Random House continues to push deeper into the murky but promising frontiers of “transmedia.” A few months ago the RH Publishing Group’s intellectual property development group was quietly christened Random House Worlds–meant to represent their broad development of content for multiplatform implementation, across books, interactive, film, TV, mobile, and more, working with partners from various media. RH Worlds is an evolution of what started as a unit to develop videogame properties in March 2010 under director of creative development Keith Clayton. Spokesperson Theresa Zoro says they regard the unit as “a service/development area, as opposed to an imprint.” In the […]
eNews
Still More Law Firms Want A Piece of Class-Action Agency Suits, As Pretrial Conferences Loom
There have been some new developments since we reported in August on the growing number of class action-seeking lawsuits launched against Apple and the six largest trade publishing houses on the grounds that the agency model violates antitrust laws. Between August 12 and September 23, at least a dozen additional suits were filed in California’s Northern District and New York’s Southern District, each alleging “conspiracy” and “collusion” to fix ebook prices against Apple and the publishers. Of greater importance now than the volume of suits is process by which the California and New York cases are slowly towards consolidation. In […]
Bookish CEO Departs Prior to Delayed Launch
Founding ceo of Bookish.com Paulo Lemgruber is leaving to “pursue other opportunities,” as the high-profile book-focused site is late in launching. Carolyn Marks is taking over as chief executive. In January she was named general manager of parents and lifestyle digital at Meredith, and she was general manager at The Daily Beast. In other personnel news, Stephanie Swane has been promoted to senior sales manager at becker&mayer! Books, driving the sales strategy for both the juvenile and adult packaging groups. She will focus on selling book proposals to US trade publishers and retailers, while developing new ideas for titles and […]
When Authors Run the Numbers on Argo Navis Proceeds
What’s going to happen when authors analyze the terms being offered by Perseus’s new Argo Navis? It has been positioned as sounding like Amazon’s KDP program (“Argo Navis offers these authors a 70/30 revenue split”) and the NYT obligingly declares it “a favorable revenue split that is unusual in the industry,” comparing the proceeds to royalties rather than other sef-publishing and distribution arrangements. But for ebooks that qualify for the highest rates from KDP and PubIt, it looks as if Argo Navis will yield gross proceeds that are just half of what authors would get when they participate in those […]
Bloomsbury Readies Digital Distribution Service
As Perseus expands their digital distribution to agents and authors, Bloomsbury is preparing a direct competitor to Constellation, Faber Factory and other ebook distribution platforms for publishers. Launching soon, the new service, called Bloomsbury Connect, has been in development for months under the direction of managing director, group sales and marketing Evan Schnittman. It’s a companion to the Bloomsbury Reader program, announced in April, which launched last week with almost 600 titles. As Schnittman explains, Bloomsbury Connect is a “service solution,” focused on publishers, while Bloomsbury Reader is a full “publishing solution” for out-of-print titles, focused on agencies and estates. Bloomsbury Connect […]
From Pottermore, Potterlate
JK Rowling’s ambitious-if-not-fully-explained plan to publish the ebook versions of the Harry Potter book directly from the new Pottermore web site this October has been postponed. They will miss the holidays for certain, and according to their post, the wait could extend by as much as 9 months. The site claims it’s a change in “priority,” but the inability to deliver is certainly a challenge to those who jumped to the early conclusion that her strategy was some kind of large “game-changer.” The message on the site reads: “the Pottermore Shop, which will sell the Harry Potter eBooks and digital […]