Attorneys representing Boris Pasternak’s great-niece Anna Pasternak served notice through a letter to Lara Prescott, author of THE SECRETS WE KEPT, alleging copyright infringement of her 2016 book Lara: The Untold Love Story and the Inspiration for Doctor Zhivago. According to London’s Sunday Times, Pasternak’s attorneys charge that Prescott’s novel includes “an astonishing number of substantial elements” copied from Pasternak’s nonfiction book. Those similarities, they write, “exceed the mere inspiration a novelist may legitimately draw from a work of non-fiction.” Pasternak also takes issue with Prescott “passing off” her novel as the “untold story” of Boris Pasternak’s longtime mistress. UK […]
Authors
People, Etc.
Lara Jones has been promoted to associate editor at Emily Bestler Books. Megan Rudloff has been promoted to associate publicist at Atria. Conor Mintzer joins Holt as associate editor. He was most recently at Flatiron Books. Sylvie Carr has founded The Carr Agency. She was previously an agent at Fletcher & Company. Idea Architects has launched a new division called Idea Architects: True focused on “inspirational and compelling memoirs and true stories that have the power to change hearts and minds.” Author Lara Love Hardin will develop and represent the books for the new unit. Author Janet Evanovich is switching agents […]
Authors Guild and AAR File Brief Endorsing Publishers’ Suit Against Audible
For only the second time, the Authors Guild and the AAR (Association of Authors’ Representatives) joined together to file an amicus brief in support of the seven publishers suing to block Audible Captions. They say the “feature presents a significant threat to the rights and livelihoods of authors and their representatives…. Audible seeks to bypass its glaring infringement of authors’ and publishers’ rights by arguing that this is a contract issue, not a copyright issue and that, in any event, its misappropriation qualifies as fair use.” Significantly, their legal argument is that “Audible completely ignores the Copyright Act’s explicit recognition […]
Government Sues Edward Snowden, Seeking to Collect Any Book and Speech Earnings
The US government filed suit again Edward Snowden in the Eastern District Court of Virginia, seeking any and all earnings from his just published book Permanent Record, as well as earnings from his speeches, alleging breach of contract and fiduciary duty. As a former employee of both the CIA and the NSA, Snowden had signed secrecy agreements requiring pre-publication review of any book, but he “did not, at any time, submit the manuscript for Permanent Record to either the CIA or NSA for prepublication review. Nor did Snowden obtain written approval from CIA or NSA prior to sharing manuscripts with […]
Helping Writers At Publishers Marketplace
Agents, editors, authors and others kindly continue to direct writers to join PublishersMarketplace.com. To help those members make the most of our resources, we have finally posted a Writer’s Guide to PM, answering a number of frequently asked questions about researching agents, deals and more. But this is just a start; we welcome your additional tips and tricks — as well as things you would like writers to know to use PM responsibly and effectively. Let us know your thoughts at info@publishersmarketplace.com, thanks.
Legal: More On Captions, and Fox, As EU Is Advised Against Resale of eBooks
Last week when we reported that Audible was telling self-published ACX authors “we have chosen to wait until the outcome of the proceeding to release” their controversial Captions feature, the company said this was “what we’re communicating to authors” and declined to answer our question about whether that policy applied to publishers as well. The Independent Book Publishers Association complained to Audible about Captions on behalf of 27 of their members, and got the exact same form e-mail response back that we quoted last week, Publishing Perspectives reports. Which suggests the entire launch, aside from public domain titles, has been […]