In a rare concession, Amazon is “modifying our systems so that rightsholders can decide on a title-by-title basis whether they want text-to-speech enabled or disabled for any particular title. We have already begun to work on the technical changes required to give authors and publishers that choice. With this new level of control, publishers and authors will be able to decide for themselves whether it is in their commercial interests to leave text-to-speech enabled.” Of course at the same time the etailer reasserts that the “experimental text-to-speech feature is legal: no copy is made, no derivative work is created, and […]
AAP to be Run By Another Former Member of Congress
AAP president and ceo since 1997 Pat Schroeder will leave the organization on May 1 “to sail uncharted waters.” Endorsing the fundamental nature of the group as a lobbying organization, the board has hired former six-term Maine Congressman Tom Allen to take over.Allen served on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Budget Committee, Armed Services Committee, and Government Reform Committee. He says: “AAP advocates on issues of paramount importance ranging from free speech and education to the protection of intellectual property rights and international freedom to publish. I am excited about tackling the challenges of this new position and its […]
Rave Review for Books & Books' "Retreat"
Books & Books had to give up their space on Miami Beach’s prominent retail strip Lincoln Road: “It had to go, off the mall to a patio in the back, the latest victim of skyrocketing rents and changing retail economics on Lincoln Road. In its former prominent perch on the pedestrian mall: a Diesel jeans store.” Now in the “less-visible courtyard behind his former street-front location, Books & Books owner Mitchell Kaplan has reenergized his store with an elegant, light-filled new design, a sprawling outdoor newsstand and lounging area, an expanded cafe-restaurant and — mirabile dictu — four times the […]
Hely Hutchinson Admits Waterstone's Exclusive Was a Mistake; Cancels Plan
Hachette UK head Tim Hely Hutchinson said on Radio Four’s Today show he was cancelling Hodder & Stoughton’s plan to sell Glen David Gold’s new book exclusively at Waterstone’s in hardcover ahead of the fall paperback release to the trade. In what he terms “a historic climbdown,” he announces: “We got this wrong, and so I’m cancelling the exclusivity with the kind permission of Waterstone’s. In retrospect it was a mistake anyway, and choosing between confusion and conspiracy it was definitely in the confusion camp.” He noted, “Although the hardback [of Carter Beats the Devil] did not do very well, […]
Borders to Close Michigan Avenue Store
Borders Group announced that they will close their big store on Chicago’s prominent commercial street in 2010. “It’s a difficult decision to close a store and we’ve done all that we can to keep this location open, but like a handful of other stores we have recently closed in cities ranging from Cincinnati to Santa Monica, this store has not met our profit objectives for some time now. In today’s economy, no retailer can afford to operate stores that do not produce the kind of results required to sustain a location, and therefore, we have no choice but to close […]
Barnes & Noble Sells Calendar Club Share, Takes Loss
Barnes & Noble has sold its majority interest in the Calendar Club to the company and its ceo for $7 million (comprising $1 million in cash and $6 million in notes). The chain will “continue to have a working relationship with Calendar Club.” BN is taking an after-tax writedown of approximately $9.7 million in their fiscal fourth quarter as a result of the sale. For 2008, Calendar Club contributed $113.5 million in revenues to Barnes & Noble, but the effect on earnings per share is “de minimis.”Release