Crain’s NY reports that director of the film version of The Secret Drew Heriot has added Simon & Schuster to his long-running legal battle over copyright ownership and proceeds from the bestselling book. He alleges that the publisher’s license “violates [his] rights as a joint-owner,” and “is seeking undisclosed monetary damages, as well as a court order that Manhattan-based Simon & Schuster reveal how much money its made in sales from the title, a figure his lawyers put at $300 million.”Crain’s Journalists hate it when book publishers try to manipulate and control the news with embargoed books since it cuts […]
Suskind Book Says White House Ordered Forgery
Ron SUskind’s just-released THE WAY OF THE WORLD charges that the White House instructed the CIA to “forge a back-dated, handwritten letter from the head of Iraqi intelligence to Saddam Hussein,” Politico reports, “designed to portray a false link between Hussein’s regime and al Qaeda as a justification for the Iraq war.” The book says: “The White House had concocted a fake letter from Habbush to Saddam, backdated to July 1, 2001,” Suskind writes. “It said that 9/11 ringleader Mohammad Atta had actually trained for his mission in Iraq – thus showing, finally, that there was an operational link between […]
Children's Publisher Playmore Files for Bankruptcy
Facing sharply declining revenue, publisher of value-priced children’s mass market titles Playmore filed for bankruptcy in New Jersey recently. The company, which had sales of $22.8 million in 2006, registered just $3.2 million in sales this year. The NJ Record notes that “the bankruptcy comes 15 months after Playmore sued its partner, Waldman Publishing Corp. of New York, seeking $55 million in damages and compensation. The suit, which has been settled pending certain conditions, claimed that the companies jointly owned the copyright to the books they produced, and accused Waldman of trying to put Playmore out of business. “News story
VSS Stats Forecast
Veronis Suhler Stevenson has issued their new annual Communications Industry forecasts covering 20 media segments. They estimate 2007 spending on consumer books was $23.64 billion, with an annual compound growth rate of 3.8 percent since 2002. Their forecast is pretty much more of the same, guessing at 2012 spending of $28.1 billion with five-year annual growth of 3.5 percent a year.Release
Atlanta-Area Bookstore Faces Closure
Wordsmiths Books in Decatur “is just two weeks away from possible closure” according to marketing director Russ Marshalek, and is having a benefit this weekend to raise funds. Owner Zachary Steele says they suffer from an event with a well-known author “that required a massive up-front investment that didn’t pan out” as well as debt from the higher rent at their previous location. “The reality of Wordsmiths is that, though it began with a great push, it did so in the wrong location. That location drained its resources and left a lagging parachute of debt that we have been trying […]
Europe Develops e-Readers
Germany’s Spiegel reports that Deutsche Telecom is developing its own e-reading device to compete with the likes of Kindle and the Sony Reader (neither is currently sold in Germany). One engineer says their device is likely to be larger and have a flexible display. France Telecom’s Orange also has an electronic reading device in development.Story translated/summarized in Bookseller