The New York Times‘ first ebook with Byliner, John Branch’s SNOW FALL, which was set for release today, has been postponed. NYT spokesperson Danielle Rhoades Ha says “it is pegged to a news story that will run in the Times, which was held.” A revised publication date is to be determined. To see the full list of 25 launch titles in their TimesFiles line of ebooks, which did launch today (available for now from Amazon and the iBookstore), visit this page in the NYT Store. Quayside Publishing Group will distribute lines from some of parent company Quarto’s UK lines. They […]
Archives for December 2012
Overlook’s Lawsuit Over MASTER AND MARGARITA eBook Rights Involves Complex Copyright Issue
Looking at the full filing in Overlook Press’s December 6 lawsuit against Daria Shilovskaya and Sergei Shilovskiy asserting the publisher’s right to produce an ebook edition of Mikhail Bulgakov’s THE MASTER AND MARGARITA, the matter is both complex and particular to a legal wrinkle that applies only to books that have had their US copyright restored. The question of essence the suit seeks to answer is whether the ebook version of the translation is a new derivative work, or the continued exploitation of a work that is already permitted. So this case is quite particular to works in translation from […]
More Views on The Best of 2012
The Wall Street Journal published their lists of best fiction and nonfiction over the weekend. Their picks are a bit more distinctive than some of the other “best of” lists, with independent presses comprising a good portion of the fiction picks (including titles from the University of Chicago Press, Small Beer Press, Soho Press, and Grove/Atlantic). Fiction The People of Forever Are Not Afraid, Shani Boianjiu Tell the Wolves I’m Home, Carol Rifka Brunt A Naked Singularity, Sergio De La Pava Earth and Air, Peter Dickinson Absolution, Patrick Flanery The Orphan Master’s Son, Adam Johnson The Thief, Fuminori Nakamura John […]
New York Times to “Bookify” Archives and Experiment with Short-Form eBook Journalism
The New York Times announced two ebook publishing programs yesterday. The paper is using Vook’s ebook publishing platform to turn curated selections of previously-published articles into ebooks under the TimesFiles imprint, launching a collection of 25 titles next Monday “with many more expected to come in 2013.” Initial titles include The Fall of the Berlin Wall, George Steinbrenner and the Yankees and The Life and Films of John Hughes. Editor for editorial development of the New York Times Gerald Marzorati tells us the TimesFiles line is focused on “simply bookifying our archives.” The second venture is a “collaboration with” Byliner […]
Updates On Penguin’s Negotiations and Amazon China
Two interesting updates to stories from Thursday: Following the formalization of the ebook pricing settlement between the European Commission and four publishers and Apple announced yesterday, Penguin’s own statement about their negotiations was more forthcoming that the EC’s characterization. In fact, it was one of those rare moments when a company says out loud what everyone is already thinking. Rebecca Sinclair from Penguin’s London office reiterated “our position has been—and remains—that we have done nothing wrong” but added “as a practical matter, we are settling in the interests of clearing the decks before the new company is established.” The EC […]
Bookselling: More BN Stores to Close; Foyles Turns a Smaller Profit in 2012; And More
Barnes & Noble will close both of its stores in Irving, TX on December 31. The Irving mall and Las Colinas locations are shutting down “as part of the national book store’s recent business decision to reevaluate low-selling locations,” according to neighborsgo.com. It goes along with the pattern in which BN closes stores when the leases expire if they cannot agree on acceptable renewals: December 31 will also see the shutdown of stores in Westlake, TX; Plainfield, IL; Campbell, CA; and, as previously reported, the Sixth Avenue store in New York’s West Village. BN will also close a store in […]