Friday, August 19, 2016

Publishing Industry News

Since I have a rather backlog of weeks to cover, due to a little marriage-honeymoon-adjustment hiatus, this week's publishing news link digest will be limited to 3 sources (Publishers Weekly, Galleycat, and Writer Beware) for 2 months' worth of links.



Publishers Weekly:

The Book Industry Environmental Council issues a report on the sustainability of the industry, and finds there continues to be room for improvement, as publishers try to increase their sustainability but encounter hurdles such as low availability of recycled paper.

Barnes and Nobles fires its CEO. Therefore the current chairman is postponing retirement until a replacement is found.

In the Georgia State University e-reserves casehttp://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/digital/copyright/article/71077-publishers-lose-another-round-in-gsu-copyright-case.html, the judge rejects further attempts from the publisher to refresh the case and push it further, and also affirms the school's right to be compensated for legal fees by the plaintiff.

Last May a lawsuit was filed against Simon & Schuster for failing to adequately pay royalties on digital works; this suit has been dropped as S&S never published the digital versions of the books. The plaintiffs plan to sue the Wiley instead.

Hastings Entertainment files for bankruptcy and plans to close all its stores by October, and its assets go to Hilco Merchant Resources and Gordon Brothers (who also handled the Borders demise).

A bill is introduced to the US House of Representatives that aims to help individual copyright owners pursue federal copyright actions through a tribunal.

HarperCollins redesigns its website, with features for direct selling among the changes.

Sisters in Crime, an organization for women crime fiction writers, writes and releases a report on diversity within its ranks, and plans to use the results to improve.

The online writing and reading community Wattpad now offers a program that will give writers the option to place ads between the chapters of works, allowing the writer to earn money any time a readers views the ad, (and now there will be ads in books).

Pokemon is bringing a sales boom to bookstores, since a number of bookstores happen to be Pokestops or Gyms, and therefore attracting customers.


GalleyCat:

All those credits from the $400 million e-book price fixing case should be either credited to customers or in the process thereof, so check your accounts for credits.

Barnes & Noble begins to offer self-published books in stores, for qualified authors.

The Expert Editor creates an infographic called "The science behind writing drunk and editing sober." And, uh, Barnes & Noble will soon be there to help you out with that.

Lee & Low books surveys the publishing industry, including publishers and review journals, and publishes a report on diversity. It's still problematically low.

Researchers look at whether reading is linked to a longer lifespan. There does seem to be a correlation.

Writer Beware:

Month9Books, a publisher of YA and MG fiction, reverts rights to many authors and reduces its list. There have also been historical problems with nonpayment and author complaints. The owner addresses concerns in an interview with Writer Beware, and expresses a positive outlook for the future.

Strauss looks at termination fees and offers an example in the form of Sky Warrior Books on how those fees can be used as retaliation against authors.

WriteIndia launched a contest, but then changed the terms and conditions midway through the contest; although it was legal to do so, Strauss points out it was not a particularly fair thing to do.

Tate Publishing, a publishing company that although possessed of an A rating by the BBB has numerous complaints against it, is sued by Xerox.

No comments:

Post a Comment