• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Login
  • Register

Publishers Lunch

The Publishing Industry's Daily Essential Read

  • Publishers Marketplace
  • Site Guide
  • Help

People, Etc.: Smashwords and Scribd, Duck Commander “On Hiatus” for Anti-Gay Comments

December 19, 2013
By Sarah Weinman

Smashwords‘ catalog of over 225,000 ebooks will be incorporated into Scribd.com‘s ebook subscription service. As part of the deal, the roughly 70,000 Smashwords’ authors and publishers will receive a free one-year subscription to Scribd’s service. Also, Oyster will include “select titles” from the Perseus Book Group in their subscription service.

One of the 2013’s unlikely stars, Phil Robertson of the Duck Dynasty, will be “on hiatus” in the year to come. Following his anti-gay remarks in a GQ interview, the A&E network “has placed Phil under hiatus from filming indefinitely.” Robertson tried to ameliorate the situation with a formal statement, but it’s not an apology. He said, in part: “My mission today is to go forth and tell people about why I follow Christ and also what the Bible teaches, and part of that teaching is that women and men are meant to be together. However, I would never treat anyone with disrespect just because they are different from me. We are all created by the Almighty and like Him, I love all of humanity. We would all be better off if we loved God and loved each other.”

Robertson’s book Happy, Happy, Happy: My Life and Legacy as the Duck Commander has been a major performer for Simon & Schuster’s Howard Books this year, selling more print copies than any of the the other Duck Dynasty bestsellers the company has published this year. Publisher of Howard Books Jonathan Merkh said in statement, “While Phil Robertson has always been known for his opinions, we do not condone his recent remarks, nor do they reflect the views of Howard Books or Simon & Schuster. In our experience publishing the Duck Commander books he has always treated one and all with the utmost respect regardless of political leaning, sexual orientation or religious views.” Merkh writes that “we believe that the Phil Robertson we know is more properly represented” by the statement we have quoted in the previous paragraph.
HR

Hayley Gonnason has joined Simon & Schuster Children’s as publicist. Previously she was a publicist at Holiday House.

Emily Condlin has been promoted to senior paralegal in Penguin Random House’s legal department.

Filed Under: eNews, Free, Personnel

sidebar

Primary Free Sidebar

Login


Forgot password
Quick Pass users click here to log in
Get Full Access
The publishing industry's essential daily read

Each Publishers Lunch Deluxe subscription includes full access to our searchable multi-year archive of industry news, a nightly email reporting 10 to 50 deal transactions, and our database of industry contacts, scripts, and posting privileges.

Learn More

RSS Automat

  • "I find it kind of stunning that the [Internet] Archive would put its entire free service at risk over such an obviously wrong stand" March 21, 2023 Dan Kennedy / Media Nation
  • Douglas Stuart's Young Mungo Is Being Adapated Into a TV Series by A24 March 21, 2023 Deadline
  • Reid Hoffman Posts a Free eBook About His Experiences with ChaptGPT-4 March 16, 2023 Free PDF
  • Siri Hustvedt Reveals that Paul Auster Is Receiving Cancer Treatment at Sloan Kettering March 14, 2023 Instagram post
  • John Jakes Dies at 90 March 14, 2023 NYT
  • Barnes & Noble Children's Awards Shortlists March 13, 2023 BN
  • Greenlight to Close Flatbush Store Due to Low Sales: "We Have to Focus on What's Working" March 13, 2023 Owner video
  • Nobel Winner Kenzaburo Oe Dies at 88 March 13, 2023 Reuters
  • Celebrities Did Not Give Permission to Have Their Old Letters Exploited in New Trump Book March 10, 2023 Newsweek
  • Copperfield's Petaluma Booksellers Unionize March 10, 2023 Union Twitter
© 2023 Publishers Lunch. All Rights Reserved.