Aug 8 2012
First up are summaries of the two lawsuits involving publishing. DOJ: On Friday, the DOJ filed a document which essentially asks Judge Cote to approve the settlement between itself and three of the six defendants (Hachette, HarperCollins, and Simon & Schuster) without a hearing. The DOJ argued that a hearing would present an unnecessary delay.(…)
Jul 24 2012
Introduction Yesterday, the Department of Justice released 868 comments made in support and in protest of the proposed settlement. You can find both the comments and the response here at the DOJ site. This is nothing compared to the number of 30,000+ comments that the Microsoft settlement with the DOJ generated. (A side note. The(…)
Jul 20 2012
Introduction Thanks to all who gave me the heads up although Wicked Pixie was the first so she gets the credit. The lawyers for the Harlequin Class Action suit set up a website and loaded a file stamped copy of the petition yesterday. I went through it and will summarize it for you. The(…)
Jul 5 2012
Sizzling ebooks stimulate bigscreen interest – Entertainment News, Top News, Media – Variety – Print publishing rights went up for auction last month [for The Marriage Bargain], but despite hefty seven-figure offers from most major publishers, Entangled saw enough upside to self-distribute — a change of heart that held up film-rights talks. Still, Hollywood interest(…)
Jul 2 2012
I’m changing things up a little. More and more people apparently read the news roundup that I post every day and therefore I’ve decided to post the news posts first thing in the morning. That’s when most people read the news and thus Dear Author can be a consistent morning routine for individuals who come(…)
Jul 1 2012
Intro: In April, the DOJ filed suit against five of the big 6 publishers alleging an illegal price fixing conspiracy with Apple that increased prices of digital books. Three publishers have agreed to a settlement which has yet to be approved by the court. Penguin, Macmillan and Apple are proceeding forth with the suit against(…)
Jun 18 2012
The Oatmeal is a satiric cartoon site run by Matthew Inman. About a year ago, he noticed that his content was being uploaded without attribution to a site called “The FunnJunk.” The FunnyJunk is a site that contains user generated content. This means that account holders post things that they like from all over the(…)
Jun 17 2012
Retail price maintenance v. Agency pricing The retail price maintenance (“RPM”) instituted by five of the big 6 publishers is commonly known as Agency Pricing. It is a pricing model wherein the producer of a widget, like the publisher of a book, gets to control the price. For nearly 100 years, RPM was considered per(…)
Jun 12 2012
Introduction I wasn’t going to do anything other than mention that Barnes & Noble objected to the proposed settlement between the government and three publishers: Hachette, HarperCollins and Simon & Schuster but the adulatory statements of those publishing insiders about the statement really irked me and therefore, I had to post. For instance, Mike Shatzkin,(…)
Jun 1 2012
My roundup today is anemic in part because the news is slow right now (which is a good thing) but also because I’ve been spending many a late night working on this new fangled thing: http://releases.dearauthor.com/ NY judge grants class status in Google book fight – BusinessWeek – “A federal judge granted class certification to(…)
May 31 2012
Deals: The Dark Glamour by Gabriella Pierce * $0.99 * A | BN | K | S – this is the sequel to 666 Park Avenue 666 Park Avenue by Gabriella Pierce * $0.99 * A | BN | K | S The House of Velvet and Glass by Katherine Howe * $2.99 * A(…)
May 16 2012
Introduction There are two major updates in the DOJ lawsuit. An additional 17 states have sued the publishers and Apple. Judge Denise Cote denied Apple, Penguin, and Macmillan’s motion to dismiss. You may want to read the Primer here if you haven’t already before going forward. States Attorneys General Amended Complaint 1) An additional 17(…)
May 2 2012
The best deal today is $139 for a Refurbished Kindle Fire. This is sold by Amazon and comes with the same customer service. Onto the News: CBS Corporation Reports Record First Quarter 2012 Results – MarketWatch – “Publishing (Simon & Schuster) Publishing revenues for the first quarter of 2012 increased 14% to $176 million from(…)
May 1 2012
News At West Coast Meeting, Digital Public Library of America Begins to Take Shape – “The [DPLA] steering committee is charting a path that would deliver something more like a distributed network of digital library collections, rather than a single centralized repository. DPLA would start by aggregating descriptive metadata about existing collections that would be(…)
Apr 24 2012
Jim C. Hines – Posing Like a Man – Jim Hines recreates a series of mantitty covers and comes to some interesting conclusions about the objectification of men on covers (it’s almost always positive). Karen Knows Best – “It hasn’t passed my attention that within romance, enhanced breasts are usually hung on the ‘bitchy(…)
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