Publishers Weekly

Japan's Readers Not As Quick to Adopt Ebooks
November 18, 2013

According to the media, the e-book era in Japan began in 2010, with the debut of Apple Inc.'s iPad, Sony Corp.'s Sony Reader and other e-book services.

The market has been growing, but not as fast as in the United States. In Japan, regular use of the technology remains limited.

Google Books: 1, Authors: 0 in Landmark Ruling
November 15, 2013

The eight-year-long legal battle over Google Books has finally come to a close. A judge ruled on Thursday that the search giant's scanning of millions of books falls under fair use and doesn't infringe the copyrights of the books' authors. The ruling (.PDF), issued by U.S. Circuit Judge Denny Chin in New York, ends the legal scuffle among the publishing trade group The Authors Guild, several individual authors and Google, as first reported by GigaOM. Google began scanning books in 2004 with the goal of publishing snippets in search results. 

Top YA Novels Feature Economic Fears
September 30, 2013

If you think kids are too young to worry about , consider this: some of our most popular young adult novels fairly shiver with economic anxiety. Take Veronica Roth's , this week's top New York Times Young Adult bestseller and a perennial on the list since its publication in 2011. Divergent's heroine, Beatrice Prior, braves hazing, groping and punching in order to enter the militaristic "faction" that she admires. She endures these dangers willingly because in Roth's dystopian, all-or-nothing Chicago, Beatrice would be thrown into the streets if she fails her initiation.

Take Action, But Act Intelligently
September 26, 2013

Intelligent action is based on the understanding that knowledge is different from wisdom. Knowledge is information, but intelligence is the prudent application of knowledge earned through experience. It is the good judgment that prevents mishaps from recurring or enables you to act differently when they do.

Feud Between Barnes & Noble and Simon & Schuster Is Finally Over
August 21, 2013

Barnes & Noble and Simon & Schuster have finally reached an agreement after months of squabbling over book pricing and other matters, reports to Publishers Weekly, noting that "the issue was causing a noticeable cutback in the number of [Simon & Schuster] titles the bookseller had on its shelves." Publishers Weekly first reported in January that Barnes & Noble has reduced its order of Simon & Schuster titles over "perceived lack of support" from the publishing company. In March, a senior executive familiar with the negotiations


... In an email to The Times, Martin wrote, "I decided to rescind my offer of representation after watching Juror B37 on Anderson Cooper 360. I believe I made a grave error in judgment in wanting to represent this story. Shortly after the show aired, I reached out to B37 and suggested we terminate our book representation agreement. She and her husband agreed."

Amazon's Monopoly is not Predatory
July 12, 2013

As I survey the responses to and discussions of the recent decision in the Apple e-book antitrust trial, I’m disheartened by how many people seem to be buying into the publishers’ and Apple’s narrative of Amazon as the evil predatory-pricing monopolist. You see it in comments and articles here and there, that take for granted Amazon has been selling all its e-books at a loss, not just a small handful.

Even Adam Engst of TidBITS has been taken in:
Initially the U.S. Department of Justice filed this lawsuit against

Penguin wants Author Solutions lawsuit dismissed
June 25, 2013

Author Solutions, Penguin’s self-publishing imprint, has been a bit controversial for a while. Last year an anonymous poster claiming to be an AS employee had some pretty damning things to say about the company’s business practices. Last July, Penguin bought the self-publishing firm, shocking some industry onlookers:

    "What does Author Solutions bring to the table? Well, for starters, around $100m in annual revenue. Roughly two-thirds of that money comes from the sale of services to writers, and only one-third from the royalties generated by the sale of their books.…"

Book publishers finally get a reason to party
May 30, 2013

The number of parties has dwindled and there are fewer blockbuster celebrity authors, but the actual business of book publishing looks a little brighter this year.

Book Expo America, which kicks off at the Javits Convention Center today, is designed to bring independent booksellers together so that publishers can hype books they think will be big sellers in the coming months.

Yesterday, the Alfred A. Knopf imprint announced “Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy,” the third book in British writer Helen Fielding’s mega-selling series about the travails of a single woman. The first two books became international sensations in the 1990s

IDPF Digital Book 2013 Reveals an All-Star Lineup
May 15, 2013

New York, NY, May 8, 2013 – From May 29-30, 2013, the best minds in digital publishing will convene in the Javits Center in New York City for the highly-anticipated, perennially sold-out at IDPF Digital Book 2013 conference (http://idpf.org/db13). This year’s theme, Advancing Publishing in a Digital World, has already drawn an enormous crowd, with seats expected to sell out soon.

Some featured speakers and session insights include:

  • Otis Chandler, Co-founder and CEO of Goodreads will share an update and tackle questions from the crowd, including: what’s next for Goodreads now that it’s owned by Amazon? What does the recent sale mean for the 17 million members, 530 million books and 23 million reviews?
  • Malcolm Gladwell, bestselling author and staff writer for The New Yorker will speculate on the digital future with Brad Stone, Bloomberg Businessweek writer and author of the upcoming The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon