We’re fighting for you. That’s what Amazon told authors this week as the public battle between the retail giant and Hachette Book Group continued. In a post on Amazon’s Kindle Forums, the Seattle company says consumers should pay less for e-books, and authors deserve...
If the book business were a big yellow school bus, the driver would be a bald fellow wearing a wide grin. More even than before, Jeff Bezos and Amazon have the wheel, while publishers and authors hang on for a rough ride. In particular, speculation about the end game...
When Les Moonves, President and CEO of CBS Corporation, the owners of Simon & Schuster, let slip that the Big 5 house was in pricing talks with Amazon, the media world did its best to react with shock. Any expression of surprise, however, could only have been for...
The offer sounded almost too good to be true, but the reports on Tuesday were from reliable sources. Caught in a publicity fire-fight with Hachette Book Group authors and publishers, Amazon appealed to one of the parties for peace. The online shopping giant had...
That faint odor in the air for the book business is the scent of consolidation. This week, the wind of change blew in for Perseus Books Group, and then it blew out as Hachette Livre. In recent weeks, Hachette has appeared regularly in trade news headlines, mostly for...
News in the Apple e-book price-fixing case this week was made outside Judge Denise Cote’s courthouse. On Tuesday, plaintiffs from several states, as well as the consumer class, announced a proposed settlement with the Cupertino, California computer maker. This latest...
Looking ahead to the American Libraries Association annual conference in Las Vegas later this month, Andrew Albanese takes stock of efforts by ALA’s Digital Content Working Group to influence the future direction of reading. “Formed three years ago when the library...
At BookExpo America last week, the buzz at the show wasn’t about any new titles, or even any new apps, but about the bare-knuckle brawl between Amazon and Hachette over e-book pricing. The debate raises sharp, difficult questions about what lies ahead for publishers...
BookExpo America is the nation’s largest exposition devoted to the publishing business. As the weather in New York City clears and warms, it’s all the better to see the changes brought by the digital revolution. Above all, the buzz at BEA is a story at the heart of...
Next week, May 28-31, BookExpo America lands at the Javits Convention Center on Manhattan’s West Side. The nation’s largest trade show for the book business, BEA is a powerful magnet not only for authors and publishers, but also for librarians who love books – it’s...
