People In the UK, publishing director of Transworld’s crime and thriller books Selina Walker will move over to become publisher for Century and Arrow, starting in mid-July. At Transworld, editorial director Sarah Adams will take over Walker’s role; Cat Cobain is being promoted to publishing director of the women’s fiction list; and nonfiction editor Sarah Emsley is moving up to senior editorial director. At HarperCollins, Leah Wasielewski has been promoted to senior director of marketing for Harper, Harper Business and Broadside Books. Bloomsbury sub-rights manager since 2006 Lauren Shekari has left the company. In disclosure forms, Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown […]
Legal
eNews: Amazon Cuts Ties to AR, CT Over Sales Tax; Kobo eBook Lending; and More
Add Arkansas and Connecticut to the list of states Amazon is cutting ties with over new sales tax laws. In Arkansas, where the law enables the state to charge sales tax on companies who exceed $10,000 in annual sales, Amazon notified associates by email that it would terminate their contracts on July 24. And in Connecticut, affiliates will be cut off “effective immediately,” per a separate Amazon email. AP UPI Kobo is said to be preparing its own ebook lending and self-publishing services to launch before the end of the year. GoodeReader Waterstone’s sale to Alexander Mamut will not affect […]
Borders May Close Up to 51 More Stores to Avoid Defaulting On Latest Loans
As potential bidders emerge for more than 200 of Borders’ superstores in a deal the company hopes will close in the next two to four weeks, the retailer may need to close an additional 51 stores and liquidate assets to avoid defaulting on their debtor-in-possession loan in the meantime. According to a motion filed in court Thursday morning, the move may result in worse terms for creditors, since the closed stores would not be available for sale to a bidder–and at least some of them are stores that “buyers have indicated that they also wish to purchase.” Though Borders hasn’t […]
Aletheia Continues to Sell Barnes & Noble Stock; BN Files Pre-Emptive Suit Against Chipmaker
The mysterious masters (or mischievous monkeys?) who run the trading desk at Aletheia Research & Management continue their daily churn of Barnes & Noble stock, buying and selling strange blocks of shares day after day. But the trend of slimming their position continues; in the reported period since April 25, the firm reduced their holdings to 8.65 percent of all shares, down from about 10.4 percent. In other BN news, the company filed a pre-emptive suit in a San Francisco federal court recently against chipmaker LSI, seeking to protect itself from potential claims of patent infringement in their Nook devices. […]
Borders Gets More Time To Reorganize
In federal bankruptcy court Wednesday morning, Judge Martin Glenn agreed to extend the exclusive time period in which Borders can come up with a plan for emerging from Chapter 11 bankruptcy or selling the company’s assets. As previously reported, Borders would have run up against a June 16 deadline to file a plan under an exclusivity period, which has now been extended to October 14, with time to solicit votes on such a plan pushed back to December 13. Borders representative Andrew K. Glenn explained in court that a sale is now the focus of their efforts rather than reorganization, […]
GBS Hearing Pushed Back to July 19 As Parties Seek More Time To Draft New Settlement
In a status conference Wednesday afternoon that lasted all of five minutes, no decisions were made with respect to the Google Book Settlement, as all parties wanted more time to reach some sort of agreement. Bruce Keller, representing the Authors Guild and the AAP and speaking on behalf of “all parties,” told the court that “the parties are still considering options. They have not made any decisions. Everything being discussed between them is on the table.” Judge Chin set a new hearing date of July 19 at 10:00 AM in response to Keller’s assertion that parties would need an additional […]