On Friday, Judge Denise Cote granted entry of final judgment, approving the federal government’s settlement with Penguin in their ebook pricing case. That increases the likelihood that Penguin will move to “agency lite” pricing of their ebooks sometime soon. But we don’t know that for sure. It took about two months after Macmillan settled and warned authors new prices could “take effect quickly” before there was any change in the marketplace. In fact, retailers could have moved to new arrangements with Penguin earlier in the year, and have not done so yet. The original settlement required Penguin to notify retailers of […]
The Things You Can’t Talk About At Conferences
Our big Publishers Launch BEA Conference on Wednesday, May 29 is a little over a week away (and for many people, their BEA planning starts in earnest right about now). This time we’re specifically trying to focus on things foremost on convention-goers minds, even though they can be tricky to talk about in public so you won’t see them listed on any other BEA events agenda. So we’ll be looking at the pending Penguin Random House merger and what it means for other publishers, agents and authors; we’ll talk about the big June 3 ebook pricing trial and look at […]
More Fall/Winter Buzz Books: Nonfiction
In addition to presenting substantial excerpts of 40 highly anticipated titles, our Buzz Books 2013 fall/winter sampler also includes an extensive preview of additional upcoming titles put together by editor Sarah Weinman. By itself it’s a great overview of important books and authors to look for at BEA and throughout the big fall publishing season, and another reason why downloading this free ebook now is a great way to prepare for the convention. We have been featuring extracts from that preview of the season as part of our run-up to BEA. Last week we started with the fiction overview, and […]
Apple Presses to Make Public Documents “Potentially Embarrassing to Amazon”
Legally Apple is being sued by the government, but procedurally the company continues to act as if the real battle is with Amazon. As we reported last Friday, Apple’s proposed findings of fact filing indicates that Amazon sent a “White Paper” about agency ebook pricing to the Department of Justice of February 1, 2010 — days after the iBookstore was announced, and well before it actually opened for business. A letter from one of Apple’s attorneys posted to the court docket over the weekend reinforces their belief that “Amazon is no disinterested third party. Amazon was instrumental in launching this […]
eNews: Winning Hacks, New Launches, and More
At least 30 projects were submitted as part of the Publishing Hackathon over the weekend, viewable here. Contestant Eric Hellman reports that the six finalists are: BookCity (suggests books to match places you visit) Captiv (turns your Tweets into book recommendations) Coverlist (shows 100 curated jackets; hover over an image to see a related recommendation) Evoke (connects books for teens based on the emotional connection to characters — classifying reading experiences as “inspired, challenged, amused, or informed”) KooBrowser (browser plugin that matches book recommendations to web pages you visit) Library Atlas (app that sends you book quotes based on your […]
Briefs: People, Terms, Awards, and More
As part of Simon & Schuster’s move towards what they see as a “globally coordinated, strategic approach to our worldwide ebook business,” current vp, business development Doug Stambaugh has been named vp, global ebook market and development strategy, reporting to Dennis Eulau. In the newly created position, Stambaugh will evaluate opportunities for retail expansion, and new partnerships, digital channels and publishing initiatives, and develop company-wide strategies, policies and best practices in areas ranging from terms and pricing to DRM, technology platforms and new business models. “While digital content is firmly established as a significant portion of our business, the digital […]