Just two months after acquiring Union Square and Co. from Barnes & Noble, Hachette Book Group has notified the unit’s staff that it will eliminate a substantial number of positions. HBG employees report and believe the layoffs to affect approximately 60 jobs, or roughly half of the Union Square personnel. The company tells PL, “We do not disclose personnel information; however, it is inaccurate and false that 60 employees are being let go. Additionally, some of the impacted employees have been offered other roles within the company and are working with human resources to remain at Hachette Book Group.” When the acquisition […]
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Unbound Cash Flow Issues Leave Authors, Freelancers Unpaid
UK crowdfunding publisher Unbound has missed payments to authors and other business associates after failing to raise enough money in 2024, the Bookseller reports in a long exclusive story. Payment dates for royalties and other payments have been moved repeatedly, several sources report the magazine. One author said that he has been waiting for payment for more than six months. Another reported that he has not been paid for a book that published in early 2024, and was told in July that “the company could not pay its authors because they had not received ‘promised funds’ that they had reportedly earned […]
Grand Jury Indicts Three People Behind $44 Million PageTurner Scam
A federal grand jury indicted three people behind a publishing scam called PageTurner that defrauded elderly authors out of $44 million. The people arrested were Gemma Traya Austin of Chula Vista, CA, and Michael Cris Traya Sordilla and Bryan Navales Tarosa, both of the Philippines, who ran a company called Innocentrix Philippines. The indictment alleges that between September 2017 and December 2024 representatives for the company placed unsolicited phone calls to elderly authors, represented PageTurner as a book publishing business, claimed Hollywood executives were interested in adapting the authors’ work, and fraudulently convinced victims to send them money for various […]
Gaiman Responds to Abuse Reports
On his website, Neil Gaiman responded to allegations that he sexually abused several women. As he has previously, he denies ever having non-consensual sexual activity with anyone, and noted that his relationships with the women who reported abuse seemed positive at the time. “As I read through this latest collection of accounts, there are moments I half-recognise and moments I don’t, descriptions of things that happened sitting beside things that emphatically did not happen…I went back to read the messages I exchanged with the women around and following the occasions that have subsequently been reported as being abusive. These messages […]
Customer Records Breached in Scholastic Data Hack
A hacker known as “Parasocial” has stolen personal details of millions of Scholastic customers, the Daily Dot reports. The leaked data has 8 million entries, including names, emails, phone numbers, and addresses of users who signed up on Scholastic’s website. (Excluding duplicates, there are more than 4 million unique email addresses.) The hacker told the site that they “gained access after stealing login credentials from an employee hit with malware” and “would have taken more data but were stopped due to an export limit on Scholastic’s server.” Parasocial also gained access to an employee portal with information about staff, invoices, […]
NY Magazine Expands Details of Neil Gaiman Sexual Assault Allegations
New York Magazine reports on the details of the Neil Gaiman sexual assault case, expanding on allegations first reported by New Zealand podcast Tortoise Media. Last July, five women accused Gaiman of assault, and one woman said she filed a complaint with New Zealand police. Four out of five of Gaiman’s accusers spoke to NY Magazine for the piece, and the publication reviewed journal entries, texts, emails, and police correspondence. Gaiman did not comment for the article, but he has denied all allegations. The piece, which is lengthy and thorough, spends the most time on the accusations brought by Scarlett […]