Rich Freese will take over from Jed Lyons as president of NBN as of July 6, working out of Oakland, CA. Lyons will “focus on the book publishing activities of NBN’s parent company, The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group.” (The release says NBN had sales of $100 million, and R&L had sales of $60 million.) Most recently Freese had launched a new distribution enterprise for BookMasters, though he worked at NBN in the late 90s and through 2002. Lyons says in the announcement “Rich Freese is the most knowledgeable, thoughtful, and creative person I know in the book distribution business.” […]
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Bloomsbury Calls Allegations "Unfounded, Unsubstantiated and Untrue"
Bloomsbury responds to the lawsuit filed by the estate of Adrian Jacobs saying that “JK Rowling had never heard of Adrian Jacobs nor seen, read or heard of his book Willy the Wizard until this claim was first made in 2004…. Willy the Wizard is a very insubstantial booklet running to 36 pages which had very limited distribution. The central character of Willy the Wizard is not a young wizard and the book does not revolve around a wizard school.” When first asserted in 2004, “the claim was unable to identify any text in the Harry Potter books which was […]
Estate of Willy the Wizard Author Sues Bloomsbury, Claims Potter Infringes, and More Legal News
The estate of children’s book author Adrian Jacobs has sued Bloomsbury in England’s High Court, alleging that JK Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire “copied substantial parts” of Jacobs’ THE ADVENTURES OF WILLY THE WIZARD–No 1 Livid Land. The estate “is also seeking a Court order against JK Rowling herself for pre-action disclosure in order to determine whether to join her as a defendant to the…action.” They also allege that when Jacobs was first seeking representation, he submitted to Rowling’s agent Christopher Little. Apparently both books feature wizards who compete in contests and have to rescue humans. While […]
People
Random House UK ceo Gail Rebuck was made a Dame on the Queen’s Birthday Honors List (her husband is already a Lord). In annual income disclosures, Senator Ted Kennedy reported that he was paid $2 million as an advance (presumably only the first part) for his memoir in 2008. (The full price was reportedly about $8 million.) This week’s New Yorker profiles Nora Roberts, “America’s most popular novelist”–whom the magazine explains to its readers is like “the Raymond Carver of romance,” at least in her “choice of milieu.” (They note that the Times Book Review has reviewed just one of […]
S&S to Offer Almost 5,000 Titles for Sale on Scribd.com
In a release originally set for announcement today that hit the wires last night after Business Week violated the embargo, Simon & Schuster is offering almost 5,000 of their titles available for sale on Scribd.com through a branded “storefront” on the site, including books from some of their bestselling authors. They books are priced at 20 percent below print retail, and the site provides the publisher with 80 percent of the revenue. S&S is also providing free previews with links to purchase print books from the publisher’s website. Scribd’s files are viewable online but download only as protected PDF files […]
People, Awards, Announcements
Michael Thomas was the surprise winner of the IMPAC Prize for his debut novel MAN GONE DOWN, published by Grove/Atlantic. The judges said: “We never know his name. But the African-American protagonist of Michael Thomas’s masterful debut, Man Gone Down, will stay with readers for a long time. Tuned urgently to the way we live now, [Man Gone Down] is a novel brilliant in its scope and energy, and deeply moving in its human warmth.” Len Vlahos has been promoted to chief operating officer at the American Booksellers Association, filling the position held by Oren Teicher before he advanced to […]