Barnes & Noble has revamped their PubIt! self-publishing service under the less awkward name of Nook Press. The new version includes content creation and publishing tools that let authors upload a manuscript and then continue to revise and edit it within the tool, before creating an epub file. It also offers collaboration tools that allow authors “to safely and quickly invite their network of friends and editors to read and comment on any Nook Press project in a secure environment.” The new technology is built in partnership with FastPencil. Nook says that self-published ebooks now comprise 25 percent of all […]
Archives for April 2013
Skyhorse & Start Publishing Offer New Terms for Night Shade Backlist
After days of public controversy and criticism, Skyhorse and Start Publishing have changed their terms for acquiring the assets of Night Shade Books, according to a statement received from both publishers by i09. Skyhorse publisher Tony Lyons said the new deal “is very favorable to the Night Shade authors and will trade short run profits for long-term relationship.” Under the new proposed agreement, which would still have to be accepted by a majority of affected writers, Night Shade authors would receive a 7.5 percent royalty on the retail price for trade paper editions, and 25 percent of net receipts on all […]
People, Etc.
Maha Khalil has joined the Crown Publishing Group as marketing director for Clarkson Potter, Potter Style, Potter Craft, Watson-Guptill and Amphoto. Maha was previously sales director at Hyperion. Also at the Potter group of imprints, Allison Renzulli has been promoted to senior marketing manager; Carly Gorga moves up to associate marketing manager; and Kevin Sweeting has been promoted to associate. At the S&S imprint, Meg Cassidy has been promoted to publicity manager. Bloomsbury will consolidate its three New York-based units into a single new office space at the end of April, at 1385 Broadway. They are bringing together the Bloomsbury […]
Coming Very Soon: Margaret Thatcher’s Authorized Biography, And Other Competing Volumes
Allen Lane and Knopf will simultaneously publish the first volume of Margaret Thatcher’s authorized biography, written by Charles Moore, “immediately following her funeral.” The biography of the former British prime minister, who died Monday at the age of 87, was commissioned in 1997 with the proviso that it would only be published after her death. (Volume one is called NOT FOR TURNING; the second and final volume, which Moore is currently working on, will be called HERSELF ALONE.) Moore was given full access to Thatcher’s private papers, and interviewed her extensively: “she supported all his requests for interviews with others, […]
Penguin Settlement Draws 3 Comments
The Department of Justice filed its required report to the court on Tunney Act comments on the proposed ebook pricing settlement with Penguin–which generated a total of 3 comments. Not unexpectedly, they disagree with Bob Kohn’s latest objections: “Mr. Kohn is not correct that firms may, as a matter of law, conspire to undo what they regard to be anticompetitive conduct. As the United States stated its Original Response to Comments, even if there were evidence to substantiate claims of monopolization or predatory pricing by Amazon, it would not have been acceptable for the Publisher Defendants to conspire with Apple […]
BooksOnBoard Suspends Sales
Longstanding independent ebookstore BooksOnBoard is at least temporarily out of the business. The site is on limited “account only access,” and a message indicates: “BooksOnBoard has temporarily stopped selling books. We are re-structuring to compete more effectively against Goliaths who have entered our marketplace since we first launched in 2006…. We expect to be back with our new business model soon. Meanwhile, customers can continue to download their prior purchases as long as the publisher and their distributors continue to make them available – same as always and out of our control. As in the past, it’s always wise to […]