Cengage going bankrupt?

http://lj.libraryjournal.com/2013/05/publishing/cengage-may-declare-bankruptcy/

Well, that sucks. My text with them sells well. Wonder what they'll do with all the books or how this will affect sales?

Cengage sells lots of books, the bookstore shelves are mostly them, Pearson, Wiley, with a few others fighting over the rest of the space. So it's not their product. Must be really inept management.

Books - I still think the eReader or cell phones or iPads will replace texts. It's always sad for the writing industry for a company to go down. A thriving industry is best for all.

Sure, but their content could be used across any platform. They already GOT their huge market share, which is the biggest hurdle (small pubs can't market and compete). So what's the excuse for not going to those platforms, if that's indeed the problem?

LC wrote:

http://lj.libraryjournal.com/2013/05/publishing/cengage-may-declare-bankruptcy/

Well, that sucks. My text with them sells well. Wonder what they'll do with all the books or how this will affect sales?

Cengage sells lots of books, the bookstore shelves are mostly them, Pearson, Wiley, with a few others fighting over the rest of the space. So it's not their product. Must be really inept management.

Why are you so surprised? We have been stating for years that print books are in decline. Publish or perish is a familiar academic mantra. Now it should be adapt or perish.

"Textbook publisher Cengage Learning Inc. has held discussions with restructuring advisers as it faces the twin reckonings of decreased demand and burdensome debt."

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323699704578328530362055000.html

Many fiction writers with emerging small presses had similar experiences with their publishers going under and uncertainty about their books. It's a tough market for everyone for every reason.

Quote :

Why are you so surprised? We have been stating
for years that print books are in decline. Publish or perish is a
familiar academic mantra. Now it should be adapt or perish.

Well, like I said, it's not so much "print books" that's their strength, it's ownership of content. Why wasn't the content migrated to electronic a long time ago, if decreased demand for print is the reason for their problems?

No, I think gross mismanagement of assets is the problem here, and no doubt the mis-managers all got million dollar bonuses, too.

Quote :

Many fiction writers with emerging small presses had similar experiences
with their publishers going under and uncertainty about their books.
It's a tough market for everyone for every reason.

Well, Cengage books are all over college bookshelves, so their books are clearly selling. Mine sure is. How disappointing. Maybe they'll let me take my book to PH or Wiley? lol

Quote :

"Textbook publisher Cengage Learning Inc. has
held discussions with restructuring advisers as it faces the twin
reckonings of decreased demand and burdensome debt."

I'm thinking the "burdensome debt" is the problem. Apparently the investors grossly overpaid for it when they bought it from Thomson six years ago.

I don't believe Cengage is going under any time soon. Chapter 11 will allow them to restructure their debt on better terms, with perhaps some debt forgiveness, and they will soldier on.

LC wrote:

Well, like I said, it's not so much "print books" that's their strength, it's ownership of content. Why wasn't the content migrated to electronic a long time ago, if decreased demand for print is the reason for their problems?

According to today's announcement, they are going digital with newspaper content:

http://gale.cengage.co.uk/news--events/press-releases/sunday-times-press-release.aspx

LC wrote:

Well, that sucks. My text with them sells well. Wonder what they'll do with all the books or how this will affect sales?

Cengage sells lots of books, the bookstore shelves are mostly them, Pearson, Wiley, with a few others fighting over the rest of the space. So it's not their product. Must be really inept management.

What is the name of your textbook?

She won't tell. LOL

alice wrote:

She won't tell. LOL

Oh.

Huh?

Five Star Mysteries, an imprint of Cengage, has been promoting e-books of selected titles from their line on facebook.

I am a Cengage author too and am following the bankruptcy hearings. Have any Cengage author's filed claims against Cengage so they can vote on the company's restructuring plan? I am not owed any amounts but concerned they may not honor author's royalties although they said they would keep paying.

We are supposed to file a claim for owed royalties; Cengage sent a notice of what they say we're owed for the 7 months that royalties were suspended, and their attorney sent a form to fill out to claim it. I get notices from them practically every week about something.

I don't understand how you wouldn't be owed anything yet are concerned about being paid going forward. Why wouldn't you be owed anything for the past seven months?

And with that said, I think their statement of what I'm owed is a lie. It's for a ridiculously small sum. But I really don't know what to do to contest it.

LC wrote:

I don't understand how you wouldn't be owed anything yet are concerned about being paid going forward. Why wouldn't you be owed anything for the past seven months?

Might have not earned out the advance yet.

LC wrote:

And with that said, I think their statement of what I'm owed is a lie. It's for a ridiculously small sum. But I really don't know what to do to contest it.

The statement I got was for from when the book was first published in March up to the date of the filing, July 3. It showed that I had earned out the advance and sold a bunch more books beyond that. Payment isn't due until next March.

Al, I just noticed you have quite a list of books!  Also, I think you advised me to get a cheap tablet and attach a keyboard.  I paid 99 for a 9 inch proscan that includes the keyboard but I am having trouble getting accustomed to the android aspects. The keyboard is a smidge smaller than I'm accustomed so it slows my typing.  But I think for the price I'll make it manage as my netbook is at death's door and the netbooks are over 200.

As for LC's payments.  I don't know why, but payments from publishers are always a mystery.  L & L Dreamspell closed and the remaining former partner has requested the authors to send her copies of the last royalty statements so she can judge from them how to catch up.  The partner who died lived out in the country and managed all the books - and her computer files have not yet been totally available.  In my case, the book sales had slowed in recent months so I'm probably not owed much and my advance was long paid out.  However, some of the newer authors are totally lost, not having received anything yet.

Somebody needs to develop a computer program for publishers that is accessible to the authors and distributors so everyone knows what the status of book sales and royalties are in real time.  I think the industry is full of audit exceptions.

LC wrote:

We are supposed to file a claim for owed royalties; Cengage sent a notice of what they say we're owed for the 7 months that royalties were suspended, and their attorney sent a form to fill out to claim it. I get notices from them practically every week about something.

I don't understand how you wouldn't be owed anything yet are concerned about being paid going forward. Why wouldn't you be owed anything for the past seven months?

And with that said, I think their statement of what I'm owed is a lie. It's for a ridiculously small sum. But I really don't know what to do to contest it.

I have only earned a small sum in royalties in the last seven months because several retailers returned books after they claim they were not sold, so there was less than $25 US in royalties owed to me. I have received the notices too but since the amount was small I haven't filed a claim as of yet. Do you know which category in Section 5 of the Claim form we would fill out? You can PM me if you prefer.

I agree that the amounts seem ridiculously small since the notice of bankruptcy… hmmm.