Following years of complaints about Author Solutions’ business practices and the big target painted when the company was acquired by Penguin last July, those grievances have turned into a lawsuit. Writers (and customers) Kelvin James, Jodi Foster, and Terry Hardy filed suit in New York federal court on April 26, seeking $5 million in punitive damages from Author Solutions and Penguin “for breach of contract, unjust enrichment, California unfair competition law, and New York general business law.” According to the complaint, obtained by Courthouse News but not yet available in the electronic docket, the three writers allege that Author Solutions “fails […]
People, Etc.
Michael Cairns is joining Publishing Technology as chief operating officer of their online solutions division, replacing Louise Russell. His responsibilities include their pub2web hosting platform and the ingentaconnect portal. Most recently Cairns has been a consultant and served as chief revenue office for SharedBook, focused on their Academic Pub platform. Greenhouse Literary Agency has hired Polly Nolan head up the UK side of their business representing children’s and YA authors. Currently associate publishing director, fiction, at Macmillan UK Children’s, she will start her new job on June 3. Amber Morley has joined Chronicle Books as marketing coordinator for their children’s division. […]
Imprints: Morrow’s Digital Mystery Imprint Witness Launches in October; Monthly Digital Royalties Start In August
The digital-first mystery and thriller imprint that William Morrow first announced when they hired executive editor Dan Mallory last August will formally launch in October under the name Witness. The first 10 titles releasing that month are largely from UK authors including Stephen Booth, Frances Fyfield, Emlyn Rees, and Rory Clements. (Mallory was at Little Brown UK’s Sphere before moving to Harper, where he launched the UK digital-first line The Mystery Vault.) Witness will also release Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot short stories as digital singles, and has acquired more than 100 titles. Witness is considered part of Morrow and Harper’s broader Impulse […]
Macmillan Finalizes State & Consumer Settlement, Will Pay $26 Million
State and consumer class action attorneys filed notice last week that they have finalized their settlement with Macmillan, first announced in January. The publisher will not only pay out $20 million to settle the suits, as planned, but will also pay $3 million to cover litigation and “investigation” costs; $2.475 million for plaintiff’s attorney fees; and $1,000 for each of the named class action plaintiffs as a “service award”, for a total of $26.25 million. Macmillan is also formally excluded from the June 3 trial, which Judge Cote ruled separately that Penguin must participate in, despite the publisher asking for […]
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David Fickling will leave Random House Children’s UK after more than 12 years in order to launch his existing children’s imprint, David Fickling Books, as an independent venture in July. Fickling will be chairman of the new company, and author and editor Simon Mason will take on the role of managing director. The venture will continue to be based in its existing Oxford office and plans to publish 25-30 books a year. After a period of transition, DFB backlist titles, including Mark Haddon’s The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time and John Boyne’s The Boy in the Striped […]
Profit Far Lower in Quercus’s “Year of Transition”
Quercus announced preliminary results for the full fiscal year ending December 31, reporting £1.5 million in operating profit, a sharp dropoff from the £5.9 million reported for 2011, and revenues of £20.4 million, declining from £24.8 million the previous year. The company included a £100,000 charge to set up a new American division, which will launch this fall with 25 titles scheduled. They project “a program of 86 titles” in the US in 2014, and are readying another 150 ebooks for their backlist for US release. On the growth side, ebook sales were £6.4 million, up from £2.7 million in […]