On Sunday New York Times Public Editor Margaret Sullivan took issue with the paper’s coverage of Amazon and Hachette’s ongoing terms dispute, opining that the paper (and primarily its Amazon beat reporter, David Streitfeld) “has given a lot of ink to one side” and painted Amazon as “a literature-killing bully.” Addressing one reader’s claims that the coverage amounted to “propaganda,” Sullivan said: “‘Propaganda’ is a stretch, and Mr. Streitfeld has done plenty of solid work. But it’s certainly true that the literary establishment has received a great deal of sympathetic coverage.” Streitfeld and his editor Suzanne Spector told Sullivan they “strived […]
Legal
Corporate: PRH Finalizes Objetiva Purchase; Amazon’s WriteOn Beta; Authors Guild Met with DOJ; Core Source Adds Print Metadata
On October 1, Penguin Random House completed their acquisition of Brazilian trade publisher Objetiva, the final piece in their acquisition of the Santillana trade publishing business (the rest of which closed on July 1). As previously announced, CEO of Companhia das Letras Luiz Schwarcz will also oversee Objetiva, and Roberto Feith continues as general director. Amazon’s coming “new reader-powered publishing program” that was reported on a little over a week ago is called WriteOn by Kindle, Laura Owen discovers. The tag line on the beta site is, “Making good stories great and great stories better.” Access for now is by invitation code. An email […]
Ellora’s Cave Sues “Dear Author” and Its Creator, Alleging Defamation
On Friday, Ellora’s Cave and Jasmine Jade Enterprises filed suit in an Ohio state court against the Dear Author blog and its author Jennifer Gerrish-Lampe (writing as Jane Litte), alleging that a September article about the publisher “made false and defamatory statements concerning the companies’ financial stability and practices, insinuating that the companies are on the verge of financial ruin.” The suit further charges that the post “attempts to induce panic in Plaintiff’s authors by stating that Ellora’s will close by the end of the year or is likely to undergo a bankruptcy.” The company says in the suit it […]
People
Julia Cheiffetz will return to HarperCollins as executive editor for Dey Street Books, starting October 6. She had been editorial director at Amazon Publishing until recently, prior to which she worked at Harper and Harper Studio. Another longtime Amazon executive announced plans to leave the company. Bill Carr, 47, has worked at Amazon for 15 years, and currently serves as head of digital music and video. He plans to leave at the end of the year. A spokesperson told the WSJ Carr wanted to spend time with family and “has other plans after that but not in the near term […]
UK Publishers Association Asks Government to Investigate Unnamed eBookselling Monopoly
UK trade group the Publishers Association issued “an eight point plan for growth” in book and journal publishing with recommendations for the government. The one drawing the most attention is a very polite, British request to consider whether having one company dominate ebookselling and online bookselling is a good idea. Amazon is not mentioned by name, and PA chief executive Richard Mollet insists to the FT, “This is a genuine appeal for information. It would be disappointing if this were interpreted as an act of aggression” against that unnamed dominant company. The document asserts that “the book retail market in […]
European Court Approves Lower Taxes for eBooks; Management Buyout At Book People
Long after Luxembourg and France decided for themselves, the European Court has ruled that it really is ok for individual countries to charge lower Value Added Tax rates on ebooks. Reduced VAT was always allowed on printed books, but the statute never mentioned ebooks — which most countries took to mean that ebooks had to be charged normal, full VAT. Luxembourg was the notable exception, turning it into the server farm for digital media in Europe, and then France joined in more recently. The court came to the clarifying decision in a case brought by Finland over the difference between print […]