On the heels of a soft fourth quarter in 2024 (-3.2 percent) capping a record year (+3.6 percent overall), PM deal reports show renewed strength in the first quarter of 2025. As was the case a year ago, early dates for the London Book Fair and Bologna Book Fair helped strengthen the pre-fair deal counts in the quarter, which could lead to a softer second quarter. Nonfiction maintained its comeback pattern, at least in total deals, rising one percent, as adult fiction remained the growth engine, gaining another 4.5 percent over last year’s record period. Children’s deals increased for the […]
Amazon Calls France’s 3 Euro Book Delivery Fee Discriminatory
In its continued fight against France’s mandated minimum €3 fee to ship books priced under €35, Amazon criticized the measure in an argument before the Court of Justice of the European Union, Reuters reports. (France’s highest administrative court has sought guidance from the CJEU, which is Europe’s highest court.) The fee was instituted in 2023 to help France’s independent bookstores, which aren’t able to offer free or extremely reduced shipping the way that Amazon and other large online retailers can. “The major retailers are using their delivery methods as a way of creating a new type of competition on the […]
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May Indie Next List
Distribution: UDON Entertainment
Art book and graphic novel publisher UDON Entertainment will be distributed worldwide by Simon & Schuster, for frontlist and backlist titles, starting April 1. UDON was previously distributed by Diamond Book Distributors. Specialty comic book stores can also order UDON titles from Lunar Distribution, Universal Distribution, and Diamond Comics Distribution.
Author Sues S&S, Vigliano For Allegedly Stealing His Book Project
Fox News legal commentator and author of The Russia Hoax Gregg Jarrett has filed suit in New York’s Supreme Court against Simon & Schuster and his agents at Vigliano Associates for allegedly taking his book project and having another author write it. According to the complaint, in late 2023 executive editor Natasha Simons reached out to Jarrett about writing a new book on current events. Jarrett suggested a book about the “lawfare” legal cases against Donald Trump and agreed to hire a research assistant for the project, fellow Vigliano client Alex Marlow, in order to get it out before the […]