Romance publisher Dreamspinner Press has not been paying royalties in timely fashion, authors have been reporting online, at least partially confirmed by emailed updates from the company that have been shared. Earlier this summer, authors posted on Twitter that the publisher had been inconsistent with payments for over a year, including delays in issuing both first quarter and second quarter 2019 royalties. In June, author TJ Klune posted, “Out of the last 8 quarters, this is the fourth time payments have been late, and the second in which I am owed penalties for said lateness.” (Klune had said in March […]
Legal
Fox’s CIA Memoir Has Details that Are Typically Blocked
NBC News uses the widely-disseminated galley of former CIA operative Amaryllis Fox’s forthcoming LIFE UNDERCOVER: Coming of Age in the CIA, to share extensive details from the book — meant to illustrate her inclusion of “the sort of details the CIA has censored from previous memoirs.” Among them: The agency typically does not “allow officers to name countries in which they operated, other than war zones,” let alone any discussion of nonofficial cover agents (NOCs) and they how they work; their use of secret “cover communications” software to communicate with sources around the world; and other oerational details. Fox “said […]
High-Profile CIA Memoir Still Awaiting Formal Prepublication Approval
Journalist Yashar Ali reported earlier this week that former CIA officer Amaryllis Fox — whose book LIFE UNDERCOVER: Coming of Age in the CIA is scheduled for publication on October 15 by Knopf — has not yet received written approval to publish from the CIA’s Publications Review Board. Nonetheless, a Knopf spokesperson tells PL, “We are proceeding to publication based on assurances the author has received from the PRB.” The publisher indicates on background that Fox has coordinated with the PRB throughout the process of writing the book, including obtaining verbal clearance before submitting her proposal to publishers and continuing […]
Audible Tells Self-Published Authors They’ll Delay Captions Until “The Legal Proceeding Is Resolved”
While large publishers took the lead in suing to block the Audible Captions initiative, authors who control their own audiobook rights and have produced titles through Audible’s ACX program expressed concerns that their titles were in line to be “captioned” without their prior consent as well. As a group, those authors comprise a major supplier, accounting for almost 160,000 titles according to the company’s website. As we reported a week ago (and most other accounts mangled), as a strict matter of law the court order delaying the launch of Captions until there is a ruling on the expedited motion for […]
Pearson Sued Over Student Data Breach
An Illinois parent has filed suit against Pearson in an Illinois Federal Court, seeking class action status and accusing the textbook company of negligence in a data breach that affected a million students in 13,000 schools across the US. The cyberattack on Pearson’s AIMSweb occurred in November 2018, and was apparently detected by the FBI in March 2019. The suit charges that “even after learning of the data breach in March” from the FBI, Pearson “concealed that fact from impacted schools for four months, failing to disclose it until late July 2019.” Even then, the suit charges, “they concealed the […]
Briefs
Andi Richman has joined Baker & Taylor Publisher Services as director of national accounts. She previously held national account positions at Guilford Press, Hay House, Harlequin and Dorling Kindersley. Matt Warner has joined as director of marketing. He most recently held senior positions at Barnes & Noble.com and Nook. Legal Retired Navy Commander Guy Snodgrass is the latest former government official to find his forthcoming book delayed because of an extended review process — and the latest to sue over that delay. The former communications director and speechwriter for James Mattis when he was Secretary of Defense argues the DOD has […]