On Wednesday afternoon, the Department of Justice announced it had reached a settlement with Penguin, “one of the largest book publishers in the United States,” of the ebook pricing lawsuit that Penguin had previously vowed to litigate in court. (Indeed, in April, Penguin Group ceo John Makinson had defiantly underscored that “alone among the publishers party to the investigations that resulted in today’s announcements, we have held no settlement discussions with the DOJ or the states.”) The settlement, which again requires the approval by Judge Denise Cote of New York’s Southern District Court, imposes the same basics terms as the approved settlements between […]
People, Etc.
At William Morrow/Avon, Tessa Woodward has been promoted to editor. Anne Hoppe will join Clarion Books as senior executive editor on January 23. Previously she was executive editor at Harper Children’s. Esi Sogah will join Kensington as senior editor on January 2. She was most recently associate editor at Avon. Midpoint will take over distribution in the US for gift, reference and cookbook publisher New Holland UK. They were previously distributed by Sterling. (Midpoint already distributes New Holland Australia.)
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The New York Times‘ first ebook with Byliner, John Branch’s SNOW FALL, which was set for release today, has been postponed. NYT spokesperson Danielle Rhoades Ha says “it is pegged to a news story that will run in the Times, which was held.” A revised publication date is to be determined. To see the full list of 25 launch titles in their TimesFiles line of ebooks, which did launch today (available for now from Amazon and the iBookstore), visit this page in the NYT Store. Quayside Publishing Group will distribute lines from some of parent company Quarto’s UK lines. They […]
Overlook’s Lawsuit Over MASTER AND MARGARITA eBook Rights Involves Complex Copyright Issue
Looking at the full filing in Overlook Press’s December 6 lawsuit against Daria Shilovskaya and Sergei Shilovskiy asserting the publisher’s right to produce an ebook edition of Mikhail Bulgakov’s THE MASTER AND MARGARITA, the matter is both complex and particular to a legal wrinkle that applies only to books that have had their US copyright restored. The question of essence the suit seeks to answer is whether the ebook version of the translation is a new derivative work, or the continued exploitation of a work that is already permitted. So this case is quite particular to works in translation from […]
Bookselling: More BN Stores to Close; Foyles Turns a Smaller Profit in 2012; And More
Barnes & Noble will close both of its stores in Irving, TX on December 31. The Irving mall and Las Colinas locations are shutting down “as part of the national book store’s recent business decision to reevaluate low-selling locations,” according to neighborsgo.com. It goes along with the pattern in which BN closes stores when the leases expire if they cannot agree on acceptable renewals: December 31 will also see the shutdown of stores in Westlake, TX; Plainfield, IL; Campbell, CA; and, as previously reported, the Sixth Avenue store in New York’s West Village. BN will also close a store in […]
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Random House’s legal department has promoted Kathy Trager to evp, general counsel, while Matthew Martin and Anke Steinecke have been named svp, associate general counsel, respectively. Former London Book Fair Director Alistair Burtenshaw has launched his own publishing industry consultancy and project management business, Publishing Connections Ltd. Melissa Sarver has joined Folio Literary Management as the co-director of international rights and will continue to represent authors in the areas of Young Adult, select literary and upmarket adult fiction, narrative non-fiction, business books and cookbooks. She was previously at The Elizabeth Kaplan Literary Agency. At Little, Brown, Heather Fain has been promoted to […]