The Romance Writers of America (RWA) revised its procedures for evaluating bias in judging for the RITA awards, adopted at their July board meeting and effective in 2019. The changes are in response to charges of prejudice, especially complaints that diverse and queer books have been given low scores or erroneously rated “not a romance.” RWA said…
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A Romance Publishing Preview, Part Two
Like the first installment from earlier this week, romance booksellers and owners of The Ripped Bodice in Los Angeles Bea and Leah Koch wrote the seasonal preview for our recently-published sampler, Buzz Books 2018: Romance (free downloads are available for Amazon Kindle, Barnes & Noble Nook, Apple’s iBooks, and Google Play). In addition to the 14 featured pre-publication excerpts in the sampler…
Eight Book Exchange Employees Quit Over Sexual Harassment Claims
Eight employees of Book Exchange in Missoula, Montana have quit after multiple alleged sexual harassment incidents involving Nabil Haddad, the husband of the store’s owner. Two of the employees, Miranda Keenan and Melanie Sourbeer, told the Missoula Independent about incidents in 2014 and 2016, in which Haddad touched them inappropriately. Another former employee, Sunshine Tucker, says…
Sanders, Spicer and Kerry at Book Expo
Book Expo featured a trio of political figures on stages Thursday evening and Friday morning, starting with Senator Bernie Sanders. He spoke about his forthcoming book Where We Go From Here, which he described as an account of his activities since the 2016 election, and what he sees as the future of the progressive movement….
People, Etc.
By multiple second-hand accounts from publishers who do business with Disney, evp of Disney Consumer Products and Interactive Media’s (DCPI) Publishing and Digital Media business unit Andrew Sugerman has left the company. He had oversight for “all global licensed and vertical publishing across books, e-books, mobile apps, magazines, and comics under Disney Publishing Worldwide and Disney…
Trump Administration Offers Level Playing Field For Copyright Law
At Book Expo’s Wednesday morning State of the Industry: Publishing and Copyright Policy, participants were in agreement on something to like about the Trump administration: It has offered a level playing field for copyright policy so far. This is seen as a shift from the Obama administration, which was, as Copyright Alliance ceo Keith Kuperschmidt put…