July 30, 2014

Wednesday News: The Plagiarism Edition

JanetPublishing NewsBBC / Buzzfeed / History / New-York-Times / plagiarism / research / science / Sports / Wikipedia / World War I9 Comments

The ravages of BuzzFeed’s Benny Johnson – This story has catalyzed a lot of debate about both the nature of plagiarism and the nature of (largely non-journalistic) Internet reporting. Benny Johnson, a 28-year-old writer for BuzzFeed, who has produced a tremendous amount of quirky content for the site, has been ... more >

July 29, 2014

Tuesday News: Publishers at Comic-Con, self-publishing and agent contracts, how BookBub works, and the Telegraph’s 1914 archives

JanetPublishing NewsBookBub / Comic-Con / contracts / History / Literary Agents / marketing / newspaper / Publishers / research / Self-publishing / World War I8 Comments

No Lack of Major Prose Houses at Comic-Con – I think this article is a great example of how diversified entertainment options are, both in terms of partnerships between media outlets and formats, and competition for reader/viewer/gamer eyeballs and dollars. Jane has long said that it’s other forms of entertainment, ... more >

July 22, 2014

Tuesday News: 2014 publishing mergers, Tom Kabinet survives first ruling, iWatch speculation heats up, and everything you didn’t want to know about codpieces

JanetPublishing NewsApple / Big 5 publishers / codpieces / digital books / History / iWatch / mergers / research / used books5 Comments

Publishers’ Acquisition Activity Picks Up – An interesting piece from Publishers Weekly that lists the acquisitions and mergers publishers have taken between January and June 2014. According to the article, the last time this much publishing activity took place was 1929 (aka the start of the Great US Depression). And ... more >

July 9, 2014

Wednesday News: Amazon scores a point against Hachette, the Pentagon is watching us, Torstar shareholders okay Harlequin sale, and re-visioning the ‘bodice ripper’

JanetPublishing NewsAgency pricing / Amazon / crafts / digital publishing / Hachette / Harlequin / Harper Collins / research / social media15 Comments

Amazon Offers Authors 100% of eBook Sales During Dispute with Hachette – You’ve got to give it to Amazon and Hachette – both are doing a good job of keeping attention focused on the dispute. Frankly, I think Amazon is winning the public relations aspect of the battle, and it’s ... more >

July 3, 2014

Thursday News: Facebook’s many experiments, Canada’s new anti-spam law, World Book Night US says goodnight, and two writers debate book categories

JanetPublishing NewsCanada / diversity / Facebook / immigrant fiction / informed consent / Literary fiction / privacy / research / spam / World Book Night8 Comments

Facebook Experiments Had Few Limits – Now here’s a surprise (not): Facebook seems to think it can do whatever the hell it wants to its users, because you’ve signed a TOS (which apparently now says your data can be used for research). the Data Science group has basically worked with ... more >

June 30, 2014

Monday News: Facebook screws with its users, the Netherlands tests the resale of digital books, a new documentary on Amazon, and The Princess Bride gets Legoed

JanetPublishing NewsAmazon / copyright / digital books / documentary / Facebook / first sale doctrine / informed consent / Legos / piracy / Princess Bride / privacy / research / used bookstores20 Comments

Facebook Doesn’t Understand The Fuss About Its Emotion Manipulation Study – So Facebook, which appears to have zero respect for its users privacy, has also been intentionally manipulating content by way of “experimentation,” relying on the Terms of Service to compensate for actual informed consent. Worse, two academic researchers from ... more >