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

Publishers Lunch

The Publishing Industry's Daily Essential Read

  • Publishers Marketplace
  • Site Guide
  • Help

Briefs

June 11, 2020
By Erin Somers

Legal
Agents Beth Phelan and Kelly Van Sant and author Isabel Sterling received cease & desist letters from an attorney representing agent Dawn Frederick at Red Sofa Literary after speaking out about Frederick’s response to protestors in St. Paul. On May 28, Frederick posted on Twitter that she had called the police about an incident near her home (the tweet has since been deleted). Subsequently, three agents, including Van Sant resigned from Red Sofa.

Phelan, Van Sant, and Sterling wrote in an open letter that Frederick “demanded that we delete our respective posts regarding Dawn’s actions and further, publish retractions stating that ‘she did not make any racist or other improper statements,’ validating the behaviors that we had previously condemned.” Otherwise, the letter said, Frederick “will pursue legal action against us for defamation.” The three write, “That she is now threatening to sue people for agreeing with her apology makes it impossible to interpret the apology as anything but insincere.” They say that they will not comply: “We want to push back against these intimidation tactics so that we can help foster an environment where we can speak our truth about racist practices and other insidiously problematic behaviors without fear of retribution.” They have launched a legal defense fund to help pay their potential legal expenses. 

Regulatory
Last year “preliminary fact-finding” by the European Commission found that “Amazon appears to use competitively sensitive information – about marketplace sellers, their products and transactions on the marketplace,” potentially “in breach of EU competition rules.” Now the EC is preparing to fill formal antitrust charges against Amazon, the WSJ reports, “as early as next week or the week after.” The EC “has been circulating a draft of the charge sheet for a couple of months. ”

People
At Harper UK, Kimberley Young has been promoted to executive publisher for Harper Fiction, still reporting to Kate Elton, who is now managing director of both Harper Fiction and Harper Nonfiction.

Forthcoming
Zadie Smith‘s collection of essays INTIMATIONS will be published on July 28 as a trade paperback by Penguin Press. It was “written during the early months of lockdown” and “explores ideas and questions prompted by an unprecedented situation. What does it mean to submit to a new reality—or to resist it? How do we compare relative sufferings? What is the relationship between time and work? In our isolation, what do other people mean to us?”

M&A
Hummingbird Digital Media, which provides an ebook platform for clients including the American Booksellers Association, has been acquired by 360 Media Direct. Hummingbird’s Josh Mettee stays with the unit, as executive vice president.

Academic publisher Intellect has finalized an agreement to acquire HammerOn Press.

Filed Under: Free, International News, Legal, M&A

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

  • Roger Angell Dies at 101 May 20, 2022 NYT
  • Kakao Merges Tapas Media Into Radish May 20, 2022 Press Release
  • The Atlantic Announces Expansion of Books Section May 16, 2022 The Atlantic
  • Diversion Gets Investment and Partnership with Gemini XIII to Expand Their Podcast Adaptations May 12, 2022 Press Release
  • Dutch Publishers and Bookselling Chain Ready €12.99 eBook and Audio Subscription Service May 12, 2022 Publishing Perspectives
  • UNLV Sells The Believer To Paradise Media, Despite Efforts To Return It To McSweeney's May 11, 2022 Medium
  • Lagardere Board Considers Spinning Off Their Radio Group Into Separate Company to Protect Its "Autonomy" (Presumably from Conservative Vivendi Owner Bollore) May 10, 2022 Press Release
  • Harper Acknowledges A Second JD Vance Book Was Dropped "Some Time Ago" By Mutual Agreement May 5, 2022 AP
  • Highly Touted Skandar and the Unicorn Thief Publishes Today in the UK, May 3 in the US April 28, 2022 Guardian
  • Google Is Offering Publishers Free Creation of Machine-Narrated Audiobooks During Beta Launch April 27, 2022 Google page
© 2022 Publishers Lunch. All Rights Reserved.