Though Google failed in their recent attempt to block fresh certification of the author class in the long-running lawsuit over the library book scanning project, the search giant continues to try to bring the legal battle to an end. In a series of submissions last Friday, Google asked the court for summary judgment (or adjudication). The filing is perhaps best as a marking post of how much the online publishing world has changed–and its fundamental business models have not–in the 8 years since Google started scanning books in libraries. Google’s motion includes an extensive list of what they call “uncontested […]
eNews
People: Jones Takes Over at Bookseller
At the UK’s The Bookseller, deputy editor Philip Jones has been promoted to be editor, taking over from editor-in-chief Neill Denny who “is leaving to follow new opportunities but will remain an integral part” of the magazine’s editorial team, including writing a new column starting in September. To file under “etc.” or enews, Weinstein Books has a promotional twist for an ebook giveaway. Their ebook of You Changed My Life: A Memoir, by Abdel Sellou, the man whose life story is the basis of the Weinstein movie The Intouchables, is available free between July 27 and August 3. Moviegoers will receive a […]
From the Cloud, Hachette Announces Three Services for Other Publishers
At today’s Publishers Launch Conference on Book Publishing In the Cloud, Hachette Book Group chief operating officer Ken Michaels announced three software-as-a-service offerings that the publisher developed for their own use and will now make available for license by other publishers, “allowing the industry to take advantage of our innovations.” BookRadar, developed with and now marketed by CoEnterprise, lets publishers automatically monitor how their digital titles are displayed on key retailer sites. It highlights discrepancies (or compliance) in pricing as well on sale availability and release dates–compared to the publisher’s own ONIX data–and creates vendor performance scorecards. Separately, it also […]
A Closer Look at What BookStats Says About the Trade (It’s Still Flat)
Now that BookStats has released some additional data to their paying subscribers, we’re allowed to provide deeper coverage of our own of their “extrapolations” of revenue shifts across trade publishing. (Our first story is here.) As a standing reminder, we subtract religious book sales of roughly $1.5 billion from the BookStats “trade” data. So all of the data you see below is our own modification and analysis of tables generously provided by BookStats. And this all derives from two relatively simple spreadsheets; the BookStats full annual report and electronic digital dashboard provide a wealth of additional, highly granular data across […]
Briefs: RH UK Adds Digital Distribution Service; S&S Downplays PR for Posnanski Bio of Paterno; Rudin, Diller “Exploring” eBooks; And More
Random House UK‘s distribution unit–which include The Book Service and Grantham Book Services–is partnering with ePubDirect to offer a digital distribution service. It “includes e-book storage” and “global distribution in multiple formats to a growing list of customers which allows current access to over 1,000 e-tailers worldwide, and over 25,000 libraries.” ePubDirect CEO Gareth Cuddy says, “I am hugely excited about this agreement with Random House Distribution through TBS and GBS. We have developed our expertise over the last number of years working with many leading publishers and we know that Publisher sales thrive when fuelled by speed, innovation, reach […]
People, Etc.
Margaret Mahy, 76, author of more than 120 books for children and winner of numerous awards, including the Carnegie Medal and the Hans Christian Andersen Award, died Monday in Christchurch, NZ after a brief illness. NZ Herald obit Left-wing journalist, editor of Counterpunch and author Alexander Cockburn, 71, died Saturday in Bad Salzhausen, Germany after a two year battle with cancer. NYT obit At Penguin Children’s UK, Eric Huang has been promoted to new business and IP acquisitions director, reporting to Francesca Dow. Paul Biba has resigned from TeleRead after more than five years as contributor and then editor of […]