Amazon delays Hachette book shipments as companies negotiate contract
Amazon is delaying shipments of many Hachette print titles as the companies fight over new terms. Amazon likely wants larger discounts on Hachette books.
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Amazon quietly slashes book prices to new lows in apparent competition with Overstock.com
In response to an Overstock.com promotional campaign to price all of its books at least 10 percent below Amazon, Amazon is slashing hardcover prices to historic lows.
Pulitzer Prize-winning author annotates his own novel on RapGenius
Novelist Junot Díaz has annotated a section of his 2008 book “The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao” on the interactive writing…
Britannica Ends Printing, Now Will Face Wikipedia On Price, Quality
At a conference last week, an Encyclopaedia Brittanica executive rose from the floor to challenge keynoter Jimmy Wales of Wikipedia.
“I don…
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What Is The Future Of Books?
In three words, here’s what nine writers and thinkers said…
Why Do We Need Academic Journals In The First Place?
It may not get as much attention as the disruption that is occurring in newspapers, e-books or other parts of the mainstream media industry,…
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Research: Professionals With iPads Are Deserting Printed Media
Stark new research statistics suggest digital replacement of analogue content is now very high amongst tablet owners.
Looking Back At 2011
This past week, the paidContent staff has analyzed the most significant developments throughout the year in the sectors we cover most. We’ve…
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Update: Amazon Eyeing Up Mobile Carrier Billing With New Bango Deal?
Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN) has been jumping with two feet into the mobile world — launching an app storefront, an enhanced selection of cloud-base…
Readmill goes public: is the future of books social?
Social reading app Readmill has been tipped as one of Berlin’s hottest startups — but does it have what it takes to shape the way we read? The company is about to find out as it opens its service to the public for the first time.
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Amazon Prime Kindle Lending Library Opens For Business — With A Catch
Two weeks ahead of the shipping date for the Kindle Fire, Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN) is adding more to its all-you-can-eat media buffet for Amazon…
Amazon’s Acquisition Of The Book Depository Gets Official OK
Despite industry organizations’ fears that Amazon’s acquisition of UK online bookseller The Book Depository will create a de facto monopoly,…
Macmillan Bello Brings Backlist Books Back To Life
Releasing out-of-print titles as e-books can bring them new life, attention and readers. In its new imprint, Macmillan Bello, UK publisher P…
A Few More Details Emerge On Amazon’s E-Book Rental Plan
Following the report this morning that Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN) is in discussions with publishers about an e-book rental service for Amazon Prime…
Updated: As Print Book Revenues Plunge, E-Books Aren’t Making It Up
Looking at book publishing statistics and noting huge e-book growth is fun–but not in the case of the new statistics released by the Associ…
The Rise Of Agent-Publishers Is Bad For The Book Business
Nearly two thousand years ago, Plutarch wrote of a great ship that bore Theseus home from Crete. As its planks decayed, the plucky Athenians…
Borders’ Claim That Its Customer Names Were Stolen Could Mar Asset Sale
A federal judge said today that he will wait until next week to rule on whether Borders can wrest back control of a list of half-a-million c…
PublishAmerica Responds To Rowling Lawyer: You Can’t Keep Us From Her House
PublishAmerica, a shady print-on-demand publishing company located in Maryland, is making news this week with a dubious promotion that promi…
Here Comes Amazon Publishing, With First Author…And A (Polite) War Cry
In May, the news shook the publishing world: Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN) was launching a general trade imprint in New York, with publishing vet Larr…
Can 32,000 Data Points Yield The Perfect Book Recommendation?
Reading recommendation websites have focused on social recommendations up to now: Sites like Goodreads and Shelfari suggest books to users b…
Industry Moves: E! News; The Orchard; Kenshoo
— E! News: Cyndi McClellan and John Najarian have seen the expansion of their roles. McClellan has been promoted to president of network st…
Amazon Shakes Off Apple’s Shackles With Its Kindle Cloud Reader App
Another day, and another app publisher moves to the web to get around Apple’s in-app purchasing rules. This one is a biggie: Amazon today of…
Opposition Mounts Against Amazon’s Acquisition Of The Book Depository
Fearing that Amazon’s acquisition of UK-based online bookseller The Book Depository will give the company even more power than it already ha…
Amazon’s Bid For The Book Depository: User Backlash And Regulatory Inquiry
Yesterday’s news that Amazon would be gobbling up UK-based online bookseller The Book Depository is not a done and dusted deal just yet. Tod…
Amazon Offers Free Promotion To Authors Who Write Guest Reviews
Blurbs–those glowing little reviews that appear on the back jackets of books and are then used in promotional copy, ads, and so on–have al…
Literary Agency Reacts To Concerns About E-Services ‘Conflict Of Interest’
When literary agency Dystel & Goderich announced yesterday that it would be providing e-book services to its authors, it stressed that it ha…
Amazon’s Passage To India: Opening Up Shop Soon?
Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN) appears ready to start retailing in India, in competition with the country’s Flipkart online seller of books and other i…
What Shoppers Don’t Realize About Amazon’s Reviews
For many online shoppers, Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN) is their starting point for researching products they want to buy — and Amazon’s customer rev…
Borders Will Name Lead Bidder By July 1
Bankrupt bookstore chain Borders filed a motion on Friday to name a “stalking horse” bidder to make an initial bid on the company by July 1.…
Updated: Google Launches Ebook Affiliate Program; Rate Higher Than Amazon’s
Google (NSDQ: GOOG) has launched a program that allows website owners to earn commissions for referring sales to the Google eBookstore, Goog…
Open Road Bets That Mysteries Will Be Highly Profitable Genre For E-Books
A top book-industry research association recently found that mysteries are one of the two fastest-growing e-book genres, along with general…
New E-Commerce Site Hive Strikes Unusual Partnership With Indie Bookstores
Do you love your independent bookstore so much that you’d order a book online and then drive to the store to pick it up? Hive, a new website…
Film Makers Turn to iPad for Interactive Storytelling
The Louisiana-based animation studio Moonbot Studios published its first iPad app this week that turns an animated short film into an interactive storytelling experience. The producers shared some insights into iPad storytelling as well as exclusive behind the scenes footage of the animation process with us.
Meet The A-List Authors Of E-Book Self Publishing
Authors who self-published their books have traditionally done it out of desperation– it was the result of being ignored or rejected by pub…
Update: iFlowReader App To Shut Up Shop, Blames Apple’s IAP, Agency Models
Remember all those complaints about Apple’s new in-app purchasing policy when it first launched? Those have somewhat died down, but they hav…
UK Bought A Fifth More E-Books In The Last Year
The growing popularity of digital readers such as Amazon’s Kindle and ebook titles by authors including Stephen Fry and Stieg Larsson helped…
Amazon Plans To Add Kindle Library Lending Later This Year
One of the most frustrating aspects of being a Kindle user who also relies on public libraries has been the inability to check out e-books r…
The E-Books Explosion Will Displace Paperbacks, Hardbacks And Apps
Today, I published a short piece of research for Enders Analysis on ebooks. As Enders is on a subscription model I can’t paste it here, but…
E-Book Sales Soar Over Hardcovers
New e-reader owners are apparently very busy buying e-books: The Association of American Publishers says that in January sales of e-books gr…
Infographic: Are Apps Killing The E-Book Business? A Look At Sales At Apple
If video killed the radio star, have apps killed the bestseller book? Perhaps not quite yet, but a look at e-book sales compared to apps at…
The Kindle Will (Finally) Get Page Numbers
Delivering on what has to be one of the most-wanted feature additions to the Kindle, Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN) says it’s adding “real” page number…
UK Examining Publishers’ E-book Pricing For Anti-Trust Breach
The UK’s competition authority says it has opened an investigation “into whether arrangements that certain publishers have put in place with…
In Wake Of Sony’s Complaint, Apple Explains In-App Requirements
Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) has responded to the reports earlier today of how it rejected the Sony (NYSE: SNE) Reader app from the App Store, because…
Bad News For The Digital Newsstand: Apple Rejects Sony Reader App
Here’s one that will have the Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) watchers puzzling for the next day: Apple has reportedly rejected Sony’s Reader app from it…
Amazon Revs Rise, But Still Quiet On Kindle Sales
Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN) makes a particular point of reminding observers that its Kindle books are outpacing both paperback and hardcovers in its…
Mixbook Buys Disney-Backed Scrapblog
Mixbook, a fast-growing site that lets users create and then order or share photobooks, has purchased more established rival Scrapblog. Fina…
The Morning Lowdown 01.13.11
» The day after laying off 47 percent of his staff, MySpace CEO Mike Jones told the rest the social net-turned-social-entertainme…
Is Amazon’s Next Play In Mobile An App Store For Android?
Amazon.com (NSDQ: AMZN) is close to launching its own app store for Android, which is something that just about everyone in mobile has been…
First Look: Pop-Up Kids’ Books On iPad
Among the many publications that manifest on tablets in old form, many e-books attempt to resemble books – but many others eschew tradition…
Sony Revisits E-Book Assumptions For Next Reader Rollout
*Sony* will begin selling updated versions of its Reader Pocket and Reader Touch devices today, but it is still months away from releasing i…
Yahoo Tries To Set The Standards With Online Style Guide
Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO), which has spent much of the last year focusing on its media properties, will have a printed style guide to go along with…
Booksellers Protest Amazon’s ‘Don’t Undercut Us’ Requirement
Publishers’ share of e-reader takings isn’t the only point of contention in the book industry at present.
Independent booksellers are compl…
The Viral Video The Book Publishing Industry Wants To Believe
What direction is the book industry heading? Penguin Group subsidiary Dorling Kindersley Books prepared this video on the “end of publishing…
Inbound Marketing: A Social Media Primer
While we may not all agree on the “rules” when it comes to marketing, we can all agree that marketing has changed considerably in recent years, largely due to social media. “Inbound Marketing” is a primer for those looking to make the most of social media.
Books Now Outnumber Games on the iPhone
Books now outnumber games in the iTunes app store for the first time since the iPhone was launched, according to a recent survey by mobile advertising firm Mobclix. The popularity of the iPhone as an e-book reader could help pave the way for the Apple iPad.
Graphic.ly Buys Comics Community iFanboy
Graphic.ly, which offers a digital content delivery platform for print comics book publishers, has purchased 10-year-old online comics book…
More Authors Signing Exclusive Kindle Deals
A growing number of authors are signing exclusive e-book deals with Amazon for the Kindle, attracted in part by the higher royalty rates the electronic retailer is offering. In the latest deal, author Gavin de Becker gave Amazon rights to two e-books for a year.
Justice Department: ‘Substantial Issues Remain’ With Google Books Settlement
The Justice Department has not been won over by the revisions made to the Google (NSDQ: GOOG) Books settlement. In a filing today, the Justi…
Google Rivals Want ‘Public Guardian’ To Oversee Digital Library
A revised Google Books settlement is now pending before a judge but rivals who have made it clear that they still believe the agreement give…
Mobile Content Bits: Vodafone Mobile Books; Palm Pre In Europe; Rangers FC Mobile Payments
— Vodafone’s mobile bookstore: Vodafone is launching its own branded eBook and audiobook store on its Live portal, in partnership with GoSp…
Video: The Debate Over Google Books
An excellent overview of the issues at stake in Google’s book scanning project in this PBS NewsHour clip. It’s especially worth watching con…
Flat World Knowledge Adds Another $2.5 Million For Open-Source Textbooks
Open-source textbook firm Flat World Knowledge has raised an additional $2.5 million in funding. The company said back in March that it had…
This Year’s Zavvi? Bookseller Borders Prepares For Administration
Will you be downloading your Christmas books this year? You might have to if you were planning to shop at Borders…
The high street bookse…
BookRenter Raises $6 Million In First Round
Another big, albeit much more down to earth bet on the online book rental market from VCs. Online book rental service BookRenter is announci…
French Still Revolting At Google’s Books ‘Piracy’ Plans
Google (NSDQ: GOOG) narrowed the scope of its US-only digital books project to just include English language titles after sustained pressure…
Books Biz Cautious Toward Google Despite Revised Settlement
Google (NSDQ: GOOG) may have agreed a revised settlement with U.S. book publishers for its ambitious digitisation and online retail plans -…
Post-Revision, Justice, Competitors Still Concerned Over Google Books
The revised Google (NSDQ: GOOG) Book settlement scales back the countries the agreement covers and promises new protections for potential ri…
Google Submits Revised Books Settlement Minutes Before Deadline
Google (NSDQ: GOOG) barely made its court-imposed deadline to submit its amended books settlement proposal, which the company hopes will eas…
Google, Authors Ask Judge For More Time To Hammer Out Books Settlement
Updated: A revised settlement in the long-running Google (NSDQ: GOOG) Books settlement was due today — but lawyers for Google, the Author’s…
Progressive Book Club Raising $4 Million For Online Community, Marketplace
Progressive Book Club, an online community and book e-tailer, has raised $1.6 million of a proposed $4 million round of funding, per an SEC…
Judge Sets Nov. 9 Deadline For Revised Google Books Settlement
The federal judge overseeing the Google (NSDQ: GOOG) Books case is willing to give the company and the plaintiffs until Nov. 9 to come up wi…
Judge Delays Hearing In Google Books Case, As Talks Accelerate
With talks to change the terms of Google’s settlement with publishers over its book-scanning project in full-force, a federal judge has dela…
Justice To Outline Concerns About Google Books Settlement, As Talks Continue
The Justice Department has been investigating Google’s settlement with the publishing industry over its book scanning project — and it’s no…
Google Says Rivals Can Resell Access To Out-Of-Print Books; Amazon Says 'No Thanks'
Google (NSDQ: GOOG) has now agreed to let any book retailer resell access to the out-of-print books it is putting online via its Google Book…
Industry Moves: EasyJet Dana Dunne; BBCWW Chair; EPSN.co.uk Launch
— EasyJet: Former AOL (NYSE: TWX) Europe CEO Dana Dunne has been appointed chief commercial officer at budget airline EasyJet, following hi…
Google Will Seek EU Publishers' Permission For US Books Project
Google (NSDQ: GOOG) will ask European book publishers’ permission before making their works available to US users, in a bid to stay on the r…
Germany Opposes Google's Books Settlement In US Court Filing
Germany has declared itself an enemy of Google’s ambitious and controversial plans to digitise millions of out-of-print books, fearing the c…
Jane Friedman's OpenRoad Gets $3 Million Funding For eBooks Venture
OpenRoad Integrated Media, a still-stealth NYC-based eBooks marketing and publishing startup, has raised $3 million in funding, in a round l…
Akademos Raises $2.5 Million For Online Textbook Store
Akademos, which operates online bookstores for schools, has raised $2.5 million in a round of funding from Kohlberg Ventures. With Akademos’…
Industry Moves: HarperCollins Creates Digital Editor Post To Oversee E-Books
HarperCollins has been trying to sense the movement toward eBooks for sometime and has been one of the most aggressive publishers in its app…
iPhone & Mac Programming Books In Demand
Tech specialist publisher O’Reilly is reporting encouraging growth in iPhone (s aapl) and Mac programming book sales, despite an overall drop in…
Blackwell Launches eBook Download Store; Will Sell BeBook E-Reader
Academic book store chain Blackwell is the latest book store chain to launch an ebook download store, with 45,000 titles in the epub format…
Finally, An iPhone App That Makes (Free) Coffee
One week-plus into owning an iPhone 3GS — and more than a year into reading, writing and editing iPhone app stories — I couldn’t think of…
Anderson Sets His ‘Free’ Free, In Audio And Abridged Forms
Well, he had to practice what he’s preaching. Wired editor-in-chief Chris Anderson, whose Long Tail follow-up Free describes the freemium bu…
Google’s Book Deal Now Officially Being Investigated By Justice Dept
After a few months of informal moves on it, the U.S. Justice Dept is now investigating an anti-trust inquiry into Google’s book settlement w…
Amazon’s Mobile Ambitions May Go Way Beyond Kindle
In a sense, Amazon.com (NSDQ: AMZN) can already be called a mobile company. It sells books through the Kindle, lets BlackBerry users send in…
Simon & Schuster Adds 5,000 E-Books To Scribd Store
Simon & Schuster, the publisher behind Angels & Demons and He’s Just Not That Into You, has agreed to add its 5,000 e-book offerings to soci…
Analyst: Amazon Third-Party Sales Driving Growth: How Long Will It Continue?
Amazon’s third-party fulfillment business, in which big retailers like Gap or Eddie Bauer sell their goods on Amazon and use the site to war…
Analyst: Google E-Books Push Will Force Amazon To Drop Prices
The big question around Google’s new push into e-books is how, if at all, it will change Amazon’s fortunes. Jefferies & Company analyst Yous…
Research Firm Sees Openings For Kindle’s Competitors
So far, Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN) has dominated the nascent e-reader market (Just look at the attention being given to the company’s seemingly min…
E-Book Display Tech Firm E Ink Bought By Taiwanese Company For $215 Million
The future of e-book readers, at least most of them on the market today, now lies with a Taiwanese company: E Ink, the high-resolution e-pap…
Google Promises Publishers (And Amazon) Will Sell E-Books In 2009
Nothing says we’re not a monopoly like trying to break up another perceived stranglehold. Google (NSDQ: GOOG) plans to enter the commercial…
Book Publishers Put Faith In Mobile Apps, Partnerships
Two of the UK’s leading book publishers are putting their faith in mobile technology to drive digital sales: Random House today launches a p…
Analyst: Kindle Will Generate $1.6 Billion In Revenue By 2012
From a consumer standpoint, Amazon’s Kindle has made a quite a splash, with its rapidly expanding roster of publications and new large-scree…
Social Publishing Site Scribd Adds E-Commerce; 80 Percent Revenues To Publishers
Document-sharing site Scribd will begin beta tests of an e-commerce platform today in an effort to tap into publishers’ increasing interest…
Google’s Schmidt Answers Antitrust Challenges
Google (NSDQ: GOOG) has been hit with two antitrust inquiries in recent weeks — one looking into its book settlement with publishers and an…
The Kindle DX Vs. The Plastic Logic eReader
At least four companies, including Hearst and News Corp (NYSE: NWS). have big-screen e-readers in the works in the U.S. But only two, Amazon…
@ Kindlefest: Amazon’s Bezos Touts Textbook, Newspaper Deals For Large Screen Kindle DX
Jeff Bezos took the stage at the second Kindle press conference not to quickly introduce the anticipated big screen version of Amazon’s e-re…
Justice Dept. Scrutinizes Google Books Settlement For Possible Antitrust Violations
The U.S. Department of Justice is concerned that Google’s $125 million settlement could present antitrust issues by giving the search giant…
Bloomsbury Targets Libraries With Online Book Subscriptions
Harry Potter publisher Bloomsbury is starting a new ebook rental business that will let UK public library members “lend” titles from its dat…
Amazon Calls Title Debacle ‘Embarrassing And Ham-Fisted’; More Than 57,000 Books Affected
Yesterday’s “glitch” is today’s “embarrassing and ham-fisted error.” That’s from an Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN) spokesman responding to my request f…
BookTour Raises $350,000 From Amazon
BookTour, an online directory of author events, has raised $350,000 in seed capital from Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN), peHUB reports. The company’s c…
Amazon Says ‘Glitch’ Caused Sales-Rank Outage For Gay, Lesbian Titles
Author Mark Probst was told his gay-themed novel lost its Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN) sales rank “in consideration of our entire customer base” beca…
Amazon Plans Big-Screen Kindle
The next big thing in e-book readers: Larger screens. Amazon.com (NSDQ: AMZN) is set to introduce a bigger-screen version of its Kindle e-bo…
Self-Publisher Author Solutions Buys Another Rival
Online self-publisher Author Solutions continued its buying spree today by acquiring rival Trafford Publishing, according to the Wall Street…
E-Reader, The Sequel: Startups Try To Redefine What A Book Is
With Kindle buzz prompting everyone from Hearst to Plastic Logic to try their hand at launching an e-Reader, innovation in book publishing h…
The WSJ’s Kindle Kinks
News Corp (NYSE: NWS). CEO Rupert Murdoch wants to back an e-reader device to rival the Kindle. But the company has run into some delivery p…
Sony, Google Team Up Against Amazon E-Reader With 500,000 Free E-Books
Google (NSDQ: GOOG) will provide Sony (NYSE: SNE) with some 500,000 copyright-expired titles for its e-book Reader, giving both companies th…
Books Round-Up: Borders To Launch New E-Reader; Waterstones' Books Quarterly Site
— Borders’ e-reader: Less than a year after launching its iLiad e-reader, made by iRex Technologies, bookstore chain Borders is to launch a…
First Look: Amazon Launches Kindle iPhone App
This afternoon Ian Freed, the *Amazon* VP for Kindle, told me books in the e-book format would be available “soon” on other devices. What he…
First Look: Amazon Launches Kindle iPhone App
This afternoon Ian Freed, the *Amazon* VP for Kindle, told me books in the e-book format would be available “soon” on other devices. What he…
Amazon Backs Down On Kindle 2 Text-To-Speech; Will Let Publishers Decide
Following criticism by some authors, Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN) is pulling back on the experimental Text-to-Speech feature in the new Kindle 2. Ins…
The Early Consensus On Kindle 2? Good, But Maybe It Should Be Kindle 1.5
It’s been less than a month since *Amazon* unveiled the Kindle 2, but there’s been no shortage of speculation about whether it will live up…
Authors Get $60 Per Book — And 63 Percent Of Ad Revenue — In Google Book Settlement
*Google* settled its longstanding Book Search lawsuit last October for $125 million, and now affected authors and publishers have begun subm…
Amazon Kindle 2.0: Bezos Calls Kindle A ‘Gateway Drug’; Device Drives 10 Percent Of Amazon Sales
While early opinions have already judged Amazon’s next Kindle as either the company’s
Amazon Kindle 2.0 Pre-Launch Buzz: Mass Vs. Niche?
Analysts have written and speculated aplenty about Amazon Kindle 1.0 and the imminent launch of its 2.0 version this morning at 10 a.m. in N…
The Plot Thickens For E-Books: Google And Amazon Putting More Titles On Mobile Phones
You might get eye strain after reading a few chapters, but that hasn
Analysts Crunch The Numbers On Kindle Sales; Is It The Next iPod?
One of the great parlor games in new media is trying to guess how many Kindles are sold every quarter– in the absence of figures from Amazo…
Will You Crack Open a Video Book?
With the hectic schedules everyone works, it’s tough to find time to read a book. Even when I do find time, it’s…
Amazon Earnings Call: Bezos: Kindle Users Buy More Books Than Print-Only Buyers
Kindle users buy more books total than print-only buyers, Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN) CEO Jeff Bezos told investors and analysts following the relea…
Self-Publishers Merge, As Author Solutions Buys Rival Xlibris
Leading print-on-demand publisher Author Solutions has bought rival Xlibris, the WSJ reports. Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed. Bloomingt…
Verizon To Support Kindle Competitors; Question Is, Can Any Of Them Really Challenge Amazon?
Amazon
Foxit’s eSlick Joins The eBook Reader Race
Competition in the e-reader market is heating up. Foxit Software’s eSlick is rolling out a digital reader with a $259 price tag ($229 at lau…
Gone For A Duck! Bloomsbury Takes Over Cricket Publisher Wisden
Harry Potter publisher Bloomsbury Publishing has taken over John Wisden & Co, publisher of the cricket bible Wisden Cricketers’ Alamanack, t…
Gaming Roundup: E-Books On Nintendo DS; Acclaim’s RockFree; AOL’s PlaySavvy; DoubleFusion/PS3
— Nintendo releases e-Book collection for DS : Move over Kindle, there’s a new e-Reader in town — the Nintendo DS. Well … not quite, bu…
Haven’t Ordered Your Holiday Kindle Yet? Never Mind
*Amazon* is promoting the heck out of its Kindle digital reader on its front page and across the e-commerce site but won’t be shipping any u…
German Library Fining Bloggers For Refusing Digital Archive Inclusion
The German National Library is threatening bloggers and website owners with a
Digital Library Puts Europe’s Cultural Greats In One Place, With A Hefty Bill
Want to browse the British Library without leaving your chair? Or read Dante
Longstanding Book Search Lawsuit Costs Google $125 Million
How much has it cost Google (NSDQ: GOOG) to scan hundreds of thousands of books and make them available via its Google Book Search? At least…
Authonomy: Home for Writing Web Workers
One of the fancy terms that gets thrown around in Web 2.0 discussions is “disintermediation” – in other words, cutting out the…
Amazon’s UK Launch Of Kindle Delayed
Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN) won
Frankfurt Book Fair Survey: 70 Percent ‘Ready’ For Digital Publishing But 60 Percent Avoid E-Books
On the eve of the Frankfurt Book Fair, which opens Tuesday, the organizers have released the results of a mega-survey on digital issues in p…
Sony Updates Its Reader: Built-In Light, Touchscreen But Still No Wireless
We’re in e-book leapfrog mode … the third generation of *Sony’s* Reader Digital Book (PRS-700BC) offers a 6-inch touch screen with built-i…
Digital Publishing May Get Easier For Indies
Perseus Books Group is the latest to claim a better mousetrap when it comes to digital publishing for indie publishers, according to the NYT…
Amazon: No New Kindle This Year; ‘Sometime Next Year Earliest’
What a buzz kill … Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN) spokesman Craig Berman tells the NYT: “Don
Amazon Buys Another Books-Focused Social Site Shelfari
Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN) is buying up another books-focused social network Shelfari, three weeks after it acquired AbeBooks, which holds a 40 per…
Industry Moves: SN Digital; YuMe; Mog; IDG; MLB Network; Total Beauty
— SN Digital: *Scripps’* interactive division announced Heather Keets Wright has joined the team as VP of cross-network programming. Having…
Earnings: R.R. Donnelley Reverses Net Loss In Q2; Revs Gain 4.6 Percent
Print services provider R.R. Donnelley (separate from directory services company R.H. Donnelley) said Q2 net earnings from continuing operat…
Sony Opens Up E-Book Reader To Other Online Stores; Still Limited
Finally, a competitive move from Sony (NYSE: SNE) worth writing about, though it has its own caveats: it is opening up Sony Reader, its e-bo…
Renew That Library Card: DC Public Library Starts Lending DRM-Free Audiobooks
Offering something for free doesn’t guarantee people will make the most of it. The latest example: eBooks distributor OverDrive says providi…
Amazon E-Book Sales To Hit $2.5 Billion In 2012; Will Add $330 Million To Op Income: Analyst
Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN) CEO Jeff Bezos has been famously tight lipped on anything to do with data on the Kindle. Just about the only hard stat e…
BBC America Assembles Ad Sales Team For First Cross-Platform Deals
BBC Worldwide is expanding its North American ad sales operations, allowing for selling ads across BBC.com and its related cable channels fo…
Books For Free? Desperate Authors Look To Retain Income
Could authors start giving their material away for free to try to combat piracy? Society Of Authors chair Tracy Chevalier, complaining about…
Amazon Tightens Noose on Print-On-Demand Publishers; Insists They Use Company’s Own Service
Amazon.com (NSDQ: AMZN), which has brushed with monopolistic tendencies before, is doing just that, this time in the print-on-demand busines…
Bertelsmann 07 Revs Fall 2.8 Percent; Considers Sale Of Direct Group
German media group Bertelsmann has announced full-year 2007 revenues of
Broadband Content Bits: AppleTV; MSNBC.com; Mars-Facebook; HarperCollins; Tiscali; Dennis
— AppleTV update launches after two week delay: Apple quietly launched its free AppleTV update this week, after having postponed the softwa…
Self-Help Site First30Days Raises $5 Million First Round Funding
New York-based First30Days, a sort of self-help site focused on guiding its readers through change, today launched its beta version and clos…
Welsh Writers Demand Digital Rights Payments
Writers are demanding royalties before they grant permission to allow their work to be included in the National Library of Wales
Eisner's Latest: A Vuguru-Putnam Production Of Robin Cook's Upcoming Thriller: Report
Michael Eisner’s Vuguru and publisher G.P. Putnam are tying up for a deal breathlessly reported by the NY Post as a “first-of-its-kind colla…
Top 10 Books for Web Workers 2007
The web change work in so many ways: where we can work, who we work with, how we work. Here are the…
Booksellers Warned To Sell Digital Or Risk Publishers’ Dominance
And you thought Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN) was the best thing to happen to books since Gutenberg? The Booksellers’ Association last week published…
First Look: Amazon’s Kindle Reader: The Gap Between Description and The Device
After today’s festivities concluded, I eventually got a chance to sit down and play with Amazon’s (NSDQ: AMZN) Kindle. The first thing to no…
HarperCollins To Launch Author/Reader Community
Publisher HarperCollins will soon launch a website, Authonomy.co.uk, which “will allow unpublished authors to upload their manuscripts for o…
Amazon.com’s Kindle Book Reader: The Details And The Devil
So it is a bit ridiculous that Amazon.com (NSDQ: AMZN) has been trying to keep us from disclosing the details on its Kindle e-book device, w…
Amazon.com Finally To Launch Reader Next Week: Report
So says report in News.com, saying it will be launched on Monday in NYC. We have written about it before, here. News.com says that “Kindle”…
Citing Piracy Concerns, Penguin Pulls Out Of eMusic's Audiobooks Download Service
Less than a month after it began selling downloads of DRM-free audiobooks, MP3 online retailer eMusic has found itself unable to keep Pengui…
HarperCollins UK Takes Another Step Into The World Of Social Networking
HarperCollins UK is making another move into social networking: the News Corp. (NYSE: NWS)-owned publisher is launching a new MySpace-like o…
In Latest Bid To Push Ebooks, Sony Partners With Borders On E-Commerce Store
For the past few years, Sony (NYSE: SNE) and others have been trying get mass adoption of ebooks. And with each effort, the question goes “i…
Amazon.com To Launch Wireless eBook Reader; Google To Start Charging For Digital Books Access
Two separate developments in the eBooks/digital books world, reported by NYT:
— Amazon.com (NSDQ: AMZN) is launching an eBook device called…
Microsoft And Google Battle For Publishers’ Hearts At BookExpo
Microsoft and Google unveiled more details about their respective digital library plans at this week’s BookExpo America in New York. Both so…
Media Predict Sets Up Virtual Betting Parlor For Books
Another entry in the media business model fray:Media Predict , a virtual market that lets users wager on the likely success of a book propos…
Storytelling Social Net FanLib Launches With $3 Million In Funding
Until it launched this past week, FanLib, a site dedicated to showcasing fan fiction, had been working in stealth mode after raising a previ…
Flash memory from vending machines
Memory maker Kingston is borrowing a page from Japan and is deploying vending machines in airports in the US. The machines will…
Google, Baidu Race To Set Up Online Library In China
Google and Chinese search engine Baidu are racing each other to set up an online depository of books, reports Reuters. Baidu is forming rela…
Random House, HarperCollins Launch Online Book Searches
A fellow editor said recently, “People don’t read much online. They infosnack.” Some publishers are trying to make those snacks a little mor…
Shelfari Receives $1 million From Amazon, Others
Book lovers’ social net Shelfari has raised a $1 million first round from Amazon.com and others, according to John Cook’s Venture Blog. The…
Macworld: Conference Itself Found Wanting; Blurb Stands Out
[By Carleen Hawn] I
Google Book Search Rival Gets $1 Million Grant
“You are talking about the fruits of our civilization and culture. You want to keep it open and certainly don’t want any company to enclose…
Amazon, HP Will Try Digital Publishing; Should Expand Titles Available In Long-Tail World
If you can print it they will buy or so goes the logic here … A new deal between printer giant Hewlett-Packard and Amazon marks the latest…
John Wiley Acquires UK Travel Info Site Whatsonwhen
John Wiley & Sons has acquired the UK travel and entertainment site Whatsonwhen.com for an undisclosed amount. The site publishes a calendar…
Sony Reader Reviewed; Ebooks Still Hard To Cozy Up To
Like an untrustful lover who keeps saying “I can change, this time it’s different,” makers of ebook readers have made promises they’ve been…
Poetry For Your Pod
In a past life, a colleague showed me an arts project they’d worked on that involved sending a daily poem to people’s mobiles for a small su…
Sony’s E-book Device And Store To Launch Next Month; Six Publishers On Board
Sony Reader, the much awaited portable e-book reader from Sony, will launch on October 1, along with the online e-book store, after missing…
Apple Working With Publishers; iBooks On Route?: Report
Engadget has heard from “separate, trustworthy insiders” that Apple wants to move beyond Audible’s digital audio books, which could mean an…
Chinese eBook Firm ChineseAll Gets Venture Funding
ChineseAll, a Chinese online/eBook publishing firm, has received first round of funding…the amount and the investors was undisclosed. The…
French Publisher To Sue Google Over Book Scanning
French publisher Groupe de La Martiniere says Google is “counterfeiting” and breaching IP rights by scanning some 100 books and is filing su…
Digital Publishing Roundup: Digital Rules; No, It Doesn’t; Yes, It Does
— Books will disappear. Print is where words go to die:Jeff Jarvis tossed a variation of this particular Molotov cocktail via his blog las…
Blogging at Business 2.0 Blog
I am currently blogging at Business 2.0 blog as well. My colleague Erick Schonfeld is off on vacation for two weeks, so…
