James Patterson and investigative journalist Vicky Ward (his co-author on THE IDAHO FOUR) are writing a new book on the “polarizing case of Luigi Mangione,” charged with the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in midtown Manhattan. Little, Brown promises “this new book will be propelled by hundreds of exclusive interviews, extensive on-the-ground reporting, copious court transcripts, and SEC filings to take this story beyond the headlines.” And they note, “Early discussions are in progress with major interest for both scripted and unscripted adaptations of the book.” Separately, as Page Six reports, Simon & Schuster has removed on sale listings […]
Unbound’s Successor Boundless Also Reportedly Files for Bankruptcy
Boundless, the much-criticized successor to failed UK crowdfunding publisher Unbound, is reported to have filed for bankruptcy administration, just months after it was formed. In March, Unbound entered in a pre-packaged bankruptcy, selling its assets — primarily author contracts — to Boundless, a new company led at the time by two of Unbound’s executives. (The payment was later revealed to £25,000 upfront and another £25,000 over time, which was “the only firm offer.”) Authors were quick to complain, since at the time of the sale they were promised that the new company would pay “all monies owed to authors by Unbound,” […]
A PM Notice
Per a recent system mail to all members, we are noting here as that as of September 1, we will be changing the prices for Publishers Marketplace site memberships. (Please note that this will be our first pricing change in over 12 years.) As always we are committed to continuing to build out and improve Publishers Marketplace — and we already have three big new features and refinements ready to launch in the fall. The new monthly price will be $30. Longer-term memberships will be discounted to $325 for 12 months and $170 for 6 months. If you are currently on a monthly […]
Preliminary Injunction Finds Mass Cancellation of NEH Grants Violated Constitution, Administrative Procedures Act
Authors and organizations that lost their National Endowment for the Humanities grants won a symbolic victory in Federal Court on Friday. Consistent with rulings from all but about six of the most senior members of the Federal bench, in Authors Guild v. NEH SDNY Judge Colleen McMahon recognized that our government has multiple branches and found that the early April “Mass Cancellation of grants previously awarded” was likely in violation of the First Amendment and the Administrative Procedure, directly in opposition to what Congress had intended and authorized. Judge McMahon entered a preliminary injunction that will at least keep “any […]
McGraw Hill Offering Prices Below the Expected Range
McGraw Hill’s stock starts trading today on the NYSE under the ticker “MH” after their offering priced at $17 a share, below their announced range of $19 to $22 a share. Instead of the hoped for net proceeds of $467 million, they expect to receive just under $386 million, which will be used to pay down a portion of their term loans. That implies an initial equity value of about $3.075 billion, though the market will decide from here.
Hawley and Blumenthal Introduce AI Protection Act, As Trump Wants to Give It All Away
The theft of human creation by large AI companies is so egregious that the Senate is doing something it usually avoids at all costs — introducing legislation to clarify the landscape and protect people from the machines. Senators Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) proposed the AI Accountability and Personal Data Protection Act earlier this week, “to protect consumers’ data rights and hold Big Tech companies accountable for illegally pirating creators’ copyrighted works to train their artificial intelligence (AI) models.” Among the Act’s protections are measures to “safeguard individuals’ copyrighted materials from being used in AI training or AI-generated content […]