As promised in July when HarperCollins relaunched their web site to focus on making their full catalog of books, ebooks and audiobooks available for sale to consumers, the company is now ready to provide additional compensation to “our authors who want to sell directly” via Harper’s shopping cart. Authors who add a linked HarperCollins “buy” button on their sites or directly integrate the Harper shopping cart will receive an additional 10 percent of net on those sales, to be credited through their regular twice-annual royalty statements. Authors interested in implementing the new offer should start by contacting their editors, though […]
Authors
People, Etc.
Dominic Myers became head of Amazon Publishing in Europe on September 2, based in Luxembourg but overseeing the UK and German publishing businesses and “launching new offices” they “expand our European publishing efforts.”Most recently non-executive director at some consumer-focused startups, he had been managing director of Waterstones in the UK up until it was sold by HMV. Amazon says that their German publishing unit has released 118 titles so far this year. At Simon & Schuster, Carolyn Connolly has been promoted to senior vice president, human resources. CEO Carolyn Reidy writes to employees: “we are fortunate to have in Carolyn a leader whose broad view […]
People, Etc.
Emilie Polster has joined Little, Brown Children’s as executive director of marketing. She was previously senior director of integrated marketing & operations at Harper Children’s. At Picador, Andrea Rogoff has been promoted to senior publicist, while Elizabeth Bruce has been promoted to associate editor. In addition, Shannon Donnelly has joined as marketing manager. Previously she was a marketing manager at Dey Street Books. Min Lee rejoins the Penguin Random House Legal Department as vp, associate general counsel, executive director of privacy. Former University of California Press editorial director and University Press Books cofounder Sheila Levine, 65, died September 21 from ovarian […]
Lee Child On Authors United and Amazon: “it’s a thus-far-and-no-further thing for me. I don’t want Amazon to be the only publisher.”
Lee Child took up Joe Konrath’s invitation for an Authors United signatory to explain their thinking further by sending a written statement for posting on Konrath’s blog. The original post was broken into pieces (so that you could only read Child’s remarks with Konrath’s responses interspersed), but it has been reposted so that you can read Child’s statement in its entirety (and skip everything else if you want to stop there). He writes in part: “So why did I sign my friend Doug’s letter? Because of what I know, and what I can guess. I’ve known Amazon people for 17 […]
Slaughter Squares Off with IRS Over Self-Employment Tax On Royalties
Last week Forbes uncovered two previously unreported lawsuits in US tax court which saw thriller writer Karin Slaughter square off against the Internal Revenue Service. While the suits themselves are interesting on their own, they are particularly relevant for authors with respect to the classification of book royalties as self-employment income, something the IRS has held for more than six decades. The first suit, which Slaughter settled with the IRS in July, covered the 2008 tax year, for which the IRS “had been demanding $146,155 in tax and a $29,231 penalty on top of the $1.14 million [Slaughter] originally paid.” […]
People
Ruth Homberg has joined Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Children’s as senior marketing manager. Previously she was digital marketing manager at Egmont UK. In addition, Hayley Gonnason has been named senior publicist, starting September 22. She is currently a publicist at S&S Children’s. Both will work in HMH’s New York office. At HarperCollins, Austin Tripp has been named national account manager, Amazon, succeeding Diane Jackson, who will retire on October 1 after 24 years with the company. In addition, Christy Johnson joins as national account manager, Amazon. Previously she was sales/marketing/inventory manager at the New Press. Forbes has released their annual list of […]