By Amanda DeMarco COLOGNE: It was “not self-evident” that David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest would enter the German literary world, says Helge Malchow, publisher at Cologne-based Kiepenheuer & Witsch (KiWi). Buchmarkt named Malchow Publisher of the Year in 2005, the same year a Welt Online article called him “the Bismarck of German publishing, its lord and savior.” About 50% of …
German Trendsetters at Klett-Cotta on the Benefits of Being Big
By Amanda DeMarco STUTTGART: Michael Zöllner isn’t sentimental about his days as an independent publisher. He and his partner Tom Kraushaar led Tropen Verlag autonomously until January 2008, when it merged with the larger Stuttgart-based Klett-Cotta Verlag. Tropen, which published 10 to 12 titles per year, became an imprint of Klett-Cotta and the two became CEOs of Klett-Cotta’s list and …
Bonus Material: Indie vs. Corporate Publishing, Is the Choice Still Relevant?
By Edward Nawotka In today’s article about German publishing house Tropen’s transition into the folds of the much larger Klett-Cotta, executive Michael Zöllner stressed that the move was, by-and-large, a positive one. “The element of trust, combined with greater possibilities and safety [as a business] aren’t contradictory with independence, they’re an improved concept of it,” he said. “With Tropen we always …
Global Trade Talk: Global Reactions to the Revised Google Book Settlement Range from Praise to Resentment
By Siobhan O’Leary and Ed Nawotka The revised Google Settlement has sparked a number of reactions, but notably, the strongest have been from Europe. Publishers Weekly explains that the revisions limit the settlement “to books that were either registered with the U.S. Copyright Office or published in the U.K., Australia or Canada,” thus limiting the agreement to the “four countries which …
German Buch News: Swiss Doubt Over Fixed Prices; iRex Promises Color Reader
By Siobhan O’Leary In Switzerland, the financial crisis has reignited the debate over fixed book pricing, which was expected to go into effect in 2010. Now, in an interview with the Boersenblatt, Dani Landolf, Director of the Schweizer Buchhändler- und Verleger-Verbands (SBVV) (Swiss Booksellers and Publishers Association, says politicians are backing off their commitment to the policy, due in large …
German Buch News: E-book Prices; Suhrkamp’s American Editor
By Siobhan O’Leary The launch of B&N’s e-book store has sparked renewed debate about e-book pricing in Germany. Head of Libreka Ronald Schild told buchreport that the price debate will really get started at the end of the year, when German publishers are expected to release far more bestsellers as e-books. German e-books are typically priced around the same as …
German Buch News: Bertelsmann Pay Cuts, Twitter Usage Up
By Siobhan O’Leary Executives at Bertelsmann’s Gutersloh headquarters were recently hit with diminished bonuses (as much as 50% lower in some cases) and salary cuts. Now, the pay cuts are affecting other employees at Gutersloh, says Buchmarkt. They will not be seeing the 2.5% pay scale increase that was planned for this month, and employees being paid over and above the …
Canada’s Suite101 Writers Profit, Expanding to France, Spain
by Craig Morgan Teicher VANCOUVER, B.C.: “I sometimes see us more like a service to writers than just a publication. We want to make them successful,” said Peter Berger, the German CEO of Suite101, a company whose online magazine features articles on, well, just about everything — from choosing the best fly-fishing vest to doing PR for a small business during a …
German Buch News: Sales Up Slightly, “Psychological DRM”
by Siobhan O’Leary Despite the worldwide financial crisis, the German book market continues to remain relatively stable, says Buchreport. The Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels (German Publishers & Booksellers Association) has calculated a 1.4% increase in sales for the first five months of 2009. Of course, the book industry should approach this news with cautious optimism: In 2008, the German book …
German Buch News: “The Readers” premiers, Ebooks for iPhones
By Siobhan O’Leary Today Publishing Perspectives begins a new daily column that aggregates the best publishing and book news from Germany. Enjoy, and look for similar columns coming from other countries in coming weeks. Following the contentious firing of Elke Heidenreich – who wielded Oprah-like authority over book sales with her program, Lesen, – German TV network ZDF has launched a new series …