Microsoft and Barnes & Noble seal agreement
Barnes & Noble and Microsoft have officially completed the strategic partnership they announced at the end of April. The partnership, temporarily called Newco, has the permanent name Nook Media and...
View ArticleWoman's Prize for Fiction (formerly Orange Prize) to be privately funded in 2013
The Woman's Prize for Fiction, formerly sponsored by mobile phone company Orange, will be privately funded in 2013 with donors including Christopher Foyle, Joanna Trollope, e-book site Bilbary, Cherie...
View ArticleWriter Nguyen Chi Thien, Vietnamese dissident writer who spent 30 years in...
Mr. Thien, a dissident writer who has been called the Solzhenitsyn of Vietnam for the sheaves of poems he wrote opposing the Communist government there - and for the prolonged imprisonment, including...
View ArticleNational Book Award finalists announced
The finalists for the National Book Awards have been announced. The winners will be named on November 14: Fiction Junot Diaz, This Is How You Lose Her Dave Eggers, A Hologram for the King Louise...
View ArticleFuture of Canadian Booksellers Association in the balance
Members of the Canadian Booksellers Association are being asked to decide on the future direction of the association at its upcoming annual general meeting. "We feel it's crucial for the CBA in some...
View ArticleRIP Eric Lomax, River Kwai prisoner who forgave his torturer, and recorded...
Eric Lomax, a former British soldier who was tortured by the Japanese while he was a prisoner during World War II and half a century later forgave one of his tormentors - an experience he recounted in...
View ArticleBookShout allows its users to legally import e-book purchases into Bookshout,...
BookShout, a social reading and book retail application, is introducing new technology that will allow its users to legally import their previous and future e-book purchases into their BookShout...
View ArticleChinese author Mo Yan wins Nobel Prize
Chinese author Mo Yan has won the 2012 Nobel Prize in Literature. Jonathan Ruppin of UK bookstore Foyle's commented that: "There's been interest in Chinese literature in the last few years and people...
View ArticleJudge says Google scanning is fair use
In a major ruling, Federal judge Harold Baer has tossed the Authors Guild case against the HathiTrust. In granting the HathiTrust's motion for summary judgment, Baer ruled that the scan program was a...
View ArticleHilary Mantel wins 2012 Man Booker Prize for the second time
Hilary Mantel has won the 2012 Man Booker Prize for her historical novel, Bring Up the Bodies. This is the second time Ms Mandel has won the prize, after winning with Wolf Hall in 2009. It is the first...
View ArticleJohnny Depp and HarperCollins partnering to publish books
Actor Johnny Depp is partnering with HarperCollins to start an imprint, Infinitum Nihil ("Nothing is forever"), that will seek "authentic, outspoken and visionary ideas and voices," the Associated...
View ArticleMan Group dropping sponsorship of Asian Literary Prize
The Asian Literary Prize is looking for a new sponsor as Man Group plc, also the sponsor of the Booker Prize, is to cease its funding as of March 2013. Professor David Parker, executive director of the...
View ArticleNewsweek to end its print edition after 80 years
Newsweek will end its print edition on December 31st, after 80 years of continuous publishing. The magazine will continue to have a presence in digital format in partnership with The Daily Beast.
View ArticleOver half of 16 to 29 year olds use their local public library
83% of Americans between the ages of 16 and 29 read a book in the past year. Some 75% read a print book, 19% read an e-book, and 11% listened to an audiobook. 60% of Americans under age 30 used the...
View ArticlePenguin and Random House in merger talks
Pearson has confirmed that it is in talks with Bertelsmann regarding a potential merger between Penguin and Random House. It would be the first major structural shift in the global publishing industry...
View ArticleAmazon posts third quarter loss, bigger than expected
Amazon posted a third quarter net loss of $274 million on a sales increase of 27%, to $13.8 billion. The loss was higher than analysts had expected and was attributed to a host of investments, ranging...
View ArticleMore information on the possible Random House, Penguin merger
Speculation about the future of Penguin began in earnest earlier this month when Pearson CEO Marjorie Scardino announced she would be leaving in January and several observers noted that the change put...
View ArticleCultural critic, Jacques Barzun dies aged 104
Jacques Barzun, the distinguished historian, essayist, cultural gadfly and educator who helped establish the modern discipline of cultural history and came to see the West as sliding toward decadence,...
View ArticleRandom House & Penguin Sign Merger Agreement, Scuttling a News Corp offer to...
In a deal that had been months in the making, Pearson and Bertelsmann announced Monday morning that they have signed an agreement to form a joint venture that will combine the businesses of Random...
View ArticleAmazon and Arizona reach sales tax settlement
From Jan 2013, Amazon will collect sales tax on its Arizona transactions as part of a legal settlement with the state. Amazon has also agreed to pay Arizona an undisclosed amount to settle the state's...
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