Erotica may have gone mainstream for trade publishers but that doesn’t make it any better for a Church-owned publisher. The 12 German Catholic dioceses that own bookselling and publishing giant Weltbild have formally cancelled the sale offering of the company after more than 7 months–either because there were no viable offers, or because the organizations favored continuing to use company to benefit their causes. The church will donate its shares to a non-profit ecclesiastical foundation instead, providing the needed distance from the publisher following last year’s sensational focus on some of the erotica issued by the company. The news was […]
International News
European Commission Takes First Step Against Luxembourg and France’s Rogue eBook VAT Rates
Luxembourg and France clearly broke free from European Union law at the beginning of 2012 when they lowered the VAT applied to ebooks, to 3 percent and 7 percent respectively–with Luxembourg’s move particularly advantaging international players like Amazon that as a legal matter “sell” ebooks across Europe from Luxembourg. Now, six months later, the European Commission has dispatched a stern letter: “This situation is creating serious distortions of competition that are damaging to economic operators in the other 25 Member States since digital books can easily be purchased in a State other than the one where the consumer resides and, […]
People: Winstanley Takes Over As Penguin Canada President; McAleer In New Role at Walker
Mike Bryan, who took over as president and Penguin Canada almost two years ago after the departure of David Davidar, is going to retire from publishing and return to the UK. Nicole Winstanley will take over as president while continuing to serve as publisher as well, and vp of finance and operations Barry Gallant becomes chief operating officer. Bryan says in the announcement, “My decision to leave has been personal and geographical but I leave knowing we have the best team in Canadian publishing and am confident Nicole and Barry will lead Penguin to even bigger and greater achievements.” Bryan will […]
Angry Robot Tries Free eBook Bundle for UK Indies
As part of the UK’s Independent Bookseller week, Angry Robot has announced a small pilot for a program they hope to extend to other stores. Working just with Mostly Books in Oxfordshire for now, they are going to give away a free–and DRM-free–ebook edition (called the Clonefile) with each in-store purchase of a physical paperback. “This Clonefile means that customers at Mostly Books can buy Angry Robot’s books and enjoy them in whatever format they prefer, whether physical or electronic…. A dual-format offering for Indies seems like a natural extension of our customer-first ethos and a great way for Angry […]
People: Don Linn to Run Chicago Distribution
Donald Linn will take over as director of the University of Chicago Press’s Chicago Distribution Center, replacing the recently retired Donald Collins, starting July 16. Linn was owner and ceo of Consortium Book Sales & Distribution, and most recently worked with Firebrand Associates in their consulting division. University of Chicago Press director Garrett Kiely says, “He brings a wealth of experience and knowledge to this position. The CDC does a great job of serving the needs of its clients and the market, and Don will help to position us for the future.” UK sales and marketing head of DK Catherine Bell will become […]
Briefs: Gallimard Officially Acquires Flammarion; Smashwords Set To Provide Self-Published eBooks to Califa Library Consortium; and More
After months on the block, with a number of bidders dropping out and an asking price that nobody wanted to meet, RCS is officially selling French publisher Flammarion to Gallimard — the front-runner all along — for 251 million Euros, nearly 50 million below that original asking price. Reuters reports that RCS will receive about 230 million from the sale, and will post a consolidated gain of 88 million euros. The deal is expected to close in September. A number of publishers met with the European Commission in Brussels Tuesday to call for the streamlining of taxes on ebook purchases […]