Authors understandably have questions about Amazon’s not-yet-officially-released Kindle Unlimited subscription service. To expand more explicitly on what we wrote in our first post on Wednesday morning: For Authors/Publishers Participating By Direct Agreement These credits/payments will work in a manner similar to other ebook subscription terms, we are told. Any time a reader goes beyond an agreed upon threshold of a particular book — 10 percent to 20 percent is the range that we have heard — it is then treated as a full “sale” and the publisher is paid the normal wholesale price of the ebook (and will report that […]
Authors
Harper Lee Repudiates Marja Mills Book, Again; Mills Affirms Her Experiences
When Penguin Press announced their acquisition of Marja Mills‘s THE MOCKINGBIRD NEXT DOOR: LIFE WITH HARPER LEE in 2011, saying it was written with “direct access to Harper and Alice Lee,” Harper Lee’s attorneys released a letter in which the renowned author said, ” I have not willingly participated in any book written or to be written by Marja Mills. Neither have I authorized such a book. Any claims otherwise are false.” Just prior to publication on July 15, Harper Lee has provided another broader letter, via attorney Tonja Carter (sent to Mary McDonagh Murphy, who directed “Hey Boo: Harper Lee & To Kill a […]
Wattpad Acquires Red Room and Takes It Offline With Five Days Notice
On July 3, founder of online writers community Red Room Ivy Madison posted a chipper note with “big news,” writing, “Red Room is becoming part of Wattpad!” Apparently Wattpad acquired Red Room, and wasted no time in killing it: “Red Room will go offline on Tuesday, July 8, 2014. You won’t be able to log in after that. If you ever need to view or copy your content, you can do so, thanks to our friends at the Internet Archive.” Madison’s note offered, “please let me know what I can do to make this move a big success for you,” […]
Howey and Konrath Drive Petition Supporting Amazon; Amazon Author Wendig Responds
Following Douglas Preston’s open letter to which hundreds of well-known traditionally-published authors signed on, on Thursday a group of almost 30 self-published authors posted a petition of their own at Change.org in response (from online accounts, the letter was written by Hugh Howey and Joe Konrath). It’s offered “To Thank Our Readers,” but after the first 120 words, the balance of the 2,400-word-petition is a defense of, and appreciation of, Amazon. Many of the “supporters” who signed on — now at more than 5,000 people — are also self-published authors offering their own thanks to Amazon. The petition asserts a variety of “truths” […]
People, Etc.
Following the February announcement that Penguin Random House would close two Penguin warehouse/operations centers by 2015 and consolidate all US fulfillment operations into the Westminster, MD and Crawfordsville, IN facilities, there is a now a report on an expansion of that warehouse in Indiana. PRH is adding 350,00 square feet (growing by about 50 percent) and plans to add “up to 313 new jobs by 2016.” The first of the hiring will begin this August. Walter Dean Myers, 76, author of numerous children’s novels that chronicled struggles of urban youths, died July 1 at Beth Israel Medical Center in Manhattan […]
Open Letter From Authors to Readers About Amazon, Organized by Douglas Preston, Has “Gone Viral”
As we were first to report mid-day Wednesday, bestselling author Douglas Preston has been circulating by email an open letter from authors to their readers, objecting to how Amazon has “directly targeted Hachette’s authors in an effort to force their publisher to agree to its terms,” enlisting signatories. (Preston’s forthcoming book THE LOST ISLAND, co-authored by Lincoln Child and due August 5, has been directly affected by Amazon’s removal of pre-orders for HBG titles.) On Wednesday morning, when we obtained the email, that effort “seems to have gone viral,” Preston told us, after a few weeks of his “quietly working on […]