A California consumer filed suit in the state’s Central District Federal Court against Audible and Amazon, seeking class action status, on behalf of “consumers who find themselves trapped in a shell game.” The suit objects to differences between how Audible allegedly advertises its membership program, and how the program works in fact. (The ads on which part of the case rests are not submitted with the complaint.) The plaintiff says he was promised his audio credits would “never expire” — except that they do expire if and when you cancel. He objects to limitations on how many credits you can accrue and […]
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Kari Sutherland has joined Bradford Literary Agency as an agent. Previously she was an editor at Harper Children’s. Bestselling Australian children’s book author Mem Fox, 70, is giving a face to the excesses of border control under the Trump administration. Now back in Australia, Fox told the media that she was detained and interrogated for two hours at Los Angeles Airport in early February, while traveling to a literary conference in Milwaukee, accused of having the wrong visa. (US officials were in error; Fox has visited the US more than 100 times in the past without incident.) She told Australia’s […]
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At Simon & Schuster Children’s, Audrey Gibbons has been promoted to senior publicist. Recipients were announced for the second round of $1.75 million in grants that James Patterson is providing to school libraries across the country, working in partnerships with Scholastic Reading Club, which matches the grants with points for classroom materials purchases. 452 schools are receiving funds from the latest grants. Patterson says in the announcement: “We’ve just come out of the most divisive presidential election in history—and among all the issues that captivated voters, education wasn’t one of them. It was hardly discussed. Nearly half of the American […]
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Jackie Engel will join Little, Brown Children’s as vp, associate publisher on August 1, reporting to Megan Tingley. Previously she was vp, group sales director at Penguin Children’s, and in her new role, Engel will focus on list positioning and marketing strategy, new business development, and digital publishing. At Simon & Schuster’s adult trade imprint, Dana Trocker has been promoted to associate director of marketing. Carol Grossmeyer will retire as chief executive officer of 800-CEO-READ on September 1 after 8 years in the position and more than 40 years in the book business. Succeeding her is Rebecca Schwartz, currently chair of […]
Briefs: Schumer’s ‘Lower Back Tattoo’ Publishes August 16; Zola Books Gets More Funding; and More
Amy Schumer‘s book will be published by Gallery on August 16 — and it has retained the proposal name, THE GIRL WITH THE LOWER BACK TATTOO. Funding Zola Books closed another round of funding last week. The new round adds something under $3.4 million since the company’s last announced funding in 2013. (That last round was extended beyond the original close to add funds for their purchase of Bookish assets.) The new round was led by previous investor Charles Dolan, founder of Cablevision. Zola hopes to expand the recent rollout of their Everywhere Store widget enabling print and ebook sales by other sites. Corporate […]
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At Ingram Content Group, chief information officer Pep Carrera will change roles and become chief operating officer at their VitalSource Technologies unit, relocating to Raleigh, NC. In turn, VitalSource coo Kent Freeman will take on the newly-created role of chief strategy and development officer, “supporting Ingram’s continued transformation and leading the delivery, management and incubation of Ingram’s future successful strategic partnerships and products.” At Penguin Young Readers’ sales department, Cristi Navarro has been promoted to director of national accounts. Kevin Cotter has joined Anonymous Content as director of literary affairs. Previously he worked in a similar role at Floren Shieh Productions. […]