After a vague and weak denial last month when travel site Skift first reported the deal in progress, the BBC has now confirmed its sale of Lonely Planet to little-known billionaire Brad Kelley’s NC2 media. Selling for £51.5 million ($77.3 million), the sale is now raising the expected criticism in the UK as the British public confronts the full fiasco of the broadcaster’s diversion into travel publishing. The BBC already took £50 million in writedowns on the total £130 million purchase price for Lonely Planet, and the sale is an admission that even those writedowns were not sufficient to account […]
eNews
Amazon Publishing Will Speed up Author Royalty Payments
In letters to authors and agents sent Monday afternoon Amazon Publishing said it will quicken the pace at which it pays out author royalties, moving from quarterly remittance to monthly payments, issued 60 days after the close of each month. The news was first reported by the WSJ and we’ve also seen a copy of the letter. In it, vp, Amazon Publishing Jeff Belle explains “in this digital age, we don’t see why authors should have to wait six months to be paid.” The new payment procedure will begin with January 2013 royalties, to be paid through on March 31. […]
eNews: Sony Ends 20p eBook Promotion in UK; DA VINCI CODE eBook Free for a Week; And More
Sony’s 20p discounted price on select ebooks, a promotion that lasted for more than eight months, has ended after the company redesigned its ebookstore. In a statement to the Bookseller Sony said “Discounted 20p pricing is not currently offered on the newly relaunched UK Reader Store. However, pricing is always subject to revision. The duration of our 20p pricing is indicative of our commitment to provide great e-books at exceptionally accessible prices, which is a philosophy we continue to hold.” Now that the steep discount on books such as Yann Martel’s LIFE OF PI and John Lanchester’s CAPITAL (and earlier, […]
Google Unit to Launch eBooks That Tie In to Their Hot Game, Ingress
A division within Google–Niantic Labs–is readying the first in a potentially extensive line of ebooks and books, in conjunction with author and co-publisher Thomas Greanias and his @tlantis Books. It’s known as the ALIGNMENT series and the first first ebook novella, the 150-page THE ALIGNMENT: INGRESS, is set for publication on April 2 in the Google Play Store, but also on all other major ebook platforms, either simultaneously or shortly thereafter. (Pricing for the title has yet to be finalized.) The books tie in to Niantic’s hot alternate/augmented reality MMOG Ingress that Google has been rolling out in closed beta […]
RH Changes Contract Terms for Digital Imprints In Response to Controversy
Random House announced changes to the contract terms for their start-up digital imprints Hydra, Alibi, Flirt, and Loveswept on Tuesday morning, following pointed criticism from the Science Fiction Writers of America, the Horror Writers of America and other author group representatives. The company is adjusting the charges made under their profit-sharing contract model, and also offering authors a separate, more traditional advance-plus-royalty contract model. The advance-plus-royalty model follows a traditional contract model: Random House’s “standard ebook royalty of 25 percent of net receipts” along with an agreed-upon advance, with the imprints covering all production, shipping, and marketing costs. In the […]
More Objections On Closed Domain Names
Following the AAP’s objection to any issuance of closed–or essentially privately-operated–new internet domains such as .book, others have filed comments in opposition with ICANN as well. The AAP had objected specifically to Amazon’s filings–which also include .author and .read–because the company said it intends to operate the names on a closed basis “to protect its intellectual property rights” and “to support the business goals of Amazon.” Authors Guild president Scott Turow filed what appears to be a broader complaint to the idea of selling such domains to any private enterprise, regardless of whether they will open those domains to public registrations […]