Richard Sarnoff, co-chair of Bertlesmann, Inc., has been named Publishers Weekly’s Person of the Year for 2009. Sarnoff received the distinction for his role in the Google Book Search Settlement. He was instrumental in developing the original settlement agreement and in the subsequent revisions.
Macmillan CEO John Sargent said, “Richard was one of the few in the thick of it from beginning to end. He provided many of the big breakthrough ideas and solutions, and mastered and maneuvered all the constantly changing, interlocking details of a very complex agreement. In the end, with deals of this magnitude, someone has to take control, put everything else aside, and get it done. Richard was that guy.”
Sarnoff was the principal advocate and negotiator on the publishers’ side of the agreement. Tom Allen, President of the American Association of Publishers (AAP), said, “The industry owes him an enormous debt of gratitude.”
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Board members of Mystery Writers of America voted unanimously to remove Harlequin and all of its imprints from MWA’s list of Approved Publishers. The action is in response to Harlequin’s recent launch of self-publishing services through an imprint which was renamed from Harlequin Horizons to Dellarte Press after initial criticisms.
Removal from the list means that newly signed authors may not use their Harlequin titles toward active status membership in MWA. It also means that books published after December 2, 2009, will not be considered for the MWA’s Edgar® Awards.
In a statement from Executive Vice-President Frankie Bailey, the organization says, “We did not take this action lightly. We did it because Harlequin remains in violation of our rules regarding the relationship between a traditional publisher and its various for-pay services.” The door is not permanently closed to Harlequin, however. The statement also says that MWA will continue discussions with the publisher to try to reach an agreement that would allow it back on the Approved list.
Author Solutions, Harlequin’s partner in Dellarte Press, has released a video statement in defense of self-publishing, which you can view below.
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On a slightly related note, an October entry on the Harlequin blog has been receiving negative feedback recently. The entry is written by Executive Editor Marsha Zinberg, detailing her experience working on the Vintage Collection as part of the publisher’s 60th anniversary celebrations. It’s an interesting read, but even more interesting is how the reader comments take a turn for the worse nearly two months after the entry was originally published.
What do you think of Harlequin’s decision to edit text of the vintage titles before republishing them?
