It took Judge Denny Chin thirteen months to consider and reject the Google Books Settlement, but in court Tuesday he indicated that he will not let the case drag on forever. The parties have had only four months to start all over, but Chin expressed some pragmatism is noting, “I have a sense that we’ll come back here in September and you’ll just want more time,” noting that “Google has all but said they would not accept an opt-in deal.” (The company already has an opt-in program that exists outside of the settlement.) Absent being “resolved or close to resolved […]
Archives for July 2011
eNews: BookLamp’s Recommendation Engine Enlists Publishers; UMich Press Serializes Novels on Facebook; and More
Book recommendation service BookLamp will reportedly launch in August after a lengthy development period, with more than 20,000 available books from Random House, Kensington and other publishers. The idea is to search through full-text books and analyze them in order to make reading recommendations. Ceo Tom Stanton told Mashable that he doesn’t anticipate selling books or advertising on the site. BookLamp’s efforts at text analysis and recommendations have been underway since 2008, focused on science fiction and fantasy books to start, and according to site postings have mostly lacked a sufficiently large database to search against and analyze. A video […]
Where Will Borders Shoppers Take Their Dollars?
Now that Borders is moving towards liquidation, we thought it might be useful to look back at our special item from last month featuring consumer survey data elicited exclusively for Publishers Lunch readers by Bowker PubTrack Consumer on where regular Borders customers might take their book-purchasing dollars if the chain goes out of business. Some of the results are likely to differ now, since the data comes from the roughly 10 percent of surveyed book buyers who indicated buying a book from Borders in April, but it addresses critical questions on the minds of all publishers and authors right now. […]
People, Etc.
Maggie Richards has been promoted to deputy publisher at Henry Holt, in addition to her current responsibilities as vp sales and marketing. Simon & Schuster UK senior commissioning editor Francesca Main will move to Picador on September 26 as editorial director, acquiring and publishing commercial literary fiction. RPG game designer Jonathan Tweet [stet] was hired in June by Amazon and is said to be developing a “social game”–indicated on his LinkedIn page, which indicates he is “doing social games with a crack team,” and confirmed by Tweet to IndustryGamers. Amazon purchased a downloadable gaming company Reflexive Entertainment in 2008, but […]
Borders Will Submit Liquidation Plan to Court; Has Bid for 30 Stores; Kobo Objects to Any Sale of Their Stock or Services
Borders announced Monday afternoon that “in the absence of a formal proposal from a going concern bidder, it did not require an auction” as scheduled for Tuesday. The company will submit for court-approval on Thursday the liquidation plan from Hilco and Gordon Brothers. Borders ceo Mike Edwards said “we are saddened by this development” in a statement, but wants to make sure you know it’s not their fault. “We were all working hard towards a different outcome, but the headwinds we have been facing for quite some time, including the rapidly changing book industry, eReader revolution, and turbulent economy, have […]
People: Sarah Odedina to Start New UK Children’s Publisher for Bonniers
Longtime publishing director of Bloomsbury Children’s in the UK Sarah Odedina will become managing director of “an entirely new children’s publishing company” in London as part of Bonnier Publishing. The line will launch in late 2011 or early 2012, focusing on children’s fiction across all age brackets. CEO of Bonnier Publishing Richard Johnson says in the announcement, “Bonnier is committed to grow in the English language and lead the way in quality children’s publishing and we could have wished for no one better than Sarah, one of the UK’s leading children’s publishers, to head this new initiative.” Odedina adds, “I […]