On October 19 Harlequin responded to a class action-seeking lawsuit launched this summer by three authors — Barbara Keiler, writing as Judith Arnold; Mona Gay Thomas, writing as Gayle Wilson, and Linda Barrett. The suit alleges that the romance publisher deprived them of ebook royalties by funneling agreements through a Swiss-based subsidiary, which “licensed” ebooks to Harlequin’s actual publishing entity. In their reply, Harlequin denied the allegations, said they acted exactly as the contracts provided and sought to dismiss the suit entirely as being without merit. Harlequin’s basic argument is that, since the authors aren’t arguing the contracts were done “in bad […]
Archives for October 2012
People
Ashley Garland has joined Ecco as publicity manager. Previously she was a publicist at the Random House Publishing Group. At Riverhead Books, Claire McGinnis has been promoted to publicity manager; Liz Hohenadel is now senior publicist; and Glory Plata is now publicist. Klaus Wolterstoff was recently promoted to vp, content and technology at Wm. B. Eerdmans, where will continue to supervise the company’s production department and manage information technology while also taking a more active leadership role in Eerdmans’ ongoing transition into the ebook market. Wolterstoff has also joined the Eerdmans executive leadership team and board of directors. Fiction writers […]
Hackers Steal Credit Card Information From 63 Barnes & Noble Stores
Barnes & Noble revealed Wednesday (after multiple outlets reported the news the previous evening) that hackers gained access to customer credit cards used at 63 store locations in nine states, including at least nine stores in the New York City area. The company said the hackers “planted bugs in tampered PIN pad devices, allowing for the capture of credit card and PIN numbers” in these stores, and the PIN pads have since been removed and will not be reinstalled. Purchases at BN College stores and online through BN.com or the various Nook platforms were not affected. BN learned of the […]
New Assignments At Simon & Schuster
From staff memos at the Simon & Schuster and Atria publishing groups and posted staff lists, you can follow some of the additional personnel movements as part of the realignment of adult publishing lines. From Free Press, senior editor Millicent Bennett and associate editor Sydney Tanigawa join the Narrative Nonfiction and Fiction team at Simon & Schuster; Meg Cassidy, Larry Hughes and Leah Johanson all join the Business, Ideas and Food team on the publicity side, with Marie Kent handling marketing for that team; and Suzanne Donahue will join the group as associate publisher for Free Press, “building the imprint’s well-established […]
iPad Mini Starts At $329
As expected, Apple unveiled the new iPad Mini at their event in San Francisco on Tuesday morning. With a 7.9-inch screen, they claim it offers significantly more live display area than competitors like Google’s Nexus 7. Apple will start taking pre-orders on Friday, October 26 and will start shipping wifi models–which start at $329–next week and cellular models two weeks later. Though some erroneous rumors indicated the mini would be significantly stripped down in features, models start at 16GB of memory and it includes a 5MP camera, and the option of full LTE wireless connections. The iPad Mini weighs 0.68 […]
Simon & Schuster Reorg Puts Free Press and Touchstone Under Other Groups, with Levin and Anfuso to Leave
Simon & Schuster has announced a reorganization of their adult imprints that puts Free Press alongside the S&S adult trade line in a new Simon & Schuster Publishing Group under Jonathan Karp, and puts Touchstone Books inside a new Scribner Publishing Group, with Stacy Creamer reporting to Susan Moldow. Free Press publisher Martha Levin and editorial Dominick Anfuso are both leaving the company as a result, on November 2. Levin has led Free Press since 2001 and Anfuso has been with the line since 2000 (and has spent 25 years at Simon & Schuster). The Christian imprint Howard Books moves […]