The Department of Justice officially indicated Thursday that it “has opened an antitrust investigation” into the proposed settlement between Google and authors and publishers. “At this preliminary stage, the United States has reached no conclusions as to the merit of those concerns or more broadly what impact this settlement may have on competition,” deputy assistant attorney general William F. Cavanaugh said in a letter to the federal judge overseeing the settlement. Justice says they were spurred by “public comments expressing concern that aspects of the settlement may violate the Sherman Act.” In response, the Southern District of New York set […]
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James Gurbutt has joined Constable and Robinson to head a still-untitled new fiction imprint. He was most recently associate publisher at Harvill Secker. Literary agents Serafina Clarke and Brie Burkeman have combined their two companies to establish Brie Burkeman & Serafina Clarke Ltd., specializing in high quality commercial writing across all mediums.
Sanford Book Cancelled
Governor Mark Sanford’s book under contract with Sentinel is not going forward. The publisher says in a brief statement: “Sentinel has agreed to release Governor Mark Sanford of South Carolina from his contract to write a book about fiscal conservatism, which was to be called WITHIN OUR MEANS and was scheduled for publication in March 2010. This is a mutual decision. We wish Governor Sanford the best.”
Hachette Relaxes Stance on Text-to-Speech
Hachette Book Group issued a statement this morning that the company is willing to support Text-to-Speech functionality more widely for the titles they publish in digital book format, citing the likelihood of TTS being a feature on an increasing number of devices due to be released in the coming months. “We have a primary duty to respect our authors’ wishes,” said Chairman and CEO David Young. “If our authors do not object,” he continued, “then, based on the current technology, we would not take issue with the availability of this functionality for the vast majority of our books, excluding books […]
Preliminary Injunction Blocks Salinger Non-Sequel
Though preliminary injunctions blocking publication of a book are quite rare, Judge Deborah Batts was so thoroughly convinced that Fredrik Colting’s 60 YEARS LATER infringes CATCHER IN THE RYE that her decision didn’t even seem close. Her written opinion is a sweeping rejection of virtually every argument made on Colting’s behalf. “There is a substantial similarity between Catcher and 60 Years, as well as between the character Holden Caufield and the character Mr. C…such that it was an unauthorized infringement of plaintiff’s copyright.” She found that 60 Years “contains no reasonably discernable rejoinder or specific criticism of any character or […]
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David Falk will join Touchstone Fireside as associate publisher on July 15, reporting to Stacy Creamer. Falk has over twenty years of publishing experience, most recently as associate publisher, director of sales and marketing at the Overlook Press. Margaret Halton is returning to the agency side of the business after work on an interim basis as adult rights director for Pan Macmillan. She is joining Rogers, Coleridge and White part-time, providing maternity cover for Laurence Laluyaux, the Bookseller reports. Previously Halton was foreign rights director at ICM’s UK office. Stephen Pawley has retired from Evans Publishing after 25 years as […]