The improbable antitrust lawsuit alleging that the large trade publishers willingly colluded with Amazon to help the etailer maintain monopoly-level control of ebook prices and overcharged ebook buyers $740 million since 2017 remains alive in the Southern District of New York. (The original suit was dismissed in 2022; this is a refiled, amended version.) In a Wednesday hearing on whether to certify certain ebook buyers as a class, Judge Gabriel W. Gorenstein appeared to side with plaintiffs, MLex reports. The proposed class would be “anyone who purchased one or more trade e-books sold by the publishers via an agency model […]
People 7/9
FBF to Close Hall 6 This Year, Shuffle Booths and Tables
Due to “structural building inspections,” the Frankfurt Book Fair will refrain from using all three levels of Hall 6 at this year’s fair, the Bookseller reports, based on a recent letter sent to exhibitors. As a result, spaces for exhibitors and meetings will be shuffled to different places in the fair buildings. International exhibitors placed in Halls 6.1 and 6.2 will relocate to the central Hall 4.2. The literary agents and scouts center and the publisher rights center will move from Hall 4.2 to Hall 1.2. Exhibitors in Hall 6.0 will move to the Festhalle; Meet-the-Author events previously scheduled for […]
People 7/8
Second Quarter Dealmaking Is Mixed As Biggest Publishers Pull Back
First quarter dealmaking for 2026 sent some mixed signals and that story continued in the second quarter, albeit in different ways, but still suggesting that peak deal activity could be in the past. Second quarter deals declined modestly overall (-1.8 percent), due to a continuing drop in reports from digital publishers (exacerbated by our integration of mature digital publishers into the general categories at the beginning of this year). Deals in the core categories were up 2 percent (lifted by that same recategorization). Adult sales reached a five-year high for the period, powered by continuing growth in fiction, up 13.3 […]
Hachette Union Wins Election
The Hachette Workers Coalition voted 388–130 in favor of forming a union, with 75 percent of eligible employees supporting the move. They will join the Washington-Baltimore News Guild and, according to a statement, are now the largest union in trade book publishing with around 600 members. In a memo to staff, Hachette Book Group ceo David Shelley wrote that the company will respect the result and noted, “I and the whole Management Board enter into this new era with hope and in good faith.” The union will soon vote on leadership roles and will bargain with the company on a […]