book trade

Richard Nash, formerly the head of the small press Soft Skull, has launched a new project called Cursor, which he intends to be a platform for independent presses. To test the concept, Nash has launched his own Cursor-driven small press, Red Lemonade which he describes here and also on his blog:

I'd heard about special arrangements being made when some Borders stores opened, but this is pretty outrageous.

As Sullivan comments, it's the sort of thing that "makes the blood boil":

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PICO RIVERA - The city spent $1.6 million in federal grant money to bring Borders into the Pico Rivera Towne Center and to help pay its rent for nearly eight years.

Kate Sheehan of Publishers Weekly notes how HarperCollins' scheme threatens the dependence on the right of first sale, and the resource sharing, that lie at the heart of what librarians do:

HarperCollins stirred up a hornet's nest yesterday with a crazy DRM scheme that would allow a e-book to be lent 26 times, but no more.

Librarians, needless to say, have been less than pleased by this idea, and there has been a flood of blog posts decrying it over the past couple of days. Here's a sampling:

BoingBoing

This piece from Salon is one of the better ones I've seen, and the comments are good too. I've seen frequent acknowledgment that the internet had some part in the chain's woes, but that the larger part of it was poor management from the top, which matches my take on the matter.