’s in low-priced romance ebooks, consumed by enviably loyal readers … Read more
From Publishing Perspectives: In a letter provided to Publishing Perspectives this morning (August 17), three leading American publishing industry professional organizations tell the House of Representatives’ Antitrust Subcommittee that “a few tech platforms in the digital marketplace” wield “extraordinary leverage over their competitors, suppliers, customers, the government, and the public. “Regrettably,” they write, “as the subcommittee’s hearings … Read more
From The New York Times: There is a lot about Donald Trump Jr.’s second book that is unusual. One of his father’s most effective surrogates, Donald Trump Jr. plans to release “Liberal Privilege: Joe Biden and the Democrats’ Defense of the Indefensible” in early September, during the final fevered weeks of the presidential campaign. His … Read more
From NewStatesman: After the recent Black Lives Matter protests, Instagram and Twitter feeds were filled with recommendations for books by black authors. As well as classics by the US writers James Baldwin and Maya Angelou, two contemporary British titles have been at the top of book-stack photos everywhere: Bernardine Evaristo’s Girl, Woman, Other, which won … Read more
From The Bookseller: J K Rowling’s agency The Blair Partnership has lost four of its author clients over the controversy surrounding the Harry Potter author’s views on transgender law reform. Fox Fisher, Drew Davies and Ugla Stefanía Kristjönudóttir Jónsdóttir–all of whom identify as LGBTQIA authors–quit the agency saying they were unconvinced it “supports our rights at all avenues”. One … Read more
From Publishers Weekly: “This is not a remote position. Candidates are expected to perform work on-site in our office,” is a line that I look for in every job posting before I decide whether or not to apply. I’m disabled; I have Ehlers-Danlos syndrome and I’m autistic, and working remotely is a reasonable accommodation that … Read more
From Kristine Kathryn Rusch: Two traditional publishing news stories caught my eye, primarily because I blog about contracts all the time, trying to convince writers to stay away from traditional publishing contracts for their books—or at least to negotiate the hell out of those contracts. . . . . The first story to catch my … Read more
From The Bookseller: At the Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP) conference in March, over 12,000 writers converged in San Antonio, Texas to attend and participate in panels, craft lectures, and readings. Typically, the AWP bookfair hosts over 800 presses, journals, and literary organizations, and the vast majority of these are small press, or … Read more
From The New York Times: Simon & Schuster, the publishing powerhouse behind best-selling authors like Stephen King, Ursula K. Le Guin and Judy Blume, is up for sale. Its owner, ViacomCBS, announced Wednesday that, after a “strategic review,” the book publisher was no longer essential to its business and that it would seek a buyer. … Read more
From The New York Times: Dozens of Hachette Book Group employees left work Thursday afternoon, protesting the company’s decision, which it announced earlier in the week, to publish an autobiography by Woody Allen. The publisher said on Monday that Mr. Allen’s book, titled “Apropos of Nothing,” would come out under its Grand Central imprint on April 7. It … Read more
From The Bookseller: Quercus is giving a copy of the workbook Me and White Supremacy by Layla F Saad to every member of staff at Hachette UK this month, challenging employees to spend 28 days reflecting on manifestations of white supremacy, including white privilege. Billed as the book to read after Why I’m No Longer Talking to White … Read more
From The Bookseller: Between 1950 and 1970s, the US and the Soviet Union (USSR) spent millions in an attempt to beat each other into space. The activity, known as the Space Race, led to a technological leap, paving the way for many of the things we take for granted today, including GPS, powdered milk and … Read more
From The Wall Street Journal: Politicians and social critics who worry about “the curse of bigness”—and vow to rewrite antitrust law to break up Facebook and Google—forget what happened the last time the government used the law against a Silicon Valley company. In 2012 the government successfully sued Apple for daring to compete with Amazon … Read more
Yesterday, PG had a post about a Publishing Perspectives piece discussing a New York Times article condemning Amazon’s sale of “counterfeit books,” many of which originated overseas. An alert commenter to that post mentioned a U.S. Supreme Court case that may be relevant, Kirtsaeng v. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 568 U.S. 519 (2013) PG … Read more
From The American Library Association: On July 25, Macmillan Publishers announced a new library ebook lending model. In response, the American Library Association’s Public Policy and Advocacy Office released the following statement: The American Library Association (ALA) denounces the new library ebook lending model announced today by Macmillan Publishers. Under the new model, a library … Read more
From The Canadian Broadcasting Network: You might call her an ideal library-goer: Andrea Querido visits her local branch weekly — even blogs for it — and describes libraries as “a place of community and connection.” And when Querido’s son was born five years ago, the communications professional fell in love with a new section of the stacks: … Read more
From The Yale Law Journal (footnotes omitted): In Amazon’s early years, a running joke among Wall Street analysts was that CEO Jeff Bezos was building a house of cards. Entering its sixth year in 2000, the company had yet to crack a profit and was mounting millions of dollars in continuous losses, each quarter’s larger than the … Read more
From All About Romance: Checking out eBooks at the library has come a long way since I bought my Nook Classic. Back then, most companies did not know how to make eBook lending from the local library work, and staff members at my local B&N had to pass out detailed instructions – that were at … Read more
As PG has mentioned before, unlike many other places of online discussion, TPV is not about politics. The cited article includes political commentary, but the portions PG is excerpting may be of significant importance to authors regardless of their personal political preferences. From National Review: The First Amendment has never been stronger. Yet freedom of speech … Read more
From the Worcester, Massachusetts Telegram: With the development of new technologies and marketing methods, children’s book authors are finding new ways to publish quickly rather than wait years for a traditional agent or publisher. These days, with a plethora of juvenile books on store shelves already, competitive agents gravitate toward the sure thing. So what’s … Read more
From Publishing Perspectives: Devised as an annual season-closer, the FutureBook conference is positioned by The Bookseller to focus on the digital context of the publishing business that’s more compact in the UK and, in some ways, more easily sorted than are other markets. Presumably next year’s FutureBook Live will be seated in a non-European UK—something both emotionally … Read more
From Jeff Rivera: I am a lifelong book lover. I was the type of kid who preferred being in the library rather than playing recess or football with his friends. I’d always wanted to be an author and was fortunate at the age of 28 to have the first novel I wrote, Forever My Lady, which … Read more