Vicky Bijur started her eponymous literary agency in 1988 after working at Oxford University Press and for the Charlotte Sheedy Agency. She represents fiction and non-fiction and has served as president of the Association of Authors’ Representatives, now the Association of American Literary Agents (AALA). She has been on the AALA Royalties Committee since 1993 and is chair of the AALA Ethics Committee. What are some questions to ask a prospective agent? 1) Will you keep me reasonably informed throughout the process of selling my book? For example, can we discuss the list of publishers to whom you would submit […]
Archives for December 2023
People 12/13
Meta Knew About Legal Issues With AI Training, Authors’ Suit Claims
In an update to their AI copyright infringement case against Meta, plaintiffs Richard Kadrey, Sarah Silverman, and Christopher Golden allege that, as early as 2020, lawyers for Meta knew there were “legal problems” with using copyrighted books within the dataset to train their AI tool Llama. Kadrey, et al. are now joined by authors Michael Chabon, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Junot Díaz, Andrew Sean Greer, David Henry Hwang, Matthew Klam, Laura Lippman, Rachel Louise Snyder, Ayelet Waldman, and Jacqueline Woodson in the class action suit. Llama uses The Pile, a dataset for training large language models that contains Books3, a corpus of […]
Distribution: Vendome Press
Abrams announced it has expanded its partnership with Vendome Press to become its international distributor, beginning July 1. Abrams has been distributing Vendome in North America for 20 years. According to the agreement, Abrams will “distribute Vendome internationally in the UK, Europe, the Middle East, South Africa, and India through Abrams & Chronicle Books, a joint venture that provides full sales and distribution services. Latin America and Asia will be handled through Abrams’ export teams while Australia and New Zealand will continue to be sold through Thames & Hudson Australia.” Abrams president and CEO Mary McAveney said in a release, […]
Bookselling: Lauren Groff to Open Bookstore In FL
Author Lauren Groff and her husband, Clay Kallman, will open The Lynx bookstore in Gainesville, FL next year, Shelf Awareness reports. The 2,300-square-foot store will be located in the South Main Station area of downtown Gainesville and will specialize in titles by Florida authors and books that are banned in the state. The owners plan to “institute a profit-sharing model” for employees, and they are currently looking for a general manager.
Penguin Random House Acquires Hay House
Penguin Random House continues to expand, acquiring mind-body-spirit, self-help, health and wellness publisher Hay House, for undisclosed terms. Long self-distributed, Hay House moved their distribution to PRHPS in 2018. They have a backlist of over 1,500 titles. Hay House ceo Reid Tracy will continue to run the operation, and “no changes are planned for its Carlsbad, CA, New York, and London offices, or its management and employees.” The company was founded in 1984 by Louise Hay, author You Can Heal Your Life. Tracy says in the announcement, “I am excited to remain at the helm of Hay House in partnership […]