The AAP convened a virtual annual meeting on Monday, with current board chair (and ceo of HBG USA) Michael Pietsch and AAP president and ceo Maria Pallante reminding the audience of the organization’s current core values and reviewing the abundant challenges they are confronting. “As an industry, we must therefore be vigorously involved in the policy battles that threaten our industry,” Pallante said. “Big Tech” was mentioned multiple times in her remarks, along with “the radical, systematic infringements of the Silicon-valley based Internet Archive, a case we continue to litigate in New York, and the misguided but aggressive actions of […]
News
In-Person Winter Institute Canceled
The American Booksellers Association canceled its plans for an in-person Winter Institute, originally scheduled for February 13-16 in Cincinnati. They will refund attendees’ registration fees in January, and will cancel hotel reservations at ABA hotels. The organization plans to announce updated programming details in the coming weeks. In a statement, the ABA said: “We have been full steam ahead with programming, planning, and safety precautions, but the rising number of COVID cases, the contagion of the new variant, and the hospital crisis in Ohio — including the National Guard being called in to assist understaffed hospitals — have forced us […]
It’s “Premature” for State to Collect Cuomo Earnings
This week, New York’s Joint Commission on Public Ethics ordered that Andrew Cuomo must turn over the profits from his book, American Crisis, for ethics violations. But the New York Attorney General’s office stated in a letter that before it collects the money, the ethics commission must produce an investigative report, the AP reports. The report must include “a record of the administrative process, and the statutory authority for the decision, the amount of the imposed fines and penalties, and a determination concerning the appropriate amount of disgorgement attributable to the violation of law,” the letter said. The report must […]
Harper Institutes Vaccine Requirement
In a memo to New York staff on Monday, HarperCollins announced that employees and visitors must be vaccinated to use the New York office. This is in accordance with governor Kathy Hochul’s new requirement that people must wear masks inside any public place without a vaccine mandate. Still, Harper encourages mask wearing in common areas. New York will reassess the measure on January 15, and Harper will reassess it’s guidelines then as well. Harper had been the outlier among the Big Five publishers in not requiring vaccination to use the office, which remains voluntary.
Macmillan, S&S Update Office Return Plans
Macmillan has postponed its New York City office reopening from January 10 to an undetermined future date, the company announced on Wednesday. They will give employees 30 days notice before they are expected to be in the office. “In the interim, we will remain in the soft reopening model where employees can choose to come into the office at their own discretion,” the memo reads. “The Hybrid & Remote-Friendly pilot program will begin once we have an official reopening date.” This news comes on the heels of Hachette’s announcement that they have not set a date for their office return […]
Hachette UK’s Shelley Expects Supply Chain Challenges to Continue
Hachette UK CEO David Shelley told authors in his annual letter that supply chain challenges have been “the most extreme that I have seen in my 24 years in publishing” and he notes that “it is clear that these will be ongoing issues and that 2022 will be marked by them.” While some of their issues have been exacerbated by Brexit, other elements are shared by US publishers: “One of the issues our team have been grappling with is a worldwide shortage of paper. Due to unexpected surges in sales in all markets during Covid lockdowns, the world has gone […]