A complaint describing a children’s book on potty training as “filth” helps it become a bestseller
British blogger turned children’s author Simon Harris self-published Little Budgie’s Done A Fudgie back in January 2018. Almost two years later, and it has reached the dizzy heights of bestseller… Read more »
Not (yet) time to settle in publishers’s suit against Audible
Like a good legal thriller (even better, a radio serial), the story of Audible’s “Captions” program has us anticipating every new twist and turn. To recap the last few weeks of… Read more »
“The fact that you can see the words doesn’t make it a book,” argues Audible’s lawyer
The saga of Audible’s Captions program continues! You can read up on our coverage of the debacle here and here. Basically, the Big Five alongside Chronicle Books and Scholastic have… Read more »
African American online bookstore cuts ties with Amazon
As we’ve discussed here and here, tensions between publishers and Amazon have recently come to a head over the issue of Amazon’s new “captions” feature for audio books (which one… Read more »
Publishers sue Audible over possible copyright infringement
Hello! We have returned from our August hiatus. Sun drunk and blissed out, we’re so relaxed that we have nothing to report about the conquering tide of Amazon washing into new… Read more »
Bookselling scams on the rise
We often write about downward trends in book buying–that folks just aren’t buying enough books. But maybe they are also buying the wrong books. Today, buying the wrong books is… Read more »
Republican caucus wants gay conversion therapy books to be more widely available
In the past we have written about how breathtakingly homophobic the concept of gay conversion therapy is, and how it is bad science that must be stamped out wherever it seems… Read more »
Audible’s new audiobooks program may just be . . . books
Audiobooks are books that get recorded. There are exceptions to this statement (like audio originals), but stick with me here. Transcribing an audiobook, then, would simply create a text quite… Read more »
Amazon employees plan strike for Prime Day
July 15th. The high noon of summer. And it seems like we’re itching for a showdown. On that day, workers in Amazon’s Shakopee, Minnesota fulfillment center plan to strike in protest of… Read more »
Do soaring audiobook sales mean the physical book’s days are numbered?
The good news: audiobooks are doing well! Sales rose by 43% in the UK last year according to The Publishers Association (PA) Publishing Yearbook, and 37% in the US according… Read more »