Gütersloh, December 24, 2008 – Dr. Bernd Kundrun, a member of the Bertelsmann AG
Executive Board and CEO of Gruner + Jahr, notified the Supervisory Board of Bertelsmann
AG on Tuesday evening that he has stepped down from the Bertelsmann Executive Board
with immediate effect. Bertelsmann is the parent company to Random House.
Bertelsmann Supervisory Board has acknowledged Kundrun’s personal decision and will
comment on it in due course.
Bertelsmann will continue to stand behind Gruner + Jahr as a majority shareholder and will
continue to develop the magazine business, as in the past three decades, together with the
Jahr family as G+J’s second shareholder.
About Bertelsmann AG
Bertelsmann is an international media company encompassing television (RTL Group), book publishing
(Random House), magazine publishing (Gruner + Jahr), media services (Arvato), and media clubs
(Direct Group) in more than 50 countries. Bertelsmann’s claim is to inspire people around the world with
first-class media and communications offerings – entertainment, information and services – and occupy
leading positions in its respective markets. The foundation of Bertelsmann's success is a corporate
culture based on partnership, entrepreneurial spirit, creativity, and corporate responsibility. The
company strives to bring creative new ideas to market and create value.
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Random House CEO Letter Focuses On New Opportunities: Year-end staff letter
We think this report from Random House CEO Markus Dohle is especially significant for authors. It confirms that Random House is still buying manuscripts, though it hints between the lines that advances may be lower. Dohle also confirms a growing commitment to e-books. Here's our take on the Dohle letter:
New York, NY (Authorlink News, December 18, 2008)--Random House CEO Markus Dohle distributed an upbeat year-end letter to employees today, promising that the publisher would face today's challenges "directly, confidently and creatively."
Among highlights of the letter, Dohle said Random House would continue to spend several hundred million dollars to acquire and market books worldwide, across its 130 imprints. He said "author development remains our publishers' number one objective." He also noted that publishing imprints would remain "independent and autonomous."
Dohle said the company will be more customer-oriented and market-driven. For example, Random House has consolidated its three sales forces into one for UK and Canadian customers. In Germany, Random House has become the country's first book publisher to instigate three, rather than two,sales cycles. "This will create greater marketing opportunities and a basis for sales growth in the future," the CEO said. "And in the U.S. we are looking at aligning our sales forces even more closely with how most of our customers actually buy our books, by publishing category and format."
Random House also will "significantly reduce the time it takes to re-supply bookstores," who are now ordering lower initial quantities and demanding faster, more frequent stock replenishments. The initiative will also help lower costs of inventory excesses throughout the supply chain."
Dohle put a major emphasis upon growing digitally. He noted that U.S. e-book sales have increased 400% over last year. Thus the company will be budgeting for more e-book growth in 2009. By the middle of 2009, Random House will offer more than 15,000 e-book titles, some of which are newly available on the iPhone.
The publisher's biggest challenge to its bottom line this coming year will continue to be rising costs, Dohle said. Employees will be asked to "consider reducing spending as part of your daily decision-making." He called cost saving "as much a mental as it is a financial discipline. The most we save in costs, the more we will have to invest in our publishing."
Dohle also cited "getting greener" as a top priority. The publisher will increase to 20% the targets for using recycled fiber paper in book production and will set new targets for reducing greenhouse-gas emissions.
"The strength of our 2009 publishing programs clearly illustrates that with every crisis come opportunities," Dohle reminded.
The CEO listed an amazing lineup of authors for 2009 and said, "We cannot allow the economic crisis to overshadow or distract us from the enormous commercial potential of our imprints' publishing programs for the coming twelve months.
Monday, December 15, 2008
Macmillan Publishing Cuts 64 Jobs from Kids Group
Macmillan Cuts
64 Positions
From Kids Group
NEW YORK, NY (Autorlink News, December 15, 2008) --Only a week after announcing a freeze salaries on salaries of $50,000 or more, Macmillan Publishing has now cut 64 jobs across the board at both its trade and college imprints and at Scientific American magazine. The cuts represent about 4% of the U.S. workforce. Positions have been eliminated at all imprints.
CEO John Sargent said the company will unify its children's divisions, bringing all under one to be called Macmillan Children's Publishing Group. Dan Farley will head the new group and also will continued to oversee Henry Holt.
Sargent said the company s trying to "bring some leverage to this market." As part of that effort, Macmillan will form a dedicated sales force for the children's division. The centralized restructuring will help Macmillan operate more efficiently. He said Macmillan will not reduce the size of its list.
Tuesday, December 09, 2008
Economic Downturn Prompts Macmillan to Freeze Salaries
John Sargent, CEO of MacMillan US, parent company for St. Martin’s Press, Farrar, Straus & Giroux, Tor and other major imprints, announced in a staff memo December 9 that there would be an across-the-board freeze on the salaries of everyone earning more than $50,000. For those making under $50000 thre will b a pool for modest increases.
The freeze will take place January 1, 2009. ”All bonus plans will stay in effect, but all are sensitive to individual profitability and individual performance,” Sargent said.
“Since I spoke to you a month ago about the economic crisis and its impact on our company, I can’t say much has changed,” he wrote. “We are now clearly in a recession and there is still no clarity on how long or deep it will be. What is clear is that retail book sales are down, advertising revenues are down, and even countercyclical businesses like education are struggling in many cases. We are not immune to these forces, and our business continues to be soft. So the time has come to take action for next year.” He said the company would make its usual discretionary contribution to the 4012k plan for 2008 (paid in March 2009).
He said more announcements would come over the next week or two about expense control measures. “. . .I have every confidence that we will be doing as well as the market allows and then some.
The freeze will take place January 1, 2009. ”All bonus plans will stay in effect, but all are sensitive to individual profitability and individual performance,” Sargent said.
“Since I spoke to you a month ago about the economic crisis and its impact on our company, I can’t say much has changed,” he wrote. “We are now clearly in a recession and there is still no clarity on how long or deep it will be. What is clear is that retail book sales are down, advertising revenues are down, and even countercyclical businesses like education are struggling in many cases. We are not immune to these forces, and our business continues to be soft. So the time has come to take action for next year.” He said the company would make its usual discretionary contribution to the 4012k plan for 2008 (paid in March 2009).
He said more announcements would come over the next week or two about expense control measures. “. . .I have every confidence that we will be doing as well as the market allows and then some.
Monday, December 08, 2008
Random House Offers Free Titles on Stanza Reader
Random House is once again expanding its reach in the digital world, this time by offering free e-books on the Apple iPhone.
NEW YORK, NY (Authorlink News, December 8, 2008)--Random House and Ballantine will be the first major book publishers to make full-length books available for free on the Apple iPhone through Lexcycle’s Stanza reader, it was jointly announced today by The Random House Publishing Group and Lexcycle, whose Stanza is the most popular electronic book reader for the Apple iPhone and iPod Touch.
This promotion will allow over 500,000 Stanza users to enjoy free eBooks from a varied list of authors including Alan Furst, Julie Garwood, Charlie Huston, David Liss, Laurie Notaro, Arthur Phillips and Simon Rich. The initial offerings will be drawn from each author’s backlist and will include excerpts for any new hardcovers coming in 2009. Random House is providing links to retailers like Amazon, Barnes and Noble.com, Borders.com, Powells.com and IndieBound.org to encourage readers to purchase more books by these authors.
“A free eBook is a great way to sample a new writer, and help spread the word,” says Charlie Huston, whose novels CAUGHT STEALING, SIX BAD THINGS, and A DANGEROUS MAN will all be available on Stanza. “Besides, it’s good to give things away. They’re books. We write them for people to read them.”
Stanza users already have access to a public domain library which sees nearly 40,000 downloads a day.
“Stanza has clearly tapped into an audience that’s hungry for content, and we’re happy to modify our traditional marketing methods to make use of the new technology available to readers today,” commented Avideh Bashirrad, Deputy Director of Marketing for Random House.
Neelan Choksi, Chief Operating Officer of Lexcycle added, “We are thrilled to bring Stanza readers a sampling of the wealth of titles published by the Random House Publishing Group imprints. But this is just the tip of the iceberg: we look forward to extending this promotion to make even more free titles available.”
The free Random House and Ballantine titles will be available beginning today to all Stanza users. Stanza for the Apple iPhone and iPod Touch is available as a free download from the iTunes App Store or from http://www.lexcycle.com.
NEW YORK, NY (Authorlink News, December 8, 2008)--Random House and Ballantine will be the first major book publishers to make full-length books available for free on the Apple iPhone through Lexcycle’s Stanza reader, it was jointly announced today by The Random House Publishing Group and Lexcycle, whose Stanza is the most popular electronic book reader for the Apple iPhone and iPod Touch.
This promotion will allow over 500,000 Stanza users to enjoy free eBooks from a varied list of authors including Alan Furst, Julie Garwood, Charlie Huston, David Liss, Laurie Notaro, Arthur Phillips and Simon Rich. The initial offerings will be drawn from each author’s backlist and will include excerpts for any new hardcovers coming in 2009. Random House is providing links to retailers like Amazon, Barnes and Noble.com, Borders.com, Powells.com and IndieBound.org to encourage readers to purchase more books by these authors.
“A free eBook is a great way to sample a new writer, and help spread the word,” says Charlie Huston, whose novels CAUGHT STEALING, SIX BAD THINGS, and A DANGEROUS MAN will all be available on Stanza. “Besides, it’s good to give things away. They’re books. We write them for people to read them.”
Stanza users already have access to a public domain library which sees nearly 40,000 downloads a day.
“Stanza has clearly tapped into an audience that’s hungry for content, and we’re happy to modify our traditional marketing methods to make use of the new technology available to readers today,” commented Avideh Bashirrad, Deputy Director of Marketing for Random House.
Neelan Choksi, Chief Operating Officer of Lexcycle added, “We are thrilled to bring Stanza readers a sampling of the wealth of titles published by the Random House Publishing Group imprints. But this is just the tip of the iceberg: we look forward to extending this promotion to make even more free titles available.”
The free Random House and Ballantine titles will be available beginning today to all Stanza users. Stanza for the Apple iPhone and iPod Touch is available as a free download from the iTunes App Store or from http://www.lexcycle.com.
Wednesday, December 03, 2008
Random House Publishing Group Undergoes Major Restructuring
Random House
Announces Major
Restructuring
NEW YORK, NY (Authorlink News, December 3, 2008)--Random House Chairman and CEO Markus Dohle today announced a new organizational alignment for the adult publishing divisions of Random House, Inc. in the U.S. Here are the texts of three memos posted this morning to all RH North American staff.
December 3, 2008
“Dear Random House Colleagues:
I am writing today to tell you about a new publishing structure and a new leadership team for the adult trade divisions at Random House, Inc. here in the U.S., effective immediately. After looking closely and extensively at our organization and its rich diversity of authors and resources, we have created a plan for our future that aligns existing strengths and publishing affinities and fosters teamwork throughout the company. It will maximize our growth potential in these challenging economic times and beyond.
The new structure will augment the exceptional publishing programs of the Random House, Knopf and Crown divisions and draw on the veteran leadership of Gina Centrello, Sonny Mehta and Jenny Frost, respectively.
The Random House Publishing Group, under the leadership of President and Publisher Gina Centrello, will expand to include the imprints of the Bantam Dell Publishing Group, including The Dial Press, along with Doubleday’s Spiegel & Grau.
The Knopf Publishing Group, led by Chairman Sonny Mehta, will expand to include the Doubleday and Nan A. Talese imprints from the Doubleday Publishing Group.
The Crown Publishing Group, under the direction of President and Publisher Jenny Frost, will expand to include the other imprints from the Doubleday Publishing Group—Broadway, Doubleday Business, Doubleday Religion and WaterBrook Multnomah.
As a result of this reorganization, Irwyn Applebaum and Steve Rubin, two colleagues who have dedicated many years of service as the publishers of Bantam Dell and Doubleday respectively, will step down from their positions as announced in the accompanying memos.
Within the new Random House Publishing Group, Ballantine, Bantam Dell and Random House will continue to have separate editorial departments. Random House, true to its heritage as the flagship imprint, will continue to publish its diverse list of distinguished and bestselling fiction and nonfiction in hardcover and trade paperback. The addition of The Dial Press and Spiegel & Grau will make this group an even greater force in literary and high-profile publishing. Side by side, Ballantine and Bantam Dell will be a commercial powerhouse with their stellar lists of bestselling and critically acclaimed authors.
The Knopf Publishing Group will augment its enduring reputation as a leading publisher of quality nonfiction and literary fiction—and now some of the biggest names in fiction—with the addition of the flagship Doubleday and Nan A. Talese Books imprints. Collectively, Doubleday
and Knopf have more than two centuries of distinguished publishing history, and Knopf Chairman Sonny Mehta is committed to supporting the great publishing traditions of their now sister imprint. The group will take on a new name, The Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, and the hardcovers of all their imprints will feed the extraordinary paperback lines of Vintage and Anchor Books.
The Crown Publishing Group’s unique and editorial diverse portfolio combines lifestyle and business books, along with prominent authors and branded businesses which have long dominated their nonfiction categories. The addition of Broadway as well as Doubleday’s business and religion imprints will complement and solidify these core areas of publishing strength. The group’s high-quality nonfiction and fiction frontlist programs will feed the impressive trade paperback lists of Broadway and Three Rivers Press.
I want to stress the fact that all the imprints of Random House will retain their distinct editorial identities. These imprints and all of you who support them are the creative core of our business and essential to our success.
The newly formed publishing groups will continue to bid independently in auctions. Each group will have my full support to publish autonomously, promote aggressively, and strive for more competitive advantages in the marketplace.
Through greater collaborative efforts among the publishing, marketing and sales departments, we can sharpen our priorities, market our books more effectively, and respond more quickly and directly to a constantly changing marketplace. That, in turn, will strengthen our vital partnership with our customers.
Coordinating our online marketing and growing our digital publishing business will be further priorities.
Gina, Jenny, Sonny and I will share our more specific publishing plans and organizational structure in due course.
The highly regarded Random House Children’s Books division, led by President and Publisher Chip Gibson, will continue its remarkable publishing programs without change.
We are all proud of the hundreds of years of publishing that our combined imprints represent. In order to preserve this legacy of excellence and build upon it in the future, we must continuously examine the way we do business, and the way the business is changing. Our aim is to always be a leading force in American trade book publishing.
Because of the current economic crisis, our industry is facing some of the most difficult times in publishing history. We are very fortunate to have four of the most dynamic and accomplished publishers to lead us into this new phase of our life at Random House.
I greatly value the support of all of you who care deeply about our authors and the content and quality of the books we publish. I share your commitment to publish the best books in the best way, and I am excited about the opportunities that these changes offer us. I am convinced that our new organization, drawing on our expertise and focusing on the market with a team-oriented approach, will make our great company stronger than ever before.”
In addition, Dohle announced that IRWYN APPLEBAUM, President and Publisher of the Bantam Dell Publishing Group, will step down from his position, effective immediately, and will leave the company.
“Irwyn leaves with my utmost gratitude for his extraordinary 25 years of service and for all he has accomplished at Bantam Dell. I know you will join me in wishing him all good fortune,” said Dohle in a separate office memo.
As a result of the reorganization of the adult trade publishing groups at Random House Inc., announced today, the position of President and Publisher of the Doubleday Publishing Group has been eliminated. Dohle is currently in discussions with STEPHEN RUBIN about creating a new role for him at Random House, Inc., working directly with the CEO.
Tuesday, December 02, 2008
HMH PUblisher Resigns
NEW YORK, NY (Authorlink News, December 2, 2008)—Becky Saletan, the senior vice president and publisher of adult trade books at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, has resigned, effective Dec. 10. according to Associated Press and other media sources. Her departure follows reports that the publisher has put a temporary freeze on manuscript acquisitions.
An HMH spokesman confirmed Saletan's resignation but would not offer additional comments, and said the freeze did not apply to education and children's titles, though he had earlier confirmed that the publisher has "temporarily stopped acquiring manuscripts." Saletan, previously the publisher of Harcourt Trade, was named publisher of the combined trade divisions earlier this year after Houghton Mifflin bought Harcourt.
The publisher of one of HMH's imprints, who called the company to confirm the freeze, was told that the story had been "blown out of proportion" and that there was "simply some belt-tightening going on."
The private-equity firm Education Media and Publishing Group, which owns HMH, has acknowledged that competitors have said they are interested in buying the company. Thus, some speculate that the halt on manuscripts signals the sale of the company. However, a spokesman said that he had no knowledge that the company is about to be "shopped."
Boston-based Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company is a global education leader and the world's largest publisher of educational materials for pre-K–12 schools.
See this and other news stories at www.authorlink.com
Monday, December 01, 2008
More on Google Settlement
Hi Everyone,
Highlights for this week at Authorlink include an audio interview with Whiting Award winner Mischa Berlinski, and a must-listen interview with the European Booksellers Federation chair, expressing his concerns over the Google settlement with the Association of American Publishers and the Authors Guild. Let us here your comments. For all this week's news, new December columns and interviews, please go to the Authorlink site.
Highlights for this week at Authorlink include an audio interview with Whiting Award winner Mischa Berlinski, and a must-listen interview with the European Booksellers Federation chair, expressing his concerns over the Google settlement with the Association of American Publishers and the Authors Guild. Let us here your comments. For all this week's news, new December columns and interviews, please go to the Authorlink site.
Audio Interview
What began as a history of the Lisu people's conversion to Christianity, was to become Mischa Berlinski's prize-winning novel, Fieldwork which became a finalist for the 2007 National Book Award and more recently, winner of the 2008 Whiting Writers Award. In this AUDIO interview, he talks about the three-year development process.
(December 2008 Feature)
See many Authorlink video/audio interviews here
Other Featured Columns This Month
Audio/Video/Text
Audio/Video/Text
National Book Award Chair Shares
His Vision For American Literature
Harold Augenbraum discussed his vision for the National Book Foundation and America’s National Book Awards (US literature’s Holy Grail). The discussion was broadcast last week on the Internet program WordSmitten.com "About the Books, " leading up to the 59th National Book Awards held November 19 in New York City. See NBF Award winners on Authorlink November 20.
(November/December 2008 Feature)
The European Booksellers Federation, with other European publishing organizations, are preparing to air “grave concerns” to the European Union about the $125 million Google settlement with the Association of American Publishers and the Authors Guild. In this exclusive Authorlink audio interview, EBF Chair John McNamee explains their key objections and why, they say, every author should be worried.
Friday, November 14, 2008
European Booksellers
Protest Google Settlement
Brussels, November 13, 2008--The European Booksellers Federation, on behalf of its membership, has issued a statement in response to the announcement in the US by the Authors Guild, the Association of American Publishers (AAP) and Google on 28th October 2008 of a settlement that would expand online access to millions of in-copyright books and other written materials in the US from the collections of a number of major U.S. libraries participating in Google Book Search.
The statement follows:
"Google is an undisputed global leader in content provision and has revolutionised
accessibility of content across our planet and for this, and other ground breaking digital
development, it must be applauded.
In respect of its latest announcement, and other announcements that have been in support of it, the EBF does wish to express some clear concerns:
As such a dominant player in the online world, Google will occupy a unique gateway position that, if abused, will inevitably create a de facto monopoly. A situation where competition is removed from the market place by such a dominant player cannot, ultimately, be good for the consumer and would be highly damaging for cultural diversity in the European Union, if Google was planning to extend its policy in the US to Europe.
As pointed out by one of EBF's Members, the agreement is like a Trojan horse on which
Google advances to take over the worldwide dissemination of knowledge and culture "...
this amounts to an expropriation of authors through the backdoor. The issue is not to acquire the inalienable rights of authors through a “golden hand shake“". The only way in which an author can guard his or her rights under the proposed settlement is to register the works of which he or she is the originator in a catalogue of book rights. This procedure, we believe, is likely to run contrary to the key provisions within European copyright law.
Furthermore, this agreement appears to be in direct contradiction of a statement made to
EBF by Google in 2005 saying that their sole revenue stream was for advertising revenues
placed next to book excerpts, and that the revenues were to be shared with publishers.
Google said at the time that their mission of objectivity did not allow them to participate in any affiliate or revenue share model with any linked retailer.
If approved by the US court, the agreement will give Google the ability to benefit financially
from digitised content. They will effectively become an online retailer.
Many booksellers in Europe are either active partners in the digital world of books already or are in the process of developing new digital initiatives. While the zeal of embracing the new is adopted by those who supply content, it could result in the short term ‘starvation’ of the traditional bookseller. Consumers would be denied long-term channel choice as well as the customer experience of knowledgeable and interactive bookselling that does so much to build the debut author, the little known poet, and the niche writer. While no bricks and mortar bookseller can afford to ignore the digital world, or indeed not to participate in it, it is the EBF’s belief that the ‘one-stop shop’ direct-to-consumer approach of Google will inevitably result in a bookselling world that is culturally poorer for readers.
EBF would like to emphasise that online progress is warmly welcomed by its membership but believes that this recent agreement, if ever adopted in the European Union, is not only a breach of the 2005 statement from Google but will also have a hugely damaging effect on
European cultural diversity and on the book chain, namely, authors, publishers, booksellers
and, it goes without saying, European readers. EBF believes that Google would be in a
dominant position, which could be easily abused.
We urge all those who have influence in these matters to resist any similar agreements being introduced into the European Union."
For further information, please contact eurobooks@skynet.be
Authorlink has begun a series of articles on the topic, the first two of which are linked below:
November 6, 2008-- Google Settlement Has A Few Unseen Wrinkles for Authors, Authorlink Analysis
November 13 2008--Experts Explain Google Settlement In Greater Detail
Authorlink Analysis (Update, Clarification)
We welcome insights and comment on this important topic.
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Experts Explain Google Settlement
in Greater Detail
Hi Everyone,
November 13 - November 20, 2008 Edition
Experts Explain
Google Settlement
In Greater Detail
Authorlink Analysis
(Update, Clarification)
DALLAS, TX (Authorlink News, 11/13/2008--Several expert sources this week have given Authorlink additional details and clarification about Google’s complex $125 million settlement with publishers and authors, announced October 28.
Michael J. Boni, lead counsel for the Author Sub-Class was among those responding to requests for more insightful information and helped Authorlink clarify several important issues for writers and publishers, originally reported on Authorlink November 6, 2008. Read the full Part II story by clicking the headline.
Thursday, November 06, 2008
How to Query Editors
in the Digital World of Publishing
Hi Everybody,
Here are a couple of tips for cutting costs on sending your manuscript queries to editors and agents. Do it electronically! JOIN Authorlink as a full member and get seen by the publishing community 24/7. Save stamps, paper, and time. Or, as a Mini Member, earn 40% on downloads of your short stories on Authorlink Storywire. Publishers are moving into the digital world. You have to be there to be seen today!
Wednesday, November 05, 2008
Google Settlement Has
a Few Wrinkles for Authors
Hi Everyone,
If you're an author, please read this article and let us know your comments.
Best,
Doris
Authorlink Analysis
The $125 million settlement between Google and a class-action group headed by the Author’s Guild and Association of American Publishers, at first glance looks like the perfect dream for authors. After a five-year court battle against Google, authors and publishers may at last see some compensation for books initially scanned without permission by the search mogul.
That’s the good news. However, a closer look at the 323-page legal tome gives rise to some questions that publishers, authors and their agents may want to answer before unreservedly embracing the Google Book Search program.
The plan has been eyed cautiously by a few U. S. publishers and booksellers. The most adamant reaction came from the German booksellers and publishers association, The Boersenverein. The group has warned that the agreement is a Trojan Horse which "will enable Google to achieve worldwide control of knowledge and cultural." The Boersenverein Chief Executive Alexander Skipis said the American model in the name of cultural diversity is “out of the question for Europe.” He said the new model contradicts “the European ideal of “diversity through competition.”
The settlement, announced October 28, and now pending the approval of U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, would greatly expand the amount of copyrighted material that Google can display online for free. Instead of the brief snippets from in-copyright works currently displayed by Google, the settlement would allow the search giant to make 20 percent of the text of a book available without charge for online viewing.
The plan calls for three different types of transactions: consumer sales, subscription sales(such as universities), and library use. The libraries can offer free access to all digitized books from a single computer within each library location.
In addition to out-of-copyright books, entire in-copyright works whose authors or publishers (rightsholders) opt in to the program, will now be available for sale online. In-copyright books will be available for a fee through subscription-type users such as universities, and will be offered for free through libraries.
All of these plans will be overseen by a newly-established, not-for-profit Book Registry composed of representatives from publishers, authors and libraries. Names of those who will sit on the Registry’s board of directors have not yet been made available. Google is contributing $125 million to the effort, some of which will be used to pay authors for prior unauthorized digitizing (about $60 per author). A whopping $30 million will be paid to lawyers. The remaining funds will be used to establish the Book Registry.
The Book Registry, it seems, will become a sort of super agency for the management of digital rights. So far, its activities are related to Google. However, the Registry is poised and well funded to easily become the overseer of content usage through any digital channel. The existence of the Registry may raise some interesting questions for entities like the Association of Authors Representatives, who heretofore have been overseers of an author’s digital rights.
The Registry will have equal representation of the Author Sub-Class and the Publisher Sub-Class on its Board of Directors, with each act of the Board requiring a majority of the directors, with such majority including at least one director who is a representative of the Author Sub-Class and one director who is a representative of the Publisher Sub-Class.
The Registry also has the right to use any unclaimed funds and public domain funds lying dormant for five years to pay its own Registry operating expenses.
The good news is this: authors and publishers will at last receive a small share of net online sales of their digitized work. They will also receive a share of the advertising revenues generated from the book search pages, in an amount yet determined by Google. Google will provide links to online stores such as Amazon.com where consumer can purchase hard copies of books.
The announced publisher or author share of consumer sales is 63%, while Google retains 37%. Sounds good. But there’s some fine print in the massive legal document that everyone in the industry should study.
According to David Drummond, senior vice president of Google, there will be two kinds of payments. First there are payments for Google search samples (the price for which is purportedly set by the rightsholder), and the other payment is an as-yet-determined percentage of revenues from subscriptions.
The 63%, however is not what the author or publisher will actually take home. First, the rightsholder must pay the Book Registry a $200 “inclusion” fee for the privilege of being listed (or not listed) in the database Google uses for its searches and price setting. Can that be right, or are we misreading something? In addition, the Book Registry plans to take another 10-20% of the 63% to cover its “administrative costs, which whittles the publisher/author’s income down to 43%, less the inclusion fee.
The search giant also gets to charge 10% in operating costs off the top of the selling price before “net purchase revenues” are calculated. See item 1.87 in the agreement. We hope we have correctly interpreted the convoluted legal language here. Google gets to set discounts for advertisers, which in turn affects author compensation.
So, does anyone out there know the actual cost to the author of having two “middle men” (Google and the Book Registry), each taking cuts of revenue?
Google can—with the sanction of the Book Registry—set discounts deeper than the author may intend. For example, a $7.99 book may not net the 63% sum of $5.03 at all (especially after all fees are deducted). If Google decides to deep discount the book, to, say $1.99 that 63% share is whittled down to $1.25. We have seen this sort of deep discounting before--on Amazon.
The point is this: We need to thoroughly understand what the publishing industry is signing authors up for—as good as it may sound. Yes, the author or publisher can set a retail price through the Book Registry. Certainly $1.25 would be more than an author might get paid before the settlement was reached. But who really is in control?
The settlement grants Google the nonexclusive right to digitize all books and inserts (such as a book introduction) obtained by Google “from any source (whether obtained before or after the Effective date).
Under the agreement, there’s a question about who determines in-print and out-of-print status of a book? The agent? The publisher? Actually, Google determines the classification. And if the rightsholder doesn’t agree, he or she must go through the Book Registry to lodge a complaint. The Registry oversees all rightsholder requests and complaints, including any disputes about blocking the book for display on Google.
Particularly interesting is this clause: (iii) Limitations on right to Remove . Here’s how we read this one. If a person wants to remove his/her book under Section 3.5(a)(i)(Right to Remove), the person has 27 months from the Notice Commencement Date (whatever that means). Thereafter, requests will be honored only if the book has not yet been digitized. If the book has been digitized, the rightsholder can request exclusion from Display Uses, under Section 3.5(a)(i) (Right to Remove). We also see that the “Exclusion from Library Digital Copy” provision means the rightsholder cannot exclude the book or insert, such as a book introduction. We assume that this means certain indexing and snippets will still be available in libraries no matter whether the rightholder has requested removal or not. Perhaps the lawyers can explain.
If a book has an “insert,” such as an introduction, the rightsholder for that insert can exclude the insert from Display, in the same way the author or publisher can exclude the work.
Interestingly, even books that have been “removed” or “excluded” by the rightsholder can still be displayed and sold by Google to institutional subscribers for a period of ten months.
Authors and publishers who do not set the retail price of their books will have the prices set for them by Google algorithms.
Authors who are part of the Google lawsuit settlement will have their books placed in a “Controlled Pricing Bin” that will determine what percentage the rightsholder receives.
Here are the percentages to be paid by Google to rightholders based on Settlement Controlled Prices of the books.
Consumer Purchase in the Pricing Bins will be: 5% ($1.99), 10% ($2.99), 13% ($3.99), 13% ($4.99), 10% ($5.99), 8% ($6.99), 6% ($7.99), 5% ($8.99), 11% ($9.99), 8% ($14.99), 6% ($19.99) and 5% ($29.99).
The Guild and AAP have estimated that authors who are part of the class action suit will get up to about $60 each.
Finally, Google’s right to have access to data about a book or insert will not expire with the term of the U.S. Copyright to the material.
In making the historic announcement last week, Richard Sarnoff, chairman of the Association of American Publishers said “This historic settlement is a win for everyone. From our perspective, the agreement creates an innovative framework for the use of copyrighted material in a rapidly digitizing world, serves readers by enabling broader access to a huge trove of hard-to-find books, and benefits the publishing community by establishing an attractive commercial model that offers both control and choice to the rightsholder.”
Holders worldwide of U.S. copyrights can register their works with the Book Rights Registry and receive compensation from institutional subscriptions, book sales, ad revenues and other possible revenue models, as well as a cash payment if their works have already been digitized.
We hope that when the plan is further refined, it will deliver what it promises, without creating a mud hole for authors and publishers underneath a huge new profit center for Google.
The reader of this article can search within the actual agreement for phrases we’ve included in this article to determine the facts for himself/herself. Authorlink welcomes comments and corrections to dbooth@authorlink.com .
About the Authors Guild
The Authors Guild, representing more than 8,000 authors. For more information, visit www.authorsguild.org.
About the Association of American Publishers
The AAP is the national trade association of the U.S. book publishing industry. AAP’s more than 300 members include most of the major commercial publishers in the United States, as well as smaller and non-profit publishers, university presses and scholarly societies. For further information, see www.publishers.org.
About Google Inc. and Google Book Search
Google’s search technologies connect millions of people around the world within formation every day. Google Book Search was launched in 2004, and today enables the full text searching of more than a million books online. More than 20,000 publishers and 29 libraries around the world currently work with Google to market their books through the service. Google is headquartered in Silicon Valley with offices throughout the Americas, Europe and Asia. For more information, visit www.google.com and http://books.google.com.
If you're an author, please read this article and let us know your comments.
Best,
Doris
Authorlink Analysis
The $125 million settlement between Google and a class-action group headed by the Author’s Guild and Association of American Publishers, at first glance looks like the perfect dream for authors. After a five-year court battle against Google, authors and publishers may at last see some compensation for books initially scanned without permission by the search mogul.
That’s the good news. However, a closer look at the 323-page legal tome gives rise to some questions that publishers, authors and their agents may want to answer before unreservedly embracing the Google Book Search program.
The plan has been eyed cautiously by a few U. S. publishers and booksellers. The most adamant reaction came from the German booksellers and publishers association, The Boersenverein. The group has warned that the agreement is a Trojan Horse which "will enable Google to achieve worldwide control of knowledge and cultural." The Boersenverein Chief Executive Alexander Skipis said the American model in the name of cultural diversity is “out of the question for Europe.” He said the new model contradicts “the European ideal of “diversity through competition.”
The settlement, announced October 28, and now pending the approval of U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, would greatly expand the amount of copyrighted material that Google can display online for free. Instead of the brief snippets from in-copyright works currently displayed by Google, the settlement would allow the search giant to make 20 percent of the text of a book available without charge for online viewing.
The plan calls for three different types of transactions: consumer sales, subscription sales(such as universities), and library use. The libraries can offer free access to all digitized books from a single computer within each library location.
In addition to out-of-copyright books, entire in-copyright works whose authors or publishers (rightsholders) opt in to the program, will now be available for sale online. In-copyright books will be available for a fee through subscription-type users such as universities, and will be offered for free through libraries.
All of these plans will be overseen by a newly-established, not-for-profit Book Registry composed of representatives from publishers, authors and libraries. Names of those who will sit on the Registry’s board of directors have not yet been made available. Google is contributing $125 million to the effort, some of which will be used to pay authors for prior unauthorized digitizing (about $60 per author). A whopping $30 million will be paid to lawyers. The remaining funds will be used to establish the Book Registry.
The Book Registry, it seems, will become a sort of super agency for the management of digital rights. So far, its activities are related to Google. However, the Registry is poised and well funded to easily become the overseer of content usage through any digital channel. The existence of the Registry may raise some interesting questions for entities like the Association of Authors Representatives, who heretofore have been overseers of an author’s digital rights.
The Registry will have equal representation of the Author Sub-Class and the Publisher Sub-Class on its Board of Directors, with each act of the Board requiring a majority of the directors, with such majority including at least one director who is a representative of the Author Sub-Class and one director who is a representative of the Publisher Sub-Class.
The Registry also has the right to use any unclaimed funds and public domain funds lying dormant for five years to pay its own Registry operating expenses.
The good news is this: authors and publishers will at last receive a small share of net online sales of their digitized work. They will also receive a share of the advertising revenues generated from the book search pages, in an amount yet determined by Google. Google will provide links to online stores such as Amazon.com where consumer can purchase hard copies of books.
The announced publisher or author share of consumer sales is 63%, while Google retains 37%. Sounds good. But there’s some fine print in the massive legal document that everyone in the industry should study.
According to David Drummond, senior vice president of Google, there will be two kinds of payments. First there are payments for Google search samples (the price for which is purportedly set by the rightsholder), and the other payment is an as-yet-determined percentage of revenues from subscriptions.
The 63%, however is not what the author or publisher will actually take home. First, the rightsholder must pay the Book Registry a $200 “inclusion” fee for the privilege of being listed (or not listed) in the database Google uses for its searches and price setting. Can that be right, or are we misreading something? In addition, the Book Registry plans to take another 10-20% of the 63% to cover its “administrative costs, which whittles the publisher/author’s income down to 43%, less the inclusion fee.
The search giant also gets to charge 10% in operating costs off the top of the selling price before “net purchase revenues” are calculated. See item 1.87 in the agreement. We hope we have correctly interpreted the convoluted legal language here. Google gets to set discounts for advertisers, which in turn affects author compensation.
So, does anyone out there know the actual cost to the author of having two “middle men” (Google and the Book Registry), each taking cuts of revenue?
Google can—with the sanction of the Book Registry—set discounts deeper than the author may intend. For example, a $7.99 book may not net the 63% sum of $5.03 at all (especially after all fees are deducted). If Google decides to deep discount the book, to, say $1.99 that 63% share is whittled down to $1.25. We have seen this sort of deep discounting before--on Amazon.
The point is this: We need to thoroughly understand what the publishing industry is signing authors up for—as good as it may sound. Yes, the author or publisher can set a retail price through the Book Registry. Certainly $1.25 would be more than an author might get paid before the settlement was reached. But who really is in control?
The settlement grants Google the nonexclusive right to digitize all books and inserts (such as a book introduction) obtained by Google “from any source (whether obtained before or after the Effective date).
Under the agreement, there’s a question about who determines in-print and out-of-print status of a book? The agent? The publisher? Actually, Google determines the classification. And if the rightsholder doesn’t agree, he or she must go through the Book Registry to lodge a complaint. The Registry oversees all rightsholder requests and complaints, including any disputes about blocking the book for display on Google.
Particularly interesting is this clause: (iii) Limitations on right to Remove . Here’s how we read this one. If a person wants to remove his/her book under Section 3.5(a)(i)(Right to Remove), the person has 27 months from the Notice Commencement Date (whatever that means). Thereafter, requests will be honored only if the book has not yet been digitized. If the book has been digitized, the rightsholder can request exclusion from Display Uses, under Section 3.5(a)(i) (Right to Remove). We also see that the “Exclusion from Library Digital Copy” provision means the rightsholder cannot exclude the book or insert, such as a book introduction. We assume that this means certain indexing and snippets will still be available in libraries no matter whether the rightholder has requested removal or not. Perhaps the lawyers can explain.
If a book has an “insert,” such as an introduction, the rightsholder for that insert can exclude the insert from Display, in the same way the author or publisher can exclude the work.
Interestingly, even books that have been “removed” or “excluded” by the rightsholder can still be displayed and sold by Google to institutional subscribers for a period of ten months.
Authors and publishers who do not set the retail price of their books will have the prices set for them by Google algorithms.
Authors who are part of the Google lawsuit settlement will have their books placed in a “Controlled Pricing Bin” that will determine what percentage the rightsholder receives.
Here are the percentages to be paid by Google to rightholders based on Settlement Controlled Prices of the books.
Consumer Purchase in the Pricing Bins will be: 5% ($1.99), 10% ($2.99), 13% ($3.99), 13% ($4.99), 10% ($5.99), 8% ($6.99), 6% ($7.99), 5% ($8.99), 11% ($9.99), 8% ($14.99), 6% ($19.99) and 5% ($29.99).
The Guild and AAP have estimated that authors who are part of the class action suit will get up to about $60 each.
Finally, Google’s right to have access to data about a book or insert will not expire with the term of the U.S. Copyright to the material.
In making the historic announcement last week, Richard Sarnoff, chairman of the Association of American Publishers said “This historic settlement is a win for everyone. From our perspective, the agreement creates an innovative framework for the use of copyrighted material in a rapidly digitizing world, serves readers by enabling broader access to a huge trove of hard-to-find books, and benefits the publishing community by establishing an attractive commercial model that offers both control and choice to the rightsholder.”
Holders worldwide of U.S. copyrights can register their works with the Book Rights Registry and receive compensation from institutional subscriptions, book sales, ad revenues and other possible revenue models, as well as a cash payment if their works have already been digitized.
We hope that when the plan is further refined, it will deliver what it promises, without creating a mud hole for authors and publishers underneath a huge new profit center for Google.
The reader of this article can search within the actual agreement for phrases we’ve included in this article to determine the facts for himself/herself. Authorlink welcomes comments and corrections to dbooth@authorlink.com .
About the Authors Guild
The Authors Guild, representing more than 8,000 authors. For more information, visit www.authorsguild.org.
About the Association of American Publishers
The AAP is the national trade association of the U.S. book publishing industry. AAP’s more than 300 members include most of the major commercial publishers in the United States, as well as smaller and non-profit publishers, university presses and scholarly societies. For further information, see www.publishers.org.
About Google Inc. and Google Book Search
Google’s search technologies connect millions of people around the world within formation every day. Google Book Search was launched in 2004, and today enables the full text searching of more than a million books online. More than 20,000 publishers and 29 libraries around the world currently work with Google to market their books through the service. Google is headquartered in Silicon Valley with offices throughout the Americas, Europe and Asia. For more information, visit www.google.com and http://books.google.com.
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Landmark Landmark Agreement With Google Benefits Authors, Publishers
AGA, AAP Reach
Landmark Copyright
Settlement With Google
New York, NY, (Authorink News, Oct. 28, 2008) – The Authors Guild, the Association of American Publishers (AAP), and Google today announced a groundbreaking settlement agreement on behalf of a broad class of authors and publishers worldwide that would expand online access to millions of in-copyright books and other written materials in the U.S. from the collections of a number of major U.S. libraries participating in Google Book Search. The agreement, reached after two years of negotiations, would resolve a class-action lawsuit brought by book authors and the Authors Guild, as well as a separate lawsuit filed by five large publishers as representatives of the AAP’s membership. The class action is subject to approval by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
The agreement promises to benefit readers and researchers, and enhance the ability of authors and publishers to distribute their content in digital form, by significantly expanding online access to works through Google Book Search, an ambitious effort to make millions of books searchable via the Web. The agreement acknowledges the rights and interests of copyright owners, provides an efficient means for them to control how their intellectual property is accessed online and enables them to receive compensation for online access to their works.
If approved by the court, the agreement would provide:
• More Access to Out-of-Print Books -- Generating greater
exposure for millions of in-copyright works, including hard-to-find out-of-print books, by enabling readers in the U.S. to search these works and preview them online;
• Additional Ways to Purchase Copyrighted Books -- Building off
publishers’ and authors’ current efforts and further expanding the electronic market for copyrighted books in the U.S., by offering users the ability to purchase online access to many in-copyright books;
• Institutional Subscriptions to Millions of Books Online --
Offering a means for U.S. colleges, universities and other organizations to obtain subscriptions for online access to collections from some of the world’s most renowned libraries;
• Free Access From U.S. Libraries -- Providing free, full-text,
online viewing of millions of out-of-print books at designated computers in U.S. public and university libraries; and
• Compensation to Authors and Publishers and Control Over Access
to Their Works -- Distributing payments earned from online access provided by Google and, prospectively, from similar programs that may be established by other providers, through a newly created independent, not-for-profit Book Rights Registry that will also locate rightsholders, collect and maintain accurate rightsholder information, and provide a way for rightsholders to request inclusion in or exclusion from the project.
Under the agreement, Google will make payments totaling $125 million.
The money will be used to establish the Book Rights Registry, to resolve existing claims by authors and publishers and to cover legal fees. The settlement agreement resolves Authors Guild v. Google, a class-action suit filed on September 20, 2005 by the Authors Guild and certain authors, and a suit filed on October 19, 2005 by five major publisher-members of the Association of American Publishers: The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. (NYSE: MHP); Pearson Education, Inc. and Penguin Group (USA) Inc., both part of Pearson (LSE: PSON; NYSE: PSO); John Wiley & Sons, Inc. (NYSE: JWa and JWb); and Simon & Schuster, Inc.
part of CBS Corporation (NYSE: CBS.A and CBS). These lawsuits challenged Google’s plan to digitize, search and show snippets of in-copyright books and to share digital copies with libraries without the explicit permission of the copyright owner.
Holders worldwide of U.S. copyrights can register their works with the Book Rights Registry and receive compensation from institutional subscriptions, book sales, ad revenues and other possible revenue models, as well as a cash payment if their works have already been digitized.
Libraries at the Universities of California, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Stanford have provided input into the settlement and expect to participate in the project, including by making their collections available. Along with a number of other U.S. libraries that currently work with Google, their significant efforts to preserve, maintain and provide access to books have played a critical role in achieving this agreement and, through their anticipated participation, they are furthering such efforts while making books even more accessible to students, researchers and readers in the U.S. It is expected that additional libraries in the U.S. will participate in this project in the future.
Google Book Search users in the United States will be able to enjoy and purchase the products and services offered under the project. Outside the United States, the users’ experience with Google Book Search will be unchanged, unless the offering of such products and services is authorized by the rightsholder of a book.
“It’s hard work writing a book, and even harder work getting paid for it,” said Roy Blount Jr., President of the Authors Guild. “As a reader and researcher, I’ll be delighted to stop by my local library to browse the stacks of some of the world’s great libraries. As an author, well, we appreciate payment when people use our work. This deal makes good sense.”
“This historic settlement is a win for everyone,” said Richard Sarnoff, Chairman of the Association of American Publishers. “From our perspective, the agreement creates an innovative framework for the use of copyrighted material in a rapidly digitizing world, serves readers by enabling broader access to a huge trove of hard-to-find books, and benefits the publishing community by establishing an attractive commercial model that offers both control and choice to the rightsholder.”
“Google's mission is to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful. Today, together with the authors, publishers, and libraries, we have been able to make a great leap in this endeavor,” said Sergey Brin, co-founder & president of technology at Google. “While this agreement is a real win-win for all of us, the real victors are all the readers. The tremendous wealth of knowledge that lies within the books of the world will now be at their fingertips.”
For more information about this agreement, including information about whether you may be a class member, please visit
http://books.google.com/booksrightsholders. Class members include
authors (the Author Sub-Class) and publishers (the Publisher Sub-Class), and their heirs and successors, of books and other written works protected by U.S. copyright law.
A teleconference for the media will be held today, Tuesday, October 28, 2008, at 10:30 a.m. Eastern. To participate, reporters in the U.S.
should dial 877-340-7913, and reporters internationally should dial 719-325-4845. Please tell the operator you would like to join the “Authors, Publishers and Google” call.
About the Authors Guild
The Authors Guild, representing more than 8,000 authors, is the nation's largest and oldest society of published authors and the leading writers'
advocate for fair compensation, effective copyright protection, and free expression. For more information, visit www.authorsguild.org.
About the Association of American Publishers
The AAP is the national trade association of the U.S. book publishing industry. AAP’s more than 300 members include most of the major commercial publishers in the United States, as well as smaller and non-profit publishers, university presses and scholarly societies. AAP members publish hardcover and paperback books in every field, educational materials for the elementary, secondary, postsecondary, and professional markets, scholarly journals, computer software, and electronic products and services. The protection of intellectual property rights in all media, the defense of the freedom to read and the freedom to publish at home and abroad, and the promotion of reading and literacy are among the Association’s highest priorities. For further information, see www.publishers.org .
About Google Inc. and Google Book Search
Google’s innovative search technologies connect millions of people around the world with information every day. Google Book Search was launched in 2004, and today enables the full text searching of more than a million books online. More than 20,000 publishers and 29 libraries around the world currently work with Google to market their books through the service. Google is headquartered in Silicon Valley with offices throughout the Americas, Europe and Asia. For more information,
visit www.google.com and
http://books.google.com .
Landmark Copyright
Settlement With Google
New York, NY, (Authorink News, Oct. 28, 2008) – The Authors Guild, the Association of American Publishers (AAP), and Google today announced a groundbreaking settlement agreement on behalf of a broad class of authors and publishers worldwide that would expand online access to millions of in-copyright books and other written materials in the U.S. from the collections of a number of major U.S. libraries participating in Google Book Search. The agreement, reached after two years of negotiations, would resolve a class-action lawsuit brought by book authors and the Authors Guild, as well as a separate lawsuit filed by five large publishers as representatives of the AAP’s membership. The class action is subject to approval by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
The agreement promises to benefit readers and researchers, and enhance the ability of authors and publishers to distribute their content in digital form, by significantly expanding online access to works through Google Book Search, an ambitious effort to make millions of books searchable via the Web. The agreement acknowledges the rights and interests of copyright owners, provides an efficient means for them to control how their intellectual property is accessed online and enables them to receive compensation for online access to their works.
If approved by the court, the agreement would provide:
• More Access to Out-of-Print Books -- Generating greater
exposure for millions of in-copyright works, including hard-to-find out-of-print books, by enabling readers in the U.S. to search these works and preview them online;
• Additional Ways to Purchase Copyrighted Books -- Building off
publishers’ and authors’ current efforts and further expanding the electronic market for copyrighted books in the U.S., by offering users the ability to purchase online access to many in-copyright books;
• Institutional Subscriptions to Millions of Books Online --
Offering a means for U.S. colleges, universities and other organizations to obtain subscriptions for online access to collections from some of the world’s most renowned libraries;
• Free Access From U.S. Libraries -- Providing free, full-text,
online viewing of millions of out-of-print books at designated computers in U.S. public and university libraries; and
• Compensation to Authors and Publishers and Control Over Access
to Their Works -- Distributing payments earned from online access provided by Google and, prospectively, from similar programs that may be established by other providers, through a newly created independent, not-for-profit Book Rights Registry that will also locate rightsholders, collect and maintain accurate rightsholder information, and provide a way for rightsholders to request inclusion in or exclusion from the project.
Under the agreement, Google will make payments totaling $125 million.
The money will be used to establish the Book Rights Registry, to resolve existing claims by authors and publishers and to cover legal fees. The settlement agreement resolves Authors Guild v. Google, a class-action suit filed on September 20, 2005 by the Authors Guild and certain authors, and a suit filed on October 19, 2005 by five major publisher-members of the Association of American Publishers: The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. (NYSE: MHP); Pearson Education, Inc. and Penguin Group (USA) Inc., both part of Pearson (LSE: PSON; NYSE: PSO); John Wiley & Sons, Inc. (NYSE: JWa and JWb); and Simon & Schuster, Inc.
part of CBS Corporation (NYSE: CBS.A and CBS). These lawsuits challenged Google’s plan to digitize, search and show snippets of in-copyright books and to share digital copies with libraries without the explicit permission of the copyright owner.
Holders worldwide of U.S. copyrights can register their works with the Book Rights Registry and receive compensation from institutional subscriptions, book sales, ad revenues and other possible revenue models, as well as a cash payment if their works have already been digitized.
Libraries at the Universities of California, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Stanford have provided input into the settlement and expect to participate in the project, including by making their collections available. Along with a number of other U.S. libraries that currently work with Google, their significant efforts to preserve, maintain and provide access to books have played a critical role in achieving this agreement and, through their anticipated participation, they are furthering such efforts while making books even more accessible to students, researchers and readers in the U.S. It is expected that additional libraries in the U.S. will participate in this project in the future.
Google Book Search users in the United States will be able to enjoy and purchase the products and services offered under the project. Outside the United States, the users’ experience with Google Book Search will be unchanged, unless the offering of such products and services is authorized by the rightsholder of a book.
“It’s hard work writing a book, and even harder work getting paid for it,” said Roy Blount Jr., President of the Authors Guild. “As a reader and researcher, I’ll be delighted to stop by my local library to browse the stacks of some of the world’s great libraries. As an author, well, we appreciate payment when people use our work. This deal makes good sense.”
“This historic settlement is a win for everyone,” said Richard Sarnoff, Chairman of the Association of American Publishers. “From our perspective, the agreement creates an innovative framework for the use of copyrighted material in a rapidly digitizing world, serves readers by enabling broader access to a huge trove of hard-to-find books, and benefits the publishing community by establishing an attractive commercial model that offers both control and choice to the rightsholder.”
“Google's mission is to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful. Today, together with the authors, publishers, and libraries, we have been able to make a great leap in this endeavor,” said Sergey Brin, co-founder & president of technology at Google. “While this agreement is a real win-win for all of us, the real victors are all the readers. The tremendous wealth of knowledge that lies within the books of the world will now be at their fingertips.”
For more information about this agreement, including information about whether you may be a class member, please visit
http://books.google.com/booksrightsholders. Class members include
authors (the Author Sub-Class) and publishers (the Publisher Sub-Class), and their heirs and successors, of books and other written works protected by U.S. copyright law.
A teleconference for the media will be held today, Tuesday, October 28, 2008, at 10:30 a.m. Eastern. To participate, reporters in the U.S.
should dial 877-340-7913, and reporters internationally should dial 719-325-4845. Please tell the operator you would like to join the “Authors, Publishers and Google” call.
About the Authors Guild
The Authors Guild, representing more than 8,000 authors, is the nation's largest and oldest society of published authors and the leading writers'
advocate for fair compensation, effective copyright protection, and free expression. For more information, visit www.authorsguild.org.
About the Association of American Publishers
The AAP is the national trade association of the U.S. book publishing industry. AAP’s more than 300 members include most of the major commercial publishers in the United States, as well as smaller and non-profit publishers, university presses and scholarly societies. AAP members publish hardcover and paperback books in every field, educational materials for the elementary, secondary, postsecondary, and professional markets, scholarly journals, computer software, and electronic products and services. The protection of intellectual property rights in all media, the defense of the freedom to read and the freedom to publish at home and abroad, and the promotion of reading and literacy are among the Association’s highest priorities. For further information, see www.publishers.org
About Google Inc. and Google Book Search
Google’s innovative search technologies connect millions of people around the world with information every day. Google Book Search was launched in 2004, and today enables the full text searching of more than a million books online. More than 20,000 publishers and 29 libraries around the world currently work with Google to market their books through the service. Google is headquartered in Silicon Valley with offices throughout the Americas, Europe and Asia. For more information,
visit www.google.com
http://books.google.com
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
National Book Award Finalists Named
Hi Everybody,
The National Book Award finalists have been named for 2008. If you haven't read these writers already, it's a good idea to be familiar with their work. Reading the top authors can give you a better understanding of the craft of writing.
October 16 - 23, 2008 Edition
National Book
Award Finalists
Named for 2008
Chicago, Illinois (Authorlink, October 15, 2008) -The 20 Finalists for the 2008 National Book Awards, announced today, represent an extraordinary range of background and writing styles. Judges recognized both long-established writers, including two previous National Book Award winners, as well as three debut novelists.
Among the Fiction Finalists are Peter Matthiessen, a National Book Award winner in 1979 for a work of nonfiction, for his epic novel Shadow Country, and Marilynne Robinson, a Finalist in 1983 and in 1989, for her novel Home. Two of the Fiction Finalists are first novelists: Rachel Kushner for Telex from Cuba and Salvatore Scibona for The End. The third writer nominated for a debut novel is Kathi Appelt in the Young People's Literature category. Journalist Jane Mayer, poets Frank Bidart, Mark Doty, and Richard Howard as well as young adult fiction writer Laurie Halse Anderson have all been Finalists in previous years and are up for the award again this year. In the nonfiction category, American history and the war on terror are major themes.
The announcement was made by bestselling author Scott Turow at the Steppenwolf Theater in Chicago and transmitted by videolink (go to www.nationalbook.org to view).
The Winner in each of the four categories - Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry and Young People's Literature - will be announced at the 59th National Book Awards Benefit Dinner and Ceremony at Cipriani Wall Street in New York City on Wednesday, November 19. Writer and actor Eric Bogosian will emcee the event. Each Winner receives $10,000 plus a bronze statue; each Finalist receives a bronze medal and a $1,000 cash award. The dinner and ceremony are chaired this year by Morgan Entrekin, Sonny Mehta, Lynn Nesbit and Holly Peterson.
The Finalists were selected by four distinguished panels of judges who were given the charge of selecting what they deem to be the best books of the year. Their decisions are made independent of the National Book Foundation and their deliberations are strictly confidential. To be eligible for a 2008 National Book Award, a book must have been published in the United States between December 1, 2007 and November 30, 2008 and must have been written by a United States citizen.
"One interesting aspect of this year's Finalists is the range of experience," said Harold Augenbraum, Executive Director of the National Book Foundation, "from first books by young writers to well-known and highly respected authors who have been writing and publishing for decades. And several Finalists books come from small presses."
Also on the evening of November 19, the Board of Directors of the National Book Foundation will bestow its 2008 Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters on writer Maxine Hong Kingston and the Literarian Award for Outstanding Service to the American Literary Community to Barney Rosset, the legendary publisher.
In addition to the invitation-only gala awards ceremony, National Book Awards Week includes the following events: 5 Under 35, the Foundation's evening of emerging fiction writers, on November 17; The National Book Awards Teen Press Conference featuring all of the Finalists in the Young People's Literature Category on the morning of November 18 at The New York Public Library's Schomburg Center for Research In Black Culture; and the Finalists Reading at The New School on the evening of November 18.
Following is the list of the 2008 National Book Award Finalists in Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, and Young People's Literature. For more information about the Finalists as well as National Book Awards Week events, visit www.nationalbook.org or call Camille McDuffie at Goldberg McDuffie Communications at (212)446-5106.
The Judges for the 2008 National Book Awards:
Fiction panel: Gail Godwin (chair), Rebecca Goldstein, Elinor Lipman, Reginald McKnight, Jess Walter
Nonfiction panel: Marie Arana (chair), Farah Jasmine Griffin, Russell Jacoby, Megan Marshall, Kevin Starr
Poetry panel: Robert Pinsky (chair), Mary Jo Bang, Kimiko Hahn, Tony Hoagland, Marilyn Nelson
Young People's Literature panel: Daniel Handler (chair), Holly Black, Angela Johnson, Carolyn Mackler, Cynthia Voigt
2008 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALISTS
Fiction
Aleksandar Hemon, The Lazarus Project (Riverhead)
Rachel Kushner, Telex from Cuba (Scribner)
Peter Matthiessen, Shadow Country (Modern Library)
Marilynne Robinson, Home (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)
Salvatore Scibona, The End (Graywolf Press)
Nonfiction
Drew Gilpin Faust, This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War (Alfred A. Knopf)
Annette Gordon-Reed, The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family (W.W. Norton & Company)
Jane Mayer, The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned into a War on American Ideals (Doubleday)
Jim Sheeler, Final Salute: A Story of Unfinished Lives (Penguin)
Joan Wickersham, The Suicide Index: Putting My Father's Death in Order (Harcourt)
Poetry
Frank Bidart, Watching the Spring Festival (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)
Mark Doty, Fire to Fire: New and Collected Poems (HarperCollins)
Reginald Gibbons, Creatures of a Day (Louisiana State University Press)
Richard Howard, Without Saying (Turtle Point Press)
Patricia Smith, Blood Dazzler (Coffee House Press)
Young People's Literature
Laurie Halse Anderson, Chains (Simon & Schuster)
Kathi Appelt, The Underneath (Atheneum)
Judy Blundell, What I Saw and How I Lied (Scholastic)
E. Lockhart, The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks (Hyperion)
Tim Tharp, The Spectacular Now (Alfred A. Knopf)
The National Book Award finalists have been named for 2008. If you haven't read these writers already, it's a good idea to be familiar with their work. Reading the top authors can give you a better understanding of the craft of writing.
October 16 - 23, 2008 Edition
National Book
Award Finalists
Named for 2008
Chicago, Illinois (Authorlink, October 15, 2008) -The 20 Finalists for the 2008 National Book Awards, announced today, represent an extraordinary range of background and writing styles. Judges recognized both long-established writers, including two previous National Book Award winners, as well as three debut novelists.
Among the Fiction Finalists are Peter Matthiessen, a National Book Award winner in 1979 for a work of nonfiction, for his epic novel Shadow Country, and Marilynne Robinson, a Finalist in 1983 and in 1989, for her novel Home. Two of the Fiction Finalists are first novelists: Rachel Kushner for Telex from Cuba and Salvatore Scibona for The End. The third writer nominated for a debut novel is Kathi Appelt in the Young People's Literature category. Journalist Jane Mayer, poets Frank Bidart, Mark Doty, and Richard Howard as well as young adult fiction writer Laurie Halse Anderson have all been Finalists in previous years and are up for the award again this year. In the nonfiction category, American history and the war on terror are major themes.
The announcement was made by bestselling author Scott Turow at the Steppenwolf Theater in Chicago and transmitted by videolink (go to www.nationalbook.org to view).
The Winner in each of the four categories - Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry and Young People's Literature - will be announced at the 59th National Book Awards Benefit Dinner and Ceremony at Cipriani Wall Street in New York City on Wednesday, November 19. Writer and actor Eric Bogosian will emcee the event. Each Winner receives $10,000 plus a bronze statue; each Finalist receives a bronze medal and a $1,000 cash award. The dinner and ceremony are chaired this year by Morgan Entrekin, Sonny Mehta, Lynn Nesbit and Holly Peterson.
The Finalists were selected by four distinguished panels of judges who were given the charge of selecting what they deem to be the best books of the year. Their decisions are made independent of the National Book Foundation and their deliberations are strictly confidential. To be eligible for a 2008 National Book Award, a book must have been published in the United States between December 1, 2007 and November 30, 2008 and must have been written by a United States citizen.
"One interesting aspect of this year's Finalists is the range of experience," said Harold Augenbraum, Executive Director of the National Book Foundation, "from first books by young writers to well-known and highly respected authors who have been writing and publishing for decades. And several Finalists books come from small presses."
Also on the evening of November 19, the Board of Directors of the National Book Foundation will bestow its 2008 Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters on writer Maxine Hong Kingston and the Literarian Award for Outstanding Service to the American Literary Community to Barney Rosset, the legendary publisher.
In addition to the invitation-only gala awards ceremony, National Book Awards Week includes the following events: 5 Under 35, the Foundation's evening of emerging fiction writers, on November 17; The National Book Awards Teen Press Conference featuring all of the Finalists in the Young People's Literature Category on the morning of November 18 at The New York Public Library's Schomburg Center for Research In Black Culture; and the Finalists Reading at The New School on the evening of November 18.
Following is the list of the 2008 National Book Award Finalists in Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, and Young People's Literature. For more information about the Finalists as well as National Book Awards Week events, visit www.nationalbook.org or call Camille McDuffie at Goldberg McDuffie Communications at (212)446-5106.
The Judges for the 2008 National Book Awards:
Fiction panel: Gail Godwin (chair), Rebecca Goldstein, Elinor Lipman, Reginald McKnight, Jess Walter
Nonfiction panel: Marie Arana (chair), Farah Jasmine Griffin, Russell Jacoby, Megan Marshall, Kevin Starr
Poetry panel: Robert Pinsky (chair), Mary Jo Bang, Kimiko Hahn, Tony Hoagland, Marilyn Nelson
Young People's Literature panel: Daniel Handler (chair), Holly Black, Angela Johnson, Carolyn Mackler, Cynthia Voigt
2008 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALISTS
Fiction
Aleksandar Hemon, The Lazarus Project (Riverhead)
Rachel Kushner, Telex from Cuba (Scribner)
Peter Matthiessen, Shadow Country (Modern Library)
Marilynne Robinson, Home (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)
Salvatore Scibona, The End (Graywolf Press)
Nonfiction
Drew Gilpin Faust, This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War (Alfred A. Knopf)
Annette Gordon-Reed, The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family (W.W. Norton & Company)
Jane Mayer, The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned into a War on American Ideals (Doubleday)
Jim Sheeler, Final Salute: A Story of Unfinished Lives (Penguin)
Joan Wickersham, The Suicide Index: Putting My Father's Death in Order (Harcourt)
Poetry
Frank Bidart, Watching the Spring Festival (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)
Mark Doty, Fire to Fire: New and Collected Poems (HarperCollins)
Reginald Gibbons, Creatures of a Day (Louisiana State University Press)
Richard Howard, Without Saying (Turtle Point Press)
Patricia Smith, Blood Dazzler (Coffee House Press)
Young People's Literature
Laurie Halse Anderson, Chains (Simon & Schuster)
Kathi Appelt, The Underneath (Atheneum)
Judy Blundell, What I Saw and How I Lied (Scholastic)
E. Lockhart, The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks (Hyperion)
Tim Tharp, The Spectacular Now (Alfred A. Knopf)
Wednesday, October 08, 2008
Book Sales Up for August; Down for Year
Hi Everyone,
First, just a reminder that New York Editor Stacey Barney and bestselling author Bonnie Hearn Hill are each teaching a one-hour FREE class on Saturday October 25, with lots of hands-on critique. To sign up for the free classes go to www.authorlink.com/classroom/classroom.php. Also check out their full courses.
And now:
Book sales tracked by the Association of American Publishers (AAP) for the month of August increased by a small 0.6 percent at $1.5 billion but were down by 1.4 percent for the year. Of course, that's to be expected with the economy the way it is.
Here's an interesting note, the outgoing president of the Great Lakes Booksellers Association, Carol Besse, is asking writers to ban Amazon.com. Read the story on our site at www.authorlink.com. We tried to get her to comment in more detail, but at press time we had not heard from her. We'll let you know if we learn more. Read all the news about publishing at www.authorlink.com.
Here are our headlines for October 9, 2008
Booksellers Asked to Encourage Authors to Ban Amazon.com
Nobel Literature Prize to be Announced by Webcast Oct. 9
New Sony Device Gives Readers "Feel" for Literature
Borders Extends E-Books Commitment, Carries Sony Reader
Publisher Atlas Postpones Spring List Due to Finances
First, just a reminder that New York Editor Stacey Barney and bestselling author Bonnie Hearn Hill are each teaching a one-hour FREE class on Saturday October 25, with lots of hands-on critique. To sign up for the free classes go to www.authorlink.com/classroom/classroom.php. Also check out their full courses.
And now:
Book sales tracked by the Association of American Publishers (AAP) for the month of August increased by a small 0.6 percent at $1.5 billion but were down by 1.4 percent for the year. Of course, that's to be expected with the economy the way it is.
Here's an interesting note, the outgoing president of the Great Lakes Booksellers Association, Carol Besse, is asking writers to ban Amazon.com. Read the story on our site at www.authorlink.com. We tried to get her to comment in more detail, but at press time we had not heard from her. We'll let you know if we learn more. Read all the news about publishing at www.authorlink.com.
Here are our headlines for October 9, 2008
Booksellers Asked to Encourage Authors to Ban Amazon.com
Nobel Literature Prize to be Announced by Webcast Oct. 9
New Sony Device Gives Readers "Feel" for Literature
Borders Extends E-Books Commitment, Carries Sony Reader
Publisher Atlas Postpones Spring List Due to Finances
Wednesday, October 01, 2008
What Is Random House Digital?
Hi Everyone,
You may want to catch the video interview with Matt, vice president of Random House Digital, which we just posted in our October 1 issue. Matt talks about what RHD does, and how it sees the digital future of books. Also in the new Fall edition, see interviews with Brett Battles, Lee Child, Tasha Alexander and more. Also our columnists have some exciting interviews with authors such as Jenny Meyerhoff, Laura Shapiro and Julia Glass. Be sure to visit the full site for all sorts of articles and reviews.
You may want to catch the video interview with Matt, vice president of Random House Digital, which we just posted in our October 1 issue. Matt talks about what RHD does, and how it sees the digital future of books. Also in the new Fall edition, see interviews with Brett Battles, Lee Child, Tasha Alexander and more. Also our columnists have some exciting interviews with authors such as Jenny Meyerhoff, Laura Shapiro and Julia Glass. Be sure to visit the full site for all sorts of articles and reviews.
In this exclusive Authorlink VIDEO interview, Matt Shatz explains the Random House Digital initiatiave, his vision for the group, and the challenges ahead for publishers in the fast-changing digital world. Video: 11 minutes.
(October 2008 Feature).
See all of our video/audio interviews here
Other Featured Columns This Month
Audio/Video/Text
Audio/Video/Text
Rising author Brett Battles is hard at work on the third book in his new thriller series for Dell
Brett Battles, author of The Cleaner and The Deceived (Dell 2008), recently talked to in New York about the tough road to getting published, and how he landed a three-book deal with Dell/Random House. Video: 18 minutes.(October 2008 Feature).
Lee Child, #1 New York Times bestselling
author talks about his latest book
At a recent conference in New York, Lee Child talks with Authorlink about how he developed his highly successful career as a novelist, and gives insights into his newest release, Nothing to Lose. Video interview. (October 2008 feature)
Lady Ashton Soon to Return in Tasha
Alexander's Next Historical Suspense
The author of A FATAL WALTZ (William Morrow, 2008), talks to Authorlink about her third book in the Lady Ashton historical suspense series, and of what's to come of her in the fourth series book. Video interview: about 7 minutes.
An exclusive Authorlink interview with author Jenny Meyerhoff
(Third Grade Baby,Farrar Straus Giroux, 2008)
by Columnist Susan VanHecke
(October 2008)
Historian Shapiro Tells
Engaging Story of Julia Child
An exclusive Authorlink interview with Laura Shapiro, author of
Julia Child (Penguin Lives, 2008)
by Columnist Ellen Birkett Morris
(October2008)
An exclusive Authorlink interview with Julia Glass, author of I See You Everywhere (Pantheon, October 2008).Glass talks about the importance of good editors and agents, her writing life, the process of writing her newest book, and more.
by Columnist Karen Heise
(October 2008)
Thursday, September 25, 2008
The End for Books? No Way
Hi Everyone,
Last week an article appeared in New York magazine titled, "The End" for book publishing. What a "woe is we" attitude. Sure, the books of today and the future are changing form, but human stories will never change. Read our take on the article below, then go to the full item. Lots of interesting stuff also going on with Google's new Book Preview, and Borders Backlot, too.
Last week an article appeared in New York magazine titled, "The End" for book publishing. What a "woe is we" attitude. Sure, the books of today and the future are changing form, but human stories will never change. Read our take on the article below, then go to the full item. Lots of interesting stuff also going on with Google's new Book Preview, and Borders Backlot, too.
News Headlines
Thursday September 25, 2008
(updated each Thursday)
- Google Launches New Book Preview
- Magazine Article Predicting The End Has Publishers BuzzingPublish Post
- Harlequin Launches New Nonfiction Imprint
- Borders Backlot Offers Film Clips
- Barton Heads eSpecials; Penguin Seeks Author Entries
- BISG Brings XML Workflow to Publishing
- Newly Discovered Agatha Christie Tapes May Be Published
Tuesday, September 09, 2008
Debut Novelists Shortlisted for Booker Prize
Hi Everyone,
For all you writers out there, it's a good idea to pick up the novels on the short list for the Man Booker Prize and study them for structure. UK writers are particularly good storytellers.Debut Novelists Shortlisted
For Man Booker Prize
LONDON/9/9/2008--The Man Booker Prize 2008 shortlist was announced Tuesday September 9.Two first-time novelists, Aravind Adiga and Steve Toltz, survived the cull of the longlist from thirteen novels to just six. Previous winners of the Booker Prize, John Berger and Salman Rushdie, failed to make this year's shortlist and Sebastian Barry is the only novelist shortlisted for this year's prize to have been previously shortlisted (in 2005).
Linda Grant, winner of the Orange Prize for Fiction in 2000 and longlisted for the Booker Prize in 2002, is the only female author to make the shortlist of six. She is joined by Philip Hensher, longlisted for the Booker Prize in 2002 and a Booker judge in 2001, and the widely-acclaimed Indian writer Amitav Ghosh.
The Man Booker Prize 2008 shortlisted novels are:
Aravind Adiga The White Tiger (Atlantic)
Sebastian Barry The Secret Scripture (Faber and Faber)
Amitav Ghosh Sea of Poppies (John Murray)
Linda Grant The Clothes on Their Backs (Virago)
Philip Hensher The Northern Clemency (Fourth Estate)
Steve Toltz A Fraction of the Whole (Hamish Hamilton)
This year's judging panel is chaired by Michael Portillo former MP and Cabinet Minister. He is joined by Alex Clark, editor of Granta; Louise Doughty, novelist; James Heneage, founder of Ottakar's bookshops and Hardeep Singh Kohli, TV and radio broadcaster.
Michael Portillo, Chair of judges, commented today: "The judges commend the six titles to readers with great enthusiasm. These novels are intensely readable, each of them an extraordinary example of imagination and narrative. These fine page-turning stories nonetheless raise highly thought-provoking ideas and issues. These books are in every case both ambitious and approachable."
The judging panel had to read over 112 entries before whittling down the list to the Man Booker Dozen (13 titles) and then again to just six titles. They will meet to decide on the winning novel on Tuesday 14 October, and the author will be award the £50,000 prize money at an awards ceremony later on that evening at Guildhall, London.
See more at Mann Booker Prize
Friday, September 05, 2008
Meet the New Senior
Editor at Perigee Books
Hi Everyone,
Those you who are writing in the areas of craft, creativity and popular reference, will be interested to know that Meg Leder has been promoted to senior editor at Perigee Books. That probably means she'll have the clout to acquire more titles there.
Meg Leder Promoted
to Senior Editor, Perigee Books
Meg Leder has been promoted to Senior Editor, Perigee Books, an imprint of Penguin Group (USA), it was announced today by John Duff, Publisher of Perigee Books. Ms. Leder has previously held editorial positions at Chamberlain Bros, McGraw-Hill, and F+W Publications. “Since joining Perigee in 2005,” said Duff, “ Meg has added a whole new dimension to Perigee’s publishing program with her acquisitions, particularly in the categories of craft, creativity, and popular reference. Her current successes include Wreck This Journal , a unique work that has become an underground phenomenon with more than 150,000 copies in print and is selling more briskly now than when it was first published a year ago. Her diligence in tracking down projects is unparalleled as witnessed by the six-month-long negotiation to secure world English-language rights to Sock and Glove, the utterly charming and bestselling craft book for which she also appeared on the Martha Stewart television show. Meg has also contributed to solid prescriptive nonfiction books that form the backbone of Perigee’s list and guided major revisions and repackaging of backlist titles into production and to successful re-launch.”
Wednesday, September 03, 2008
Random House COO Departs
HI Everyone,
We have just learned that Ed Volini, deputy chairman and chief operating officer of Random House North America, is leaving the company September 30. It is the first big change since Markus Dohle became CEO earlier this year, saying that there would be no significant changes. Volini has been with the Random House since 1997, most recently as chief financial officer of Ballantine, an RH division, before taking on his current role in January 2003. His job has been to oversee acquisitions, finances, human resources, legal and administrative operations. Those who reported to him will now report directly to Dohle.
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
The One-Minute Pitch:
Free online class with NY Editor
Hi Everybody,
We wanted to alert you that there will be a FREE one-hour online class with New York Editor Stacey Barney, Saturday, September 13. Sign up for Stacey's FREE session, The One-Minute Pitch--Insider Insights from a New York Editor now. Space is limited! If you like it, you can stay for this outstanding editor's entire four-week course. Your choice! Our classes are live interactive audio webcasts with computer screen support!
Talk directly with these publishing pros About Your Writing, in the Unique
Interactive Authorlink Classroom!
- FREE CLASS, SEPT. 13: The One Minute Pitch--Insider Insights from a New York Editor
- Regular session starts September 20: Finding Your Voice
Instructor: Stacey Barney
Stacey BarneyAlso watch VIDEO interview
---------------------------------------------------
Bonnie Hearn Hill
Know What You Are Writing!
Best selling Thriller Author Shares Insights
in this VIDEO interview.
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Barnes & Noble Sales
Decline in Second Quarter
Hi Everyone,
Second quarter financial results have just been announced by Barnes & Noble, and the report shows what probably will be a sustained decline in sales, not only for the second quarter, but in the third and fourth quarters as well. Here's our take on the report.
Barnes & Noble
Second Quarter
Sales Decline
NEW YORK, NY/8/21/2008--Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE: BKS), the world's largest bookseller, today reported sales and earnings for the second quarter ended August 2, 2008 have declined by 1.6% to $1.2 billion. The retailer attributed the loss largely to last year's record sales of J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.
Barnes & Noble store sales decreased 1.6% to $1.1 billion, with comparable store sales decreasing 4.7% for the quarter. Barnes & Noble.com sales were $99.8 million for the quarter, a 3.6% comparable sales increase. Excluding prior year sales of the Harry Potter book, comparable sales decreased 1.5% in stores and increased 13.9% online.
Bestselling titles during the quarter included Stephenie Meyer's Breaking Dawn, Randy Pausch's The Last Lecture, Lauren Weisberger's Chasing Harry Winston and David Wroblewski's The Story of Edgar Sawtelle.
Second quarter net earnings were $15.4 million or $0.27 per share.
For the third quarter, the company expects comparable store sales at Barnes & Noble stores to decline in the low single digits.
Based on first-half 2008 sales performance and current trends, the company is reducing its full-year comparable store sales guidance from slightly negative to a decrease in the low single digits.
As of August 2, 2008, the company operated 723 Barnes & Noble stores and 73 B. Dalton stores. During the second quarter, 10 Barnes & Noble stores were opened and four were closed. Ten B. Dalton stores were closed during the quarter.
Barnes & Noble, Inc. will report third quarter earnings on or about November 20, 2008.
Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE: BKS), the world's largest bookseller and a Fortune 500 company, operates 796 bookstores in 50 states. The company is the nation's top bookseller in quality, and for the fifth year in a row, the top bookseller brand, as determined by a combination of the brand's performance on familiarity, quality, and purchase intent, according to the EquiTrend® Brand Study by Harris Interactive®. Barnes & Noble conducts its online business through Barnes & Noble.com (www.bn.com), one of the Web's largest e-commerce sites.
Second quarter financial results have just been announced by Barnes & Noble, and the report shows what probably will be a sustained decline in sales, not only for the second quarter, but in the third and fourth quarters as well. Here's our take on the report.
Barnes & Noble
Second Quarter
Sales Decline
NEW YORK, NY/8/21/2008--Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE: BKS), the world's largest bookseller, today reported sales and earnings for the second quarter ended August 2, 2008 have declined by 1.6% to $1.2 billion. The retailer attributed the loss largely to last year's record sales of J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.
Barnes & Noble store sales decreased 1.6% to $1.1 billion, with comparable store sales decreasing 4.7% for the quarter. Barnes & Noble.com sales were $99.8 million for the quarter, a 3.6% comparable sales increase. Excluding prior year sales of the Harry Potter book, comparable sales decreased 1.5% in stores and increased 13.9% online.
Bestselling titles during the quarter included Stephenie Meyer's Breaking Dawn, Randy Pausch's The Last Lecture, Lauren Weisberger's Chasing Harry Winston and David Wroblewski's The Story of Edgar Sawtelle.
Second quarter net earnings were $15.4 million or $0.27 per share.
For the third quarter, the company expects comparable store sales at Barnes & Noble stores to decline in the low single digits.
Based on first-half 2008 sales performance and current trends, the company is reducing its full-year comparable store sales guidance from slightly negative to a decrease in the low single digits.
As of August 2, 2008, the company operated 723 Barnes & Noble stores and 73 B. Dalton stores. During the second quarter, 10 Barnes & Noble stores were opened and four were closed. Ten B. Dalton stores were closed during the quarter.
Barnes & Noble, Inc. will report third quarter earnings on or about November 20, 2008.
Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE: BKS), the world's largest bookseller and a Fortune 500 company, operates 796 bookstores in 50 states. The company is the nation's top bookseller in quality, and for the fifth year in a row, the top bookseller brand, as determined by a combination of the brand's performance on familiarity, quality, and purchase intent, according to the EquiTrend® Brand Study by Harris Interactive®. Barnes & Noble conducts its online business through Barnes & Noble.com (www.bn.com), one of the Web's largest e-commerce sites.
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Bookstore Sales Decline in June
Hi Everyone,
In the headlines this week (sneak preview below), bookstore sales were off for June but figures for the year are slightly up. A development that bears watching is whether publishers will start blocking suppliers from deep discounts on their products as the result of a court ruling. Also, watch the Book Depository. They are to the UK what Amazon is to the US, and in fact, they have ties to the giant American retailer.
In the headlines this week (sneak preview below), bookstore sales were off for June but figures for the year are slightly up. A development that bears watching is whether publishers will start blocking suppliers from deep discounts on their products as the result of a court ruling. Also, watch the Book Depository. They are to the UK what Amazon is to the US, and in fact, they have ties to the giant American retailer.
PLEASE NOTE: Since we're sending this out in advance, some links may not be live just yet. If you encounter a broken link, please check back Thursday afternoon.
News Headlines
Thursday August 21, 2008
(updated each Thursday)
Thursday August 21, 2008
(updated each Thursday)
BN.com's Online CEO Resigns
on Heels of Borders Re-launch
NEW YORK, NY/8/21/2008--Barnes & Noble Inc., the largest U.S. specialty bookseller, said on Tuesday that Marie J. Toulantis, the chief executive of its online business, has resigned, and E-Commerce vice president tom Burke and CFO Kevin Frain will assume her duties. Barnes & Noble said Toulantis, who has been with the company since 1997 and since 1999 as BN.com CEO, will remain as a consultant.
The shakeup comes only a week after rival Borders became public and launched a spectacular new web site. Reaction to Borders new site has been extremely favorable, and Barnes & Noble announced it would not be able to finance a long-rumored buyout of Borders.
"Barnes & Noble's decision not to bid reflects in part the tight lending markets that likely would make it difficult to arrange bank financing," according to Massachusettes investor and market analyst Todd Sullivan. "The retailer was also known to be concerned about the length of some of the leases that Borders has signed." he said.
Friday, August 01, 2008
Some PUblishers' Sales Looking Up
Hi Everybody,
Here's what's going on this week in the publishing world. See our news headlines below. Looks like some major publishers had a good first half of the year, while others sagged. You might be interested in borders new Video book Club. See the news link below. Also check out the new skill-building articles in our August edition, and also be sure to visit the site to see our video interview with bestselling author Christopher Reich, and other great columns. Also, don't forget to check out our FREE online classes, one August 16 with Bonnie Hearn Hill, and the other with New York Editor Stacey Barney, coming in September. See www.authorlink.com/classroom/classroom.php for details.
Skill Building
August 1, 2008
August 1, 2008
- Art of Fiction
Crossing Disciplines
Lisa Lenard Cook
- Your Life as Story: Writing Narrative Non Fiction
Making Memoir From the Unexpected
Lisa Dale Norton
- Op-Ed Writing
Rochelle Jewel Shapiro
- Online Class: Advanced Novel Writing
Bonnie Hearn Hill
- Online Class: Finding Your Novel's Voice
New York Editor
Stacey Barney
News Headlines
Thursday July 31, 2008
(updated each Thursday)
Thursday July 31, 2008
(updated each Thursday)
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Thrillerwire Download Channel Launched
Hi Everyone,
Here's the latest news for this week. Sadly, Publishing News in the UK, with whom we have exchanged news reports for several years, has been closed. We're looking for a UK correspondent to continue to report on important news from the other side of the pond.
Just a reminder to join bestselling Bonnie Hearn Hill for her FREE online class on Advanced Novel Writing. If you like it, you can sign up for the whole series. See details at www.authorlink.com/classroom/classroom.php. Also check out FINDING YOUR NOVEL'S VOICE, starting August 2 with New York Editor Stacey Barney as the instructor. You'll get one-on-one instruction in these online classes.
We're pleased to report that the International Thriller Writers Association and Authorlink have teamed up to present excerpts from the latest thrillers on Authorlink's new THRILLERWIRE. Check it out at www.authorlink.com/thrillerwire . And let us know what you think.
USA News Headlines
Thursday July 17, 2008
Thursday July 17, 2008
in alliance with Nielsen's Publishing News
Thursday July 17, 2008
It is with great sadness that we have learned
the UK's Publishing News will cease publication with this
final edition. We wish our friends and colleagues across the pond the very best for the future and hope our paths will cross again in another venue
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