Penguin Books moves into self-publishing

Penguin Books moves into self-publishing
BBC News
But some have criticised the buy-out, with one authors' body saying it could threaten the rights of new writers. The growth of e-book readers and tablet computers has prompted a change in the route taken by authors, with increasing numbers choosing to...

BBC News

Author Solutions sold for $116 million
Reporter-Times
A leader in the self-publishing industry, Author Solutions has enabled 150000 authors to publish, market and distribute more than 190000 books in print and electronic formats, according to the news release. Pearson acquired Author Solutions from Bertram ...

Penguin gets self-publisher Author Solutions for $116 million
Los Angeles Times
Since its founding in 2007, ASI has published 190000 books by 150000 authors. The company had revenues of $100 million last year, which included selling self-publishing services to other publishers, including religious publisher Thomas Nelson. It expects ...

Penguin Group Dives Into Self-Publishing
Wall Street Journal
While Penguin may be able to pluck some new best sellers from Author Solutions' arsenal of more than 150000 published authors, Penguin is also after the self-publishing outfit's facility with data, as the self-publisher has a valuable trove of information about what authors want to write and what customers want to read. Self-publishing shifts ... Others involved in self-publishing include Amazon.com Inc., e-book distributor Smashwords Inc., and Barnes & Noble Inc., the largest bookstore chain in the U.S.. "This is a move ...

WSJ UPDATE: Pearson's Penguin Unit to Take Over Author Solutions
Wall Street Journal
Penguin Group is taking over U.S. self-publishing firm Author Solutions Inc., marking the first major acquisition by a world-renowned book publisher of a large-scale self-publishing company. Penguin's London-based parent, Pearson PLC, said it ... The acquisition shows how traditional publishers, whose business models have been threatened by the rise of e-books and tablet devices, are increasingly recognizing the potential and power of self publishing. "It's about getting to scale quickly on providing a way for ...

Snedeker gets Open lead, place in record book
Fox News
Lytham St. Annes, England – Brandt Snedeker fired a 6-under 64 on Friday to earn not just the second-round lead of The Open Championship, but also a place in the storied event's record book. Snedeker matched The Open Championship 36-hole scoring ...

Romance Novelists Sue Publisher Over E-Book Royalties
Wall Street Journal (blog)
Three romance novelists have sued Harlequin Enterprises Ltd. in a breach-of-contract lawsuit alleging the Canadian publisher has failed to pay them and other authors full royalties on e-book editions of their works. The lawsuit, filed Thursday in Manhattan ...

Wall Street Journal (blog)

Ebooks surpass hardcovers among adult fiction
San Francisco Chronicle (blog)
A survey this week found that for the first time, sales of adult fiction e-books surpassed that of traditional hardcovers. The annual survey by the Association of American Publishers and the BookIndustry Study Group also found that sales of ebooks overall (that ...

Movie Man: Clint Eastwood and more offer great tidbits in the book 'Directing'
Norwich Bulletin
“Directing” by Mike Goodridge (Focal Press, $29.95) is, like the other “FilmCraft” books, a large, colorful volume devoted to the art of moviemaking. Its nearly 200 pages are filled with photos, screen grabs, behind-the-scenes shots, production art and storyboards. Best of all, this is no chaotic collection of images or dry, dull cinema history. Instead, the entire book is built around interviews with 16 directors, ranging from Korea's Park Chan-wook to Austria's Michael Haneke to none other than Clint Eastwood himself.

JonBenet Ramsey detective's new book casts doubt on 'intruder' theory
Fox News
A new book by a lead investigator in the JonBenet Ramsey murder puts forward a new theory: There was no intruder in the home where a wealthy Colorado couple's six-year-old daughter was found murdered in 1996. James Kolar's book, "Foreign Faction: ...

Movie Man: Books offer insight into directing, horror movies
Rockford Register Star
The latest in the excellent series of “FilmCraft” books has arrived in stores, and if it lacks the tight focus of the volumes devoted to cinematography and editing, it makes up for it with a revealing look at the big picture — and a few big names among its interview ...

With 'Dark Knight Rises,' Nolan closes the book on Batman
USA TODAY
Fans — many of whom consider TheDark Knight to be the greatest comic-book film ever — expect an impressive curtain call. "I've never seen excitement on this level, at least among the fanboys," says Jeff Bock of Exhibitor Relations. "Nolan is one of the few ...

USA TODAY

No clear link between shooter and 'Dark Knight,' but film, comic book have ...
Washington Post
But there are general parallels to the Colorado shooting, “The Dark Knight” and the comic bookcharacter: — Bruce Wayne's drive to become Batman arose from witnessing the deaths of his parents, Thomas and Martha Wayne, at the hands of small-time ...

Romance Novelists Sue Harlequin Over E-Book Royalty Claims
Businessweek
The relationship between novelists and romance-book publisher Harlequin Enterprises has soured over royalty fee contracts for electronic books. Three authors sued Toronto-based Harlequin Enterprises, the world's largest publisher of romance novels, today ...

With sale of Bloomington-based Author Solutions to Pearson, self-publishing ...
Indianapolis Star
At the minimum, writers pay to publish their work as an e-book available on websites such as Amazon.com, with a print-on-demand option. Authors can pay for additional services, such as copy editing, design services and marketing. More. In the late 1970s, Kevin Weiss, a young salesman for IBM, balked when the ... In fact, Weiss wouldn't reveal the average number of copies sold for bookspublished through Author Solutions. He said that's not important for many of the company's customers, including his mother, ...

EU Commission to publish ETS rescue plan next week
Reuters
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Commission confirmed on Friday that it will announce plans next week to withhold carbon allowances to support the struggling Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), which has suffered a collapse in prices under the burden ...

Handmade book bound iPad & iPhone case company turns heads with new and ...
MarketWatch (press release)
SAN FRANCISCO and SANTA CRUZ, Calif., July 20, 2012 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- XHiBT, a specialty manufacturer of locally crafted book bound iPad & iPhone cases, inspired by the artistic greats, has launched an exciting new line of vibrant and ...

A Conversation With: Author and Journalist S. Hussain Zaidi
New York Times (blog)
Mr. Zaidi's latest book, “Dongri to Dubai: Six Decades of the Mumbai Mafia,” is a historical account of the Mumbai mafia, and Mr. Ibrahim in particular, who is better known in India as the “Don” who runs the criminal organization known as D-company. Mr. Ibrahim was declared a “global terrorist” by the U.S. Treasury in ... Mr. Zaidi talked to India Ink in Delhi this week about his days as a crime reporter, writing cinematicbooks and the “Don” himself. Q. How did “Dongri to Dubai” happen? A. As a journalist we all try to ...

New York Times (blog)

Hands on: TED Books iOS app "officially" released with some fixes
Ars Technica
Up front, the TED team has removed the book-shaped prompt to subscribe from the top left corner of the app if you're already a subscriber. (The new screenshot is at the top of this post.) I had complained that the "Subscribe and download all books on this...

Ars Technica

Pearson acquires leading self-publisher for $116M
Kansas City Star
Author Solutions, a Bloomington, Ind.-based company that has released self-published works by some 150000 authors, will become part of the Pearson-owned Penguin Group (USA). The success of such self-published writers as E.L. James and Amanda ...

Books About the Tea Party Class of 2010
New York Times
Sunday Book Review · World · U.S. · N.Y. / Region · Business · Technology · Science · Health · Sports · Opinion · Arts · Art & Design · Books · Sunday Book Review · Best Sellers · Dance · Movies · Music · Television · Theater · Video Games · Events ...

New York Times

Timothy Geithner's Treasury Department Ignored Warnings Of Mortgage Fraud ...
Huffington Post
In a new book, TARP's former inspector general claims that he warned Timothy Geithner's Treasury Department repeatedly that the mortgage program, HAMP, was a disaster waiting to happen. Instead of listening, he .... Keep in mind that the articles here are penned by young authors, so please keep criticism respectful, and help us to keep this a safe and supportive place for writers of all ages to contribute. Post Comment Preview ... Does anyone but me see this as Neil's attempt to sell a fewbooks? Does anyone not ...

Penguin buys self-publisher
The Australian
LONDON: The booming market for self-published books has gone mainstream after the owner of Penguin Books splashed out on a deal to take over one of the largest platforms for authors without a contract. Author Solutions, which is based in Bloomington, Indiana, and cost Penguin $US116 million ($111m), was started in 2007 as a professional self-publishing service and has marketed and distributed 190000 titles for 150000 authors. It is one of the biggest players in the self-publishing market, which has in the past ...

Schumer challenges DOJ on e-book lawsuit
Christian Science Monitor
Agency pricing, Schumer argues, helped free the e-book market from Amazon's dominance and generally increases competition. It also gives consumers more platforms to buy e-books. As he noted in his op-ed, Amazon controlled 90 percent of the market ...

Christian Science Monitor

The Readers' Writers: Fiction author Shobhan Bantwal
Norwich Bulletin
Her first novel, “The Dowry Bride,” established Bantwal's literary presence with the story of a young Indian bride yet to produce a child for her husband, the plot to kill her for that failure and her unexpected discovery of love. With “The Sari Shop Widow,” Bantwal .... I receive a large number of letters from women, and a few men, who have become loyal readers after they accidentally stumbled upon my books, either at their local library, through a book club or an airport bookstore. Almost always they say they had never ...

Barofsky Book: Geithner Confirmed in 2009 That HAMP Was Designed for Banks ...
Firedoglake
The Huffington Post described a scene in a forthcoming book by Neil Barofsky, the former Special Inspector General of TARP, where Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner delivered a string of F-bombs during a discussion about transparency. I've read the ...

8 Tools to Create an Irresistible Ebook
By Alexis Grant
These eight tools will make the experience of creating your first ebook painless and even fun. ...Alexis Grant is a writer, entrepreneur and author of How to Create a Freakin' Fabulous Social Media Strategy. Writing and selling ... But like any entrepreneurial experiment, creating ebooks requires trial and error to figure out a process that works best for you. .... I'm adding my comment because I'm intrigued by the relative ease to publish ebooks compared to hardcopies. I'm not a designer ...
Mashable » Tech

Apple eBook price-fixing lawsuit: Senator Chuck Schumer defends ...
By Dan Graziano
Schumer warns that the suit could “wipe out the publishing industry as we know it, making it much harder for young authors to get published.” The senator also notes that ”the suit will restore Amazon to the dominant position atop the e-books ...
BGR: The Three Biggest Letters In Tech

Authors sue Harlequin over e-book royalties | TeleRead: News and ...
By Chris Meadows
The public may now be developing a love affair with e-books, but they may have lost their romance for some of Harlequin's authors. Three such authors are suing Harlequin over a matter of miscalculatede-book royalties. Barbara Keiler, Mona ...
TeleRead: News and views on e-books,...

Ebook Bestsellers Breakdown: Flappers and chaperones ...
By Laura Hazard Owen
This weekly feature examines certain ebooks' paths to bestseller-dom, and highlights bestselling titles that are selling more copies in digital than in print. This week: Flappers, chaperones and the power of the Kindle Daily Deal.
paidContent

Bookpocalypse: Adult Fiction eBook Sales Now Greater Than ...
By John Biggs
If you couldn't tell from the massive e-sales of a tale about a young lady who loves to love the wrong man, ebooks are massively popular, doubling in 2011 to completely surpass sales of hardcover adult fiction. The Book Industry Study Group released their poll of 2000 publishers yesterday, announcing that book sales declined 2.5 percent in 2011, down to $27.2 billion from $27.9 in 2010. Ebooksbrought in $2 billion in 2011 while most revenue still came from print. The BISG abstract ...
TechCrunch

Turning Comic Books Into Art - Reason.com
By Greg Beato
In early 1990s issues of his comic book Eightball, Daniel Clowes regularly savaged the pretensions and hypocrisies of high art. In his estimation, art school was a scam where washed-up hacks dispensed expensive affirmation to lazy and ...
Reason.com Full Feed

Paperback Writer: Making Books Interactive
By Lynn Viehl
Making Books Interactive. Here's an interesting glimpse of one possible future for children's e-books; a video ad for an iPad app that allows the reader to interact with a story as they read it (also has some background music): ...
Paperback Writer

Classic SF of the 1950s: beautiful books introduced by Gibson ...
By Cory Doctorow
Cory Doctorow David Pescovitz Xeni Jardin Editors. Rob Beschizza Managing Editor. Maggie Koerth-Baker Science Editor. Jamie Frevele Entertainment Editor. Jason Weisberger Publisher. Ken Snider Sysadmin. Dean Putney Developer ...
Boing Boing

pattinase: Friday's Forgotten Books, July 20, 2012: Georges Simenon
By pattinase (abbott)
As an indication of how long something can sit on my TBR pile, I bought this book in 1985 at the second Borders store to come into existence. The receipt was still inside. And I have many books purchased even earlier. Heck I have some I ...
pattinase

Book printed in ink that vanishes after two months - Yahoo! Small ...
Silk-screened using a special pink ink, the book comes sealed in air-tight packaging that, ...electronic readers and e-books, deemed to be bringing about the death of the physical ... As theauthors inside are all previously unpublished, the concept, developed with help ... Kind of limits theauthor's exposure, don't you think?
smallbusiness.yahoo.com/.../book-printed-in-ink-that-vanishes...

5 Ways to Go From Blogger to Published Book Author | Social Media ...
Blog a book: how to easily write a book and turn yourself into a successful book author. ... for abook, then write the book in post-sized bits every day and publish the ... They can blog books orbook blogs and become authors as well as bloggers. .... just blog—with the intention of attracting aliterary agent or a publisher.
www.socialmediaexaminer.com/blog-to-book-author/

Summer children's books: 8-10 - Telegraph
Summer children's special: Picture Books. 20 Jul 2012. Summer children's Books : 6-8 year olds ...Book 10 of a series that harks back to Enid Blyton.
www.telegraph.co.uk/.../Summer-childrens-books-8-10.html

Penguin to get into the self-publishing game with Author Solutions Purchase
Good E-Reader (blog)
Author Solutions may be a good fit for Penguin, but will continue to run as an independent company. The company mainly solicits manuscripts from authors, provides editing and marketing services, and publishes the books in print or digital format.

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