The Week in Publishing

by J Tanner

Catch up on the industry news and opinion you may have missed this week.

Trade Publishing

• I’m not quite sure how A leads to B here, but Bloombergs speculates the DOJ antitrust lawsuit could mean the end of DRM on ebooks.
• Bloombergs makes a bit more sense in claiming Apple has a decent defense in the fact they were not involved in the collusive meetings between publishing heads at New York restaurants.

The New World of Publishing

• Boyd Morrison, the first Kindle phenom to parlay that success into a trade publishing deal, had his contract canceled by Simon & Schuster.
• Larry Kirshbaum of Amazon Publishing (NY) discusses the details of his fledgeling publishing imprint.

Retailers

• Educational publisher EDC pulls their books from Amazon.
• Copycat books like “35 Shades of Gray” and “I am the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” available on Amazon.

The Week in Publishing

by J Tanner

Catch up on the industry news and opinion you may have missed this week.

Trade Publishing

• This week is all about the Justice Department filing their antitrust lawsuit. Here’s a breakdown of the salient points. Hachette, HarperCollins and Simon & Schuster kicked things off by settling, and leaking the basics of the settlement. Macmillan’s CEO said the company has done nothing wrong. Penguin’s CEO stated they’ve done nothing wrong and further haven’t even discussed settlement options with the Justice Department. Apple also denied the charges. CNET agrees, predicting Apple will win. Seeking Alpha says even if Apple wins, they lose by not compromising to avoid a lengthy and intrusive lawsuit. The Huffington Post shares pro and con debate style essays on how it will impact the ebook market. Digital Book world starts preparing B&N’s obit. And the ever-prescient Kris Rusch breaks down how it will affect writers (SPOILER: No one knows.)

The New World of Publishing

• Clay Shirky says publishing is no longer an industry, it’s a button.
• Publisher Sourcebooks will try direct-to-consumer retail through a subscription plan.

Retailers

• Barnes & Nobel announces glow-in-the-dark e-ink Nook.
• The nefarious side of Amazon donating a million dollars to charity…?

The Week in Publishing

by J Tanner

Catch up on the industry news and opinion you may have missed this week.

Trade Publishing

• Mark Coker, founder of Smashwords, goes on the record with the Justice Department in favor of keeping agency pricing regardless of whether collusion occurred and explains why it’s good for authors, publishers, and consumers.
• Apple is rumored to be adverse to settling the antitrust case the Justice Department is considering.

The New World of Publishing

• Self-publishing superstars Amanda Hocking and John Locke have had very different results (respectively, fantastic and far below expectations) as their books debuted through trade publishers. EL James is now making the same transition and is poised to perhaps surpass even Hocking’s success.
• The IndieBound Reader app allows independent bookstores to compete directly with Amazon on e-book sales (…by selling readers Google e-books.)
• …and shortly after writing that I find this story that the underlying Google program that makes it possible is coming to an end early next year. Sorry, bookstores!

Miscellaneous

• The Seattle Times goes full hatchet on Amazon in a multi-part series on the company’s business practices. Index of all the articles here.

The Week in Publishing

by J Tanner

Catch up on the industry news and opinion you may have missed this week.

Trade Publishing

• Wired brings some pretty insightful commentary to the Justice Department probe of big publishing, and posits that it’s more about Apple and collusion than about agency pricing.
• The January AAP numbers are out using their revised survey of over 1000 publishers. Mass market still seems to be suffering the most.
• Marcus Leaver, former president of Sterling Publishing, says publishers’ biggest challenge is proving they’re necessary.
• Not even close to new, but new to me and not something typically available to outsiders. An author shares her first and second royalty reports for a bestselling book and comments on what it all means. (SPOILER!) Bestselling Author != Rich Author and (DOUBLE SPOILER!) publishing uses some seriously arcane royalty payment methodology.

The New World of Publishing

• Pottermore, one of the bigger new ideas in the wild west that is digital publishing, launched its ebook store and despite the early claims of Harry Potter exclusives, the books can be purchased (sort of) through Amazon. Pottermore has some critics, and may have even overwhelmed Amazon?
• A Bowker study determines India loves ebooks the most, while France loves them, er, slighty less.

Retailers

• Amazon is working on three new Kindle Fire models.

The Week in Publishing

by J Tanner

Catch up on the industry news and opinion you may have missed this week.

Trade Publishing

• Kris Rusch discusses quality in the trade publishing system, and why she considers it a myth.
• Like the Patterson juggernaut, Harlen Coben’s publisher attributes some of his success to publishing more than one book a year.
• Scholastic is having a great year, fueled by the success of The Hunger Games.
• Canadian publishers are struggling.

The New World of Publishing

• Ellie Hirschhorn, Chief Digital Officer at Simon & Schuster, interviewed about the future of publishing and author Bob Mayer responds.

 

The Week in Publishing

by J Tanner

Catch up on the industry news and opinion you may have missed this week.

Trade Publishing

• Scott Turow, president of The Author’s Guild weighs in on the impending signs of a Justice Department antitrust lawsuit against five of the six major publishers and Joe Konrath & Barry Eisler fire back with an opposing viewpoint.
• Round two has Scott Turow expanding on his Author’s Guild essay via Salon, and Joe Konrath countering solo this time.

The New World of Publishing

• According to Smashwords, Paypal has backtracked almost completely on its crackdown on certain types of gray-area erotica and Smashwords is now rolling back to its previous terms of service. Apparently consumer and media outcry played a role in Paypal’s decision.
• Publisher John Wiley & Sons has taken a page from the music industry and is filing lawsuits against currently anonymous e-book file sharers.

Miscellaneous

• The odd tale of Fifty Shades of Grey’s path from fan fiction, to self-published bestseller, to seven-figure deal with a major publisher, and nearly full circle to potential copyright infringement?

The Week in Publishing

by J Tanner

Catch up on the industry news and opinion you may have missed this week.

Trade Publishing

• It appears that big publishing is negotiating with the Department of Justice in hopes of preventing them from filing an e-book price-fixing lawsuit.

The New World of Publishing

• As big media outlets catch on to the crackdown on erotica e-books, PayPal finally comments publicly on their decision to impose limits on such content even if some of it is clearly legal.
• Kris Rusch discusses the scarcity of accurate data for tracking e-book sales and questions the accuracy of the most frequently cited source: the monthly AAP report.

Retailers

• The Amazon Lives imprint breaks with tradition and announces they will allow e-book versions to be available in competing formats like EPUB at competing stores, removing one of the major objections that resulted in other retailers not carrying print versions of Amazon Publishing’s books.

Miscellany

• The bizarre true(ish?) story of how big NY publishing got its start in the mid-1800′s through copyright infringement of Dickens among others.