In documents filed with the International Trade Commission as part of the patent-infringement lawsuit brought by Microsoft, Barnes & Noble indicated that over the spring and summer they appealed to the Justice Department to investigate Microsoft on anti-trust grounds. “Microsoft’s willingness to bully small players with expensive litigation raises a substantial barrier to entry in any market in which it claims dominance,” general counself for BN Eugene DeFelice wrote, the WSJ reports. “Microsoft’s exorbitant licenses for its patents entrench the dominant players in the relevant markets because those players can afford to take a license, while small players cannot.” WSJ […]
Kobo Sold to Japan’s Rakuten for $315 Million
eBook start-up Kobo is being sold to Japanese internet giant Rakuten for $315 million on a fully-diluted basis. Kobo will continue to operate as a stand-alone entity, based in Toronto, Canada. Kobo’s majority shareholder Indigo Books & Music said they expect to receive $140 million to $150 million in proceeds, though they told shareholders “the account gain cannot be determined at this time.” Those proceeds are almost equal to Indigo’s total market cap as of yesterday. As you would expect, their thinly-traded stock jumped by over 50 percent this morning, though at $10.50 a share the price is still well […]
Little, Brown’s Mulholland Withdraws Markham’s Debut Novel for Lifted Passages
Little, Brown announced to booksellers Tuesday by e-mail that it was withdrawing from Q.R. Markham’s novel ASSASSIN OF SECRETS, and asking accounts to return the books for credit. The company says “it has come to our attention that many passages and lines have been taken from a variety of classic and contemporary spy novels. Upon investigation it was clear the passages in question were lifted and Little, Brown determined that the only course of action was to immediately recall books from retailers across the country.” The original trade paperback had a publication date of November 3. Markham’s plagiarism was originally […]
Authors In the Kindle Lending Library: The Complete List
We’ve been finding that a lot of authors, agents and publishers often don’t know that they have books that Amazon has elected to include in the Kindle Lending Library “promotion”–where the etailer pays the full wholesale ebook price. So here is a linked list of all the authors Amazon says are represented in the collection, along with the number of titles matches. (Sometimes Amazon makes a match even if the “author” has contributed just a foreword.) We’ve also been working hard to learn more about the nature of the titles in the collection, through a variety of search routines (none […]
Paolini Claims His INHERITANCE
The fourth and final installment in Christopher Paolini’s bestselling fantasy series for children INHERITANCE releases today. Random House Children’s has announced a first printing of 2.5 million copies, a number you don’t hear very often any more for printed books. When BRISINGR was published in September 2008, the publisher reported opening day sales of 550,000 copies in the US, and 45,000 copies in the UK. Over the weekend, Waterstone’s told the Independent that the book recorded “the biggest pre-order of a children’s title since JK Rowling’s final Harry Potter book,” with “tens of thousands of copies” sold in advance.
Hachette Book Sales Fall 8 Percent In US; 10 Percent in UK
Lagardere reported third-quarter results, with revenues at their book publishing division falling 5.2 percent overall (and 2.5 percent on a like-for-like basis), down 33 million euros to 601 million euros for the period. Sales at Hachette Book Group in the US fell 8 percent and sales at Hachette UK declined 10 percent, “due mainly to the impact of e-books (which result in lower sales but higher margins), as well as the difficulties of certain retailers” liquidating. For the full nine months so far of the current fiscal year, ebooks comprised 21 percent of sales in the US and 9 percent […]