Now, Amazon has asked a federal judge to reject the suit.

“Amazon has slammed the FTC’s antitrust case as wrong on the facts and the law, and in a 31-page filing urged a federal court to dismiss it,” reports Andrew Albanese, Publishers Weekly executive editor.

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In their filing, Amazon states that it has “relentlessly innovated, and saved consumers money.”

The filing comes in response to the FTC’s blockbuster 172-page September lawsuit, supported by 17 state attorneys general. In their filing, Amazon states that it has “relentlessly innovated, and saved consumers money.” “The FTC is ignoring “the facially procompetitive” effects of Amazon’s conduct, the company asserts.

“As complicated as antitrust law can be, Amazon’s response is pretty straightforward,” Albanese tells me.

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Title verso – by law and by tradition, every book you read will have one.  “Verso” is Latin for reverse.  The title verso is the text behind the title page, including always an ISBN catalog number, sometimes the publisher’s name and contact information, and occasionally details on printing history and typesetting.

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Critically for Richard Charkin, however, the title verso is where to find who is the copyright holder. He recently wrote for Publishing Perspectives about his professional obsession with this “most boring bit of any book.”

On every title verso, “all rights reserved” will appear. Charkin tells me why these three words are so important to authors and to publishers.

“All rights reserved means all rights reserved. It’s incredibly powerful,” he says.

“The fact that it’s only three words makes it more powerful than the 100-page documents you see as contracts in some cases.  All rights reserved – it means all rights reserved, and rights means all media.  It means everything.  Of course, the publisher of that edition may not have all rights in that book.  The author does, which is why I say I think in a way, it’s more important for the author.”

Richard Charkin has held senior posts at major publishing houses including Bloomsbury, Macmillan, and Oxford University Press.  He is a former president of the International Publishers Association and the United Kingdom’s Publishers Association.  Currently, he is founder and sole employee of Mensch Publishing.

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Data is extensive on the world’s largest publishers, yet insufficient for the nontraditional self-publishing market. And while books remain a dominant format, reading and discussing stories, as well as the IP generated from books, have become integrated in consumers’ experiences and on publishers’ spreadsheets.

The business year covered in the Global 50 report – 2022 – was a remarkably strong one. As in past years, the top 10 companies account for well over half of the combined top 50 turnover.

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However, consolidation finally met regulatory resistance in 2022, when a US court ruling blocked Penguin Random House’s takeover bid for Simon & Schuster.

Most important for an exhaustive accounting of turnover and trends in publishing is not what is included in this Global 50 Publishing Ranking, but what is not covered.

“The companies leading that market segment are not sharing any figures. We know Amazon is not sharing figures of what they’re earning from their publishing activities,” he tells me.

“I received estimates from different sources saying all the royalties that Amazon is supposed to be paying to self-published authors is around $200 million to $250 million per month. If you put that together, we have Amazon among the top 10 publishers.”

Wischenbart has published the Global 50 report since 2007. He believes the high-level, aggregated data should matter to all publishers, including the hundreds that don’t make the list.

“I can explain it in a very simple way. If you want to grow vegetables or whatever – cabbages – you can sit in your backyard and do fantastic tomatoes and cabbages and apple trees for yourself and go to the village market and sell this, go home, be happy, and that’s it. No need to be interested in the rest. You can, however, also realize, ‘Wait a moment, I can learn from what others are doing.’ And when there is really a transformation going on, learning new tricks is perhaps a very, very important idea to survive.”

The post Wischenbart Report On Global 50 Publishers Arrives appeared first on Copyright Clearance Center.

In May, Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds signed Senate File 496, placing a ban on books with depictions of sex, written or visual, from school libraries, and prohibiting instruction and materials involving “gender identity” and “sexual orientation” for students through sixth grade.

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“We’ve seen numerous media reports that various Iowa school districts have already reportedly pulled hundreds of titles from their shelves, including books that contain LGBTQ+ characters, historical figures, or themes,” reports Andrew Albanese, Publishers Weekly executive editor.

The lawsuit seeks to have the law declared unconstitutional and permanently blocked. The plaintiffs also seek a preliminary injunction blocking the law’s implementation while the litigation proceeds.

The post School Book Ban on Sexual Orientation Challenged In Iowa appeared first on Copyright Clearance Center.

In business, coaches emphasize personal development, helping employees to make positive changes in their work habits and job skills, such as communications, leadership, and team building.

Over two decades working in publishing, Amy Beisel held management roles in editorial, product strategy, and business development. She applies that experience today to coach rising leaders in research and publishing on how to overcome organizational limitations and to find the clarity that galvanizes action.

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“Sometimes, people come with personal career goals. For example, they’re working towards a promotion. They’re a new manager. They have so many questions, and they’ve received zero training. Or maybe they’ve gotten feedback on a few different performance reviews. They really want to make the change, but they’re just not sure how,” she tells me.

“Then we assess your starting point. What’s Point A? I like to do verbal 360s as well as an assessment of thinking styles and behavioral traits to get a full understanding of where the person is starting from and how they impact others in the organization. Once we have a clear understanding of your starting point and your ending point, we can focus each coaching session on moving you closer to that goal.”

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US-based CEO Michael Pietsch will retire and serve as chairman, while his UK counterpart David Shelley will step up to a new trans-Atlantic role.

“Hachette Livre, the book publishing arm of Lagardère Group, is bringing the Hachette Book Group and its U.K.-based counterpart, Hachette UK, into what it calls a new English-language management structure,” reports Andrew Albanese, Publishers Weekly executive editor.

Under the reorganization, Albanese explains, UK CEO David Shelley becomes CEO of both HBG and HUK, reporting to Hachette Livre deputy CEO Stéphanie Ferran and Arnaud Lagardère, chairman and CEO of Hachette Livre.

Michael Pietsch will retire as Hachette US CEO and was named chairman.

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According to Lagardère’s annual report, the US-based publisher accounted for 29% of the publishing division’s revenue in 2022, making it Lagardère Publishing’s largest market. By contrast, the U.K. accounted for 17% of sales.

“It’s puzzling to think how these two operations, with separate territories, currencies, markets, and laws, can be managed as a single unit,” Albanese says.

The changes come one week after Arnaud Lagardère was appointed chairman and CEO of Hachette Livre, replacing Pierre Leroy.

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Publishers have welcomed the Spotify move to include audiobooks in its subscription service, reports Andrew Albanese, Publishers Weekly executive editor. However, he notes that some authors and literary agents are asking questions.

“Authors and agents remain skeptical of the program, saying they were not consulted before the program was launched,” Albanese tells me. “They also are questioning the payment structure, and more broadly, whether streaming audiobooks will be good for the book business, or whether it devalues reading and harms book buying.”

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Spotify’s streaming audiobook service, now available the U.S., allows Spotify premium subscribers to access a catalog of more than 200,000 audiobook titles—including titles from all the Big Five publishers. 

“Spotify officials say the U.S. catalog includes 70% of current bestsellers,” Albanese notes. “Penguin Random House, for instance, have put all their titles in, while other publishers are ‘windowing’ some titles.”

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Judge Koeltl ruled that the Internet Archive, which calls itself an online library, does not have the right to scan books and then lend them out like a library on the Web.

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At the recent Copyright & Technology Conference, presented by the Copyright Society and Giant Steps Media, I moderated a panel discussion on the Internet Archive case, looking especially at fair use as a defense of infringement. Guest speakers included:

• Bhamati Viswanathan, a faculty fellow at New England Law, Boston, where she teaches copyright, trademark, current issues in intellectual property law, and constitutional law.
• Lisa Janicke Hinchliffe, professor/coordinator for research and teaching professional development in the University Library at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
• Maria Bustillos, a journalist, editor, and information activist whose writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Nation, The New Yorker, The Guardian, and elsewhere.

The post A Look at Hachette v. Internet Archive appeared first on Copyright Clearance Center.

Under the new initiative, KDP authors with an eligible e-book on the KDP platform may choose from a selection of AI-generated narrators, then preview and customize a machine-generated audiobook.

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“This program makes a lot of sense for a lot of self-published authors who would never be able to afford to create audio editions,” comments Andrew Albanese, Publishers Weekly executive editor.

The program and the technology will significantly increase the selection of audiobooks available by KDP authors, Albanese tells me.

“According to an Amazon spokesperson, only four percent of self-published titles with KDP have a companion audiobook available,” he explains.

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