One of the bestselling inspirational books ever has turned from success to suits. As the LAT reports, author of The Shack William Paul Young is engaged in complex litigation against his former partners, Wayne Jacobsen and Brad Cummings at Windblown Media, and Hachette Book Group has been drawn in as well. The dispute, focused on money but also involving copyright and the movie rights, seems to stem from the original working agreement behind the book, which was an oral understanding arrived at long before the success that has led to sales of at least 8 million copies in the US […]
Authors
Details Emerge About Purported 4th Stieg Larsson Novel
The ongoing legal dispute between Stieg Larsson’s family and partner Eva Gabrielsson complicates the likelihood of the unfinished 4th Millenium novel purported to exist from being published anytime soon, but some details on the book have come to light from John-Henri Holmberg, a friend of Larsson’s dating back to their days attenting SF conventions in the 1970s. According to the AP, Holmberg received an e-mail about the book from Larsson less than a month before his death on Nov. 9, 2004, in which the author said he had completed 320 pages of the expected 440-page book, set in Canada “120 […]
Briefs: Gloomy UK Publishing Stats for 2010 Thus Far; Amazon Shares Upgraded; Half Price Books Posts Gains; and More
HarperCollins UK CEO Victoria Barnsley has warned the industry is not likely to return to pre-recession glory after figures released by Nielsen BookScan for the first 24 weeks of the year, revealed a fall in the total value of book sales of 5.7% and eight of the top 10 publishers saw a drop in sales in 2010: “Our business needs to change, regardless of whether there is a recession or not. The economic situation has merely hurried the process along . . . To be honest, I don’t anticipate the market ever returning to pre-recession levels in its current form.” […]
Authors: Waterstone’s “Novel”; Amis Stops Biography; Patterson Hits Seven-Figures for eBooks; Chinese Author Faces Threats; Stephen King’s Summer Reads
Unsuccessful at buying his way back into book retailing, Tim Waterstone will reappear in stores this fall as an author–of a “thinly disguised” novel IN FOR A PENNY, IN FOR A POUND from Corvus. The Guardian calls it “a searing treatment of the world of books that contains recognisable caricatures of several figures in publishing, newspapers and high finance.” Characters include “a brash book-buying chief at a chain of stores named Waterwells.”Guardian Though Martin Amis co-operated with biographer Richard Bradford, sitting for “five face-to-face interviews in return for having an ‘editorial say’ over the contents of the biography,” that “say” […]
People: Hitchens, Merwin, and More
In a brief statement yesterday, Christopher Hitchens explained his sudden book tour cancellations: “I have been advised by my physician that I must undergo a course of chemotherapy on my esophagus. This advice seems persuasive to me. I regret having had to cancel so many engagements at such short notice.” News outlets concluded that the treatment is related to esophageal cancer, which is linked to both smoking (Hitchens was a heavy smoker until recently) as well as drinking alcohol. Two-time Pulitzer-winner (most recently in 2009 for the collection The Shadow of Sirius) W.S. Merwin has been named the Library of […]
Wiley and the Authors Guild: Still Going
In a brief statement yesterday, Wiley said that “after a useful and productive exchange of ideas, we concluded that the best way to proceed is to call each and every one” of the 117 Bloomberg Press authors “to make sure they understand the changes that we have proposed. If any of them are uncomfortable with our proposed changes, they can choose to retain their original Bloomberg contracts.” They noted that “Wiley shares a common objective with the Authors Guild, to treat authors well and fairly.”Wiley release In a follow-up e-mail to members, the Authors Guild says “this is progress, and […]