Earlier this month District Court Judge William H. Pauley III granted preliminary approval to a settlement of the class action suit brought by authors against Harlequin, seeking additional payment for books for which Harlequin licensed ebook rights to its own subsidiaries. A fairness hearing has been scheduled for June 30. (Exclusions and objections must be postmarked by June 6.) The settlement provides for a fund of $4.1 million — minus approximately $1.05 million for attorneys’ fees and related costs — to be divided among qualifying authors with contracts signed between 1990 and 2004. It applies to authors whose books were published […]
Archives for April 2016
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Brian Haley has joined Open Road as senior director of technology. Previously he was engineering manager at Crain Communications. In addition, Philip Rappaport has been promoted to vp, editorial director, and Austin Walker has joined as senior sales manager, working on developing library and special sales opportunities. Previously he was a national account manager at Oxford University Press. At Sourcebooks, Brittany Vibbert has been promoted to associate art director, while Rachel Gilmer and Heather Hall both move up to senior production editors.
Google Play Gains Again, Even As Earnings Are Below Analysts’ Estimates; Apple China iBooks Shutdown Confirmed
The headline from Thursday afternoon’s earnings release from Alphabet/Google was that earnings came in below analysts’ expectations, with first quarter sales of $20.3 billion up 17 percent. In the segment we follow, the glamorous “Other revenue” that incorporates the Google Play store, sales of $2.1 billion were up 24 percent (though 1 percent below the previous, holiday quarter). In the investor conference call, the company said, “Year-over-year performance was driven by Play as well as continued strong growth in cloud and apps and a nice contribution from hardware.” Apple‘s earnings report was postponed until next week. In the meantime, the […]
Amazon Wins NYC Education Contract, Bloomberg Says Prime Same-Day Delivery Excludes Black Neighborhoods
Amazon has won a contract with New York’s Department of Education to supply ebooks to students through a special marketplace site. The deal is worth approximately $30 million over the first three years, and the city has an option to extend the contract for another two years, worth an additional $34.5 million or so. The WSJ says Amazon is expected to make a commission of between 10 percent and 15 percent on the sales. Separately, Bloomberg has an extensive analysis of zip codes served by Amazon’s expanding Prime Same-Day Delivery service — suggesting that the rollout is favoring areas where […]
People, Etc.
Carla D. Hayden, President Obama’s nominee to lead the Library of Congress, appeared for about an hour of testimony before the Senate Rules Committee, on Wednesday. The NYT reports that “all signs pointed to a nomination process proceeding as, well, normal.” The Washington Post concurred that Hayden “met no resistance from the panel of senators, who focused their attention on the library’s information technology systems.” The Times added that, “The hearing’’ most pointed questioning centered on the patent and trademark office, which has had its own technological failings in recent months, prompting some to suggest that it should be made into its […]
People, Etc.
At Sourcebooks, Jenna Quatraro has been promoted to marketing design manager, while Grace Menary-Winefield moves up to associate editor. At Simon & Schuster, Julianna Haubner, Megan Hogan, Sophia Jiminez, and Kaitlin Olson have all been promoted to assistant editor. At Scribner, Jessica Yu has been promoted to publicist. At Touchstone, Courtney Brach has been promoted to associate publicist. Nikki Tetreault has been promoted to chief executive officer of Curiosity Quills Press, succeeding the company founders who will “step back to concentrate on a related launch,” details of which will come shortly, according to the announcement. Trinity McFadden has joined Zondervan […]