Presuming the Google Book Search legal settlement is approved, the University of Michigan announced that they had renegotiated an “expanded agreement” with the search company. Addressing some libraries’ concerns about the as-yet-undetermined institutional pricing of the database of full-text books, the parties agreed on a system that will let partner/contributing libraries review the pricing and challenge it through arbitration if they believe it’s too high, in which case “Google will be required to work with the Registry to adjust the pricing accordingly.” Price will be less of an issue for Michigan itself, which will receive free access to the full […]
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Harper UK managing director Amanda Ridout is leaving the company at the end of next month after seven years to pursue “confidential” ventures, the Bookseller reports. “All will be revealed in the fullness of time,” Ridout adds. Frank McCourt‘s publishers and agent have confirmed that he has been undergoing chemotherapy for melanoma. The 78-year-old author is back home now and “doing pretty well” according to Molly Friedrich.AP Morty Mint and his Mint Publishers Group has taken on the sales operation for Joy Berry Enterprises. Acting as brand consultant, he will be the primary sales executive for the company, working with […]
The Case for a Smaller BEA
BEA show director Lance Fensterman expands in a blog post on the projected statistics for the upcoming convention that we wrote about earlier. Exhibition square footage is running 20 to 25% smaller than the last show in LA. In attendance, ABA registrations are “almost flat (100 or so down)”; librarians are down “about 25%, which is disappointing”. Miscellaneous industry professionals who did not fit into new, more target categories have been slimmed by about 1,350, which was intentional, to eliminate “attendees that our exhibiting customers told us were not of high value to them.” Overall registered attendees are down by […]
Your Daily Amazon News
Amazon has sued Discovery in a Delaware court, alleging infringement of search engine and recommendation patents, and the etailer has also countersued over Discovery’s claim of infringement on their ebook patent.WSJ Amazon has also released a new version of their Kindle iPhone app, which adds some of the basic functionality suspiciously missing from the first version (leading some to view it is a crippled reader). The new version allows reading in landscape mode, and lets users “pinch to zoom images in books” and “tap on either side of the screen or flick to turn pages.”
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Anna Stein will join London-based Aitken Alexander and start a New York office for the agency as of June 1. Gillon Aitken is quoted in the Bookseller: “As our markets grow ever closer, we believe this is an auspicious moment to expand our presence in the US, and we are delighted that Anna is joining us.” Jacqueline Flynn has joined Joelle Delbourgo Associates as an agent. Formerly executive editor at Amacom Books, she will represent a wide range of nonfiction including business and career, technology, science, psychology, self-help, and parenting. Carrie Cantor is heading up the agency’s new editorial services […]
On Demand Books Overtake Traditional Titles for the First Time
Bowker’s preliminary data for books published in the US in 2008 shows that output from traditional publishers declined by about 3 percent to 275,232 new titles. But they project that the number of “on demand” books grew 132 percent to 285,394 books, now exceeding the traditional titles. The biggest declines for traditional publishers came in travel (down by 15 percent, with 4,817 new titles), fiction (down 11 percent, with 47,541 new titles the largest of all categories), and religion (down 14 percent, at 16,847 titles).Release