Brock Presses on Coulter Crown author David Brock’s organization Media Matters isn’t letting go of the Ann Coulter plagiarism charges, and this morning the group released a letter to Random House executives. It states in part: “Coulter has exhibited a pattern of behavior suggesting that Godless itself may include other examples of plagiarism beyond those Barrie has already identified. Now that the newspaper syndicate that publishes Coulter’s column has indicated it will investigate the charges, we urge Random House to undertake a comprehensive review and consider all appropriate action, up to and including pulling the book.” Media Matters August Book […]

Waterstone’s Keeps Falling Waterstone’s continues to take a pounding, with same-store sales for the past nine weeks down 6.1 percent. This time they blame the distractions of the World Cup, along with the uncomfortable fact that other large companies are selling the same products at discount. As part of the announcement, parent HMV said they will close three Ottakar’s offices and lay off over 100 people, consolidating operations into the Waterstone’s head office. They expect to change all of the Ottakar’s 142 locations to Waterstone’s outlets before the end of the year, and have told investors they expect the acquisition […]

Tuesday, July 4 Our Usual Reminder If for some reason this has reached you even though you are not a paying member of PublishersMarketplace, please visit the link below to join us all the time for complete deal reports and more. Click to register http://www.publishersmarketplace.com/register.shtml Deal Reports Just e-mail to deals@PublishersMarketplace if you aren’t using the online form linked below. Report a deal using the online form The Key As usual, the handy key to our Lunch deal categories. While all reports are always welcome, those that include a category will generally receive a higher listing when it comes time […]

PGW Gets Rich Robert Kiyosaki and Donald Trump have picked PGW to distribute their October book, WHY WE WANT YOU TO BE RICH: Two Men — One Message. The distributor will also sell RICH WOMAN by Kim Kiyosaki, and two other fall titles from Rich Press. German Publisher Drops Google Suit Google has made progress on one legal front: German academic publisher Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft (WBG) has dropped its lawsuit, supported by the Borsenverein, seeking an injunction from a German court to stop Google from scanning books for its library program without permission from copyrightholders. They did so after a Hamburg […]

Bertelsmann Buys Portugal’s Top Retailer Bertelsmann’s Direct Group is buying Bertrand Livreiros, Portugal’s largest bookstore chain, for an estimated 20 to 30 million euros. The company has 48 retail outlets, and owns a publisher and a wholesaler as well. The book club group, which has been an anemic performer for Bertelsmann, is expected to stop showing losses in the UK and Germany this year. AFX Preparing for Thrillers The Arizona Republic previews the upcoming inaugural ThrillerFest, to be held in Phoenix starting tomorrow. Co-president of the International Thriller Writers association David Morrell offers this definition: “There is one theory that […]

Canada’s Price Adjustments Canada continues to reckon with high printed book prices as a result of the decline of the US dollar. As consumer pressure continues, publishers are announcing plans to lower prices on backlist as well as new books. The Globe and Mail notes: “Most publishers have already made pricing changes with new books, or reprints, that have been printed recently, reducing the difference between the US and Canadian price to about 20 per cent. Book sellers say that markup is reasonable because of the higher costs of distributing books in Canada. [Amusingly, this is the same rationale offered […]