Publishers’ early insistence on treating consumer ebook transactions as sales for royalty purposes, even though the files are provided to paying individuals under limited license rather than sold, is being challenged in an author lawsuit filed in New York Supreme Court on May 19, seeking class action status. But the author and his attorneys appear to have brought suit against the wrong company, so the current filing will likely be rejected for lack of standing. The brief six-page lawsuit, first noticed by CopyLaw, was filed by Sheldon Blau, author of How to Get Out of the Hospital Alive against Simon & […]
Archives for May 2016
Publisher of Month9Books, Swoon Romance, and Tantrum Books Pares Back List On Health Problems
The founder of the eponymous Georgia McBride Media Group — which publishes under Month9Books, Swoon Romance and Tantrum Books — emailed authors on Thursday to share information on her health issues and business problems. Recently diagnosed with a blood clot, following other stress-related health problems, McBride writes, “I am making changes which I believe will enable me to have a healthier work-life balance while also allowing me to continue to do what I love.” The fast-growing publisher will pull back somewhat, and McBride writes, “I am reverting rights to 40-50 authors across all imprints from those published to some yet to be published. […]
People
At the Penguin Publishing Group, Casey Blue James has been promoted to manager, business development. Scott Haney has joined Chronicle Books as human resources manager, while Alexandra Brown has been hired as marketing & publicity manager, lifestyle. Awards The CMLP presented the second annual revitalized Firecracker Awards on Thursday. Winners included The Things We Don’t Do by Andrés Neuman (Open Letter) for fiction, and The World is On Fire: Scrap, Treasure, and Songs of Apocalypse by Joni Tevis (Milkweed Editions) for nonfiction. Interviews Lithub’s “Gatekeepers” column features a Q&A with Riverhead editorial director Rebecca Saletan. What makes a Riverhead — and Saletan […]
Nook and Samsung Agree to A New, Much Smaller Device Commitment
For the second time, Barnes & Noble has restructured their agreement to purchase and resell Nook-branded Samsung tablets — with the parties finally admitting the market is much smaller than planned and agreeing to a far more modest goal of selling $10 million worth of units. We had reported discussions on the renegotiation that were mentioned in the bookseller’s March SEC filing. When the partnership was first brokered in 2014, BN agreed to buy at least 1 million devices within a year. An extension gave them until June 30 of this year, but device sales for the bookseller had continued to […]
Bloomsbury Repositions to Focus on Academic and Professional; Charkin to Step Back In 2017
Bloomsbury is reorganizing itself again (the last time was in 2011), simplifying its structure to Consumer (trade) and Non-Consumer division, while declaring its intention “to become primarily a non-consumer publisher in the B2B academic and professional information market.” Driven in part by a new digital publishing plan, the company “aims to become the go-to scholarly partner for copyright holders looking to reach Higher Education institutions around the world, but who lack the expertise and infrastructure to do so effectively.” That means a “repositioning in the market from a primarily consumer publisher to a digital B2B publisher” by 2020. Richard Charkin will step […]
People
Brenda Marsh will become managing director of Abrams & Chronicle Books, the UK-based sales and marketing joint venture of Abrams and Chronicle Books, on June 27. Marsh has been vp, director of business development at Abrams since 2014, after almost 15 years in executive positions at Barnes & Noble. She fills the position vacated by Doug Pocock in March. Abrams ceo Michael Jacobs says in the announcement, “Brenda is a proven leader, an inspirational boss, and a superb mentor as well as a seasoned professional who is admired throughout the publishing industry.” Also in the UK, president of SAGE International Stephen Barr has been […]