The Authors Guild has posted a template takedown notice that authors can send to the Internet Archive to have their books removed from the organization’s websites. Note, however, that the simplest and fastest route to have your books taken down is to message the IA’s Jason Scott, who is @textfiles on Twitter. (He has also appealed to the online mob to stop attacking authors who are concerned about protecting their intellectual property and livelihood: “One particular theme in the attacks is ridiculing the work of the authors, the books, and I wanted to beg people to stop doing that…. These […]
Briefs: Aid for Canadian Authors, Kobo Expands In Australia, Bertram’s Closes and More
The Writers’ Trust of Canada and The Writers’ Union of Canada (TWUC) created a Canadian Writers’ Emergency Relief Fund to support professional authors. The fund will distribute grants of $1,500 to “writers that have seen contracted or projected income evaporate due to the current public health crisis.” RBC joined the two organizations in funding the initial pool of $150,000. Rakuten Kobo has formed a joint venture with Australia’s largest online bookseller, Booktopia, to sell ebooks, digitial audiobooks, and ereading devices. In the UK, distributor Bertram’s has joined Gardner’s in temporarily suspending all operations, and the company is furloughing its staff, […]
Highlighting This Week’s New Releases
Here are 11 notable novels, 8 notable works of nonfiction, and 3 new YA novels that publish today, viewable in our sample Aerbook and Bookshop storefronts. As we described last week, both platforms are quick and easy to set up and both are powered by Ingram on the backend to sell and fulfill orders. We’re donating any proceeds to BINC, but the main point is to call attention to the week’s new releases, as well as demonstrate these simple options for authors, publishers, booksellers and influencers to promote and sell books. Note that starting in mid-April, you will see a […]
Indigo Books Lays Off 5,200 Employees
Now that Indigo Books physical stores are closed until further notice, the company temporarily laid off 5,200 retail employees as of last Friday. (According to their website, they employed a total of about 7,000 people.) All employees had been paid during the initial hiatus, from March 17 until March 28. Spokesperson Kate Gregory said the company had “made the difficult decision” to layoff employees temporarily. The company expects “to re-embrace as many as possible when this period of store closure is over.” Longer closures will put stress on bookstores large and small. Slate talks to some independent booksellers, for whom […]
Closings, Suspensions, Appeals
The UK’s major independent book wholesaler Gardner’s has temporarily suspended new orders for physical product, as they move to protect their employees: ” The safety and well-being of our amazing workforce is the primary reason for making this decision.” Existing orders will still be processed and they are “working hard to clear all outstanding orders over the coming days.” The company adds, “We will be looking to see what key services we can turn back on as soon as possible, and will be updating all our customers and suppliers on regular basis as to the progress we are making.” Please, […]
Authors Guild Joins Opposition to Internet Archive’s Uncontrolled Lending
On Friday the Authors Guild joined the AAP in expressing outrage at the Internet Archive’s self-declared “emergency” powers to lend scanned, copyright books around the world without limitations. “IA has no rights whatsoever to these books, much less to give them away indiscriminately without consent of the publisher or author. We are shocked that the Internet Archive would use the Covid-19 epidemic as an excuse to push copyright law further out to the edges, and in doing so, harm authors, many of whom are already struggling.” Authors Guild president Doug Preston says in their post, “IA’s Open Library is giving […]