Publishers sue Amazon’s Audible over speech-to-text feature Major US publishers have filed a lawsuit against Amazon’s audiobook company Audible in a row over a new speech-to-text feature which they say is a violation of copyright law. The lawsuit, filed by Association of American Publishers (AAP), was filed in response to recent public statements from Audible,…
China crackdown on maps sparks major production delays A new censorship crackdown in China has led to Beijing officals checking all books being printed in the country for maps, causing delays of up to eight weeks for production teams and derailing launches for books featuring any kind of map. Chinese censors have long taken a…
International sales ‘increasingly important in 2019’, predict publishers Publishers will increasingly look to international territories for growth this year in the face of a stable but flat domestic market, according to industry leaders giving The Bookseller their predictions for what 2019 holds for the trade. Yet paradoxically the terms of many international trading relationships are currently uncertain…
After almost 600 booksellers withdrew 3.5m books from the secondhand marketplace in support of countries dropped by the website, it apologises for a ‘bad decision’ An “extraordinary and unprecedented” global protest from antiquarian booksellers has forced the Amazon-owned secondhand marketplace AbeBooks to backtrack on its decision to pull out of several countries. AbeBooks had told…
Honours for Waterstone, Ishiguro, Beard and Calder Tim Waterstone, founder of the eponymous bookshop chain Waterstones, has been recognised in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List with a knighthood for “services to bookselling and charity”. Author Kazuo Ishiguro – awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature last year – has also received a knighthood, for services to literature. “I’m feeling absolutely…
Readers encouraged to ‘ditch burdensome books’ for WBN New research by the Reading Agency suggests the UK is a nation afflicted with “book-block”, with many readers deciding to give up on books after struggling through a difficult title. The survey, commissioned to mark World Book Night on Monday 23rd April, reveals more than half of…
Amazon unveils international shopping app Amazon has launched an “international shopping experience” through an app which allows customers worldwide to browse and ship more than 45 million products from the US. The Amazon Shopping App is offered across mobile devices in five languages, including English, Spanish, Simplified Chinese, German, and Brazilian Portuguese, altogether offering customers the…
The concept of ‘exhaustion of rights’ (from the blog post Amazon and Brexit fuel territoriality fears) is not something I am familiar with, and the following article, courtesy WIPR provides a helpful explanation: Brexit: changes ahead for exhaustion of rights If the UK leaves the EU without joining the European Economic Area, the principle of trademark…
Waterstones sale expected to complete this month The sale of Waterstones to hedge fund Elliott Advisors is likely to close at the end of this month, The Booksellerunderstands. The looming deal has caused a delay in increasing the pay of senior booksellers, after junior staff saw their salaries rise with the increase in the National Minimum Wage. A…
Macmillan celebrates 175 years of publishing Macmillan is celebrating 175 years of publishing in 2018 with an initiative for independent booksellers, roundtable events and the reissue of “one of the most successful anthologies in literary history”. The publisher is using the anniversary, marking the founding of the company by brothers Daniel and Alexander Macmillan in…