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The Authors Guild on Ebook Contracts

The Authors Guild press authors to argue for a fifty-fifty sharing of ebooks profits, rather than the current twenty-five for authors, seventy-five for the publishers. Publishers Weekly reports.

Author Solutions: No Class Action

Publishers Weekly reports that the plantiffs have been denied class action status in the Author Solutions lawsuit.

The contracts in question granted Author Solutions “the right” to market an author’s work, Cote explained, but “notably absent” was any contractual obligation requiring Author Solutions to actually do so.

Apple Loses Appeal; Must Pay Out

Publishers Weekly reports that Apple has lost its appeal in the long-running battle over whether it, and others, conspried to fix ebook prices. Assuming the decision stands, Apple will have to pay out over 400 million dollars to consumers.

Amazon Updates Terms

According to Publishers Weekly, Amazon has updated its terms for Kindle Unlimited and Kindle Owners Lending Library to reflect the number of pages actually read. It has also, once again, fttened the pot payment is made from.

Nielsen Report on the US Ebook Market

The Bookseller talks about the latest Nielsen report on the US ebook market. Noteworthy:

Nielsen’s analysis tells us less about the overall e-book market in the States than we’d like, primarily because it doesn’t include sales from self-published — or non ISBN publishers — or as Hugh Howey would have it the "35%+ of the ignored/silent market". Nielsen does give some indication that it is aware of this grey sector, reckoning that 42% those who have downloaded e-books are sure they have bought a self-published

book.

Categories, Growing, Shrinking

Publishers Weekly has data for the past year's sales. Science fiction, fantasy, and their cousins are down for adults, mostly up for juveniles.

Next Monday Apple Will Attempt to Overturn Its Ebook Pricing Conviction

Monday, December 15th, 2014, they'll all meet and have another go at things. Publishers Weekly has the details.

If you’ve lost track, you’re not alone—there’s been a lot of legal wrangling over the last year. But Monday’s hearing is the main event: this is Apple’s appeal of Judge Denise Cote’s 2013 liability finding, in which the company was found to have conspired with five major publishers (Hachette, HarperCollins, Macmillan, Penguin, and Simon & Schuster) to artificially inflate the e-book prices.

But even after the decision by the circuit court, the case could drag on. The settlement agreement allows the parties to appeal all the way to the Supreme Court an the full appeal process could take years.

We are not amazed.

DoJ, Apple Maneuver

As part of its ongoing effort to surpass The Mousetrap in longevity, the next showtime is December 15th, when Apple will appeal, etc. Publishers Weekly has the details.

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Apple Gets Final Approval on 'Highly Unusual' $450 Million E-Book Settlement

A settlement! But wait, there's more! Publishers Weekly gives the current state of play in the Apple lawsuit.

The Second Circuit is set to hear arguments on Apple’s appeal of Judge Cote’s 2013 liability finding on December 15. Still, the agreement affords the parties the opportunity to appeal her liability finding all the way to the Supreme Court, so a final payout could be many months, if not years away.

So no one will be buying holiday presents with their credits.

Ursula Le Guin at the National Book Awards

Quotes by NPR:

"I rejoice in accepting [this prize] for, and sharing it with, all the writers who were excluded from literature for so long: my fellow authors of fantasy and science fiction," Le Guin said.
She reserved her most incendiary language for the recently resolved pricing dispute between Amazon and the publisher Hachette Book Group.
"We just saw a profiteer try to punish a publisher for disobedience, and writers threatened by corporate fatwa," she said. "And I see a lot of us, the producers, accepting this — letting commodity profiteers sell us like deodorant!"