Friday News: RIP Prince, proposed Harlequin settlement, Amazon goes to school, and cutting back on books
Publishing NewsAmazon / book budget / education / Harlequin / lawsuit / obituary / prince / settlement20 Comments
Prince | 1958 – 2016 – The Los Angeles Times has a good collection of features about Prince’s death yesterday. Apparently he collapsed in an elevator on his Minnesota compound, Paisley Park, and could not be revived. The music legend was only 57, but had been briefly hospitalized last week for what TMZ is reporting as a drug overdose. The day before he sought emergency treatment for what his representatives insisted was the flu, Prince held one more (two-set) concert in Atlanta, which turned out to be his last performance. A devout Jehovah’s Witness, Prince refused to have surgery on his painful hips because it might involve a blood transfusion (thus his ubiquitous cane). As with many other challenges, he was able to turn something like a cane into a characteristic of coolness. His talents were myriad and unique. There are some wonderful tributes from other artists here, and the Broadway cast of The Color Purple performed a moving rendition of Purple Rain on stage last night, as well. As this obituary from The Washington Post notes:
The Minnesota native was inducted in 2004 into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, which noted that when Prince first arrived on the scene in the 1970s, “it didn’t take long for him to upend the music world with his startling music and arresting demeanor. He rewrote the rulebook, forging a synthesis of black funk and white rock that served as a blueprint for cutting-edge music in the Eighties.”
“Prince made dance music that rocked and rock music that had a bristling, funky backbone. From the beginning, Prince and his music were androgynous, sly, sexy and provocative. His colorful image and revolutionary music made Prince a figure comparable in paradigm-shifting impact to Little Richard, James Brown, Jimi Hendrix and George Clinton.” – The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Radio.com, TMZ, E! online, and YouTube
Harlequin Class Action Settlement – A proposed settlement between Harlequin (now owned by Harper Collins) and the “class” represented by plaintiff authors is now in process. If you are an author who is part of the class, you should have received notice of the proposed settlement and should note the upcoming deadline for objection and exclusion (June 6th). Plaintiffs characterize the settlement as “in the best interests of all class members,” and defendant acknowledges no wrongdoing or liability. The website allows you to download court documents related to the case and provides contact information for the claims administrator. A fairness hearing on the settlement will be held on June 30th. This does not mean the settlement is a done deal, but it’s a good sign for imminent resolution of the case.
A proposed settlement of a class action lawsuit has been reached between Plaintiffs Barbara Keiler, Mona Gay Thomas, and Linda Barrett (“Plaintiffs”) and Defendants Harlequin Enterprises Limited, Harlequin Books S.A., and Harlequin Enterprises B.V. (“Defendants” or “Harlequin”). Your legal rights may be affected whether you act or do not act. Read the Notice you received carefully.
Under the Settlement, Harlequin has agreed to pay a total amount of $4.1 million, which will be distributed to qualified Harlequin novelists, after payment for the costs of settlement administration, Plaintiffs’ attorneys’ fees and costs, and service awards to the three Plaintiffs, all as described in the Notice. – Harlequin Settlement website
Amazon Lands Major Account: New York City Public Schools – Well, it’s taken a number of years, but Amazon finally seems to be making serious inroads into the education market, with an enormous deal to provide digital books to the more than one million students in the New York City public school system. Is Los Angeles next?
Amazon has struck a major deal with the New York City public school district, the country’s largest, to provide e-books to its students. According to a report in the Wall Street Journal the deal, worth $30 million, will see the e-tailer selling titles through an internal marketplace. The agreement will not see students using Amazon’s hardware, such as its suite of Kindle devices. . . .
For the e-book purchases from the New York City schools, Amazon will earn a commission between 10%-15%. The school system estimated that it plans to make $4.3 million in e-book purchases during the first year of the agreement, which takes effect in the forthcoming school year, and ramp up to $17.2 million in the third year. – Publishers Weekly
Taking the knife to the budget – one book at a time – This is every author and publisher’s nightmare – a power reader decides to stop buying books for a whole year. Why? Because “[t]aking the knife to some of your spending can be satisfying,” especially when you realize that it doesn’t compromise your happiness. How many of us have TBR mountains we ignore while purchasing shiny new books? How many of us could stop buying books, even if we (think we) have the extra money to spend on them? I know I should do this, but even the thought of it makes me want to buy a book!
I’ve decided not to buy another book for myself this year.
I’m going to read through the book mountain I already own, but have never cracked the spine of.
So far this year I have survived on books that came my way at Christmas (including the excellent Speeches that Shaped New Zealand 1814-1956) and books off the shelves. I’ve been choosing the fattest ones as a means of slowing myself down. I’m currently engaged in trying to keep up momentum in George Elliot’s Middlemarch. Only another 450 pages to go. – stuff.co.nz
I’m still gutted by Prince’s death. I’ve always wanted to see him perform in person. I don’t know why I never did.
I certainly have never stopped buying books and I don’t think I would ever be able to, but the whole price fixing situation with the big publishers definitely changed how I buy them and how often. Because it galled me to have to pay more for an ebook than it would cost me to buy the tree wasting paper book at Walmart or Target I started relying on the library much more. I stopped being such a one click book buyer except for sales and new books from authors I knew I would want to own. I exercised a little patience and queued up for new releases from the library rather than buy them the day of release. I still have a large TBR pile (only now most of it is digital) and could do what the author of that piece did but will never have the willpower (or desire) to do so.
I ‘ve been trying to slow down my book purchases. I haven’t stopped buying books even though I may need to build a bigger bookcase (or add just a few more to the current number in the house – 11 at present). I have stopped clicking on sale e-books, at least until I check the library catalog. I don’t buy hardcovers, but haunt the library to reserve them online when they come out (and do it almost daily until I get on the reserve list fairly early on). I do buy the paperback versions of books I’ve already read, just to have them for a re-read (JD Robb, Patricia Briggs, Anne Bishop and a slew of other authors). Lately I’ve started to borrow paperbacks from the Library too, but I still seem to buy a few books each week. My TBR stack actually extends to a few bookcases so if I could find the willpower and stop buying books, I would still have enough to read for the next year or two. Is there some help group for compulsive book buying? I may need to join.
I don’t have the crazy TBR piles that some people have, but yes, mine is a decent size, especially with all those books from RWA. But I almost never go shopping. I eat out once a week, rarely more. I share a one-bedroom apartment with my husband. I take public transit. I’m going to continue to buy books because that’s what I want to spend my money on–it’s not like I’m living way beyond my means. If I was one of those people who read a book every day, I might rethink that, but it takes me close to a week to read a novel. And buying books does contribute to my happiness, I think. So I’m going to keep buying them :)
@Jane: Prince was a master showman. It’s weird that he died in an elevator, given that his hit song “Let’s Go Crazy” portrayed death as an elevator ride into “the after-world”: “If de-elevator tries to take you down, go crazy. Punch a higher floor!” I hope that Prince is headed for the higher floor of Heaven.
I stopped taking ARCs last year (with two exceptions) and I rarely review for anyone but myself anymore, so I decided this year that I would read as much as possible from my TBR and the library. I have a large collection of unread print and ebooks and my library systems are very good, so it has not exactly been a hardship. I just checked and I’ve bought
sixeight books so far this year:threefive used or a daily deal, one for a buddy read, and two from favorite authors. And so far I’ve had a great reading year, with a wide range of books and a lot of satisfaction with what I’ve been reading.Not buying books definitely saves me money, which is a good thing, but it also makes me think more, not just about what I’m buying but what I’m reading. The Daily Deals and the easy of buying ebooks meant I collected a lot of books that I was willing to spend $1 or $2 on but not my precious reading time.
I think that being part of an online community of readers makes us profligate in our acquisitions. But we still only have so much time. And for me, after a while, the growing TBR stack was just too much.
ETA: Oh, man, Prince. This has been a truly horrible year for losing great artists, and we’re only in April.
@Sunita: My hat goes off to you, seriously :). Six books a year? Can’t imagine doing that although I could definitely exist two or three years on unread paperbacks and digital TBR file. I became more careful with my spending definitely – certainly don’t click on every other book I used to do in the first few years of m/m reading, but I did that reduction couple of years ago, it was significant sure, but since then it pretty much stays the same. I should trim more and I keep telling myself that I will start using library for ebooks this year. I will, I will, I will.
@Sirius: For years I kept saying I was going to use the library more but this year I’ve finally done it. My local one has a great digital collection so I don’t even have to worry about picking up a print copy or needing to return it on time and I can make pace my checkouts around my review schedule.
@Jayne: Must must must.
Like everyone else, I was shocked at the news of Prince’s death yesterday. I never saw him perform live and really wanted to. What’s great about his music is that it’s timeless. Spent most of yesterday just listening to his sexy ballads and reading the many tributes to him and his work. No surprise he was inspired by Stevie Wonder because I consider them both to be creative geniuses. RIP Prince (1958 to 2016). What a year of loss for music legends.
I would accept higher ebook prices if the transaction conveyed actual ownership. I won’t spend that much to rent, which is what digital rights management renders of the exchange.
The recent wave of $13.99 price tags for ebooks caused me to pass on a half dozen of my favorite authors in the past six months. I’m spending the money instead on self-published works and reasonably priced copies of back-list books. Harrumpfh.
I’m streaming Minneapolis Public Radio right now – they’re playing all Prince and music inspired by him and reading memories submitted by listeners and it’s nice to feel connected to all of these Prince fans.
http://www.thecurrent.org/listen
@Sunita: Wow. That’s impressive.
I gave up buying new books for Lent and I was happy that I managed to mostly do it – I think I only bought two books in 40 days. But I did download some free books.
I am still consciously trying to purchase fewer new books and read down my TBR and use the library more – but it’s tough. One thing that I’ve noticed is that I’m really susceptible to “ooh shiny things” when it comes to books – I know that I own 200 ebooks that I haven’t read, but that one book that I don’t own seems shinier and brighter to me. And the other thing is that not all of the books in my TBR are things I really want to read – a lot of them are impulse purchases from before I realized that I’m really not going to buy that interesting non-fiction book on sale or that well received lit fic book.
@cleo: That’s supposed to read: “I’m really not going to *read* that…” Argh.
@Sirius: No, no, eight books so far this year! We’re only in April remember. And while I’ve cut back on ebooks, I’m still a sucker for used books and print books. I picked up four when I was on vacation last month (all used, but still).
But what Jayne and Keishon said about the library. Once you get the lending system set up, it’s easy. Amazon has good directions for the Kindle so you basically check the book out online and send it to your Amazon cloud, then download it to your device. I’ve reread everything from Betty Neels to the latest lit fic award winner that way. You do have to wait if the book is popular, but that’s really the only drawback (my library’s default is a 21-day loan, which is usually enough).
@cleo: What made it easier for me is that I had fewer “ooh shiny!” new books calling to me and more books on my shelves and in Calibre that I wanted to read.
I am one of those power buyers that NEED to stop purchasing books stat. Thanks to Calibre I know that I have 377 unread digital books. I probably have about 90 paper/hardback books that are also unread. Some are from RT *last* year! I read about 10-12 books a month so if I stopped buying right now I have over 3 years worth of reading already to hand. About 7 months ago I became extremely picky about purchases, mostly because of price and time. I won’t purchase a new digital book I think I want to read unless the Goodreads average is over 4.0 Pricier favorite authors I seek out at the library (Anne Bishop, J.R.Ward, etc,). With the exception of Ilona Andrews whom I always buy no matter what. Part of the problem is I have two sisters that are also big readers and we like to share our books.
My TBR pile gives me a sense of comfort and peace.
Honestly, I can’t stop buying books but I can be more mindful of what I purchase and ask myself when I would read it. If the answer is not immediately then it stays on the wish list. On the other hand, I’m somewhat disgusted at my book buying habits of late and have curtailed quite a bit of it. I’ll always buy my favorites but other books can wait if I’m not pulled to read it right away.
@LML: Yes, me too! All these books, waiting for me to read. Even if I have to be shot into space tomorrow, I’ll be okay for a year or two. Just make sure the spaceship has a USB port.
I’m getting a lot of reading done right now, to the point where I’m actually getting through my TBR faster than I’m adding to it! Kobo not doing contests/coupons recently is likely part of that, and the CAD has been pretty low all year so far, so that also cuts into my budget.
Honestly, I’m with that power reader. I spent about $100/m on books the last few years; last year was $15/m. My local library has a fabulous ebook selection, and I buy the ones I can’t live without (KJ Charles, for instance). Now, anything I do buy gets read right away, instead of going into the (still very large) TBR pile–that’s been a wonderful difference for me.