SEC Starts Civil Charges Against AMS; “It’s possible that other suits will be filed” Following the plea entered by former AMS employee Mary Roke on two criminal charges (covered here yesterday), the SEC filed additional civil charges against her, in a complaint that alleges “that AMS fraudulently overstated its earnings through two schemes. The SEC “alleges that the fraudulent schemes caused AMS to overstate its pre-tax earnings by about 9% in fiscal year 2001, 10% in fiscal year 2002, and 19% in fiscal year 2003.” The commission also says that their “investigation is continuing.” SEC Pacific regional office director Randall […]

Sorry The service that processes our mail was down almost all day yesterday, so even though Lunch was prepared for mid-day digestion, it didn’t get served until late last night. If you checked PublishersMarketplace.com, however, it was posted there right on time. In case you didn’t know, Lunch is posted at the site every day, right around when the mail is supposed to go out. So if your e-mail ever goes astray (or your links aren’t working properly), check to see if it’s up at the site. We post under the “Lunch Archive” tab on the left, and the first […]

NYT Announces Revamped TBR The NY Times has a release out describing their expanded Sunday Book Review Section and broader cultural coverage. They say that TBR “will become more magazine-like.” Officially announced changes include 25 percent more editorial space, with “more reviews of intellectual and historical titles and more attention to commercial fiction, mysteries and romance novels.” In Brief reviews will be dropped entirely, in favor of the group theme essays that have been appearing already. The bestseller list will be “expanded” in ways that are not specified, and children’s bestsellers will get a new listing for series books. As […]

Trade Groups Sue Federal Government A long-simmering dispute between academic publishers and the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) over restrictions on publishing work originating from countries under economic sanctions (including Iran, Cuba and Sudan) has risen to a new level. The Professional and Scholarly Division of the Association of American Publishers, the Association of American University Presses, the PEN American Center and Arcade Publishing have jointly filed suit against the Treasury Department in a New York federal court. The parties are asking the court to strike down regulations that require publishers and authors to acquire a government […]

Magazine Chronicles Dylan Newsweek has the first serial from Bob Dylan’s “remarkably candid” memoir CHRONICLES, VOLUME ONE, along with an interview with the author. Dylan says, “When you write a book like this, you gotta tell the truth, and it can’t be misinterpreted.” He observes, “I had very little in common with and knew even less about a generation that I was supposed to be the voice of.” Describing the book’s scope, Dylan says “It’s like I had a full deck, and I cut the cards and whatever you see you go with that. I realize there’s a great gap […]

Holy Blood Authors Contemplating Lawsuit in UK PN reports that the authors of THE HOLY BLOOD AND THE HOLY GRAIL Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh and Henry Lincoln are “considering” a suit against Dan Brown for “breach of copyright of ideas and research.” The magazine opines that if such an action is filed in the UK, it “is likely to jeopardize Columbia’s planned film of The Da Vinci Code.… Settlements would be costly, though perhaps Bertlesmann, which publishes both titles in both the UK and the US, would attempt to broker a peace.” Lewis Perdue, who is preparing his response to […]