Playster, the all-inclusive, global media and entertainment platform, announced it has signed a content agreement withHarperCollins, one of the world's leading book publishers, to feature its U.S. catalog on the Playster service. The agreement will provide Playster members with more than 14,000 titles within HarperCollins' catalog. Currently in BETA, Playster gives users unlimited access to movies, TV, music, video games and books for one low monthly subscription price.
Deepak Chopra
The Oct. 29 merger of book behemoths Random House and Penguin not only creates the world’s largest publisher, home to authors as diverse as Fifty Shades of Grey’s E L James and mystery writer Patricia Cornwell, it also will present a formidable challenge to the growing power of such digital distributors as Amazon and Apple. And some already are worrying that the consolidation will decrease opportunities for authors and drive down advances.
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and Amazon.com Inc. today announced a new licensing agreement between Amazon Publishing's East Coast Group and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt's newly named New Harvest imprint. New Harvest will now publish all of Amazon Publishing's New York-based imprint's adult titles in print and distribute them in North America outside of the Amazon.com platform.
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At an old Mughal palace accommodating what organizers called “the greatest literary show on earth,” the headliners on Sunday included Oprah Winfrey, Deepak Chopra and Tom Stoppard. But the absence of another star, Salman Rushdie, continued to overshadow the event.
A free-speech controversy has raged at the event, the Jaipur Literature Festival, since Friday, when Mr. Rushdie said he would not attend because the law enforcement authorities had warned of a threat against his life by “paid assassins.” But the story took a twist over the weekend: Was there really a threat?
For the first time, HarperCollins will release an e-book before the print edition, The New York Times reported. "Muhammad," a fictionalized biography of the Prophet Muhammed by Deepak Chopra, was made available for purchase in e-book form Sept. 8, weeks prior to the hardcover release on Sept. 21.
Whether it’s through Dr. Phil’s advice on “getting real” or Dale Carnegie’s strategies on “How to Win Friends and Influence People,” we seem to be incessantly compelled to better ourselves. Besides spiritual and professional self-help books, do-it-yourself books have exploded in popularity over the years (the “For Dummies” line published by John Wiley & Sons Inc. among them). But like any other market segment, the self-help book market faces challenges—challenges that are, in fact, similar to those most publishers are facing at the moment. They also face great opportunity in a changing marketplace—opportunity that some say could be easily missed. Community Is Key
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