We previously mentioned Penguin’s decision to stop making new e-book titles available to libraries in the USA and the UK. The Digital Shift reports that decision extends to downloadable digital audiobooks as well. A message from Overdrive yesterday explains this applies to audiobook titles released after 11/14/2011. In an apparently unrelated move, Amazon-owned BrillianceAudio will also stop offering downloadable audiobook titles. It’s not clear exactly why Penguin is doing this. The reason the company gave for its e-book restrictions was “concerns about the security of the copyright of its authors.” It has not given any explanation for this audiobook restriction. As...

From The Guardian: The Penguin Shorts progamme, a collection of short digital reads, has just launched with nine titles, ranging from a creepy short story by Dunmore to an essay on multiculturalism from Elif Shafak, accounts of the battles of Alamein and Isandlwana, recipes for the perfect Christmas day from Felicity Cloake and a novella by Anita Brookner. Toby Young has written an essay on How To Set Up a Free School, John Gapper an analysis of rogue trading, Colm Tóibín a memoir of growing up in Ireland. Priced at £1.99 – “approximately the same price as a cup of coffee,” says...

Following up an earlier story about Penguin withholding library e-books in the UK as well as the US, The Bookseller reports that the Publishers Association supports Penguin’s decision to withdraw its e-books. PA c.e.o. Richard Mollet said: "Today's announcement [by Penguin UK] underlines what the Publishers Association has been saying for some time about the risks around e-lending. Whilst publishers are and always have been fully supportive of libraries, it also has to be recognised that in this still developing area, it is right to be concerned about the security of digital files in the...

From The Bookseller: Penguin UK is now withholding the supply of its new e-book releases to its library suppliers in the UK, following the same decision taken by Penguin US earlier in the week. Meanwhile, Penguin US has announced it will restore its supply of backlist titles for e-book lending to Amazon until the end of the year, while the retailer and publisher work with library supplier Overdrive to address Penguin's concerns over copyright security. Meanwhile, according to the School Library Journal,  the ALA is saying: The American Library Association is calling Penguin's decision to deny libraries the ability to buy new releases in...

From the OverDrive Library Blog: ‘Get for Kindle’ for all Penguin eBooks in your catalog has been restored as of this morning. Penguin titles are available for check out by Kindle users and the Kindle format will be available for patrons who are currently on a waiting list for a Penguin title. This does not affect new releases, which remain unavailable. We apologize for the inconvenience this caused for your library and patrons. At this time, no further information is available. We hope to share more details in the near future. (Via Digital Library Blog | OverDrive.)...

Like many of you, we’re wondering about what cause today’s OverDrive/Penguin news: OverDrive Suspends Access to New Penguin eBook Titles, “Get For Kindle” Access Also Shutdown Only time will tell as to why Penguin decided to change their policy with OverDrive (and libraries) but we’re wondering if a letter by OverDrive CEO Steve Potash to customers  (via Librarian By Day) that began the HarperCollins saga at the end of February might provide a few clues about what’s going Potash writes: …our publishing partners have expressed concerns regarding the card issuance policies and qualification of patrons who have access to OverDrive supplied digital content. Addressing these concerns...

From the OverDrive Digital Library Blog: Last week Penguin sent notice to OverDrive that it is reviewing terms for library lending of their eBooks. In the interim, OverDrive was instructed to suspend availability of new Penguin eBook titles from our library catalog and disable “Get for Kindle” functionality for all Penguin eBooks [our emphasis]. We apologize for this abrupt change in terms from this supplier. We are actively working with Penguin on this issue and are hopeful Penguin will agree to restore access to their new titles and Kindle availability as soon as possible. The blog post goes on to say that...

From mocoNews: Aspiring writers come to Book Country, Penguin Group USA’s online genre fiction community, to post and workshop their romance, science fiction/fantasy, thriller and mystery manuscripts in progress. Now Book Country is adding a self-publishing option, with packages ranging from $99 to $549. While companies like HarperCollins have launched their own writing communities, Penguin is the first “big six” publisher to add self-publishing tools to its offerings. Penguin launched Book Country in April. The site is overseen by Penguin global digital director Molly Barton and has about 4,000 members who have published 561...

From Moco News: Penguin is the latest publisher to test out e-singles with the launch of Penguin Shorts, an ongoing digital series of original fiction and nonfiction titles from authors like Colm Toibin and Anita Brookner. The program is launching in the UK first, with nine titles being released on December 1. All are priced at £0.99 ($1.58) or £1.99. ($3.17) In the U.S., Penguin has been publishing short-form “Penguin eSpecials” since 2008, and those will be rebranded as Penguin Shorts next year. SEE ALSO: Our Guide To E-Singles A glance at the two countries’ lists suggests that Penguin has a little work to do...

From The Bookseller: Penguin's e-book sales have more than doubled in the first nine months of 2011, as parent Pearson reported an increase in total sales of 3% and operating profit of 13%. Total sales at Penguin for the nine months to 30th September were flat but the publisher said it offset the decline in physical sales with "strong publishing and the continued rise of e-book sales". It highlighted authors such as Jamie Oliver, Lee Evans, Rob Brydon and Jeff Kinney as its UK highlights for the fourth quarter. More in the article....

From Publishers Weekly: With demand for mass market paperbacks withering, Berkley/NAL, the mass market paperback division of Penguin, will launch a new e-book imprint in January that will operate much like a mass market paperback publisher. InterMix will focus on titles in traditional mass market genres—women’s fiction, romance, mystery/thriller and science fiction/fantasy—and will release a mix of reprints and titles from new authors. For its January launch, InterMix will publish 11 Nora Roberts’s titles for the first time as e-books. The titles, which originally had been published by Silhouette, will be priced at a...

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...