Tuesday morning’s testimony at the Apple ebook price fixing trial focused on Apple’s counsel Kevin Saul, with a curiously charged exchange over emails from early March 2010 — after the alleged collusion with the Agency Five was complete. In the correspondence Wiley’s Deirdre Silver is resisting Apple’s most favored nations clause, as she notes “we cannot control pricing by third parties to whom we sell eBooks on a ‘wholesale’ basis.” Silver is describing what came to be the crux of what we dubbed the “hybrid model” — which is how nearly all publishers wound up doing business with Apple. In […]
Archives for June 2013
Harper Shares Data on Light Third Quarter; Shows Investors Profitability of eBook
Overlooked in the run up to BEA was the “investor day” presentations regarding the new News Corp., held in New York last Tuesday, and the release of additional financial data through the company’s fiscal third quarter. In early May when the parent company reported results through March 31, they did not break out HarperCollins’ third quarter performance — but it can be derived out of the new year-to-date data. For the period, Harper recorded sales of $311 million (their lightest quarter of the fiscal year so far) and EBITDA of $29 million. eBooks comprised 21.3 percent of Harper’s sales in […]
People, Etc.
Bill Harris has joined BookEnds Literary Agency as director of digital content. Formerly a senior managing editor at Penguin, he has most recently been a freelance editorial and web development consultant. In addition, Beth Campbell has been promoted to literary assistant and rights coordinator. Skyhorse and Start Publishing have finalized their joint acquisition of Night Shade Books, an agreement reached “following a spirited and public debate” among authors, agents, fans, and publishers. According to a statement, Night Shade had net sales in 2012 of approximately $1.5 million. In Denmark, Lindhardt and Ringhof has acquired independent Danish literary house Per Kofod […]
BEA Shrinks, With Some Growth
Book Expo show director Steve Rosato posted preliminary, unverified numbers on attendance for last week’s convention, with the data showing some kind of decline in various ways — though growth as well. BEA reports that total attendance was 19,615 people, down a marginal 79 people from a year ago. But “attendees” — people coming to see something at the show, rather than those associated with exhibitors — grew by 7 percent, to 11,101 people (compared to 10,417 in 2012). That’s a similar pattern to what BEA reported a year ago — basically flat overall attendance, with a gain of about […]
More From Court: Apple’s Opening Arguments and First Testimony, As Judge Cote Insists Her Mind Is Open
Lead Apple defense attorney Orin Snyder underscored Apple’s contention that the whole case is “bizarre” in his opening arguments on Monday saying, “What the government wants to do is reverse engineer a conspiracy from a market effect.” Snyder was quick to express “concern” over presiding Judge Denise Cote’s previous expression of her “tentative view” that Apple would be proven guilty in a pre-trial conference. “All we want is a fair trial,” Snyder said. “Every defendant should be presumed to have done nothing wrong.” Judge Cote insisted in reply, “This is not a vote on whether I like Apple, it’s whether or […]
DOJ Posts Their Opening Argument As A Slide Deck
It’s no Bob Kohn-style graphic novel, but the Department of Justice has posted (as a PDF) the 80 slides that framed their opening argument Monday in the ebook price fixing trial. There is little evidence that has not already been presented by the government in their pre-trial filings, and while the visual presentation will call-outs of key quotes and date-stamps for various communications is meant to visualize the chronicle of circumstantial collusion, it’s hardly crystal clear. In some places, even, a look at the fine print on documents shown in slides rather than the big called-out text shows evidence at […]