BTW News Briefs

Lawyer Named in Suit Against Agency Model Publishers

The antitrust suit against Apple and five publishers using the agency model for e-book sales moved forward this week with the appointment of attorney Steve Berman, with the Seattle firm of Hagens Berman, as lead counsel, as reported by the Wall Street Journal.

In early December, a federal judicial panel ordered that all suits regarding antitrust issues over electronic book pricing be transferred to New York. Cases with at least 13 individual plaintiffs are now in New York, WSJ said.

The five publishers named in the suit are Hachette, Simon & Schuster, Macmillan, HarperCollins, and Penguin. Amazon.com is also named in some of the suits but is likely to be dropped, according to comments made by Berman outside the courtroom after this week’s hearing, as reported by WSJ.

Harper Chooses Ingram for Christian Distribution

HarperCollins has chosen Ingram Publisher Services/Spring Arbor to be its exclusive distributor to the Christian market.

Ingram Publisher Services will distribute a diverse list of authors and titles from HarperCollins beginning January 1, 2012.  “As we position our company for continued and future success, we are eager to grow our sales with Christian bookstores,” said Josh Marwell, president of sales at HarperCollins. “Working with Ingram Publisher Services and Spring Arbor, we will expand coverage for our titles to this important segment.”    

GalleyCat Celebrates Bookstores on Twitter

GalleyCat celebrated indie bookstore fans’ expressions of support for their local bookstores this week by compiling a list of Best Indie Bookstores on Twitter.

The list includes more than 100 Twitter handles from bookstores around the world, and GalleyCat is encouraging readers to post comments and will continue to add stores to the list.

E-Books Available to Canadian Booksellers Association Members

A partnership between the Canadian Booksellers Association and Campus E-Bookstore, announced last week, will make it possible for CBA members to begin selling Google eBooks™ immediately, according to the Quill and Quire.

CBA members will use an e-commerce platform developed by Campus E-Bookstore and will receive “preferential terms” to plug into the Google eBookstore, the paper said. Campus E-Bookstore and McNally Robinson Booksellers were Google’s original retail partners when it launched in Canada on November 1.  Bookseller Anthony Van Alphen, who sits on the CBA’s technology committee, said that implementing the platform should be straightforward even for booksellers with basic technical knowledge.

Borders Dissolution Plan Approved

On Tuesday, a bankruptcy judge approved the finalized terms of creditor repayments in the Borders bankruptcy proceedings. Bloomberg reported that unsecured creditors, with $812 million to $850 million in claims, will recover from four percent to 10 percent, and expectations are that payments will be at the higher end of the range.

A lawyer for Borders, Andrew Glenn, said that about 98 percent of creditors holding $211.5 million in debt of Borders Group had voted to accept the plan, according to Bloomberg.