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A famous trilogy is getting a sixth installment; Aussie industry groups are opposing new book import rules; filming of the latest García Márquez novel has been delayed by protests; B.C. literary organizations fight back after losing government funding; and other news.
English PEN says U.K. libel law puts free speech at risk; a three-day conference devoted to the Google settlement revision begins today in New York City; John Steinbeck has inspired a Chicago ballet; Canadians are still without a Kindle to call their own; and other news.
Justice Department officials supervise the new Google Book Search settlement; independent booksellers in the U.K. claw market share from high street chains; the new permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy says Nobel deliberations are too “Eurocentric”; and other news.
New York City plans a fitting memorial for Frank McCourt; the Kindle may finally debut in the U.K. this month; Disney rolls out an electronic storybook site; Paige M. Gutenborg starts work at Harvard; and other news.
A small print-on-demand firm can go ahead with its antitrust suit against Amazon; the EU ponders its answer to Google Book Search; Shakespeare’s grave gets a much-needed overhaul; Banned Books Week leaves its mark on the best-seller lists; and other news.
In the first major overseas legal challenge to its massive book-scanning project, Google’s French division was hit last week with a copyright infringement lawsuit. Publishing group La Martinière, backed by the editors association Syndicat national de l’édition (SNE) and the writers union Société des gens de lettres (SGDL), is asking a Paris court to force the Internet giant to halt its digitization of protected works and to levy a fine of eighteen million euros (about $26 million) as well as a per diem fine of one hundred thousand euros ($146,000).
A month after signing a distribution deal with the Barnes & Noble eBookstore, online publishing platform Smashwords announced on Tuesday that it has reached a similar arrangement with Sony. Authors who upload their work to Smashwords through Sony’s new “Publisher Portal” can expect to see it added to the Sony e-book catalogue in as little as ten days, the company said.
About a week shy of its first anniversary, online magazine the Daily Beast is getting into the book business. On Monday, editor Tina Brown announced a joint venture with Perseus Books to release a series of short, topical e-books quickly followed by paperback editions. The new imprint, Beast Books, plans to publish three to five titles in the next year.
