An enormous free index of scholarly literature was released on October 7, raising copyright questions, Nature reports. The General Index—which searches more than 100 million journal articles—allows researchers to automatically search a vast amount of published work, including articles protected by paywall. Previously, scholars have only been able to search within articles they subscribe to, and publishers have controlled access to such computerized searches, known as text mining. Creator Carl Malamud says that the index is not a breach of copyright because it only contains words and sentence fragments — albeit 355 billion of them — not the entire text […]
DOJ Sues to Block PRH Acquisition of S&S
The U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division filed suit to block the proposed acquisition of Simon & Schuster by Penguin Random House for $2.175 billion. This time the primary argument is not on behalf of consumers but authors, and authors of “anticipated top-selling books” in particular. Filing in the Washington, DC District Court, the DOJ alleges violation of Section 7 of the Clayton Act, arguing the acquisition is “likely to substantially lessen competition” for “the acquisition of US publishing rights to books from authors.” That market for “anticipated top-selling books…would be highly concentrated,” the filing argues. “The merger would give […]
New Books Publishing November 2
Kyle Lucia Wu, Gary Shteyngart and Janet Evanovich lead this week’s fiction releases, while nonfiction includes titles by Huma Abedin, Michael Eric Dyson and Paul McCartney. Also out today are works by Zibby Owens, Mitch Albom, Yrsa Daley-Ward and Naomi Krupitsky, all excerpted in our Buzz Books 2021: Fall/Winter sampler. 23 new works of fiction https://bookshop.org/lists/new-fiction-publishing-november-2 https://shop.aer.io/publishers_lunch/cl/New_Fiction_Publishing_November_/220236 31 new nonfiction titles https://bookshop.org/lists/new-nonfiction-publishing-november-2 https://shop.aer.io/publishers_lunch/cl/New_Nonfiction_Publishing_November_/220237 23 new children’s titles https://bookshop.org/lists/new-children-s-titles-publishing-in-november https://shop.aer.io/publishers_lunch/cl/New_Childrens_Titles_Publishing_in_November/220235 We consult a number of sources in compiling our weekly lists and PM members can see our lists for the coming three months through this reference page. But if you want to make […]
People 10/29
Sierra Stovall joins Zando as director of rights, leading subsidiary rights and assisting head of sales & retail content development Andrew Rein "in the development of [their] audio program as well as international edition sales through Ingram." She was previously at Sourcebooks.
Harper UK to Buy Pavilion Books
Harper Collins UK will acquire Pavilion Books, including six of its imprints: Collins & Brown, Pavilion, Portico, Robson, National Trust and Pavilion Children’s. Pavilion owner and publisher Polly Powell will keep two imprints, Batsford and Pitkin, and operate under the name BT Batsford. (That’s the previous name, under which Batsford operated until going into receivership in 1999, with Chrysalis Books buying their assets. Chrysalis became Anova, when then became Pavilion.) The deal is expected to close on November 30. Executive publisher Lisa Milton will oversee Pavilion’s adult non-fiction, which will become part of the HQ and Mills & Boon division. […]
Kirkus Prize Winners
Kirkus Reviews announced the winners of the 8th annual $50,000 Kirkus Prize.