Thursday News: Macmillan plays chicken with DOJ; Project Gutenberg adds dropbox; a neat London iOS App

JanePublishing NewsAgency pricing / DOJ / genre critique / historical romance / lawsuits5 Comments

A Message from John Sargent – I hardly know what to say in response to John Sargent’s letter to authors, agents, and retailers. I feel that I am being gaslighted. That rational behavior has been supplanted by a made up morality issue. Sargent writes that he intends to press on and litigate against the DOJ for the following reasons:

1) Macmillan did nothing wrong.

2) Macmillan did this to protect retailers against across the board discounts that Amazon would undertake even though there is no evidence that Amazon is doing that now. “There is some discounting, but because it is not across the board the impact appears to be limited.”

3) Macmillan has already canceled its contracts and renegotiated new ones without MFN clauses and no price restraints except for books priced above $13.99 which are limited to a 10% discount.

4) Because it is in compliance with the DOJ’s desires, the lawsuit is now “pointless and destructive.”

5) Oh, by the way, we settled with the EU because “because of many differences in their system and because the discounting change will not materially affect the market there for us.”

Let’s recap this. Macmillan has complied with the DOJ, there has been no adverse affect in the market to the removal of agency, and Macmillan has settled in the EU but because of both business reasons and based on the principle of the matter, Macmillan will continue to expend “50 Shades” like money to defend a suit that it deems “pointless and destructive.”

If this was a publicly traded company, stock would be plummeting and shareholders would be filing lawsuits.

He ends with “Our e-book business has been softer of late, particularly for the last few weeks, even as the number of reading devices continues to grow. Interesting.” Hmm, what things have been occurring in the past few weeks?

Oh yes, I know. HarperCollins and Hachette have been discounting the shit out of top titles for gifting and personal reading and other retailers have been offering discounts as well. Maybe Macmillan’s sales have been soft because readers are finding adequate substitutes outside of the Macmillan catalog.

I’m flummoxed. Truly. Happy Holidays. Tor.com

Project Gutenberg adds Dropbox integration – Project Gutenberg now speaks with your Dropbox account. By giving PG permission to access your Dropbox, it can create a folder and direct all future downloads to that new folder in your Dropbox account. Sweet. Ebook Friendly

Essay: Bobbi Dumas, In Defense Of Romance – Bobbi Dumas writes a full throated endorsement of romance novels at NPR.

I’ve decided to stop apologizing, though, and I’m no longer ashamed. And women, even if you don’t read romances, there’s a lot to be proud of in a successful industry that is so dominated and influenced by women. In romance, we are the creators, the intended audience and the receptive consumer, showing our appreciation through astronomical sales. Female writers writing for female readers about traditionally female interests. NPR

London, A City Through Time App – If you are writing a period book set in London, maybe pick up the App “London, A City Through Time”. There are maps, photographs, names of notable individuals, and over 6,000 articles on London’s landmark institutions. It’s expensive for an App at $13.99, but the wealth of resources in photographs and maps alone would likely be worth it. Available via ITunes. iPadInsight

Jane

Jane Litte is the founder of Dear Author, a lawyer, and a lover of pencil skirts. She self publishes NA and contemporaries (and publishes with Berkley and Montlake) and spends her downtime reading romances and writing about them. Her TBR pile is much larger than the one shown in the picture and not as pretty. You can reach Jane by email at jane @ dearauthor dot com

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