In most circles round numbers are the ones of special note, but if you lived in Baltimore in the 1960s, the magic of the number 19 was instantly recognizable, since that was what Colts quarterback Johnny Unitas wore on his jersey. Known as “The Golden Arm,” Unitas was in the vanguard of modern quarterbacks and still ranks as among the greatest ever. To make this publishing related, the Colts used to hold summer pre-season training on the campus of a college in Westminster, MD, three miles away from what’s now better known as the home of Penguin Random House’s largest […]
Penguin Children’s Acquires Eric Carle’s Rights
Penguin Children’s announced on Tuesday that as of January 1, 2020 it will acquire Eric Carle LLC, which owns the intellectual property rights to the author and illustrator’s over 70 children’s books, as well as his licensing business. Carle, 90, has sold over 145 million copies of his books worldwide by their report (including more than 50 million copies of The Very Hungry Caterpillar alone). The acquisition was made by Penguin Random House US ceo Madeline McIntosh and Penguin Children’s president Jen Loja, and starting in January business operations for what has previously been the Eric Carle Studio will be […]
For Your Lawyers: Internet Archive’s Wikipedia Deal Raises Profile of Disputed Online Lending
Since 2010 the Internet Archive has built a massive online lending library of over 1 million titles based on a disputed (or invented, depending upon your perspective) view of copyright: They have scanned books from libraries, including a significant corpus of recent, in-copyright books, and lend the digital versions on the same one-lend-at-a-time-per-copy rule that publishers impose on ebooks that they lawfully license to library customers. The IA calls this “controlled digital lending,” which has been vigorously disputed in recent years by publishing organizations including the SFWA, the Authors Guild, and the AAP. That challenge may become more urgent now […]
Penguin Random House to Take Over Baker & Taylor’s Reno Warehouse
Penguin Random House will take over the operation and management of Baker & Taylor’s former Reno, NV fulfillment center, giving the publisher and its distribution clients a sizable facility to service accounts in the western US. The Reno location comprises 244,000 square feet of warehouse capacity, and joins PRH’s distribution centers in Westminster, MD and Crawfordsville, IN. PRH US ceo Madeline McIntosh says in the announcement, “We have discussed having a western fulfillment center for years, and now is the perfect time to make that happen. Creating a western hub in the Penguin Random House supply chain expands our distribution […]
Hachette Book Group Fends Off A Justice Department Attempt to Unmask Anonymous
The head of the Department of Justice’s Civil Division Joseph Hunt wrote to Hachette Book Group general counsel Carol Ross, as well as literary agents Matt Latimer and Keith Urbahn at Javelin, trying to unmask the author of the forthcoming book A WARNING, by Anonymous. The DOJ wants to know if the author is potentially subject to pre-publication review as part of their Federal employment. But as has been reinforced in recent instances, from Edward Snowden’s book (which the government is suing over) to Amaryllis Fox’s book (in which so far they appear to have given her a pass for […]
Corporate: Pearson Buys EdTech Company, Sourcebooks Brings Back Holiday Shipping
Pearson announced the acquisition of edtech company Lumerit Education, which focuses on college degree completion and affordability, valuing the company at $29 million. Lumerit’s 70 employees will become part of Pearson’s Online Learning Services business. Separately, Sourcebooks will resume their holiday rapid replenishment program again for independent bookstores. The program starts November 4 and continues through December 19.