At a status conference Wednesday afternoon in New York District Court, Judge Denise Cote heard from lawyers representing Apple, contesting publishers Penguin and Macmillan, and the three publishers – Hachette, Simon & Schuster, and HarperCollins — that settled with the Department of Justice and are working towards a similar outcome with as many as all 50 states. Hachette and Harper confirmed they signed a memorandum of understanding with 16 states and Puerto Rico, Bloomberg reported, and “they hope to have a settlement with all 50 states completed by June 11,” exactly 60 days from when both the DOJ and state […]
Archives for April 2012
People, Etc.
Jennifer LaBracio has joined Little, Brown Books for Young Readers as associate director of marketing. She was most recently senior marketing manager at HMH Children’s. At HarperCollins UK, Erin Roy has joined as marketing communications director and Rufus Weston has been named customer insight director. Roy was most recently associate publisher at IPC Media and Weston was previously head of digital insight at the BBC global news division. Bookmasters will distribute Pearson Mexico’s educational titles into the US and Canada. Digital book manufacturer IBT Global has acquired Castleton, NY-based printer Hamilton Printing Company. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, […]
Amazon Publishing Gets North American Rights to James Bond Backlist
When Curtis Brown UK managing director Jonny Geller announced that Jonathan Cape had acquired a ten-year license to republish Ian Fleming’s James Bond backlist in the UK, he intimated there would be a new North American publisher in the works as well. As was announced Tuesday afternoon, that publisher is Amazon, through its Thomas & Mercer imprint, which will reissue the 14 Bond novels, as well as two non-fiction titles by Fleming, The Diamond Smugglers (1957) and Thrilling Cities (1963), in ebook and print formats starting this summer. (Penguin previously held world English rights to the Bond novels, but their […]
What Do You Do For A Encore?
Every book fair needs a metaphor, since there is generally very little that rises to the level of big “news.” This year’s is “chill”–from morning temperatures in the 30s this morning (yes, we know it was in the 80s in New York) to a generally subdued outlook following last week’s agency lawsuits, continued negotiations with the European Commission and the prospect of new “neo-agency” contracts to be negotiated over the next few weeks. China is this year’s guest of honor, and in a show of force they are clearly the largest purchaser of booth space as well. The country’s exhibitors […]
Supreme Court Will Hear Case On Importing Foreign Textbooks Into US
On Monday the Supreme Court announced it would hear the case pitting USC doctoral candidate in mathematics Supap Kirtsaeng against Wiley for importing textbooks from his native Thailand into the United States. Assuming the Court actually comes to clear ruling, it will have broad ramifications for the publishing community. Just two years ago the court deadlocked 4-4 on a similar, but less directly publishing-related, case, Costco vs. Omega, allowing an appeals court decision in favor of Omega (and by extension, publishers) to stand. Wiley’s original 2008 suit charged that Kirtsaeng violated Wiley’s copyright by importing between $900,000 and $1.2 million […]
Digital Launches and News: Sony UK, Nook UK (Not Yet), Kobo Self-Publishing (Not Yet), And Much More
After failing to launch as promised last October, Sony has opened their Reader Store in the UK, offering approximately 100,000 titles. Still not launched, and probably not coming until summer–as has been known to some for months now–is Nook’s international expansion, and its partnership with the UK’s Waterstones in particular. The Bookseller obtained Nook’s proposed contract with UK publishers, which asks for worldwide distribution rights. Kobo, which has been talking about launching a self-publishing platform of their own since late last year with few details, said at LBF that the new service will debut some time “this quarter,” before the […]