Indie Booksellers Sue Amazon, Big Six

Three independent bookstores have filed an antitrust class action lawsuit against the big six houses and Amazon, charging that by signing agreements that call for the use of DRM on e-books sold through the Kindle, the online retailer and the publishers have combined to restrict the sale of e-books. The three named plaintiffs are the Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza of Albany, N.Y.; Fiction Addiction of Greenville, S.C.; and Posman Books of New York City.

Grand Central Ups Forever Output

Grand Central Publishing plans to more than double the number of titles it releases in its romance publishing program over the next two years. The title count in the Forever and Forever Yours e-book-only imprint will rise to 120 this year, from 64 released in 2012, and will increase again to more than 190 titles in 2014.

Author Sues Conan Doyle Estate

After recent efforts by the Arthur Conan Doyle estate to extract license fees, author and lawyer Leslie Klinger filed suit against it in federal court, asking the court to declare that the famous characters of Sherlock Holmes and John Watson are no longer protected by federal copyright laws.

Reader’s Digest Files Chapter 11

Reader’s Digest is once again restructuring its debt and in the process has filed for Chapter 11 in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York. Under the plan, RD will convert about $465 million in notes to equity, leaving the company with approximately $100 million in debt when it emerges from bankruptcy, which it anticipates occurring in about six months. This is the second time RD has filed for bankruptcy in the last four years.

Greco Named CEO at C-D

Al Greco has been appointed CEO of Carson-Dellosa Publishing, the Greensboro, N.C.–based publisher of supplemental materials for elementary and middle school teachers and parents, succeeding Judy Harris. Greco joined Carson-Dellosa in 2011 as senior v-p of sales, promotions, and marketing after serving in a number of v-p sales roles at Random House.

Candlewick Launches Big Picture Press

On the 10th anniversary of Candlewick Press’s publication of the first book in the bestselling Ology series, developed by the Templar Company in the U.K., the Somerville, Mass.–based publisher announced that it will be the U.S. publisher of a new imprint also from Templar, called Big Picture Press, which will debut this fall.

Ray Gets Imprint

Atria Publiishing Group and Rachael Ray have teamed up to create the Rachael Ray Books imprint. The imprint will publish two to three books annually beginning this fall with Beating the Lunch Box Blues.