Circana Bookscan reported that Taylor Swift’s The Eras Tour book sold 814,000 hardcovers on Friday and Saturday at Target stores. The WSJ had previously reported that Target ordered 2 million copies of the book, which leaves plenty in inventory for the days ahead. That makes the book the fastest-selling release of 2024, and Bookscan noted it is “the second-highest adult non-fiction release in BookScan history, just behind Barack Obama’s A Promised Land, which sold 816,300 print units in its first week of sales.” More recently, that makes it comparable to the release of Colleen Hoover’s IT STARTS WITH US two […]
Final Judgement: AAP’s Victory Over Internet Archive Becomes Permanent, and Now They’ll Get Paid
The AAP (Association of American Publishers) prevailed over the Internet Archive’s mass infringement of books twice: First in District Court in March 2023, and then again before the Court of Appeals in September 2024. December 3 was the last day in which the Internet Archive could have filed a cert petition with the Supreme Court and they did not do so — which means the previous rulings are now final. The AAP says in a statement, “We are pleased that the Second Circuit’s September 4, 2024 opinion stands as the eloquent legal ending to this case, as it draws extensively […]
Party Press
The NY Post made a lengthy “exclusive” out of a report claiming that, “Simon & Schuster staffers are fuming after their Christmas party was once again scrapped by what they called the Scrooge-like investment giant that owns the famed book publisher, The Post has learned…. ‘They are being cheap and not having a big company-wide party this year,’ one of the sources told The Post.” As for comment, S&S ceo Jonathan Karp writes to PL: “Today’s NY Post story about KKR having anything to do with S&S not having a holiday party is a total work of fiction. I made […]
Bertelsmann Expands Work with AI Voice Company ElevenLabs
AI voice and text-to-speech provider ElevenLabs issued a press release celebrating their expanding relationship with Bertelsmann and its subsidiaries. “So far, 36 Bertelsmann companies are using our technology to improve production and try new approaches. AI dubbing and multi-language audio are just the start. Together, we’re finding ways to share stories across languages and formats, reaching more people in more places.” Storytel invested in ElevenLabs and has been working with them to produce AI-narrated audiobooks since mid-2023. And Harper Collins started working with ElevenLabs earlier this year to create AI audiobooks of select foreign language backlist titles. In June, ElevenLabs […]
Small Investor Tries to Block Vivendi’s Plan to Split Itself Up
Ahead of a planned December 9 shareholders’ meeting, Vivendi announced that CIAM, an investor holding a very small position (a 0.025 percent stake), has filed suit to try to block their plan to divide the conglomerate into four separate companies. A hearing is scheduled before the Paris Commercial Court on December 4, for arguments on both an expedited suit looking to block the spin-off project, as well as an appeal of a November ruling from France’s market authority (AMF) finding that the spin-off plan does not trigger a mandatory buyout offer. As a result, the December 9 meeting and vote […]