Nobel laureate Nadine Gordimer, 90, died at home in Johannesburg. Gordimer won the Booker in 1974 and the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize in 2002, along with the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1991. Jamil Ahmad, 83, author of THE WANDERING FALCON, died at his home in Islamabad after a long illness. Ahmad’s debut novel was published in 2011 when he was 79 after being excerpted in the “Pakistan” issue of Granta. At St Martin’s, Nancy Trypuc has been promoted to vp, creative services. Jerry Bilek will join the Minnesota Historical Society Press as sales manager on August 1. Bilek is the owner of Monkey […]
Archives for July 2014
More Amazon: The FAA (Drones) and the FTC (Lawsuit)
The week finishes with still more Amazon news. The company is sincere about wanting to use drones to make deliveries. After the FAA made it clear in late June that they are still prohibiting commercial uses of drones, Amazon formally applied for an exemption from that regulation. News of that application has sent their stock up over 4 percent in Friday morning trading (almost $15 a share). In the letter, Amazon says: “We are rapidly experimenting and iterating on Prime Air inside our next generation research and development lab in Seattle. In the past five months, we have made advancements […]
On The Authors Guild, Amazon, and Sincerity
Authors Guild president Roxana Robinson had already responded informally to Amazon’s offer to join with Hachette in providing an ebook “windfall” to authors affected by the standoff between the two — and on Thursday, novelist and AG vice president Richard Russo posted a more formal response. Russo’s tone was the same as Robinson’s: “While Amazon claims to be concerned about the fate of mid-list and debut authors, we believe their offer—the majority of which Hachette would essentially fund—is highly disingenuous. For one thing, it’s impossible to remove authors from the middle of the dispute. We write the books they’re fighting […]
Russo Writes to Authors Guild Members On Amazon
The Authors Guild distributed to members on Thursday a letter from novelist and AG vice president Richard Russo. It expands on remarks made by association president Roxana Robinson earlier in the week: “On Tuesday, Amazon made an offer to Hachette Book Group that would ‘take authors out of the middle’ of their ongoing dispute by offering Hachette authors windfall royalties on e-books until the dispute between the companies is resolved. While Amazon claims to be concerned about the fate of mid-list and debut authors, we believe their offer—the majority of which Hachette would essentially fund—is highly disingenuous. For one thing, it’s impossible […]
FTC Sues Amazon for Knowingly Allowing Children to Incur App Charges without Parental Approval
The Federal Trade Commission filed suit against Amazon in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington, ask the court to order refunds of “millions of dollars in unauthorized in-app charges incurred by children” through apps in the Amazon appstore and on devices such as the Kindle Fire. FTC Chairwoman Edith Ramirez said in annoucing the suit, “Amazon’s in-app system allowed children to incur unlimited charges on their parents’ accounts without permission. Even Amazon’s own employees recognized the serious problem its process created. We are seeking refunds for affected parents and a court order to ensure that Amazon […]
Sales Fall 9 Percent at Bloomsbury On Difficult Comp
In a brief “interim statement,” Bloomsbury reported that fiscal first quarter sales (for the period ending May 31) were down 9 percent compared to a year ago — when they had an unusually strong first quarter. All the decline and then some comes from the adult trade division, “as anticipated,” with sales rising in the Academic & Professional and Children’s & Educational divisions (the latter helped by having John Green’s Paper Towns on the backlist). Chief executive Nigel Newton notes in the release, “We continue to develop Bloomsbury as a wholly integrated trade and academic publisher. This is traditionally a quiet quarter […]