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.

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.

New president of Authors Guild not only sells a lot of books, he buys a lot of politicians

Chicago attorney and best-selling crime novelist Scott Turow, who was recently re-installed as president of New York City's antiquated Authors Guild, not only sells a lot of books, he buys a lot of politicians. According to OpenSecrets.org, a website maintained by the Center for Responsive Politics, Turow has contributed more than $25,000 to the campaigns of various politicians since the year 1990, including contributions to Paul Simon, Bill Clinton, Carol Moseley Braun, Danny K. Davis, Al Gore, Dick Durbin, Barack Obama, Ted Kennedy, Howard Dean, John Kerry and the Prairie PAC. I wonder if Turow has contacted Larry Hoover Dan Rostenkowski Tony Rezko Rod Blagojevich Roland Burris Rahm Emanuel yet to complain about e-book piracy.

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.

POD dispute between PublishAmerica and Lightning Source will go to jury trial in 2011

According to a legal document issued late last month by the United States District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee, the “Print on Demand Agreement” contract dispute between PublishAmerica (PA), a vanity press based in Frederick, Maryland, and one of its vendors, Lightning Source Inc. (LSI), a print-on-demand printer located in La Vergne, Tennessee, will be decided by a jury trial in September 2011. PA’s complaint (pdf) against LSI, filed on February 1, 2010, includes seven counts and asks for nearly $1 million in compensatory damages, punitive damages, costs, interest and attorney’s fees. LSI answered with a counterclaim (pdf), filed on February 25th.

Higher e-book prices mean readers will pay for Random House CEO’s new $3 million McMansion

While members of the working class are struggling to provide their families with quality, affordable reading material, at least two individuals will not have to worry about the prospect of higher e-book prices: Random House CEO Markus Dohle and his wife Karin. According to online sources, the German couple bought a 6,000-square-foot, six-bedroom, seven-bathroom McMansion at 20 Wayside Lane in Scarsdale, Westchester County, New York, for $3.1 million on January 20, 2010. The property taxes: more than $11,000.

Macmillan CEO John Sargent answers reader’s questions about agency model and e-book pricing

Over at the official Macmillan Speaks corporate blog, CEO John Sargent answers reader’s questions about the agency model of publishing and e-book pricing. Considering that he seldom wears a necktie and is known to choose McDonald's for agent lunches, Sargent should move his lavish office from the historic Flatiron Building in New York City to more modest quarters in Bridgeport, Connecticut, in an effort to cut the publishing behemoth's overhead expenses.

Literary challenge: Find Simon & Schuster CEO’s pay package in stack of SEC filings!

Here’s a fun literary challenge for readers who are interested in learning more about the overhead costs of the large publishing houses down in New York City: Find Simon & Schuster CEO Carolyn Reidy’s compensation package in a stack of U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filings! Simon & Schuster is a division of the CBS empire, so start with the conglomerate's 365-page 2009 Annual Report (pdf). Then, work your way through the other SEC filings in the stack. Be careful! Don’t get side-tracked by the numerous references to best-selling author Glenn Beck or lost in the 290,000 square feet of office space S&S leases in Midtown at 1230 Avenue of the Americas. Best of success!

After muting talking e-reader, Authors Guild now supports equal reading rights for disabled

Last February, the Authors Guild muted the revolutionary text-to-speech feature in Amazon’s Kindle 2 e-reader, signaling that the high-brow New York literary society was more concerned with protecting streams of royalty revenue for its wealthiest members than supporting equal reading rights for the disabled. When the Reading Rights Coalition, a nonprofit organization that represents millions of disabled Americans who cannot read print, held a protest for equal reading rights outside the Guild’s headquarters in New York City last April, the Guild issued an insensitive press release calling the protest “unfortunate and unnecessary.”

Now, about a year later and with the proposed revised Google Book Settlement (GBS 2.0) on the brink of being rejected by a federal judge, the Authors Guild and its publishing industry allies have issued a joint statement with the Reading Rights Coalition, pledging to “work together and through the communities they represent to ensure that when the marketplace offers alternative formats to print books, such as audio and electronic books, print-disabled consumers can access the contents of these alternative formats to the same extent as all other consumers.”

Not surprisingly, the statement neglects to mention that the Authors Guild already obstructed Amazon's attempt to offer "alternative formats to print books" for "print-disabled consumers."

Celebrate “Read an E-Book Week” with Red/shift, a new novelette by Geoffrey Thorne

“Read an E-Book Week,” which runs from March 7 to March 13, 2010, is an event that encourages readers to enjoy literature without the pulp. To help stimulate interest in the event, some e-book stores are offering free or deeply discounted e-books. One such store is Smashwords, which is offering the new novelette Red/shift (2009), a science fiction-fantasy-action-thriller set on a colonized Mars by American novelist and screenwriter Geoffrey Thorne, for only 99 cents! If you’re not familiar with Red/shift, here’s the promotional piece:

A dashing killer trying to outrun his past... A world-weary cop determined to close her most baffling case... A dying heiress desperate to find a cure for her disease... When these stories collide on the same Martian night the results are not only explosive but deadly.

Geoffrey Thorne is the author of Star Trek: Titan: Sword of Damocles (2007). He maintains the blog Pocket Full of Mumbles and resides in Los Angeles. Thorne's favorite authors include Octavia Butler, Alexandre Dumas, Clive Barker, Stephen King, Roger Zelazny, Ursula K. LeGuin, Greg Bear and John Steinbeck.

Did Macmillan CEO John Sargent blink, or wink?

If you’re interested in the growing conflagration over e-book pricing, you have to read this item, “Macmillan CEO John Sargent on the agency model, availability and price,” posted a couple of days ago on the official Macmillan Speaks blog. So, tell me, did Sargent just blink, or wink?

Journalist Michael Kinsley: 12 reasons why Publishers Row has high overhead costs

In response to a recent article published in The New York Times about the math of e-book publishing, Michael Kinsley, an editor at Atlantic Media Company, former editor of The New Republic, founding editor of Slate, and a former panelist on television’s Crossfire, has presented 12 reasons why Macmillan and the other large houses down on Publishers Row have such high overhead expenses, thus prohibiting them from making e-books more affordable for working class families.

PublishAmerica sues Lightning Source Inc. over POD contract dispute

According to documents filed earlier this month in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee, PublishAmerica (PA), a vanity press based in Frederick, Maryland, is suing one of its vendors, Lightning Source Inc. (LSI), a print-on-demand printer located in La Vergne, Tennessee, in a contract dispute over a “Print on Demand Agreement.” PA’s complaint (pdf), filed on February 1, 2010, includes seven counts and asks for nearly $1 million in compensatory damages, punitive damages, costs, interest and attorney’s fees. LSI answered with a counterclaim (pdf), filed yesterday, February 25th.

Could higher e-book prices spark book burnings?

At least two SF/F fans who own Kindle e-book readers and are following the growing conflagration over e-book pricing say that an increase in overall prices could ignite old-fashion book burnings. Lisa, a forty-something slacker who lives with her parents in the Connecticut River Valley, hates her job as a teacher’s aide, and wishes she had more time to read fantasy novels on her Kindle, says: “The big publishing companies have been gouging us for years. In high school, my parents paid hundreds of dollars to buy me English Lit. books because neither the school nor public library had enough copies. In college, I had to pay thousands of dollars for overpriced textbooks. Now, publishers are trying to make us pay more for e-books? Bullshit! If they’re going to do that, I might be tossing a few books on the hibachi this summer.” Asked to name a few titles, Lisa replied: “Whatever will get people’s attention. Bestsellers, probably. My mother reads all that crap.”


Bruce, a fifty-something, over-educated technology geek and science fiction fan who lives in an apartment in the Bucktown neighborhood of Chicago and drives a taxi for a living, says: “In this day and age, there is no reason why the cost of an e-book should be going up. People say, ‘Oh, you can afford to buy a Kindle, so you must be able to pay $15 for an e-book.’ I say, ‘Oh, you can afford to buy a car, so you must be able to pay $6 for a gallon of gas!’ I’m old enough to remember the riots of 1968 and the Disco Demolition gag in the late 70s. Maybe that’s what we need. An old-fashion book burning down at Comiskey Park. That ought to get the attention of those greedy bastards who run the publishing houses.” Asked to name a few titles worth burning, Bruce said: “Mike Royko’s biography of Mayor Daley is on the top of my list."

Anne Rice defends Douglas Preston, buys 10 copies of his novel Impact off Amazon

Last week, bestselling gothic author Anne Rice defended fellow author Douglas Preston’s recent remarks, published in the The New York Times, which implied that readers of e-books suffer from “a sense of entitlement,” have a “Wal-Mart mentality” and maintain “this notion of not wanting to pay the real price of something.” In a moving statement posted in the review section of Preston’s new Mars-realted novel, Impact, on Amazon.com, Rice wrote, in part:

Stop beating up on this author. A book review site is no place for your protests and complaints against New York publishing. Remember this: somebody has to write the books that you want to read; and somebody has to make the movies that you want to see. That "somebody" is a creative individual willing to try to make something out of virtually nothing. Such creative individuals fight tremendous battles and take tremendous risks. It's part of the job that you may never see or ever understand. How an author's efforts should be priced in this world is an ongoing question and an ongoing mystery. But viciously attacking the creator of a literary work because he is caught in the crossfire of a price war is ugly and self defeating. I urge others to buy copies of this book to support Douglas Preston.

Later, in a separate post on Amazon, Rice wrote, in part:

Of course no author should insult or alienate his readers. Without our readers we would be nothing, quite truly. And most of us appreciate this very much. But I don't think Mr. Preston's comments are all that radical or insulting. [...] I feel for an author caught in the maelstrom. Authors aren't saints; they aren't politicians; they aren't PR people; they're human beings, and their complexity as such is intimately connected with their creative ability. I want to support this guy. He's being scapegoated here.

Later, Rice announced on her blog that she purchased ten copies of Impact in support of Preston.

Hilarious. A rich celebrity author telling working class fans that they don’t “understand” the literary creative process, pricing is an “ongoing mystery,” and Preston is just some helpless victim whose comments are not “all that radical or insulting.”

Maybe it is time for Congress to hold hearings on the issue of e-book pricing. Macmillan CEO John Sargent and the executives of competing publishing behemoths, along with a few celebrity authors like Rice, can explain to Congress, and the American people, the finer points of e-book pricing, production costs, profit margins and compensation packages.

Does author Douglas Preston suffer from a sense of entitlement? Ask Senator Susan Collins!

Charlie Jane Anders of the SF blog io9 has the latest news about Macmillan author Douglas Preston, whose new Mars-related novel Impact hit #4 on The New York Times’s hardcover fiction bestseller list earlier this year. Anders contacted Preston about his recent remarks, published in the Times, which implied that readers of ebooks suffer from “a sense of entitlement,” have a “Wal-Mart mentality” and maintain “this notion of not wanting to pay the real price of something.” In explaining to Anders that his comments were a “mistake,” Preston told her:

I think my comments were pretty stupid, to be frank. They came after a long month of being attacked by Kindle owners who blamed me personally for the fact that my publisher delayed the Kindle release for four months. I was frustrated and said some things to the New York Times reporter that did not reflect my actual views on the subject. I have been hearing back from many readers, some supporting my comments, many more criticizing them.

All of this has me wondering whether it is Preston who suffers from a sense of entitlement. Consider:

• Preston grew up in the wealthy suburb of Wellesley, Mass., and attended a swanky private high school in nearby Weston.

• Preston’s brother is bestselling author Richard Preston, whom Douglas once referred to as “of course, the famous and talented Richard Preston.”

• Preston’s father is Jerome Preston Jr., a retired senior partner at Foley Hoag, a prominent Boston law firm. A graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School, Jerome Preston Jr. is perhaps best-known for serving as one of two trustees of the Fuller Trust who were accused in the early 1990s of conspiring to drain the entity of almost $700,000 in electronic book legal and other fees over a three-year period while attempting to convert a home for elderly women into a "life care" retirement community. In 1995, a Massachusetts probate judge ordered Jerome Preston Jr. and his colleague to repay $500,000 each to the trust.

• Preston’s grandfather was Jerome Preston Sr., a founder of the now-defunct investment management firm of Preston Moss & Co. An ambulance driver during World War I and a member of the Army Air Corps during World War II, Jerome Preston Sr. was awarded three Croix de Guerre by France, a Bronze Star and Legion of Merit by the United States, and the Order of the British Empire.

• Preston traveled to Italy in 2006 to conduct some research for a nonfiction book about a serial killer known as the Monster of Florence, who murdered and mutilated fourteen people in the hills of Florence from 1974 to 1985. Ironically, Preston became trapped in his own thriller after his co-author criticized and irritated an Italian legal official. According to a 2006 article published in The Boston Globe:

Since returning to Maine, Preston has appealed to US Senator Susan Collins for help. A Collins spokesperson told Preston that the senator has given it her highest priority and has asked the State Department to find out what evidence Italian authorities have against Preston.

[...]

As for his identity as an international writer and the freedom he expects to go with that privilege?

"I never expected them [Italian authorities] to go as far as they did," says Preston. "And I felt that, as an American and a fairly prominent journalist and author, they would leave me alone. I was wrong."

Yeah, seems like Douglas Preston suffers from a sense of entitlement. It's called “Do you know who I am?” Wonder if this condition will be formally recognized in the upcoming DSM-V (2013).

Macmillan author and elitist Douglas Preston makes huge impact in dispute over ebook prices

Macmillan author and intellectual elitist Douglas Preston (born in The People’s Republic of Cambridge, grew up in the wealthy suburb of Wellesley, Mass., attended a swanky private high school in nearby Weston), whose new Mars-related novel Impact hit #4 on The New York Times’s hardcover fiction bestseller list earlier this year, has made a huge impact in the growing conflagration over ebook prices with these asinine remarks, quoted in a recent article in the Times:

“The sense of entitlement of the American consumer is absolutely astonishing,” said Douglas Preston, whose novel Impact reached as high as No. 4 on The New York Times’s hardcover fiction best-seller list earlier this month. “It’s the Wal-Mart mentality, which in my view is very unhealthy for our country. It’s this notion of not wanting to pay the real price of something.”

Not surprisingly, Preston has tried to dull his comments by posting this piece on his website:

An open letter to our readers:

We have watched, with interest and no small amount of alarm, the recent struggles between publishers and eBook retailers. We thought it might help if we explained our position. We, as writers, have no real say in the matter, and no real influence on either side of the issue. We, like you, are caught in the middle. What we want is simple. We want to write the best books we can for you to enjoy; for our publishers to make available to you in the format in which you prefer to read them; and at a fair price that enables us to write future novels while keeping the publishers and the Amazons, Apples, Barnes & Nobles and WalMarts of this world in business. From our perspective, the most important element in all this is you, the reader. Without you, the Preston-Child books would not exist, and it is to you that we owe our first and greatest allegiance -- on this issue and, in fact, all related issues.

Unfortunately, Preston's attempt at damage control is not working. Just read some of these comments posted on Amazon in the review section for Preston’s new novel:

• "Dear Mr. Preston, I was so looking forward to reading your new book, Impact but couldn't have been more disappointed to learn that the kindle release has been delayed... so that you can sell more hardcover books. Then I read your comments on the American consumer."

• "This is just another mediocre novel written by a production author with more interest in padding his pocket book then producing a quality product. Truly a waste of time and money... delete this book from your list."

• "This is a substandard product done by a greedy man. It reminds me of the greedy bankers that pay themselves bonuses after someone bails them out of the mess they made. This is the greed factor. The fiction produced by the bankers was actually superior to Mr. Preston's."

• "I agree there is a sense of entitlement in this country, but there is also a sense of greed from writers and publishers. I won't be buying your books again."

• "This author has no sense of how mass consumer mentality can make or break a product. I have been an avid e-book reader but i only purchased books which cost 9.99 or less. I either buy a book at this price or totally opt out. Authors should evolve into this new model or will soon become extinct. Power to the Readers !!!!"

Keep up the good work, Hoss!

Who Moved My Buy Button? is Authors Guild’s latest attempt to separate authors from works

Freakonomics, the well-known blog maintained by The New York Times, has an interesting post about the Authors Guild’s new anti-Amazon Who Moved My Buy Button? project, noting that the Guild “plainly views Amazon as something less than a trusted partner.” Hilarious, considering that the Guild, which represents a mere 8,000 authors, conspired with its publishing allies to sell the copyrighted works of tens of thousands of non-Guild authors to Google for $125 million. At first glance, Who Moved My Buy Button? seems like a benevolent attempt by the Guild to monitor the activities of Amazon. But a closer look reveals that the project is nothing more than the latest attempt by the Guild to separate non-member authors from their written works by assuming an ill-defined custodial role over ISBNs.

Authors Guild launches anti-Amazon "Who Moved My Buy Button?" website

In the wake of the U.S. Dept. of Justice's rejection of the revised Google Books Search settlement (GBS 2.0), the Authors Guild is "pleased to announce" the launch of the website WhoMovedMyBuyButton.com, which allows authors to keep track of whether Amazon has removed the "buy buttons" from any of their books! Memo to Guild executive director Paul Aiken: Isn't it time for the Guild to increase financial assistance to indigent authors?

New memo from Macmillan CEO John Sargent

Tor.com, the SF&F website which until recently was publisher agnostic and sought to provoke, encourage, and enable interesting and rewarding conversations among editors, authors and readers but now serves as an unrepentant sock puppet for the corporate suits at publishing behemoth Macmillan and their master back in Stuttgart, just published the latest memo from Macmillan CEO John Sargent.