A federal court in Chicago dismissed a lawsuit filed against Barnes & Noble in October 2012 over the skimming of customer PIN codes from credit-card readers at stores in New York, California and seven other states, Bloomberg reports. The original suit, filed by Chicago customer Elizabeth Nowak and later consolidated with three other complaints for class-action seeking status, alleged that BN, by failing to disclose the PIN pad scam to customers for six weeks, was in “breach of an implied contract to protect that information and violation of Illinois consumer fraud laws” and that the company’s “security failures enabled the […]
Archives for September 2013
Sourcebooks In Publishing Partnership with Wattpad, and More
Sourcebooks is partnering with online writing site Wattpad, to edit and publish selection YA stories in both print and ebook editions under their YA imprint Sourcebooks Fire. The partnership is an element of Wattpad’s recent fan funding experiment, where writers can enlist fans to support their publication. Among other things, the “fan funding” component will help drive pre-orders for the books. The Wattpad versions of the published stories will remain available on the site. Sourcebooks ceo Dominique Raccah says, “This partnership is all about helping connect talented authors with readers.” Wattpad ceo Alan Lau adds, “It’s a natural fit, as […]
More Kindling
After a brief false start online, Amazon announced the refreshed versions of their Kindle Paperwhite devices yesterday, with the more basic model available as of September 30. The features and specs are lavishly presented online, so we won’t go to great lengths here. The most interesting thing to us is that this “sixth generation” device sells at the same price as its predecessor — $139 for the wi-fi model (without ads) — despite nearly 6 years of “predictions” that these ereaders will soon be free. The screen, which Amazon says is better than ever, now uses “Carta e-paper technology” rather than […]
People
At Soho Press, Juliet Grames has been promoted to associate publisher, and Mark Doten moves up to senior editor. At Greenleaf Book Group, chief operating officer Tanya Hall will move up to ceo effective January 1, 2014, replacing founder Clint Greenleaf, who will continue at the company as chairman. “In her nine-plus years at Greenleaf, Tanya has proven her skills for driving profitable growth and building Greenleaf’s reputation for quality and service,” said Greenleaf in the announcement. He will “focus on strategic partnerships, business development, and author acquisitions in the chairman role.” Anthony LaSasso has joined CN Times Books as publicity […]
Our Show of Shows
It’s a big month or so on the horizon for Publishers Launch Conferences. On Thursday, September 26, in New York, we’re convening two events of interest along with our partners at Digital Book World. One is a full-day conference on modern book marketing tools, techniques and services. It’s a coherent, comprehensive curriculum on how to market in a digitally-driven age. Now that marketing a book is everyone’s job, this approach will be accessible and valuable to people across the publishing business — authors, agents, editors, marketers and more. Our code LUNCH will still save your $50 when you register, and […]
Amazon’s Plan For Inexpensive eBook Upgrades for Print Book Purchasers
We had heard from publishers that Amazon was working on a bundling program to offer inexpensive ebook “upgrades” to customers who had already purchased print books, and today the company pre-announced their awkwardly-named but otherwise-inspired Kindle MatchBook program. With relatively limited adoption from publishers — about 10,000 titles, Amazon says — the advance press release also serves as a “call to all authors and publishers to enroll their books.” HarperCollins is the one participating publisher named by Kindle executive Russ Grandinetti. The program is set to launch in October. Price has been the sticking point for most publishers — with […]