Christina Brashear Returns as Samhain Publisher – This is pretty interesting. Brashear, who went from Publisher to President of Samhain in 2012, is back as Publisher, with a promise to “return” Samhain “to its roots.” Lindsey Faber is not only stepping down as Publisher, but leaving Samhain entirely (there’s something ... more >
John Oliver’s Net neutrality response swamps FCC – I’m posting this story to serve as a reminder that the public comment period for the FCC’s new Net Neutrality proposal is open until July 15th. It’s also a pretty funny anecdote about how comedian John Oliver directed people to the FCC ... more >
OverDrive and Smashwords Ink Deal to Distribute Indie Author Ebooks to Libraries – Good news for self-published authors and their readers: OverDrive has made a deal with Smashwords to allow 200,000 books to be distributed to public libraries through the OverDrive network. Smashwords will, apparently, be “curating” the titles, giving ... more >
Updated by Jane to add: This morning it was announced that News Corp. will buy Harlequin for close to a half billion dollars and that Harlequin will become a division of HarperCollins. The “Harlequin as a division of HC” is worrisome to me. When Penguin and Random House merged, each ... more >
Welcome to Googletown – This is a pretty eye-opening piece about the relationship between Google and the city-like compound (in Mountain View, California) Google has created and continues to grow, spilling over into and even consuming a substantial portion of the surrounding communities. The company has even leased Moffett Field, ... more >
Publishing Projects Find Success on Kickstarter – I’m not sure how I feel about this, frankly, but apparently Kickstarter has become quite the launching pad for book projects. The article provides a list of some of the standouts, but in all, “More than 6,000 publishing campaigns were launched on Kickstarter ... more >