Book Battles, In Bulk

Target vs. Amazon: Remember Amazon's new 'Terms of Service' agreement that caused Goodreads to kick indie stores to the multi-click curb? Well, Target ain't playing that. Word on TheStreet.com is, "Target is seizing control of its Web site from Amazon.com. The discounter announced on Friday that it plans to build and manage its own platform for Target.com by the 2011 holiday season." So Target is more indie than Goodreads. Who'd'a thunk it?


Sony vs. Amazon: The e-Book pricing wars continue to drag on, with Sony lowering their price to $9.99 in hopes of capturing some of the Kindle crowd. The NYTimes reports, "'We all know that these companies are taking a loss and that’s not going to continue forever,' said Jonathan Karp, publisher and editor...at...the Hachette Book Group. But he added that '$9.99 has now become the effective price for e-books in August of 2009. Let’s just take a breath and see how long this lasts.'"


Canada vs. literary magazines: If your short story magazine sells less than 5k copies, the mighty Maple Leaf says, "Sooorry, non." According to Canadian Magazines, "Whatever hope small literary and cultural magazines had that they could change the minds of Canadian Heritage about its 5,000 annual paid threshold for the new Canada Periodical Fund are pretty much dashed." As a citizen of the section of America that's been crapping on its artists for years, let me say 'Welcome' to all of you Canadians suddenly suffering for your work.


J.D. Salinger vs. damned near everybody: Publishers Weekly purports, "The Second Circuit Court of Appeals will hear oral arguments on September 3 to help decide whether an injunction barring publication of Swedish author Fredrik Colting’s 60 Years Later: Coming Through the Rye constitutes an 'impermissible prior restrain and an unwarranted extensio'” of copyright protection. [...] A number of high profile organizations, including major media companies like the New York Times, the Associated Press, Gannett, and Tribune, as well as librarians, free speech advocates, and legal scholars, have filed amicus briefs supporting Colting, urging the Appeals Court overturn Judge Deborah Batts’ injunction barring U.S. publication." You see? This is precisely why guys like him become recluses!


Dan Brown vs. your efforts to avoid Dan Brown: The Guardian UK reveals, "Transworld will whip up a Dan Brown frenzy with a marketing and PR campaign starting a week before global release of The Lost Symbol on 15th September. The ad campaign, which will run for two weeks from 7th September, is being put together in conjunction with Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, which releases the DVD and Blu-ray editions of the "Angels and Demons" film on the 14th. It includes backlit high street posters running nationally, as well as giant 48-sheet posters across the UK rail network and on roadsides, and posters on buses in London and Dublin. An extensive TV campaign from Sony will also include The Lost Symbol."