A lawsuit in the UK has revealed that Neil Blair at The Blair Partnership paid his former employer Christopher Little £10 million as a settlement fee in January 2012. The payment came after Blair set up his own agency in 2011 and took over representation of JK Rowling. The filing also indicates that Blair borrowed the money for the lump sum payment from Rowling. The only previous report of the settlement was a Daily Mail account in February 2012, with a statement from statement from reputation and crisis-management firm Project Associates indicating that Rowling and Little “have reached an amicable agreement […]
Frankfurt Touts Plans, But…
Last week the traditional trade press ran credulous accounts of a persuasion campaign from the Frankfurt Book Fair, touting modest — fully cancelable — plans from primarily German and European exhibitors as a sign that, “Everyone is quite positive about the fair taking place in the autumn and we expect a lot of last-minute bookings.” Maybe not everyone? For many in our core audience, gathering together people from around the world to share the same indoor air face-to-face for three days — with no Covid test or vaccine requirement, and the added downside of the German public attending on Friday […]
House Judiciary Introduces Bills that Would Break Up Amazon’s Vertical Publishing Monopoly
Following on their 16-month investigation into the digital marketplace and the “unregulated power wielded by Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google,” the House Judiciary committee introduced five bills that would break up and significant restrict and constrain those tech giants. Each bill is has a Republican co-sponsor and the committee refers to the package as “bipartisan bills drafted by lawmakers on the Antitrust Subcommittee,” but that still doesn’t tell us where the Senate stands. Two bills in particular would bring significant relief to Amazon’s broad dominance of book publishing. The most dramatic bill, which applies only to companies that worth $600 […]
Bookselling
Once again, Barnes & Noble is replacing a lost location with a much smaller nearby store. In Ulster, NY, where the chain closed a 24,636-square-foot space in April, they have been given a permit for a new 7,656-square-foot space in the same area.
Corporate: OverDrive to Acquire Kanopy
Building on their initiative to provide a broader catalog of digital content to libraries, OverDrive announced that it is acquiring video streaming service Kanopy from private equity investor L Squared Capital Partners. The streamer provides 2,300 academic institutions and public libraries with a catalog of over 30,000 films. Kanopy is used by millions of students and library patrons and is available on all major web, mobile and TV platforms. OverDrive CEO Steve Potash says in the announcement, “The Kanopy apps and streaming viewing experience are excellent services to further benefit our network of public libraries and academic partners.” The release […]
(Limited) Distribution
Dave Eggers’ THE EVERY, a follow-up to THE CIRCLE, will publish on October 5 in a limited-distribution hardcover that will be sold exclusively through independent bookstores and McSweeney’s website. Eggers said in an email, “I don’t like bullies. Amazon has been kicking sand in the face of independent bookstores for decades now.” Vintage will publish trade paperback and ebook editions on November 16, available through all retailers. The strategy means that links to pre-order the trade paperback and ebook are available widely already — but since the limited-distribution hardcover isn’t available through an ONIX feed, independent bookstores’ websites don’t have […]