Accused manuscript thief Filippo Bernardini is at large in New York after pleading not guilty to charges of wire fraud and aggravated identity theft. Magistrate Judge Robert Lehrburger set bail for $300,000 — which was secured by the London home of Bernardini’s partner, who was at the hearing. Represented by Hannah McCrea at the nonprofit Federal Defenders of New York, Bernardini surrendered his passport and will stay with a friend in the West Village. McCrea said, “This is a very humbling experience. He intends to take it seriously.” Assistant US Attorney Daniel Nessim said Bernardini was an “overwhelming” flight risk, […]
FBI Arrests Elusive Manuscript Thief
The FBI arrested Filippo Bernardini, 29, on Wednesday afternoon when he landed at JFK Airport in New York, and unsealed an indictment, in a long overdue deal, charging him with with wire fraud and aggravated identity theft. Bernardini is accused of conducting “a multi-year scheme to impersonate individuals involved in the publishing industry in order to fraudulently obtain hundreds of prepublication manuscripts of novels and other forthcoming books.” Assistant Director-in-Charge of the New York FBI office Michael Driscoll said in a news release: “We allege Mr. Bernardini used his insider knowledge of the industry to get authors to send him […]
AAP Trade Sales Hit Another Record in November
Alongside good closing holiday sales figures from NPD Bookscan, the AAP announced StatShot statistics for November. Trade sales recorded another record high, at $924 million — up $58 million, or 6.7 percent, from 2020, and well above the strong $883 million recorded in November 2018. Adult sales registered $632 million (up $32 million) and children’s and YA sales reached $292 million (up $26 million). Digital audio gained 21 percent, to $64 million (up $11 million), and ebook sales rose 6 percent, to $88 million (up $5 million). Through 11 months AAP trade sales total $8.099 billion — already ahead of […]
Strong Closing Week Leaves Holiday Sales Even with 2020
A good final sales week, ending on December 25 — with one extra shopping day compared to the same week in 2020 — put print sales for the four final holiday weeks as measured by NPD Bookscan just about even with 2020. At just under 110 million units, 2021’s total was less than a million units behind last year’s sales. That strong finale leaves 2021 sales running 8.9 percent ahead of last year’s print sales, pointed towards another year of robust sales for print books. After 51 weeks, Bookscan counts print sales of 810 million units — compared to 744 […]
New York Governor Vetoes Library eBook Bill
New York Governor Kathy Hochul vetoed a bill from the State Assembly that would have imposed restrictions on the terms under which publishers license ebooks to libraries. The legislation was similar to the Maryland law that the AAP is currently challenging in Federal court, imposing a vague requirement of “reasonable terms”. Hochul wrote in her veto, “While the goal of this bill is laudable, unfortunately, copyright protection provides the author of a work with the exclusive right to their works. As such, federal law would allow the author, and only the author, to determine to whom they wish to share […]
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