WikiLeaks should leak secret pay packages of Big Publishing’s fat cat CEOs

When WikiLeaks finishes leaking the classified but less-than-shocking cache of U.S. military documents about the war in Afghanistan, it should get to work on obtaining the detailed paperwork for the secret compensation packages that the old line publishing house behemoths down in New York City pay their fat cat CEOs. Seriously, when is the last time Macmillan disclosed the compensation of John Sargent, or Random House the compensation of Markus Dohle. Even, Simon & Schuster, which is a division of the publicly-held CBS Corp., does not disclose the compensation of Carolyn Reidy. Do you think Big Publishing pays Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) to ensure that Congress does not pass legislation requiring these companies to disclose executive compensation? Yeah, me too.

Macmillan CEO shits himself over Amazon-Wylie e-book publishing deal

After being silent for more than four months, Macmillan CEO John “Silver Spoon” Sargent finally has something to say over at Macmillan Speaks, the publishing behemoth’s official corporate blog. In short, Sargent shits himself over the recently announced landmark e-book publishing deal between internet retailer Amazon and the firm of literary agent Andrew Wylie, arguing that the deal will be “damaging to the whole book community: authors, agents, publishers, and readers.” In other words, Sargent fears that the deal will further undermine Big Publishing’s antiquated business model.

New York senatorial bitches still swallowing gobs of Big Pub’s money

According to OpenSecrets.org, a website maintained by the Center for Responsive Politics, United States Senators Charles Schumer (D-NY) & Kristen Gillibrand (D-NY) are still the Books, Magazines & Newspapers industry’s top two bitches, having swallowed $102,500 and $92,200, respectively, in industry campaign contributions for the 2010 federal election cycle. Assuming they are publisher agnostic, I wonder how Schumer & Gillibrand feel about the one-year boycott SFWA just slapped on Night Shade Books.

Open letter to Authors Guild, RWA, SFWA re copyright infringement and e-book piracy

Fantasy author Rowena Cherry's open letter, dated June 27, 2010, to the presidents of Authors Guild, Romance Writers of America, and Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America concerning copyright infringement and e-book piracy:

Dear Scott Turow, Allison Kelley, John Scalzi,

Thank you very much for everything you do to defend authors' copyrights against copyright infringement. We very much appreciate having an address to which to send our complaints, and the comfort of knowing that you compile a database of the most egregious "pirates" and pirate sites.

Despite small triumphs, ignorance persists among honest readers; lies about the legality of "sharing" go unchallenged, and the problem is getting much worse.

Please Scott Turow, Allison Kelley, John Scalzi will you talk to one another, set up one powerhouse task force, meet regularly, share resources, engage your members, give authors one central "Go To" address where we can submit complaints, report piracy sites, blogs and yahoogroups, cc our individual take-down notices.

One forceful industry voice could shut down an entire account and insist on a hosting site complying with their own TOS where their TOS has been repeatedly violated, instead of individual authors taking down one file at a time.

Thank you.

Rowena Cherry
Infinite Worlds of Fantasy Authors Group (IWOFA)

Permission granted to forward, share or repost.

NYC’s Flatiron Building is just one more piece of Macmillan’s outdated business model

A couple of days before The New York Times published Garrison Keillor’s hilarious op-ed piece “The End of an Era in Publishing” lamenting the decline of New York City’s literary elite, it published a nostalgic article about the city’s historic Flatiron Building titled “A Quirky Building That Has Charmed Its Tenants.” Perhaps not surprisingly, nearly all of the building’s office space is occupied by Macmillan, one of several old line publishing houses that are having great difficulty adjusting to technology, business and life in the 21st century. Here are my favorite lines from the article:

• “Everyone will be dragged kicking and screaming from here,” said Airie Stuart, publisher of Palgrave, an imprint of Macmillan Publishers.

• “I came in to find the window on the floor and a 1,200-page manuscript all over the place,” said Mr. Janssen, director for academic and library marketing at Macmillan.

• “I have an incredible view,” said Charles Bozian, Macmillan’s vice president for finance and administration. “But not unless I stand up.”

• “And the bathrooms are not very nice, either,” said Alison Lazarus, the president of Macmillan’s sales division. When important guests visit, she has them use the spacious bathroom on the 18th floor, by far the building’s best, offering a view all the way to New Jersey.

• The elevators were so slow that one executive claims you could read an entire manuscript while waiting for one and then riding it up. Mr. Murphy lived in a high-rise right across the street from the Flatiron for 15 years. “My commute,” he said, “was a half hour.”

• “I think they were surprised by the response of people wanting to stay in this building, even with its foibles,” Mr. Shear said. “You see these strange little offices. There’s nothing cookie-cutter here. I mean, did you see the 21st floor?” he asked, laughing. “It’s like a place you’d put your mad aunt.”

Although Macmillan’s lease runs through the year 2018, the beautiful landmark Flatiron Building is just one more piece of Macmillan’s outdated business model.

Garrison Keillor and Authors Guild insiders lament decline of New York literary elite

Author, satirist amd radio personality Garrison Keillor just had a humorous column lamenting the decline of the sacred New York literary elite printed in the . . . Baltimore Sun: “When everyone's a writer, no one is.” The funniest part of Keillor’s anti-self publishing piece is the opening:

"In New York the other night, I ran into my daughter's favorite author, Mary Pope Osborne, whose "Magic Tree House" books I've read to the child at night, and a moment later, Scott Turow, who writes legal thrillers that keep people awake all night, and David Remnick, the biographer of President Barack Obama. Bang bang bang, one heavyweight after another. Erica Jong, Jeffrey Toobin, Judy Blume. It was a rooftop party in Tribeca that I got invited to via a well-connected pal, wall-to-wall authors and agents and editors and elegant young women in little black dresses, standing, white wine in hand, looking out across the Hudson at the lights of Hoboken and Jersey City, eating shrimp and scallops and spanikopita on toothpicks, all talking at once the way New Yorkers do."

What was the “rooftop party in Tribeca” that Keillor attended? The annual gala of the elitist Authors Guild, which Keillor conveniently neglects to mention. And who was the “well-connected pal” to whom Keillor refers? None other than the prairie homeboy himself, a longtime director of the affiliated Authors Guild Foundation who has contributed more than $20,000 to that organization since the year 2000.

[via Charles Tan of Bibliophile Stalker]

BookExpo America panel discussion turns into industry blame game over e-book piracy

Publishers Weekly has a hilarious report from BookExpo America 2010. Apparently, a panel discussion among top executives of the book publishing industry about “The Value of the Book” turned into a heated argument over who is to blame for the skyrocketing piracy of ebooks. The players: Suits from Farrar, Straus & Giroux, the Authors Guild, Workman group, ICM, Ingram, Penguin Group and the American Booksellers Association.

New York senators are Big Pub’s top two bitches

According to the Center for Responsive Politics' website OpenSecrets.org, United States Senators Charles Schumer (D-NY) & Kristen Gillibrand (D-NY) are the Books, Magazines & Newspapers industry’s top two bitches, having swallowed $82,100 and $68,550, respectively, in industry campaign contributions for the 2010 federal election cycle. Apparently, “paper costs and mailing rates are major fiscal concerns of the industry, as are Internet and copyright issues that affect an increasing number of publishers.” Seriously, when is the last time you've seen Chuck Schumer hold a press conference to voice his opinion about e-book piracy or the Google Book Settlement?

Q1 revenue at Simon & Schuster falls 6%

Publishing group Simon & Schuster, a division of the CBS empire, just reported its financial results for the First Quarter of 2010:

For the three months ended March 31, 2010, Publishing revenues decreased 6% to $151.7 million from $161.7 million for the same prior-year period reflecting the continued soft retail market, partially offset by growth of $8.4 million from digital sales of Publishing content. Best-selling titles in the first quarter of 2010 included Courage and Consequence by Karl Rove, House Rules by Jodi Picoult and Little Bee by Chris Cleave.

For the three months ended March 31, 2010, Publishing operating income increased $2.6 million to $.5 million from an operating loss of $2.1 million for the same prior-year period and Publishing OIBDA increased $2.0 million to $2.1 million for the three months ended March 31, 2010 from $.1 million for the same prior-year period as the decline in revenues and restructuring charges of $1.5 million incurred during the first quarter of 2010 were more than offset by cost reduction measures. The restructuring charges reflect severance costs associated with the elimination of positions.

Random House rearranges deck chairs

Publishers Weekly reports that the Random House publishing group is merging several former paperback publishers and science fiction imprints into one division, to be titled the Ballantine Bantam Dell unit. According to PW, the reorganization will result in the elimination of... one position. I wonder how long before Random House CEO Markus Dohle and his wife Karin sell their recently purchased $3.1 million McMansion in Westchester County, New York, and move back to Europe.

[via Ian Randal Strock of SFScope]