This Wednesday, July 11, at 12:30 Eastern time, Publishers Launch Conferences is holding our first-ever free webinar: An Introduction to SaaS and Cloud Services for Book Publishers. You are invited to join us by registering here. It will feature Hachette COO and BISG co-chair Ken Michaels; Perseus CMO Rick Joyce; publishing segment head of the global consulting practice for Tata Consultancy Services John Wicker; and consultant Ted Hill; in conversation with Mike Shatzkin and Michael Cader. The webinar is sponsored by Tata Consultancy Services and Publishers Launch global sponsors Constellation and Copyright Clearance Center, and it will provide a great concise […]
Archives for July 2012
Cengage CEO Dunn Will Move to New Role As Company, Extends Some Debt Payments
Cengage president and ceo Ron Dunn wrote to employees on Thursday to announce that he will “soon step aside…and take on a new role as executive chairman,” promising he will serve in that role for at least 3 years. Dunn is 65 and admits, “realistically, we’re still some time away from making Cengage Learning a publicly traded company through an Initial Public Offering of stock; and when the IPO does occur, investors will rightly expect that the CEO will continue in that role for several years. Those facts, taken together, lead to an inescapable conclusion: it’s time for a younger […]
European Commission Takes First Step Against Luxembourg and France’s Rogue eBook VAT Rates
Luxembourg and France clearly broke free from European Union law at the beginning of 2012 when they lowered the VAT applied to ebooks, to 3 percent and 7 percent respectively–with Luxembourg’s move particularly advantaging international players like Amazon that as a legal matter “sell” ebooks across Europe from Luxembourg. Now, six months later, the European Commission has dispatched a stern letter: “This situation is creating serious distortions of competition that are damaging to economic operators in the other 25 Member States since digital books can easily be purchased in a State other than the one where the consumer resides and, […]
Stedman’s Debut Tops August Indie Next List
The No. 1 pick on the ABA’s August 2012 Indie Next list is M.L. Stedman’s debut novel THE LIGHT BETWEEN OCEANS–which was also one of the featured excerpts in our popular free ebook anthology of selections from over 30 big forthcoming books, BEA BUZZ BOOKS. Also sampled there and on the August list is Peter Heller’s debut novel. Most of the excerpted titles release later in the year (and into next January), so if you haven’t checked it out yet, it’s as relevant now as it was when we released it before BEA. Pick up the “trade version” at the […]
People: Winstanley Takes Over As Penguin Canada President; McAleer In New Role at Walker
Mike Bryan, who took over as president and Penguin Canada almost two years ago after the departure of David Davidar, is going to retire from publishing and return to the UK. Nicole Winstanley will take over as president while continuing to serve as publisher as well, and vp of finance and operations Barry Gallant becomes chief operating officer. Bryan says in the announcement, “My decision to leave has been personal and geographical but I leave knowing we have the best team in Canadian publishing and am confident Nicole and Barry will lead Penguin to even bigger and greater achievements.” Bryan will […]
Chelsea Green Sells Majority Stake to Employees
In an innovative transaction, the employees of publisher Chelsea Green have become the controlling owners of close to 80 percent of the company’s shares. They bought out the company’s outside investors, with president and publisher Margo Baldwin along with Ian Baldwin (who founded the press together in 1984) retaining their minority stake. Chelsea Green’s employee stock ownership plan–which is a pension plan–bought the shares on behalf of the employees. Baldwin notes “the company had to have an outside valuation and the board of directors decided on the share offering price,” which could not exceed the valuation. Baldwin undersores to us, […]