By Edward Nawotka Following complaints by some 40 authors, including race car driving icon Han Han, Chinese search engine giant Baidu has deleted 2.8 million documents. According to several reports by AFP, the authors had signed a letter calling Baidu a “corrupt thief company” and complaining that their copyrighted works were being made available for free [...]
Some believe the “agency model” is little more than fixed book pricing in disguise. By Edward Nawotka Unlike several countries in Europe — as discussed in today’s feature story — the United States does not have fixed book prices. US publishers offer a recommended sales prices, which is printed on the book, but the price is not [...]
The debate over fixed book pricing remains a complicated and volatile one in Europe. By Amanda DeMarco On March 18 the Swiss parliament approved a fixed price system for books in German-speaking Switzerland, both for online and in-store sales as of next year. The debate over fixed book pricing is a complicated and volatile one in Europe. [...]
By Siobhan O’Leary Random House parent Bertelsmann has announced its final results for 2010, the year of its 175th anniversary, showing signs nearly across the board that cost-saving measures and digital expansion are having a positive impact. Revenues for the Bertelsmann Group as a whole increased by 4.5% to €15.8 billion in 2010 and profits jumped from [...]
The finalists for the biennial Man Booker International Prize have been announced. The winner — who receives £60,000 pounds – will be announced at the Sydney Writers Festival on May 18. Unlike the Booker prize, the award is open to living authors writing in English or those whose works are generally available in an English translation. If [...]
By Edward Nawotka Today’s feature discusses Stéphane Hessel, France’s 93-year old publishing phenomenon and the success of his 14-page political essay, Indignez vous! (Time for Outrage!). The book is just one example of a larger trends toward publishing short — in fact much shorter — works and selling them online. You might call it the resurrection [...]
By Olivia Snaije Stéphane Hessel is France’s 93-year old publishing phenomenon with his 14-page political essay, Indignez vous! (Time for Outrage!), released in October 2010, in which he exhorts readers to become outraged about the state of society. The book is now on bestseller lists in Germany, Spain and Italy. Quartet has just published the British [...]
By Erin L. Cox This year, Book Expo America returns to New York City’s Javits Center for events starting May 24th and, back by popular demand, the show will return to three full days in the exhibit hall. With a little something for everyone, “the largest publishing event in North America” is sure to be a blockbuster [...]
By Gwendolyn Dawson Thomas Pletzinger’s imaginative novel, Funeral for a Dog, proceeds on two parallel planes. One plane is inhabited by the present-day diary entries of German journalist/ethnographer Daniel Mandelkern recording a brief visit to the Italian lakeside home of reclusive children’s book author Dirk Svensson. The other plane consists of Svensson’s [...]
By Edward Nawotka When will a viable competitor to the iPad emerge? Today’s feature story discusses the Tools of Change conference at the Bologna Book Fair, where nearly all the talk developing apps and e-books for the iPad. The simple fact is, up until now, nothing has been able to compete with the iPad when it comes [...]
