Publishers Weekly reports that, out of 150 titles HarperCollins is releasing as audiobooks this spring, only two are getting CD audio releases—the rest are digital downloads only. The story notes that sales of CDs have been declining, but no other major publisher has yet moved away from CDs to such an extent. Harper insists that it is not abandoning the CD format—it may choose to bring out a few more of those 150 titles as CDs later in the publishing process—but that in recent years its listeners have more and more moved over to digital audio. A Simon &...

I didn’t notice this David Pogue article from August 12th until Techdirt and Slashdot pointed it out just the other day. Though most of the article is about other cool features offered by iOS 4 (unified contacts, Facetime tricks), in the last section Pogue talks about the VoiceOver “spoken books” feature on the iPad and wonders why the Authors Guild and publishers hasn’t freaked out about it. I previously looked at the matter back in March; you’d think they would have had time to speak up by now. Yes, this is exactly the feature that...

If you needed proof that the earthquake of Andrew Wylie’s Amazon publishing deal continues to send aftershocks through the publishing industry, you need look no further than this post by “Agent Kristin” on her blog “Pub Rants”: Several agent friends have confirmed that Macmillan sent a letter over the weekend asking authors to sign amendments that gave them electronic rights to backlist titles. Kristin points out that these letters went directly to the authors in question—not the agents or agencies that represent them—and reminds authors not to sign them without checking with their...

The Authors Guild sends warning letters to its members when it thinks publishers are trying to take advantage of them. We’ve mentioned recent Authors Guild warnings about Random House’s statement on e-book rights, and Random House and HarperCollins’ attempts to lock authors into 25% e-book royalty rates. Today, Galleycat reports that the Authors Guild sent out a warning over a letter from Wiley & Sons, the new owner of Bloomberg Press, to Bloomberg writers concerning changes to the accounting system. Notes the Guild: We've asked an independent royalty auditor to review the effects of...

CNet’s David Carnoy has an article touching on Galleycat’s video interview with the new president of the Authors Guild, lawyer-turned-author Scott Turow. The five-minute interview segment is embedded below the jump, but Carnoy actually focuses on only a small part of it—Turow’s feelings about e-book piracy. It should not come as a surprise that now that the Kindle followed by the iPad have suddenly catapulted e-books and e-book reading into the spotlight, suddenly a lot of light is being shined into that dark corner of the net where e-book pirates lurk. Carnoy singles out the iPad...

On the E-Book Community mailing list, Brenna Lyons has announced that Smashwords has made a deal with Apple for inclusion on the iPad: There are hoops to jump through to be included but nothing outrageous. Among them...a unique ISBN (they have a free option that shows SW as the publisher and a $10 version that doesn't, which they will allow you to run a credit balance to get), acceptance into the premium catalog, and cover art loaded of at least 600 pixels high. More details here. Whether bestsellers on iBooks will be...

Mediabistro’s Galleycat makes note of a two-page letter sent by the Authors Guild to its members in reference to letters that Random House and HarperCollins have sent its authors. It seems that those two publishers are trying to get their writers to lock into 25% royalty rates on e-books. While this might look better than the 15% going rate on hardcovers, the Authors Guild warns that the terms may not be entirely desirable: Authors and publishers have traditionally split the proceeds from book sales. Most sublicenses, for example, provide for a 50/50 split of...

Given the importance of this matter I am reprinting their response in full. The Guild argues that the it is avoiding the pitfalls that the RIAA fell into. They say the RIAA won every battle but lost the war and infringement didn't truly abate until Apple moved in with an easy and cheap way to buy music. The Guild seems to be saying that they are putting Google in Apple's place in the publishing context: February 5, 2010. As you may be reading in today's paper, the Justice Department in its filing regarding our settlement with Google continues to...

David Pakman brings an economics perspective to the Amazon/Macmillan dispute, complete with a “price elasticity of demand” chart right out of a textbook. He explains the idea of finding the profit-maximizing price—the price at which the amount of profit times number of units sold is highest—and emphasizes that Amazon has access to the economic data from its millions upon millions of transactions to let them do just that, while publishers do not. So, why would publishers NOT want Amazon to find the optimal profit-maximizing price? Because, like many entrenched media companies, they have massive...

The following is a statement issued today by the Authors Guild which completely rejects Random House's opinion on e-book rights. This is important stuff so I reprint the statement in full: December 15, 2009. On Friday, Random House CEO Markus Dohle sent a two-page letter to many literary agents regarding e-books. Much of the letter is devoted to Random House's efforts and investments to market traditional and electronic books. On the second page, Mr. Dohle gets to the point. After noting that most of Random House's backlist titles grant the publisher electronic book rights (we agree, since most backlist...

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! A number of other sites are doing Thanksgiving lists (Ars Technica, Wired, another Wired, and Wired again on things not to be thankful for), and I thought I would assay one of my own. Of course, we all know that we have a lot more to be thankful for than just e-book-related things, but they are this site’s focus after all. There are a lot of people and companies that have made a difference in the e-book industry this year, and I thank the ones important to me below. These are the folks...

There isn't much to say here, the post speaks for itself. You can find it here. September 2, 2009. Amazon made it official today, filing a brief in the Google case claiming that someone else might gain a monopoly in bookselling. It seems we're compelled to state the obvious: Amazon's hypocrisy is breathtaking. It dominates online bookselling and the fledgling e-book industry. At this moment it's trying to cement its control of the e-book industry by routinely selling e-books at a loss. It won't do that forever, of course. Eventually, when enough readers are locked in...