Amazon’s director of author and publisher relations Jon Fine “has decided to leave the company at the end of the year,” according to internal announcement cited by Porter Anderson. The note from Charles Kronbach says, “Over the last seven years, he has represented Amazon at hundreds of publishing and author events around the world, helping to raise awareness about the myriad opportunities Amazon offers to the storytelling community. More to come on transition as we move towards Jon’s departure at year’s end.” Fine first joined Amazon in 2006 as director of copyright and media law. At Viking Penguin, Melanie Tortoroli […]
Finance
Egmont USA Is Up for Sale
The Egmont Publishing group announced Thursday it has decided to sell their Egmont USA division “as part of an overall strategic focus on market leading positions.” The company was established in 2008 and started publishing in 2009. The $900 million publishing division has decided “to invest in books and magazine businesses where Egmont can hold a leading market position.” CEO of Egmont Publishing International Rob McMenemy said in the announcement, “Since 2009, and starting from scratch, Egmont USA has built a children’s fiction and young adult fiction list, and it has a strong plan for the future under the excellent leadership […]
Corporate: PRH Finalizes Objetiva Purchase; Amazon’s WriteOn Beta; Authors Guild Met with DOJ; Core Source Adds Print Metadata
On October 1, Penguin Random House completed their acquisition of Brazilian trade publisher Objetiva, the final piece in their acquisition of the Santillana trade publishing business (the rest of which closed on July 1). As previously announced, CEO of Companhia das Letras Luiz Schwarcz will also oversee Objetiva, and Roberto Feith continues as general director. Amazon’s coming “new reader-powered publishing program” that was reported on a little over a week ago is called WriteOn by Kindle, Laura Owen discovers. The tag line on the beta site is, “Making good stories great and great stories better.” Access for now is by invitation code. An email […]
Osprey Sells 3 Lines; Skyhorse Wins Good Books Auction; Food52 Raises More
In line with our report in June that UK-based Osprey Group was looking to sell non-core components including the Angry Robot fiction line and the ailing Watkins acquisition (along with considering offers for the entire company), the Bookseller reports that the company has indeed sold Watkins, Angry Robot and Nourish to businessman Etan Ilfeld. And it turns out that Osprey had quarantined those three lines in bankruptcy administration “in order to protect the rest of the group,” though in June, when they shut down the Strange Chemistry and and Exhibit A fiction lines the company said “the core Angry Robot […]
European Court Approves Lower Taxes for eBooks; Management Buyout At Book People
Long after Luxembourg and France decided for themselves, the European Court has ruled that it really is ok for individual countries to charge lower Value Added Tax rates on ebooks. Reduced VAT was always allowed on printed books, but the statute never mentioned ebooks — which most countries took to mean that ebooks had to be charged normal, full VAT. Luxembourg was the notable exception, turning it into the server farm for digital media in Europe, and then France joined in more recently. The court came to the clarifying decision in a case brought by Finland over the difference between print […]
Vook Acquires Byliner
After months of looking for a buyer and barely operating in the meantime, Byliner.com has been acquired by Vook. The purchase is somewhat of a full-circle pivot for Vook, which began in 2009 by producing “enhanced” ebooks with embedded videos. In the announcement, the company says, “With the acquisition of Byliner, Vook will support Byliner’s existing titles and acquire new projects for release under the Byliner imprint.” (All of the people who drove Byliner’s editorial connections that allowed them to partner with some marquee authors and institutions have left the company, however. From Vook’s author FAQ, the line will be run […]