The Authors Guild posted a note that raises their concerns that text-to-speech software will “improve rapidly” and calls the inclusion of the feature on Kindle 2 “a significant challenge to the publishing industry.” They advise: “We’re studying this matter closely and will report back to you. In the meantime, we recommend that if you haven’t yet granted your e-book rights to backlist or other titles, this isn’t the time to start. If you have a new book contract and are negotiating your e-book rights, make sure Amazon’s use of those rights is part of the dialog. Publishers certainly could contractually […]
What Steve Rubin Is Doing
Steve Rubin’s new role at Random House, Inc. has been officially announced: his title is evp and publisher at large, reporting to ceo Markus Dohle. He will acquire books for (potentially) any and all imprints in Random House “worldwide in collaboration with our publishers in North America and overseas.” In particular, he will retain a role in acquiring future projects by such authors as John Grisham and Pat Conroy. Plus: “He will serve as a new-business advocate with the publishers. Steve will act as an international Random House publishing liaison to maximize the opportunities and collaboration among U.S. publishers and […]
Cheetham Quits Quercus
Non-executive chairman of Quercus Publishing Anthony Cheetham has stepped down, and director David Potter is taking over his post as interim chairman. Cheetham tells the Bookseller “Since assuming a non-executive position, I have felt less comfortable with my role in the company and with some of the key decisions adopted by management.” The company’s ability to continue its rapid expansion ran up squarely against the credit squeeze. “I felt standing still was not the wisest option,” Cheetham says. Co-founder Mark Smith says “We’re in the middle of a deep recession – we need to step back a little on our […]
Another Credit Rating Cut for HMH
Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services lowered their debt ratings on Education Media & Publishing Group and its Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishers to CCC from B-. They note “the rating outlook is negative…. In addition, we revised the recovery rating on Houghton Mifflin’s first-lien credit facilities to 3, indicating our expectation of average (50% to 70%) recovery for lenders in the event of a payment default, from 2.”Summary
What Should BEA Do?
BEA show director responds to some of the chatter (and complaints) about the recently-announced decision to keep BEA in New York and change to a mid-week rather than a weekend show. “This fall we went through a process of recreating the event as if there never had been a BEA before… The location seemed like an easy choice, you’d base it in the capital of the publishing world, just like the biggest gaming show is in Vegas and the auto show is in Detroit.” As for dates, “after booksellers, the majority of attendees are professionals and they are not typically […]
Stanza to Support Adobe PDF and Protected ePub
As anticipated, Lexcycle’s Stanza Reader for iPhone/iPod Touch will license PDF and EPUB rendering technologies as well as support for Adobe’s eBook content protection technology. The capability will launch “next quarter.” That opens up a significant world of books to the platform, comprising “a wide variety of commercially published eBooks from major publishers.” And it contrasts to Kindle 2, which still does not offer native support for PDF files. In a presentation this morning at TOC, Lexcycle’s Neelan Choksi said “the one thing we’ve focused on from day one is that it’s all about the readers.” A survey of users […]