publishing industry

Stephen King Adds His Clout to Anti-Amazon Letter

Authors think Jeff Bezos is using bully business tactics

(Newser) - Stephen King, Nora Roberts, and Robert Caro are among the hundreds of authors who have added their names to an online letter criticizing Amazon.com for restricting access to works published by Hachette Book Group. The letter, initiated by Hachette author Douglas Preston, urged Amazon to resolve its standoff with... More »

Amazon Might Doom Itself With Own Success

Evan Hughes: Killing traditional bookstores will harm company in long run

(Newser) - Amazon seems unstoppable right about now, thanks in part to court decisions like this one . On top of that, Barnes & Noble is reeling , as are brick-and-mortar bookstores in general. But Amazon better hold the celebration, because if it puts traditional bookstores out of business, it's only going to... More »

Apple Guilty of E-Book Price-Fixing: Judge

Court rules company conspired with publishers to jack up prices

(Newser) - The verdict in the Apple e-book price-fixing trial is in: the company did conspire with publishing companies to push up prices, says a federal judge. "The plaintiffs have shown that the publisher defendants conspired with each other to eliminate retail price competition in order to raise e-book prices, and... More »

Is This 21-Year-Old the Next Literary Superstar?

Samantha Shannon's 'Bone Season' is out this summer

(Newser) - Samantha Shannon may not be a household name, but her UK publisher thinks she will be sometime in August when her first novel, the Bone Season, comes out. It's the first in a seven-book series set in 2059 London, and Shannon scored a six-figure advance for the first three,... More »

Apple Faces Uphill Battle as Price-Fixing Trial Begins

Judge expects 'direct evidence' of 'conspiracy'

(Newser) - Apple's federal court battle over e-book price fixing begins today, and the company has a tough case to make, observes the Wall Street Journal . The government's claim: Apple made deals with five publishers to boost the prices of e-books before the iPad's 2010 launch. "Stripped of... More »

Publishers Cry Foul as Amazon Seeks .Book Domain

Publishers Howl as Amazon Seeks .Book Domain

Firm wants to snap up dozens of new names

(Newser) - A big expansion of Internet domain name suffixes is on the way and publishing industry groups are alarmed by Amazon.com's plans to get in on the action, the Wall Street Journal reports. The company is seeking to snap up names including ".book," ".author" and "... More »

Time Warner May Sell Off People, Other Magazines

It would keep Time, Sports Illustrated

(Newser) - Time Warner is contemplating a big shakeup of the marquis magazines under its Time Inc. publishing division, reports Fortune and the New York Times . The media conglomerate is expected to sell People, InStyle, and Real Simple magazines to Meredith Corporation, which already publishes Better Homes and Gardens and Ladies Home ... More »

Random House, Penguin to Merge

Some literary agents concerned

(Newser) - Random House, already the biggest consumer book publisher in the English-speaking world, will get even bigger next year after a planned merger with Penguin. The plans, rumored last week, were confirmed today by the media companies that own the two publishing divisions, Bertelsmann and Pearson. Bertelsmann, the Random House owner,... More »

Lena Dunham’s $3.7M Advance Is a Big Problem

In fact, it explains what's wrong with the publishing industry: Rob Spillman

(Newser) - Want to know what's wrong with the corporate publishing industry? Take a look at Lena Dunham's insane book deal , which Rob Spillman pegs at $3.7 million on Salon . Random House will need to sell at least 500,000 copies to break even, which Spillman thinks is a... More »

Most YA Books Bought By Adults

Faster-paced books appeal to everyone, it turns out

(Newser) - It turns out you're not the only grown-up devouring the Hunger Games. A new study from Bowker Market Research found that 55% of the people buying young adult novels are actually regular adults, the Christian Science Monitor reports. Oh sure, some say they're buying them for younger relatives,... More »

Monica Lewinsky Hawking Secret New Book

Publishers forced to sign non-disclosure agreement to meet with her

(Newser) - Should Bill Clinton be worried? Monica Lewinsky has been shopping a new book, sources tell the New York Post , and it's so hush-hush that she's making publishers sign a non-disclosure agreement before she'll meet with them. "I'm sure every major publisher was interested in hearing... More »

Murdoch Contemplates Splitting Up News Corp

Separating publishing would make other media more profitable

(Newser) - After resisting investors' pressure for years, Rupert Murdoch is finally considering splitting his News Corp. media empire in two, dividing publishing and the company's other, more lucrative media units, reports the Wall Street Journal . The Murdoch family would likely maintain its control of both companies, similar to Sumner Redstone'... More »

10 Reasons to Stop Buying on Amazon

Taxes, 'monopolistic' behavior top the list

(Newser) - Amazon: the evil empire? The Nation seems to think so, warning that Amazon is "well positioned to overpower its rivals" as publishers turn to digital books and the mega-site sells more Kindle books than hardcovers. The lefty mag lists 10 reasons not to do business with Amazon:

Amazon avoids

... More »

How One Small Bookstore Outwitted Amazon

The Harvard Book Store installed its own printer

(Newser) - The Amazon steamroller is crushing one neighborhood bookstore after another—which is why Phil Johnson felt sympathy for the man who took over the Harvard Book Store. "I respected his mission, even if I didn’t quite believe in its future," Johnson writes in Forbes . But over a... More »

Pulitzer Board Just Sucked Life Out of Book Industry

Prize injects needed excitement into world of literature: Ann Patchett

(Newser) - Sure, there's a possibility that when the Pulitzer Prize board failed to announce a fiction winner, the reason could have been a simple deadlock. But most who heard the news probably didn't assume that, and instead figured "it was a bum year for fiction," writes author... More »

Amazon Now Moves to Slash E-Book Prices

But DoJ suit expected to be bad news for readers in long run

(Newser) - Just after the Department of Justice launched its antitrust lawsuit against Apple and five major publishers , Amazon announced plans to slash e-book prices. But while the move is expected to cut the prices of major titles from $14.99 to $9.99 or less, analysts believe the benefit to consumers... More »

JK Rowling Lands Deal for New Adult Book

It will be 'very different' than Harry Potter

(Newser) - JK Rowling is back, but if you're hoping for more adventures starring a certain boy wizard—or anything along the lines of those books—you're out of luck. Little, Brown and Company announced today that it had acquired the rights to publish a new book by Rowling, but... More »

Amazon Yanks 5K E-Books in Contract Dispute

Publishers group says it was strong-armed to accept new terms

(Newser) - Amazon is playing hardball with a book distributor that refused to give it a bigger share of the pie. The company's Kindle store yanked some 5,000 e-books after Independent Publishers Group, which represents hundreds of independent publishers, refused the online giant's demands. "They decided they didn'... More »

Amazon Plans Brick-and-Mortar Boutique

Online megastore may also launch national chain

(Newser) - As if traditional publishers don't already hate Amazon . Now the online retailer-turned-publisher is planning to open a small boutique store in Seattle to test the waters for a national chain, Gawker reports via the Good E-Reader blog. The store will sell Kindle e-readers, Kindle Fires, and various accessories—as... More »

Final Hitchens Book to Hit Shelves Next Year

Morality is based on cancer struggle

(Newser) - For fans of Christopher Hitchens , one final book. A memoir entitled Mortality will be released in early 2012; it's based on a series of articles the journalist wrote for Vanity Fair describing his battle with esophageal cancer, reports the Guardian . A spokesman noted that the book had been in... More »