The Writers’ Trust of Canada and The Writers’ Union of Canada (TWUC) created a Canadian Writers’ Emergency Relief Fund to support professional authors. The fund will distribute grants of $1,500 to “writers that have seen contracted or projected income evaporate due to the current public health crisis.” RBC joined the two organizations in funding the initial pool of $150,000. Rakuten Kobo has formed a joint venture with Australia’s largest online bookseller, Booktopia, to sell ebooks, digitial audiobooks, and ereading devices. In the UK, distributor Bertram’s has joined Gardner’s in temporarily suspending all operations, and the company is furloughing its staff, […]
eNews
Internet Archive Grants Itself Emergency Copyright Powers for Uncontrolled Digital Lending
“To make a real difference for the nation and the world,” the Internet Archive unilaterally granted itself emergency powers to lend a corpus of over 1.4 million ebooks without any restrictions, contrary to its own stated policies. They are calling it a “National Emergency Library to serve the nation’s displaced learners,” lasting at least through June 30. In a modest concession, authors can opt their books out [send an email to info@archive.org with National Emergency Library Removal Request as the subject line. Please include each URL of the book or books you would like to have removed]. They also “recognize […]
A New Vendor for Harper’s eBooks
Harper Collins had used Bookshout.com since 2016 as the platform for ebooks sold directly to customers from their websites, but recently the Harlequin site told customers that “BookShout closed their business in early 2020, ceasing all operations.” (In an earlier email, Harlequin had told customers, “On December 30th, 2019, Bookshout unexpectedly informed us of their intention to close their business on January 31st, 2020.”) Harlequin recently switched to Glose as their new ebook provider. Direct ebook sales have been disabled on the main Harper Collins online store, but the company tells us they are switching to Glose as well and […]
Penguin Random House Pulls Titles from Unlimited Subscription Services Around the World
Earlier this month, as of January 15 by most indications, Penguin Random House removed its audiobook titles from a variety of “unlimited” listening subscription platforms around the world. The news was first reported out of Scandinavia, where the disappearance was notable on leading platform Storytel and its acquired subsidiaries (like Mofibo in Denmark), as well as on their leading competitors such as Bonnier’s Bookbeat and Russia’s Nextory. Missed in that reporting is that PRH’s titles have also been removed from Scribd, where their audiobooks were also a notable part of the offering. (When PRH audio first participated with Scribd in […]
Briefs
Film/TV Michael Chabon and Ayelet Waldman, through their company Escapist Fare, have signed a multi-year overall deal with CBS TV Studios. That deal starts with a limited series adaptation of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay for Showtime, but includes a number of other projects in development. Akiva Goldsman and Alex Kurtzman will executive produce Kavalier & Clay, and Paramount Television will produce (since Paramount Pictures owns the film/TV rights). Initiatives This year James Patterson will give holiday gifts totaling over $200,000 to Barnes & Noble booksellers around the country as well, in addition to his annual holiday bonuses […]
Reisman Admits Indigo’s Transformation Hit “A Brick Wall,” Will Expand Proprietary Product and Experiences Next
Indigo ceo Heather Reisman spoke to BNN Bloomberg as part of the groundbreaking ceremonies for the University of Toronto’s Schwartz Reisman Innovation Centre, funded by a $100 million donation from Reisman and her husband Gerry Schwartz. Reisman is more candid than she has been during recent Indigo investor calls in acknowledging that the first phase of the bookseller’s transformation is played out and more dramatic changes are needed. “As many people know, we started a big transformation a few years ago and we had really good success with it. And then we ran pretty much into what I call a […]