date: 2009-02-13 08:02 subject: E-Book Rights Alert: Amazon's Kindle 2 Adds "Text to Speech" Function security: Public tags: amazon kindle 2, e-book rights, heidi ruby miller, the authors guild

I'm passing this along from The Authors Guild. It's lengthy, but worth reading for all writers, I believe.

"On Monday, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos unveiled Amazon's Kindle 2 e-book reading device at the Morgan Library in New York. Most of the changes from the first version of the Kindle are incremental improvements: the new Kindle is lighter and thinner, for example, and Amazon eliminated the scroll wheel. One update, however, is wholly new: Amazon has added a "Text to Speech" function that reads the e-book aloud through the use of special software.

This presents a significant challenge to the publishing industry.( Read more... )

date: 2008-08-16 19:26 subject: From The Authors Guild: Accounting Practices of F&W Publishing and Adams Media security: Public tags: heidi ruby miller, royalty statements, the authors guild

I received this recently via email from The Authors Guild:

"Internal e-mails, including an admission that Adams Media has "no system in place for tracking inbound Royalty Statements from translation rights deals," and a recent arbitrator's ruling in Massachusetts awarding $209,000 to an author raise serious questions about the accounting practices of F&W Publishing and Adams Media.

Authors Guild member Sherry Argov brought an arbitration more than four years ago against F&W Publishing and its subsidiary Adams Media regarding the payment of royalties for her book "Why Men Love Bitches." The arbitrator found that F&W had purposefully withheld documents needed by Ms. Argov to complete the royalty audit to which she was contractually entitled. This amounted to an "unfair and deceptive practice" under Massachusetts law, leading the arbitrator to award $209,000 to Ms. Argov. The arbitrator's review of the work done by F&W's outside expert, however, led the arbitrator to conclude that domestic sales had been properly accounted for.

Accounting for foreign editions and translations appears to be a particular problem for F&W and Adams Media. In a stunning e-mail dated October 18, 2006, an F&W employee admits, "We have no system in place for tracking inbound Royalty Statements from translation rights deals. We do not go looking for missing statements from our Translation rights customers. No one is responsible for the collections on either open contracts nor balances indicated on Royalty statements." Another employee adds, "in many cases, we have not received statements from the foreign publishers per the contracts (specifically, on Sherry's titles, but there are lots of others)."

The arbitrator didn't rule on foreign royalties. Instead, it urged F&W to report to Ms. Argov what amounts may be owed her for foreign editions, so the company could avoid arbitration on that issue.

For more information, please see the Publishers Weekly story or the arbitrator's ruling.

We'd like your help on this matter.

1. If you have knowledge of F&W or Adams Media's royalty accounting practices, please get in touch with the Authors Guild's legal department.
2. If you are an F&W or Adams Media author (whether you are a Guild member or not) and would like to be kept up to date on this matter, simply send us an e-mail.
3. Feel free to forward and post this alert in its entirety.

Contact: legalservices@authorsguild.org or 212-563-5904.

The Authors Guild (www.authorsguild.org) is the largest society of published book authors in the United States."


The Authors Guild, Heidi Ruby Miller, Adams Media, F&W Publishing, royalty statements, accounting practices, writing

date: 2008-04-07 07:52 subject: From The Authors Guild: Amazon Tightens Grip on Long Tail security: Public tags: amazon, booksurge, heidi ruby miller, ingram, lightning source, the authors guild

I got this message over the weekend in my email from The Authors Guild:

Last week Amazon announced that it would be requiring that all books that it sells that are produced through on-demand means be printed by BookSurge, their in-house on-demand printer/publisher. Amazon pitched this as a customer service matter, a means for more speedily delivering print-on-demand books and allowing for the bundling of shipments with other items purchased at the same time from Amazon. It also put a bit of an environmental spin on the move -- claiming less transportation fuel is used (this is unlikely, but that's another story) when all items are shipped directly from Amazon.

We, and many others, think something else is afoot. Ingram Industries' Lightning Source is currently the dominant printer for on-demand titles, and they appear to be quite efficient at their task. They ship on-demand titles shortly after they are ordered through Amazon directly to the customer. It's a nice business for Ingram, since they get a percentage of the sales and a printing fee for every on-demand book they ship. Amazon would be foolish not to covet that business.

What's the rub? Once Amazon owns the supply chain, it has effective control of much of the "long tail" of publishing -- the enormous number of titles that sell in low volumes but which, in aggregate, make a lot of money for the aggregator. Since Amazon has a firm grip on the retailing of these books (it's uneconomic for physical book stores to stock many of these titles), owning the supply chain would allow it to easily increase its profit margins on these books: it need only insist on buying at a deeper discount -- or it can choose to charge more for its printing of the books -- to increase its profits. Most publishers could do little but grumble and comply.

We suspect this maneuver by Amazon is far more about profit margin than it is about customer service or fossil fuels. The potential big losers (other than Ingram) if Amazon does impose greater discounts on the industry, are authors -- since many are paid for on-demand sales based on the publisher's gross revenues -- and publishers.

We're reviewing the antitrust and other legal implications of Amazon's bold move. If you have any information on this matter that you think could be helpful to us, please call us at (212) 563-5904 and ask for the legal services department, or send an e-mail to staff@authorsguild.org.


The Authors Guild, Heidi Ruby Miller, Amazon, Ingram, Lightning Source, BookSurge, POD, writing

Feel free to post or forward this message in its entirety.