After eight years of convening their annual meeting in New York, the AAP is moving next year’s general meeting on March 3 back to its traditional home in Washington, DC. It will be coordinated with the annual meeting of the organization’s School Division (which convenes that morning). The AAP says the move is “in an effort to maximize the opportunity for publishers to press their case with members of Congress on a range of important issues including copyright, domestic and international piracy, reading and literacy initiatives, the impact of the open source movement, and the 2010 outlook for K-12 publishing.”
News
Stanford Closes Publishing Course, and Studies Possible Successor
The venerable Stanford Publishing Course for Professionals, serving book publishing and magazine professionals since 1978, has closed, a victim of both the economy and larger transitions in the program’s core fields. Longtime director Holly Brady is leaving Stanford–saying she “expects to continue the conversation from another vantage point here in Silicon Valley”–and her staff has been dismissed. This move comes admits broad cost-cutting at Stanford University, with the school recently disclosing a 27 percent drop in their endowment capital over the last fiscal year, with investment losses of approximately $3.5 billion. They reportedly cut over 400 positions earlier in the […]
Caution to All Publishers Wanting their Books Endorsed by Obama
Algonquin removed a line from President Obama praising Roy Williams which they intended to run on the jacket of Hard Work: A Life On and Off the Court, after their lawyers concluded “that sitting presidents cannot make commercial endorsements.” The White House confirms to EW, “As a general matter, the White House does not authorize the use of the President’s likeness or words for commercial purposes.” Vintage used an endorsement from Obama on a recent paperback reprint of Joseph O’Neill’s NETHERLAND, though EW says they “did not check with the White House before issuing the stickered edition.”EW
Judge Clears Seinfeld On Infringement, But Libel Claim Could Continue
New York District Court Judge Laura Taylor Swain rejected author Missy Chase Lapine’s charges of copyright and trademark infringement against Jessica Seinfeld, and she found the plaintiff’s book dowdy, too. Swain called Lapine’s Sneaky Chef “a dry, rather text-heavy work” and said “the tone of the book is less collegial than it is informative and lecturing,” while terming Seinfeld’s cookbook “bright and cheerful, full of different colors and various patterns…. Deceptively Delicious targets the average busy parent with little to no cooking skill or experience.” But Judge Swain declined to rule on the libel charges against Jerry Seinfeld stemming from […]
Tolkien Trust and Harper UK Settle Lord of the Rings Film Suit
The Tolkien Trust and Harper UK have settled the lawsuit they brought last year against New Line Cinema concerning their share of proceeds from the Lord of the Rings films. “The precise terms of the settlement are confidential,” the statement says. The suit originally asked for “in excess of $150 million in compensatory damages,” based on a claim that original film rights contract gave them 7.5 percent of cross proceeds. But attorney for the Tolkien estate Bonnie Eskenazi tells the WSJ “that demand increased after we got closer to a trial because discovery revealed additional financial impropriety.” Warner Bros. President […]
Briefs
In addition to their preview piece of 25 hot fall titles (see the Automat link below), USA Today tips H.M. Naqvi’s Home Boy, David Small’s Stitches, and Gwen Cooper’s Homer’s Odyssey; A Fearless Feline Tale, Or How I Learned About Love and Life With a Blind Wonder Cat as “sleepers” for the season. Seattle is closing its entire public library ssytem for a week due to budget cuts, which will save approximately $655,000. The city took similar measures in 2002 and 2003 (closing for two weeks each time). “City Librarian Susan Hildreth said this week was chosen because school is […]