Authors Reject “Forever” Contracts

True love, if you’re lucky enough to find it, lasts forever. So do diamonds, and even some tattoos. And for trade book authors, there are the contracts they sign with publishers. Earlier this week, the Authors Guild released the fourth installment of its Fair Contract...

Learning To Change

Change has come to publishing.  That’s hardly a news flash.  We are all familiar with the digital transformation of books and related media such as news.  But the change that’s rarely spoken of is what happens to our work and our workplaces. Amy Wrzesniewski,...

More Books From Harper Lee, Please

In a week when Go Set A Watchman broke sales records, the book business might want to celebrate. Then again, it might not. Harper Lee’s second novel lay unpublished for more than 50 years. When it finally appeared, readers swooped upon the tale of Scout and Atticus...

Picture Perfect Fair Use?

When is a photograph not a photograph?  When it is a work of art by Richard Prince, a master of rephotography and other appropriation practices.  Riddles that puzzle over ownership and originality have preoccupied Richard Prince for four decades.  Those same riddles,...

Watchman Heats Up Summer Sales

Many bestsellers are surprise hits, appearing almost out of nowhere to dominate and saturate. The latest blockbuster, though, was a guaranteed smash from the day this past winter when its publisher announced the title. Go Set a Watchman is only the second novel from...

Scott Stratten UnInterviewed

Picture Scott Stratten as a cross between a hipster and a revival preacher. Bearded and tattooed, he paces the stage for companies like PepsiCo, Adobe and the Red Cross, Hard Rock Cafe, and Cirque du Soleil, to evangelize for engagement. With a mission to promote the...

Appealing Apple Loses Again

Courtrooms figure prominently yet again in the latest book world news, while one innovative online service struggles to balance costs and customer demand. In New York City, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, by a 2–1 margin, affirmed Judge Denise Cote’s 2013 finding...

Best of BTB: Content, Copyright & (Global) Commerce

Across the world of publishing, change is underway. Book publishing and distribution are fundamentally different than even a few years ago – and opportunity at a global scale is available to all sizes of publishers. With a combination of digitally-driven...