Bloomsbury has purchased the 200-title naval and military history list of Conway from Pavilion Books in the UK (the rebranded version of Anova). Bloomsbury will integrate the titles into their existing lines. Terms were not disclosed, but the Bookseller notes that Conway publisher John Lee will leave after 20 years in that position. James Frey’s packaging company Full Fathom Five is launching a digital imprint that intends to issue a new ebook every week starting October 1. Mashable, which reports the news, explains (?) FFF will publish “genre e-books that the new imprint believes wouldn’t fit into a traditional publishing model but […]
Archives for September 2014
Apple Shareholders Sue Executives Claiming Agency Pricing Lawsuit “Caused Damages”
Apple may have settled its ongoing litigation over ebook pricing with the plaintiff states and consumer class earlier this summer (pending the outcome of the company’s appeal of Judge Cote’s 2013 ruling), but some of the same issues return in a new, derivative lawsuit launched by a single shareholder last Thursday in Santa Clara County California State Court. That complaint claims that Apple ceo Tim Cook and other executives, including Eddy Cue and directors Al Gore and Bill Campbell, “bear responsibility for ensnaring Apple in a multi-year anticompetitive scheme” and engaged in “breach of fiduciary duties, waste of corporate assets, and unjust […]
Settlement Announced in 2010 Lawsuit Against Google Books By Photographers and Artists
Though Google has won a number of victories in court recently supporting their claim of fair use over text captured and shared by Google Books and other related enterprises, the company has remained potentially more vulnerable to separate copyright infringement claims brought against Google Books by photographers and visual. (As far back as 2012 Google’s attorneys told the court they were in some kind of settlement discussions with those groups.) On Friday afternoon — when companies love to avoid attention — Google announced they had agreed to settle a 2010 lawsuit brought by a diverse group of photographers, visual artists […]
Rounding Out A Powerhouse of Keynoters
Two more additions have been announced to the best-ever line-up of keynote speakers to headline the sixth-annual Digital Book World. Data scientist in residence at tech venture capital firm Accel Partners Hilary Mason will speak on “Smart Data: A Look at Data—Big and Small—For Publishing,” bringing an expert’s perspective on using data to drive key publishing decisions and investments. And additional diversity will be provided by keynoter Joe Pulizzi, author and organizer of the biggest content marketing event in the world, Content Marketing World, explaining the extent to which book publishers can capitalize on — and learn from — the hot “content marketing” trend. Mason […]
Novelists’ Production Company Gets Backing
Authors Brian McGreevy, Lee Shipman and Philipp Meyer production company El Jefe formed earlier this year — has landed a first-look development deal with Slingshot Media, which is backed by private equity firm TPG. The three are friends from the Michener Center at the University of Texas at Austin and their company “aims to develop TV projects with the goal of helping novelists make the transition to writing for TV.” They have optioned Meyer’s American Rust, and Wil S. Hylton’s Vanished. McGreevy’s book Hemlock Grove was already adapted for Netflix by McGreevy and Shipman, and the trio is also adapting […]
People, Etc.
Longtime editor Tom Miller will join Sanford J. Greenburger Associates as a literary agent on September 15. He will represent primarily nonfiction projects in the areas of diet and wellness, psychology and self-help, business, popular culture, spirituality, cooking, and narrative nonfiction. Most recently, he was an executive editor at McGraw-Hill. Annie Nybo has been promoted to assistant editor at Margaret K. McElderry Books. In the UK, Bonnier Publishing has hired Justine Smith as publisher of Templar, starting October 20. She was previously a publisher at DK. Also in the UK, the shortlist was announced for Swansea University’s Dylan Thomas Prize to an author 39 or […]