With the latest controversy surrounding the recall of "The Last Train From Hiroshima" by Charles Pellegrino, the book publishing industry is having to take a hard look at the line between creative nonfiction and fiction.
In a time when self-publishing and digital publishing let anyone with a computer create a book, the traditional publishing establishment is positioning itself as one that has a product of premium quality. Publishers, however, still maintain that the responsibility for errors and falsifications lies with authors.
With the introduction of the iPad and the continued success of the Kindle device, more and more electronically published books will see increased attention. Will consumers care about the integrity of what they're reading or do they just want a good read?
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Sunday, March 21, 2010
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Best-Selling Author Jordan Rubin Recovers $55,000 from Strang Communications in Royalties Dispute
Natural health expert and author Jordan Rubin has recovered $55,000 from Strang Communications in a dispute that revealed the faith-based publisher improperly withheld royalties payments for three years from the paperback edition of his New York Times bestseller The Maker's Diet. Rubin said he was forced to file an arbitration claim after numerous requests and attempts to settle the matter were ignored.
"I wanted to believe this was an honest mistake," said Rubin. "But Strang's refusal to acknowledge our requests to review royalty statements eventually left me with no other remedy except to take legal action."
Rubin said he first notified his literary agent, Tom Winters, to review statements from Strang in March 2009 because he believed the publisher had failed to pay him royalties he was owed. Winters said he was perplexed when Strang repeatedly failed to produce the statements and recommended that Rubin should consult an attorney. Rubin retained Sean Ellsworth and Nick Bravin of Ellsworth Law Firm, P.A. in Miami, who filed an arbitration claim on June 3, 2009.
According to Ellsworth, Strang claimed that Rubin was not entitled to review royalty statements. However, after more than six months when arbitrators were preparing to finalize procedures and deadlines that would apply to the case, Strang produced royalty statements and acknowledged it had underpaid Rubin $36,620.91. In addition, the statements proved that Strang improperly withheld some royalty payments for nearly three years, which resulted in Strang's agreement to pay interest on royalties owed and Rubin's attorney's fees, pushing the total to over $55,000.
"When I signed my initial literary contract, I trusted my publisher to honor the agreement they put forth," said Rubin. "I was very disappointed to discover that earned royalties were withheld for up to three years, but I am pleased that justice has prevailed."
Rubin has authored more than 20 health titles and is the founder of Garden of Life, a leading whole foods nutritional supplements company. Strang Communications is a multimedia corporation founded by Stephen Strang in 1975 which includes its publishing division, Strang Book Group, with eight imprints including Charisma House, Siloam and Casa Creacion. Strang also publishes the magazines Christian Life, Ministry Today and Christian Retailing.
Ellsworth added, "We are pleased we could recover what was owed to Jordan Rubin. It's just unfortunate that it took so much legal wrangling to in order for the publisher to do the right thing."
"I wanted to believe this was an honest mistake," said Rubin. "But Strang's refusal to acknowledge our requests to review royalty statements eventually left me with no other remedy except to take legal action."
Rubin said he first notified his literary agent, Tom Winters, to review statements from Strang in March 2009 because he believed the publisher had failed to pay him royalties he was owed. Winters said he was perplexed when Strang repeatedly failed to produce the statements and recommended that Rubin should consult an attorney. Rubin retained Sean Ellsworth and Nick Bravin of Ellsworth Law Firm, P.A. in Miami, who filed an arbitration claim on June 3, 2009.
According to Ellsworth, Strang claimed that Rubin was not entitled to review royalty statements. However, after more than six months when arbitrators were preparing to finalize procedures and deadlines that would apply to the case, Strang produced royalty statements and acknowledged it had underpaid Rubin $36,620.91. In addition, the statements proved that Strang improperly withheld some royalty payments for nearly three years, which resulted in Strang's agreement to pay interest on royalties owed and Rubin's attorney's fees, pushing the total to over $55,000.
"When I signed my initial literary contract, I trusted my publisher to honor the agreement they put forth," said Rubin. "I was very disappointed to discover that earned royalties were withheld for up to three years, but I am pleased that justice has prevailed."
Rubin has authored more than 20 health titles and is the founder of Garden of Life, a leading whole foods nutritional supplements company. Strang Communications is a multimedia corporation founded by Stephen Strang in 1975 which includes its publishing division, Strang Book Group, with eight imprints including Charisma House, Siloam and Casa Creacion. Strang also publishes the magazines Christian Life, Ministry Today and Christian Retailing.
Ellsworth added, "We are pleased we could recover what was owed to Jordan Rubin. It's just unfortunate that it took so much legal wrangling to in order for the publisher to do the right thing."
Find Win-Win Opportunities for Publishing Innovation at Digital Publishing Asia Pacific 2010
Traditional publishing industry is experiencing a new surge of digitization after completing the evolution from "type and fire" to "laser and electronics." Building from the basis of the traditional publishing industry, and employing the strength of the advantage of modern high-tech information technology, digital publishing has entered a stage of rapid development by virtue of the vigorous support of the government as well as active promotion by enterprises within the industry.
Since digital publishing has been widely recognized as the direction of future development in the publishing industry, the question is no longer, "To do or not to do?" but rather, "How do we do this?" The Chinese government also attaches great importance to the digital publishing industry. The Chinese digital publishing industry had a registered output of RMB53 billion at the end of 2008, a year-on-year increase of 46.42%. China Telecom, which boasted 513.5 million subscribers as of the end of October 2009, already offers e-readers in China and sells e-books on its Mobile Market online store. Presently, the number of individual e-reading terminals in China exceeds 0.18 billion, and the population of phone netizens has reached 50 million.
Digital Publishing Asia Pacific 2010 will be held from June 9th to 10th, 2010. It is specially designed for publishers and distributors, software and hardware companies, telecommunications companies, digital retailers and other leaders in the digital publishing industry. It examines, explores and debates the hot-button issues facing the publishing and telecommunications industries in today's digital media world. It provides you with a golden opportunity to meet the top-level policy-makers and executives, and to truly understand the current developmental and strategic direction of the publishing industry from viewpoints across the world. Also, it presents the rare chance to meet digital media gurus to discuss cutting-edge innovations and exciting business ventures.
About 20 industry professionals have committed to deliver speeches at this event, including Nie Zhenning, President of China Publishing Group; Dev Ganesan, President and CEO of Aptara; Maurice Kwong, Managing Director of Springer Asia; Shasha Chang, CEO of Wolters Kluwer China; Tang Chao, President of Dragonsource Group; Mikio Amaya, President of Papyless Co., Ltd.; Zhao Ge, CEO of Beijing Founder Network and Beijing Founder Apabi; Shinya Nozaki, President of Celsys, Inc.; Richard Wan, CEO of E-Book Systems Asia; and Jo Lusby, Managing Director of Penguin North Asia.
Digital Publishing Asia Pacific 2010 highlight trends and predictions for 2011 and examines the key areas that are getting venture capitalists fired up for the year ahead. The conference will also explore the forces driving commercial success in digital media; whether paid content can be made to work; monetizing video and mobile content; and the best routes to maximize sales. As such, the conference is of particular interest to those working in such areas as: publishing, distribution, retailing, digital hardware and software, telecommunication, digital solutions, digital media and other leaders of the digital publishing industry.
Please log on the official event website
http://www.epublishasia.com/
Since digital publishing has been widely recognized as the direction of future development in the publishing industry, the question is no longer, "To do or not to do?" but rather, "How do we do this?" The Chinese government also attaches great importance to the digital publishing industry. The Chinese digital publishing industry had a registered output of RMB53 billion at the end of 2008, a year-on-year increase of 46.42%. China Telecom, which boasted 513.5 million subscribers as of the end of October 2009, already offers e-readers in China and sells e-books on its Mobile Market online store. Presently, the number of individual e-reading terminals in China exceeds 0.18 billion, and the population of phone netizens has reached 50 million.
Digital Publishing Asia Pacific 2010 will be held from June 9th to 10th, 2010. It is specially designed for publishers and distributors, software and hardware companies, telecommunications companies, digital retailers and other leaders in the digital publishing industry. It examines, explores and debates the hot-button issues facing the publishing and telecommunications industries in today's digital media world. It provides you with a golden opportunity to meet the top-level policy-makers and executives, and to truly understand the current developmental and strategic direction of the publishing industry from viewpoints across the world. Also, it presents the rare chance to meet digital media gurus to discuss cutting-edge innovations and exciting business ventures.
About 20 industry professionals have committed to deliver speeches at this event, including Nie Zhenning, President of China Publishing Group; Dev Ganesan, President and CEO of Aptara; Maurice Kwong, Managing Director of Springer Asia; Shasha Chang, CEO of Wolters Kluwer China; Tang Chao, President of Dragonsource Group; Mikio Amaya, President of Papyless Co., Ltd.; Zhao Ge, CEO of Beijing Founder Network and Beijing Founder Apabi; Shinya Nozaki, President of Celsys, Inc.; Richard Wan, CEO of E-Book Systems Asia; and Jo Lusby, Managing Director of Penguin North Asia.
Digital Publishing Asia Pacific 2010 highlight trends and predictions for 2011 and examines the key areas that are getting venture capitalists fired up for the year ahead. The conference will also explore the forces driving commercial success in digital media; whether paid content can be made to work; monetizing video and mobile content; and the best routes to maximize sales. As such, the conference is of particular interest to those working in such areas as: publishing, distribution, retailing, digital hardware and software, telecommunication, digital solutions, digital media and other leaders of the digital publishing industry.
Please log on the official event website
http://www.epublishasia.com/
New Digital Services for Publishers
O'Reilly Media announced today an innovative new digital service at O'Reilly's Tools of Change for Publishing Conference in New York City.
O'Reilly's new division aims to help publishers meet the demands and challenges of the 21st century. For publishers to succeed today, their content must be available in multiple formats, distributed through many channels. There’s much to understand and do, including converting and formatting files, finding and managing distribution channels, sales and marketing, and collecting and analyzing sales data.
At O'Reilly, we already do all this for our own content and for Microsoft Press. Indeed, over the past four years, O'Reilly has invested in a technical toolchain that allows us to easily open new markets and channels. Beginning today O'Reilly will make our digital toolchain and sales and marketing capabilities available to every other publisher.
The new digital distribution service division will be led by publishing expert Pascal Honscher, an 11-year veteran with O'Reilly.
"Any individual publisher who wants to enter the digital marketplace effectively must make significant up-front investments, overcome many technical challenges, and then hope they've made all the right decisions. At O'Reilly, we've done it--and we've done it successfully," said Honscher, General Manager, Digital Distribution.
"By offering a single point of entry to the broad digital marketplace, and fronting our technology with a dedicated sales and marketing team who are always scouting for new opportunities, O'Reilly takes all the complexities out of going digital," Honscher added.
Working with O'Reilly, publishers can get their content into multiple eRetailers including Apple App Store, Amazon Kindle, Android Market, Kobo, B&N Nook, and more.
Simply put, all publishers need to do is provide the content and O'Reilly will do the rest. Here are the services O'Reilly offers:
- A single point of entry: we aggregate your content and push it out to the dynamic marketplace of ebooks and other digital channels
- Dedicated sales and marketing team actively develops and cultivates strong working relationships with existing and emerging distribution channels
- Easy access to a broad digital market without the up-front cost of creating and maintaining your own digital toolchain or distribution capabilities
- Secure storage, access, and distribution of your digital assets and metadata in our content warehouse
- Integrated, web-based publishing platform encourages direct community feedback, brings your authors closer to their audiences, and helps you develop a responsive and agile product development process
- Quick, efficient, and error-free conversion of your content into digital distribution formats with O’Reilly’s Document Conversion Services
- Easy-to-understand, transparent pricing model
- No up-front charges: you don’t pay us until your content starts to sell
- Flexible pricing strategies: define your own or work with our sales and research teams to identify and maximize revenue
- Custom channel selection for your products ensures that you have control over how and where your products are distributed
- Powerful reporting and analytics that aggregate channel sales data in a unified view and provides digital marketplace trends
- Have it your way: you can go with the complete package or select from our a-la-carte menu of services, including integration of our technology directly into your core infrastructure
For more information, please visit us online at oreilly.com/go/digital, or email digitaldistribution@oreilly.com.
O'Reilly's new division aims to help publishers meet the demands and challenges of the 21st century. For publishers to succeed today, their content must be available in multiple formats, distributed through many channels. There’s much to understand and do, including converting and formatting files, finding and managing distribution channels, sales and marketing, and collecting and analyzing sales data.
At O'Reilly, we already do all this for our own content and for Microsoft Press. Indeed, over the past four years, O'Reilly has invested in a technical toolchain that allows us to easily open new markets and channels. Beginning today O'Reilly will make our digital toolchain and sales and marketing capabilities available to every other publisher.
The new digital distribution service division will be led by publishing expert Pascal Honscher, an 11-year veteran with O'Reilly.
"Any individual publisher who wants to enter the digital marketplace effectively must make significant up-front investments, overcome many technical challenges, and then hope they've made all the right decisions. At O'Reilly, we've done it--and we've done it successfully," said Honscher, General Manager, Digital Distribution.
"By offering a single point of entry to the broad digital marketplace, and fronting our technology with a dedicated sales and marketing team who are always scouting for new opportunities, O'Reilly takes all the complexities out of going digital," Honscher added.
Working with O'Reilly, publishers can get their content into multiple eRetailers including Apple App Store, Amazon Kindle, Android Market, Kobo, B&N Nook, and more.
Simply put, all publishers need to do is provide the content and O'Reilly will do the rest. Here are the services O'Reilly offers:
- A single point of entry: we aggregate your content and push it out to the dynamic marketplace of ebooks and other digital channels
- Dedicated sales and marketing team actively develops and cultivates strong working relationships with existing and emerging distribution channels
- Easy access to a broad digital market without the up-front cost of creating and maintaining your own digital toolchain or distribution capabilities
- Secure storage, access, and distribution of your digital assets and metadata in our content warehouse
- Integrated, web-based publishing platform encourages direct community feedback, brings your authors closer to their audiences, and helps you develop a responsive and agile product development process
- Quick, efficient, and error-free conversion of your content into digital distribution formats with O’Reilly’s Document Conversion Services
- Easy-to-understand, transparent pricing model
- No up-front charges: you don’t pay us until your content starts to sell
- Flexible pricing strategies: define your own or work with our sales and research teams to identify and maximize revenue
- Custom channel selection for your products ensures that you have control over how and where your products are distributed
- Powerful reporting and analytics that aggregate channel sales data in a unified view and provides digital marketplace trends
- Have it your way: you can go with the complete package or select from our a-la-carte menu of services, including integration of our technology directly into your core infrastructure
For more information, please visit us online at oreilly.com/go/digital, or email digitaldistribution@oreilly.com.
Monday, March 8, 2010
Idaho Author, Terry Rich Hartley, Returns To Fiction Writing
Dr. Terry Rich Hartley is a former research psychologist, psychology professor, and journalist who has recently returned to his first love of fiction writing.
In the early 1980's he sold seven science fiction stories and worked as a writer and copy editor for the Twin Falls, Idaho, Times-News. He then went to The Glens Falls, New York, Post-Star, where he earned two first-place awards for his satirical column and a third one for business/finance editing by the New York State Associated Press Association.
Among Hartley's academic achievements are a bachelor's degree in psychology from Skidmore College, a doctorate in social psychology from the University of Nevada, Reno, and a postdoctoral fellowship in biological psychology from the University of Oklahoma School of Medicine.
In the 1990s Hartley was a research psychologist at the Behavioral Sciences Labs in Oklahoma City and, from 2000-2005, an adjunct assistant professor in the Boise State University Dept. of Psychology.
He's an avid outdoorsman who currently lives in Idaho's Hagerman Valley along the Snake River with his wife and their Labrador retriever.
"Paranoia on River Road" is a 1-hour audio story read by Sean Pratt that tells the story of when a dispatcher sends Deputy Sheriff Lita Echeveria to a ghoulish burial site. A professor isolates himself in Mystic Canyon after apparently going mad. A wealthy retired farmer lives in denial of child abuse. A mysterious blonde girl and a dog point the way to criminal evidence before disappearing. The interaction of these characters cracks the boundaries of normal/abnormal psychology and criminal justice/cosmic punishment. Hartley's psychological knowledge and experience is infused in the storyline and makes it a compelling account that captures the listener's attention to the very end.
The audio recording is performed by Sean Pratt who has recorded more than 500 books in almost every genre and is a six time winner of AudioFile Magazine's, Earphones Award and two time nominee for the prestigious Audie Award.
"Paranoia on River Road", released Feb. 7, 2010. The story is available on CD for $5.49 and MP3 download for $4.99 at http://www.mindwingsaudio.com/. Electronic copies can be purchased at various eBook locations on the web and are listed at the Mind Wings Audio website.
In the early 1980's he sold seven science fiction stories and worked as a writer and copy editor for the Twin Falls, Idaho, Times-News. He then went to The Glens Falls, New York, Post-Star, where he earned two first-place awards for his satirical column and a third one for business/finance editing by the New York State Associated Press Association.
Among Hartley's academic achievements are a bachelor's degree in psychology from Skidmore College, a doctorate in social psychology from the University of Nevada, Reno, and a postdoctoral fellowship in biological psychology from the University of Oklahoma School of Medicine.
In the 1990s Hartley was a research psychologist at the Behavioral Sciences Labs in Oklahoma City and, from 2000-2005, an adjunct assistant professor in the Boise State University Dept. of Psychology.
He's an avid outdoorsman who currently lives in Idaho's Hagerman Valley along the Snake River with his wife and their Labrador retriever.
"Paranoia on River Road" is a 1-hour audio story read by Sean Pratt that tells the story of when a dispatcher sends Deputy Sheriff Lita Echeveria to a ghoulish burial site. A professor isolates himself in Mystic Canyon after apparently going mad. A wealthy retired farmer lives in denial of child abuse. A mysterious blonde girl and a dog point the way to criminal evidence before disappearing. The interaction of these characters cracks the boundaries of normal/abnormal psychology and criminal justice/cosmic punishment. Hartley's psychological knowledge and experience is infused in the storyline and makes it a compelling account that captures the listener's attention to the very end.
The audio recording is performed by Sean Pratt who has recorded more than 500 books in almost every genre and is a six time winner of AudioFile Magazine's, Earphones Award and two time nominee for the prestigious Audie Award.
"Paranoia on River Road", released Feb. 7, 2010. The story is available on CD for $5.49 and MP3 download for $4.99 at http://www.mindwingsaudio.com/. Electronic copies can be purchased at various eBook locations on the web and are listed at the Mind Wings Audio website.
Two sci-fi blog fiction authors get creative and re-write the book on fiction online
Using the power of online publishing and the viral nature of social networking, storytellers Andy Scearce and his Kansas-City-based brother, Steve, have created a speculative science fiction tale of time travel, deep space exploration, and dangerous genetic tampering that has captured the attention of readers across the globe in just over two months from their first posting.
Beginning with a small online collaboration in December of 2009, blog fiction writers Andy Scearce and Steve Scearce, have quickly created a science fiction phenomenon. Their science fiction story is told in blog format, in which their two separate websites represent each end of the story arc. The Station 151 blog site represents the story in present-day Antarctica. The Unknown Transmission site represents the opposite end of the story 176 years in the future.
The two blog sites update with new story segments and chapters nearly every day of the week. To date, their two sites have thrilled thousands of online readers in over fifty countries world-wide. More amazing is the fact that these previously-unknown writers have leveraged the power of social media sites (Facebook, Twitter, Digg, Reddit, StumbleUpon, and Mixx) to attract targeted readers, and generate masses of repeat traffic from online science fiction enthusiasts everywhere.
Interested readers can find the whole story at the websites for Unknown Transmission and Station 151 via the following URLs:
http://www.unknowntransmission.com/
http://www.station151.com/
About The Authors:
Brothers Andy and Steve Scearce developed an interest in fiction writing, during their internships at an arts and entertainment magazine based in the Midwest. This is their first collaborative project.
Beginning with a small online collaboration in December of 2009, blog fiction writers Andy Scearce and Steve Scearce, have quickly created a science fiction phenomenon. Their science fiction story is told in blog format, in which their two separate websites represent each end of the story arc. The Station 151 blog site represents the story in present-day Antarctica. The Unknown Transmission site represents the opposite end of the story 176 years in the future.
The two blog sites update with new story segments and chapters nearly every day of the week. To date, their two sites have thrilled thousands of online readers in over fifty countries world-wide. More amazing is the fact that these previously-unknown writers have leveraged the power of social media sites (Facebook, Twitter, Digg, Reddit, StumbleUpon, and Mixx) to attract targeted readers, and generate masses of repeat traffic from online science fiction enthusiasts everywhere.
Interested readers can find the whole story at the websites for Unknown Transmission and Station 151 via the following URLs:
http://www.unknowntransmission.com/
http://www.station151.com/
About The Authors:
Brothers Andy and Steve Scearce developed an interest in fiction writing, during their internships at an arts and entertainment magazine based in the Midwest. This is their first collaborative project.
The Adventures Of Ford Fairlane Author Launches Story Sequel Website
A newly launched Website marking the 20th anniversary of The Adventures Of Ford Fairlane, the controversial 1990 motion picture released by 20th Century Fox, directed by Renny Harlin, and starring Andrew Dice Clay, is offering Ford Fairlane fans for the first time the original stories on which the movie was based. The website, http://www.fordfairlanethesequel.com/, also promises a story sequel if 1001 emails are received by May 1, 2010.
Unavailable since first publication in 1980 as serialized weekly episodes in the New York Rocker and the LA Weekly, the stories were written by journalist and screenwriter Rex Weiner. In the two gritty tales, private eye Ford Fairlane, the music industry's "rock n roll detective," solves cases involving the punk rock and new wave scenes in New York City and Los Angeles in the late-1970's.
"The Adventures of Ford Fairlane has become a worldwide cult classic with a dedicated fanbase around the world," said Rex Weiner. "In response to many requests, I'm pleased to offer these stories in which I created the character played on the big screen by Andrew Dice Clay--and a new story sequel if enough fans demand it."
Unavailable since first publication in 1980 as serialized weekly episodes in the New York Rocker and the LA Weekly, the stories were written by journalist and screenwriter Rex Weiner. In the two gritty tales, private eye Ford Fairlane, the music industry's "rock n roll detective," solves cases involving the punk rock and new wave scenes in New York City and Los Angeles in the late-1970's.
"The Adventures of Ford Fairlane has become a worldwide cult classic with a dedicated fanbase around the world," said Rex Weiner. "In response to many requests, I'm pleased to offer these stories in which I created the character played on the big screen by Andrew Dice Clay--and a new story sequel if enough fans demand it."
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