Overlook has filed suit against the grandchildren of Russian author Mikhail Bulgakov claiming that the ebook edition of MASTER AND MARGARITA does not violate copyright, Courthouse News reports. (The full complaint is not yet available in any federal court docket.) Overlook acquired the US copyright to Bulgakov’s classic novel (written in 1937 but not published until 1967, more than 25 years after Bulgakov’s death) in 2001 when it bought Ardis Press, which originally commissioned the book’s current English-language translation in 1995. Though Overlook “acknowledges that Bulgakov’s grandchildren own rights to the underlying copyright,” they dispute the heirs’ contention that the […]
eNews
Simon & Schuster Also Moves to New Agency Lite Pricing
Over the weekend Simon & Schuster became the last of the three Settlers (publishers settling the ebook pricing case with the Department of Justice) to implement new Agency Lite ebook pricing and new sales contracts with ebook retailers. As with the other Settlers, the best place to research S&S’s new pricing is on the publisher’s own web site. Amazon is not showing their ebook list prices, though Barnes & Noble is; also as with the others, Amazon shows that Simon & Schuster is still the seller of record. To be clear, since other articles have already made this mistake, Simon […]
eNews: Brazil Gets Kindle Store, Google Play; Waterstones Upsets Customers With Kindle Screensaver Ad; And More
Within minutes of each other, Amazon’s Kindle Store and Google Play launched in Brazil Wednesday evening–just as Kobo’s previously-announced Brazilian offering formally launched. The Play store includes titles by Brazilian authors as well as translations of international bestsellers, while the Kindle store sells their low-end device for R$299 ($143 US), along with 1.4 million ebooks, including more than 13,000 Portuguese-language ebooks by authors such as Jorge Amado, Lya Luft and Martha Medeiros. In addition, Kindle Direct Publishing and the various mobile apps are also available in Brazil. “We are excited to launch this new Kindle Store for Brazilian customers, offering […]
Open Road Pairs with Ingram to Offer Full-Service Digital and POD Distribution
Starting in January, Open Road will offer a broad digital distribution service to individual authors, agents “with large catalogs of backlist books, and independent publishers who need help digitizing, formatting, and distributing their content digitally, putting them in direct competition with such players as Constellation and INScribe Digital. Open Road’s service is “powered by Ingram Content Group,” using the CoreSource platform for broad digital distribution and Lightning Source and Ingram Publisher Services for print-on-demand production and distribution. (Open Road has already been working with Ingram for manufacturing and distribution of their print titles). Open Road founder Jane Friedman says they […]
People, Etc.
Benjamin Lee will join the Atria Publishing Group as associate publisher on January 2. He moves over from Simon & Schuster, where he was most recently director, sales, retail and marketing, overseeing Target, Readerlink, Baker & Taylor, Ingram, Kobo, Google, various other digital aggregators and the Christian retail market including Family Christian, Lifeway and Mardel. Elizabeth Psaltis will join the Gallery Books Group in the newly created role of marketing director, reporting to Louise Burke. Psaltis, who was previously advertising and promotion director for Berkley, NAL, Riverhead Trade, Perigee, and Penguin Press, will be responsible for marketing efforts for Gallery, Threshold, […]
HBG Moves to Agency Lite with Amazon and Others
Hachette Book Group has reached a new overall sales agreement with Amazon. As part of that agreement, HBG now moves to selling ebooks on an “agency lite” basis with the US trade’s leading retailer. Amazon no longer lists HBG ebook prices as having been set by the publisher, but does still list the titles themselves as “sold by Hachette Book Group.” (These are the technical details that confirm HBG is no longer controlling the consumer price, as required under the DOJ settlement, but continues an agency selling relationship as the seller of record.) As was the case when HarperCollins moved […]