Bestselling authors take out full-page New York Times ad against Amazon

Stephen King and Donna Tartt among those petitioning Amazon to 'stop harming the livelihood of the authors'Readers of the New York Times will have to steel themselves this weekend, as the unseemly brawl between Hachette and Amazon erupts on to the tranquil pages of the Grey Lady. Perhaps the most incendiary item in Sunday's edition is due to be a full-page ad paid for by a group of bestselling authors and backed by over 900 other writers calling on Amazon "in the strongest possible terms to stop harming the livelihood of the authors on whom it has built its business".The extraordinary move is the latest salvo in a battle over terms which has seen Amazon delay delivery and remove the possibility of pre-orders on a swathe of books by Hachette authors, including JK Rowling and James Patterson. The online leviathan Amazon says it is attempting to "lower ebook prices"; publishing conglomerate Hachette argues that it is seeking "terms that value appropriately for the years ahead the author's unique role in creating books, and the publisher's role in editing, marketing, and distributing them". Continue reading... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'

[ The Guardian | 2014-08-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
News tagged with: #latest salvo #james patterson #years ahead

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Pluto "deeply worried" over vanished author

Written By: Benedicte Page Publication Date: Tue, 31/05/2011 - 14:18 Concerns are growing over the whereabouts of investigative journalist Syed Saleem Shahzad, whose book Inside Al-Qaeda: Beyond Bin Laden and 9/11 has just been published in the UK by Pluto Press. Shahzad, who is Pakistan... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-05-31 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Amazon reveals frontlist deal for Eisler at BEA

Written By: Gayle Feldman Publication Date: Thu, 26/05/2011 - 08:52 Thriller writer Barry Eisler, who turned his back on a two-book deal for half a million dollars from St Martin’s Press, has decided to accept six figures from Amazon and become one of its first frontlist authors. The Eisler... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-05-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Barnes & Noble Announces New Nook; Amazon Responds with Cheaper 3G

Barnes & Noble CEO William Lynch announced the new Nook, aimed at "those turned off by buttons." Continue reading at Editor & Publisher

[ Editor & Publisher | 2011-05-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Legal bestseller downloads double in France

Written By: Barbara Casassus Publication Date: Thu, 26/05/2011 - 13:45 More than a third of bestsellers are available for legal downloads in France, about twice the proportion reported a year ago, according to Motif, the observatory of books and writing in the Ile-de-France region that... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-05-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Amazon's Publishing Plans Cause Rivals Some Unease

Earlier in the week, Amazon announced that it was hiring Laurence Kirshbaum, the former CEO of Time Warner Book Group, to head a new publishing imprint. This seems like an odd time for Amazon to be making its mark on the pubishing industry: book sales are down, major book chains like Borders are... Continue reading at AdWeek

[ AdWeek | 2011-05-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Authors readied to support strong Independent Booksellers Week

Written By: Lisa Campbell Publication Date: Wed, 25/05/2011 - 08:45 Edmund de Waal, Maggie O’Farrell and Tony Parsons are among the authors lined up to take part in Independent Booksellers Week. The week of events, in association with the Booksellers Association, will take place between... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-05-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Waterstone's necessary for midlist and discoverability, says Page

Written By: Graeme Neill Publication Date: Wed, 25/05/2011 - 09:41 The safeguarding of Waterstone's future will secure the midlist of history and science writing, literary fiction and memoir, the m.d. of Faber has said. Stephen Page, writing in the Guardian, said if the Waterstone's... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-05-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Amazon to open new service centre for Kindle support

Publication Date: Wed, 25/05/2011 - 14:24 Amazon is to open a new customer service centre in Edinburgh this August, with one of its roles to handle technical support for the Kindle. The move will create more than 900 permanent and temporary jobs over the next five years. The centre will be... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-05-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Amazon's Kirshbaum move could reduce competition—BEA

Written By: Gayle Feldman Publication Date: Tue, 24/05/2011 - 09:41 Responses to Amazon.com's hire of Laurence Kirshbaum as publisher have varied from worried to fear of a "dampening" effect on competition among delegates at the BEA conference. Word that started to spread Sunday night was... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-05-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Digital in the Black for First Time at Future

Future plc, the U.K.-based enthusiast publisher with a U.S operation in San Francisco, released half-year results for its fiscal 2011 and digital has become the star performer. Continue reading at Folio Magazine

[ Folio Magazine | 2011-05-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
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E-Books Outsell Print Books at Amazon

Amazon.com said that it sold 105 ebooks for every 100 printed books, a milestone that its chief executive, Jeff Bezos, said had occurred sooner than expected. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2011-05-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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QOTD: About Those Amazon E-Book Sales…

“As a former Amazon Associate, I can tell you that a great many sales of Kindle Books are for the 99¢ complete Dickens, etc.” –Movie critic and Web publisher Roger Ebert, providing some context for Amazon’s stat about Kindle ebooks outselling print books. Continue reading at AllThingsD

[ AllThingsD | 2011-05-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Kindle E-books Top Print Books Sales on Amazon

It happened. Amazon says ebook sales have surpassed physical book sales on Amazon.com. Continue reading at PC World

[ PC World | 2011-05-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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E-Book Sales Pass Print on Amazon

While the Rapture isn’t scheduled to occur until Saturday, according to members of certain religious fringe groups, it looks like doomsday has come early for publishers of print books. Amazon announced Thursday that sales of ebooks on the site have finally surpassed combined sales of hardcovers... Continue reading at AdWeek

[ AdWeek | 2011-05-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Amazon to accept ePub files

Written By: Philip Jones Publication Date: Thu, 19/05/2011 - 09:59 Amazon has told US publishers that it will begin accepting digital files in the ePub format in the near future and will also allow users of its Kindle device to read ePub files. read more Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-05-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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PW Has A New Facebook Page

PW has a new Facebook page at www.facebook.com/pubweekly. We hope you'll come check us out over there, "like" us, and join the publishing business conversation in the interactive space that is Facebook. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2011-05-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Isle of Mull indie closes doors for last time

Written By: Lisa Campbell Publication Date: Wed, 18/05/2011 - 07:45 An independent bookshop on the remote Scottish Isle of Mull has closed its doors after 40 years. Coffee and Books in Dervaig, on the Isle of Mull, part of the Inner Hebrides, closed last Friday (13th May) after its owner David... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-05-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Corvus acquires seven from self-published author

Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Tue, 17/05/2011 - 08:15 Corvus has acquired seven books from self-published author Nick Alexander, whose title The Missing Boyfriend was in the top 10 in the Kindle paid-for charts for six weeks. Senior editor Laura Palmer bought world English... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-05-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Authors should be paid for events - BIC

Written By: Lisa Campbell Publication Date: Tue, 17/05/2011 - 08:20 Authors should be paid for hosting events, the Society of Authors new general secretary has said. Nicola Solomon told delegates at the Book Industry Conference yesterday (16th May) that if authors give up a day of their free... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-05-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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