The Tolkien Trust and Harper UK have settled the lawsuit they brought last year against New Line Cinema concerning their share of proceeds from the Lord of the Rings films. “The precise terms of the settlement are confidential,” the statement says. The suit originally asked for “in excess of $150 million in compensatory damages,” based on a claim that original film rights contract gave them 7.5 percent of cross proceeds. But attorney for the Tolkien estate Bonnie Eskenazi tells the WSJ “that demand increased after we got closer to a trial because discovery revealed additional financial impropriety.” Warner Bros. President […]
Archives for September 2009
Houghton Parent Will Make Do with No President
Attorney Jeremey Dickens, who joined Houghton Mifflin Harcourt parent company Education Media & Publishing Group as president in 2007, has left the company. Since his special focus at the company was mergers and acquisitions along with corporate finance, and they’ve done such a great job in both areas, his position will not be filled.WSJ
Bookselling: Village Books to Add Espresso and Symtio Cards
Washington’s Village Books told customers recently that next month the store will have an Espresso book machine and will start selling Symtio cards for downloadable ebooks and audio books. Co-owner Chuck Robinson says, “There are obviously changes rapidly taking place in our industry, and instead of standing on the sidelines and waiting to see what will happen, we’ve decided to jump right in.” Wisely, he recognizes that much of the demand for the Espresso will come from customers wanting help with self-publishing. And “he personally wants to print books on local history that he’s enjoyed but have been out of […]
NBN Adds eBook and POD Capabilities
National Book Network is launching NBN Fusion, offering digital services including e-book distribution, file conversion, and print-on-demand and short-run digital printing. They will also provide sales representation for ebook publishers. The digital offerings are accompanied by a broader set of services that include print brokering, copyediting, composition, file conversion, proofreading, indexing and consultation. NBN president Rich Freese says in the announcement “NBN Fusion will redefine what book distribution means for modern publishers. Full-service distribution must now include handling finished books, printer files and e-books, as well as providing online marketing tools.” The package mimics in part services that Freese had […]
More On Booker
Adam Foulds’ THE QUICKENING MAZE, the one Booker nominee that had not been licensed for publication elsewhere in the English-speaking world (with only one territory, Holland, reported as sold so far), was quickly licensed to Michael Schellenberg at Knopf Canada yesterday, by Zoe Pagnamenta, in conjunction with Anna Webber at United Agents. Our declaration yesterday that either Random UK or Little Brown UK would be the Booker-winning publisher was just an oversight rather than our characteristically dry commentary on how the betting favorite fares. (Harper UK published nominee Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall through Fourth Estate, as we did note.) But […]
Rights News: Canada's Cooke Takes Over Rights Sales for Random Canada and McClelland & Stewart
Agents and business partners Dean Cooke and Sally Harding are creating a new company, the Cooke Agency International, to sell rights for Canadian publishers and agencies. Sub rights director Suzanne Brandreth will oversee daily operations from a new office, with Cooke and Harding working for both the new company and their existing Cooke Agency. Random House Canada will use the new operation to sell “the majority of our subsidiary rights,” including foreign rights, permissions, and domestic book club sales. Random House Canada ceo Brad Martin says “the reality of our business is that we can no longer financially justify maintaining […]