The French company, Hachette Livre, which owns of publishers of Australian Science Fiction and Fantasy interest - Orbit and Orion - has recently become worse than the Grinch, instituting massive price rises for Australian readers. My particular interest is science fiction and fantasy, so those subgenres I have looked at due to greater familiarity.  Anyone wanting to do the same thing for crime, for example will find the same results. As a pricing sample, I decided to look at Orbit's 2011 book list, given they present their publication scheduled professionally and in an easy-to-read, accessible format.  Orion's website, in comparison, is pretty...

Hachette have "leaked" a memo explaining why they are necessary. One of the many germane comments about the article is this, from Linton Robinson: BTW, anecdotally, of the writers I know who are making decent livings from published books, about half are either letting contracts lapse or heavily considering it, while putting out books on their own. This is what will kill Hachette and the rest. They cannot compete with the independent author on price. It is as simple as that. The indie has no back office to support. He makes more from an ebook at $3 than he would through Hachette were...

So reports paidContent: On the heels of the news yesterday that over 20 percent of Random House’s U.S. sales are e-books, Hachette Book Group says that e-books made up 20 percent of its U.S. sales in the first half of this year, up from 10 percent in the first half of 2010. Hachette Book Group says its e-book revenue is up 115 percent compared to the first half of 2010, although the company did not break out actual sales figures. In addition to the 20 percent in the U.S., e-books now account for 8 percent of...

The following is the full press release issued by the law firm in this important lawsuit.  As a former corporate lawyer who used to teach antitrust law to my fellow employees, I must say that I'm surprised that it took so long for someone to do this.  On its face, the current arrangement seems to be a pretty clear violation of the antitrust laws related to price fixing and certainly also contains strong elements of conspiracy.  I would be pretty nervous if I were the publishers' lawyers. SAN FRANCISCO – Hagens Berman, a consumer rights class-action law firm, today announced it...

The Bookseller reports that Google has reached an agreement with publisher Hachette Livre to scan out-of-print French e-books. Between 40,000 and 50,000 books will be scanned, and Hachette Livre will decide which ones are made available as e-books. (I wonder if it will include any Arsène Lupin novels?) Google hopes to reach similar agreements with other French publishers. The deal took two months longer than it was supposed to, but both parties seem satisfied with its terms. A little strange, given how much acrimony there was in Europe over Google’s scanning projects not long ago....

Interviewed by Michael Healy, Book Rights Registry Retailing scene: Borders situation.  Have to be careful talking about them because  a lot of people's jobs are on the line.  The challenge is to persuade suppliers to extend them credit.  From my point of view it is  difficult to imagine because have seen nothing in a business plan that will convince us.  Have already lost tens of millions of dollars, but will only deal with them on a cash basis.  Don't think have an enfeebled independent book-selling community.  Last year ABA grew for the first time in a decade.  More young people coming...

Tomorrow I'll be in New York City for the Publishing Point meetup.  This time they will be having a conversation with David Young, Chairman/CEO of Hachette Book Group. If you work  in New York, or who can go into New York,  you should seriously consider joining Publishing Point.  Susan Danziger has been doing a fantastic job in getting interesting speakers.  You can find them here.  Previous CEOs in The Publishing Point CEO Interview Series have included John Sargent, CEO of Macmillan, Carolyn Reidy, CEO of Simon & Schuster, and Tim O'Reilly, CEO of O'Reilly Media....

From their press release: E-book sales momentum was considerable (up 88% compared to Q1 2010), accounting for approximately 22% of revenue in the United States and 5% in the United Kingdom. This development is the result of very brisk sales of e-book readers at the end of the year. ... e-book sales will continue to grow in the United States, albeit at a less upbeat rate than in the first quarter, to reach 15% to 20% of revenues. E-books could account for 5% to 10% of revenues in the United Kingdom in 2011. ...

From the press release: Ingram Content Group Inc. today announced an agreement with Hachette UK, one of the largest and most diversified publishing groups in the United Kingdom, to archive and distribute the publisher’s e-content to partners worldwide through CoreSource®. “Our ability to reach the global market with our content in the desired formats is critical,” said Chris Emerson, Chief Operating Officer of Hachette UK. “Digital publishing is at the centre of our business and working with a publishing services leader such as Ingram Content Group helps us to deliver our content wherever and however it is wanted.” Ingram’s CoreSource is an...

From Le Figaro, via a Google translation: Opened on Thursday in Paris Book Fair, where the ebook is the star. The digital book is still non-existent in France but is already present in the United States. What is the reality of the market? "In 2010, the electronic book accounted for 8% of market value and 10% in quantity. But since the beginning of 2011, it rose to 23% of quantities sold, which is what we see on our sales. This market is growing very rapidly, "says Arnaud Noury. The downloaded books differ from those sold in bookstores? "No, it's the same...

Sigh. I suppose it was naïve of me to think that customers (little guy) could force a large company (big bully) to act fairly – in this case regarding their policy of anti-competitive ebook pricing. Yesterday I wrote that they were breaking the ACCC law that governs “Resale Price Maintenance”. I said I’d tell the ACCC and I did. To their credit, an ACCC rep got back to me today explaining the loophole (see below). Alas, large companies must have lawyers to think up ways to tiptoe around minor issues like, say, illegal pricing laws. In this...

With multinational companies chipping away at the edges of honesty, it’s easy to forget the simple things sometimes. Make no mistake – anti-competitive (aka “Agency”) pricing is illegal in Australia. Darryl Adams recently pointed this out on his blog Oz-e-Books – and it’s a timely reminder. In the face of large companies sending press releases “announcing” changes to their business practices to reinforce their “rights to set prices” across all retailers, sometimes we forget to question that. Do they have that right? Do book publishers have the right to dictate the retail price of their products, when sold...