Beyond the Book

Authors’ representatives – otherwise known as literary agents – have done some writing on their own this week. In a missive to the US Department of Justice, the board of the Association of Authors’ Representatives (AAR) conveyed “in the strongest terms possible” its opposition to a proposed settlement with three publishers over alleged e-book price [...]

The parties returned to Judge Denny Chin’s Manhattan courtroom yesterday for motions in the Google Books Case. The search engine giant sought to remove the Authors Guild as an associational plaintiff, even as the Guild pushed for its own motion to certify the class of authors. And what about the publishers? Well, they were elsewhere, [...]

A major publisher moves to kill DRM (Digital Rights Management). It’s more good news for e-book consumers, but in corners of the publishing industry, fears persist. Will holding on save the business? — or sink it? “Tor Books, the venerable sci-fi imprint of Macmillan has announced they would no longer use Digital Rights Management locks [...]

O to be in England, now that April’s there. And in 2012, in London, the scene is not nearly as idyllic as in Browning’s verse: The great metropolis is in the final throes of preparation for Olympic game and royal jubilee festivals. It has not gone without notice, though, that the city was host this [...]

“Baffling.” That’s the take from the CEO of the American Booksellers Association. “A big win” says Amazon, speaking not for the e-tailer but – it says – for Kindle owners. “An intrusion into the business sector by the federal government in a manner that is designed to bully people,” declares top agent Trident Media Group [...]

Surveys and polls are in the news – not on the presidential campaign, but on the rise of e-books in the US and the rest of the world. The French and the Japanese have something in common, it turns out, while in Brazil and India – two of the so-called BRICS group of developing nations [...]

Magic wand and e-reader in hand, Harry Potter returned to the spotlight on the publishing industry stage this week. Pottermore, the official digital home of the seven-novel series from J.K. Rowling launched this week. In the days ahead, when talk turns to evil-doing, it’s likely to involve old “you-know-what” – that’s right, DRM. “You know [...]

There will always be books, if only because Hollywood would die without them as sources for scripts. As The Hunger Games takes aim this weekend at movie audiences, agents and producers who are doing lunch in Lalaland should know that paranormal romances and dystopic futures are so yesterday. Meanwhile, Toni Morrison fans have something to [...]