The EU Parliament passed the Copyright Directive, containing two controversial provisions intended to ensure publishers and content creators get paid when their content is shared on internet platforms such as Facebook, Google, and YouTube. While the vote is significant, particularly considering that Parliament rejected a different version in July — it’s far from final. As the Guardian and others report, the law will now go to three-way negotiations with the European Commission and the Council of the European Union. The European Parliament will vote one final time in January. Article 11 (referred to as the “link tax”) allows publishers to […]
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Moonves Reportedly Offered $100 Million Exit Package
According to reports today from CNBC, CBS is offering Les Moonves an exit package of $100 million, mostly in stock. Big as that sounds, it is less than severance called for in Moonves’ contract, which is $180 million and a production deal. Additionally, CNBC reports that the board wants to recover some of the severance compensation if the sexual misconduct allegations against Moonves that surfaced in July prove true. After Moonves’ exit, coo Joe Ianniello would step in as his interim replacement. The initial market reaction to that news was positive, pushing the stock up at midday. The accusations about Moonves […]
Initiatives: PRH’s Higher Ed Site, Coben Expands with Netflix, and More
Penguin Random House launched a new higher education website, featuring “a collection of the publisher’s most frequently-adopted titles for hundreds of college courses.” College instructors will be able to access information about frequently adopted Penguin Random House books from an index of more than 1,700 courses taught within business & economics, humanities & social sciences, professional studies, and more. Brent Gordon, PRH’s vice president, education sales and strategy, said, “We are committed to making it easier for educators to discover Penguin Random House’s world-class content for the courses they teach. This site is one of many initiatives underway designed to improve […]
RWA Changes RITA Judging Policy to Address Bias
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 in a release, “the Board passed a new policy that we hope will allow patterns of biased judging to be identified and for actions to be taken against those judges if deemed necessary.” One new measure allows authors who are concerned about “invidious discrimination against […]
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 (noted in boldface below), the Kochs picked a wealth of noteworthy forthcoming romance titles to look for. Historical Historical romance has always been the bedrock of the genre and this year sees both classical and modern takes on the genre. The queen of the subversive […]
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 Haddad followed her around the store taking photos of her without her consent. A meeting between manager Stephen Torrez and owner Rebecca Haddad — which addressed store schedules and the computerized inventory system, but in which he also raised concerns about sexual harassment procedures — […]