It’s the story that keeps coming back. This time the focus is Random House UK which, according to Society of Authors deputy general secretary Kate Pool, seeks to redefine out-of-print so that rights are eligible for reversion to an author “only if the publisher cannot supply a physical or electronic copy of a book within a month, or if there have been no royalty earnings for a year.” President of the Association of Authors’ Agents Philippa Milnes-Smith says that some agents had “raised concerns about RH’s approach to negotiating boilerplates…over the terms being proposed and the approaches being made to […]
International News
Google Book Search, en Francais
Google has now officially confirmed the enrollment of the the Municipal Library of Lyon as the first French institution to join the Google Book Search Library Project. Together they will digitize “close to 500,000 public domain books.” You may recall that in the early days of GBS there were two primary schools of griping: the we’re going to be included and we don’t want to be branch, and the we’re not going to be included (and horrible English works will smother the world) branch. Needless to say, the French were among the leaders of the latter camp, advocating for government-backed […]
Consternation in UK Over Asda's HP Paperback Discount
Sales of the paperback release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows in the UK were dominated by Asda after they decided to sell the book for just one pound for the first three days. Asda book buyer Steph Bateson says they sold just under 40,000 copies during the promotion, while Nielsen Bookscan tracked sales industrywide of 46,257 copies in that three-day period. Despite the money lost by the chain on the promotion, Bateson tells the Bookseller “I think we have shaken the other retailers up a bit, which was always our intention,” calling it a “genuine footfall and sales-driving […]
Personnel, Etc.
Book review editor (and arts writer) at The Tennessean Jonathan Marx e-mailed contacts to let them know he has left the newspaper to take a job as publications manager for the Nashville Symphony. Del Commune Enterprises is now scouting in France for Calmann-Levy and Le Livre du Poche and in Spain for Salamandra Ediciones. As of August 1, they will also scout for Jorge Zahar Editor in Brazil.
"Love Letters" Tie-In: What Took So Long?
You’ll recall the the Sex & the City movie ignited interest in the nonexistent book featured in the movie, “Love Letters of Great Men.” Now former Picador deputy publisher Ursula Doyle has compiled and annotated a book under that proven title, including “all of the letters referenced in the film,” for quick release on August 15 from Pan Macmillan in the UK. (The DVD of the film is due a month later.) The house says in a short announcement “there will be a huge viral marketing campaign online, including Facebook activity, and we are aiming for simultaneous e-book publication.” They […]
Bertelsmann Reverses Denial: Will Sell More Book Clubs
The AP has obtained a letter to Direct Group employees from Bertelsmann chief executive Hartmut Ostrowksi that admits “we have decided to initiate the sale process for our [book and music club] businesses” in the UK, Australia and New Zealand, plus the Czech Republic, the Netherlands and Flanders (Flemish-language in Belgium), Poland, Russia, Slovakia and Ukraine. At least for now the company intends to retain Direct Group units in German and French-speaking countries, plus Spain, Italy, and Portugal. (Note that the French media recently reported the hiring of Morgan Stanley to elicit offers for the Direct Group division.) AP