First announced in June with 10 partners, Author Solutions has signed another 13 sites to the program that makes their self-publishing platform available to other entities on a revenue-sharing basis. Interestingly, among the latest partners is online bookselling powerhouse Alibris, which creates all kinds of interesting possibilities. Author Solutions calls the program “a turnkey revenue producer for online communities, printers, retailers, and publishers. The platform has all of our publishing expertise ‘baked in.’ It can be skinned with our partners’ branding and we provide all necessary IT and back-end support.”Release
Legal Fight Over Chicken Soup Split
The Chicken Soup for the Soul series has sparked a legal battle between the new owners and the former publisher, according to an article in the Miami Herald. As previously announced, Simon & Schuster was recently named the distributor for new titles in the line, following the purchase of publishing rights by a Connecticut investment group run by William Rouhana and Robert Jacobs from creators Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen. A suit filed in Federal District Court in California “accuses Health Communications with interfering with the sale of the publishing and distribution rights and with trademark violations.” A separate […]
Profiling PW's Reviewers
Now that PW has started listing their previously anonymous book reviewers as contributors on the masthead, the Observer looked at the first list of “80-something names” and Googled a number of the names. “Who are these individuals? Enthusiasts, mainly. Schoolteachers, professors, stay-at-home moms, authors. It takes all kinds. We looked a handful of them up on Google, corresponded with a couple, and came up with some crude bios. Here’s an assortment.”Observer
'Lassie' heirs regain rights – Entertainment News, Film News, Media – Variety
The daughter of Eric Knight, author of Lassie Come Home, prevailed over Classic Media in a 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling handed down on Friday that reversed a 2006 District Court decision and affirms Winifred Knight Mewborn’s 1996 letter terminating Classic Media’s rights. Variety says “the court’s opinion addressed a complicated issue of copyright law involving whether the law’s termination of transfer right is eradicated by a post-1978 assignment of the rights. In a victory for authors and their heirs, the court held that their rights are not terminated.”Click here for the PDF of the court’s rulingVariety article
UK Agents Compete for Estates
Savvy agents have long known the advantages of representing well-established literary estates and now following the diminution of PFD, the gloves are off in London. The Times says: ” No point wasting one’s time with new authors. They’re unpredictable, demanding. They require lunch. No, what any literary agent worth his salt needs in 2008 is a classic author with form: famous, prolific and deceased within the past 70 years. In recent months, the literary estate – the body of work belonging to a dead author – has suddenly and unexpectedly become big business.” As previously reported, Andrew Wylie took over […]
Appointed
Ian Fleming Publications has appointed Simon Trewin at United Agents, to manage world English literary rights in the Ian Fleming titles and the Young Bond series. Trewin will partner with Zoe Pagnamenta of the Zoe Pagnamenta Agency to represent the properties in the US. Foreign rights will continue to be managed by The Buckman Agency, and Sebastian Faulks’ Devil May Care and Kate Westbrook’s MoneyPenny Diaries remain with Aitken Alexander Associates.