Google aspires to control ebooks in the cloud, available on servers to read on any device, regardless of where customers make the actual purchase–but vendor LibreDigital has plans of their own, which they are unveiling at the Texas Book Festival. Called AllAccess, their new product is a content delivery platform which allows publishers, resellers and authors to give readers access to eBooks on any device”–including Kindle (if the user pays the appropriate Whispernet file transmission charge). They note that “consumers benefit by not having to worry about different formats and displays required for each device since the technology is designed […]
Archives for October 2009
One Analyst Warms to Barnes & Noble
After dour reports last week from stock analysts at Goldman Sachs and Credit Suisse, Barnes & Noble’s stock gets a better assessment today from Alan Rifkin at Bank of America/Merrill Lynch. They have upgraded their assessment of shares to neutral from underperform, with a price target of $19 a share. They write, “while we remain cautious of book industry fundamentals overall, we favorably view recent developments BKS has made to enhance its competitive position.” In their report, they see nook as helping to compete with Kindle; believe that the BN College acquisition can provide sales growth (since so many schools […]
Vook for Less
When Atria released its first collaborations with Vook, company founder Brad Inman wouldn’t tell the AP how much it cost to shoot the videos and only indicated “the budget for an individual title was less than $100,000.” Apparently he meant a lot less. VP of marketing at Vook Jack Sallay clarifies now that “the production costs associated with creating a vook are nowhere near $100,000, but are in fact less than $15,000.”
Macmillan Contract Updates
Agent Kristin Nelson notes on her blog that a number of agents did not receive the initial dispatch of Macmillan’s proposed new contract boilerplate and accompanying letter from ceo John Sargent. Nelson adds that “today I got an email that agents can respond until January 4, 2010.” As agents continue to review the proposed changes, we heard additional concerns including the standardization of audio royalties to 10 percent of net that eliminates what had been a much higher percentage for streaming audio (e.g. Audible) offered by most other publishers, and a termination boilerplate that effectively means works would never qualify […]
Retailers Limits On Price War Books
It shouldn’t be a surprise that Walmart.com, Amazon and Target.com are limiting the how many copies each customer can buy of their loss-leader deep-discount books, but the WSJ sums up the respective ceilings: 2, 3, and 5 copies, by vendor. But that still means as long as an independent store has a few employees, they can order dozens of copies for the store with no problem (and free shipping.) Walmart.com ceo Raul Vazquez says “the company’s book promotion had resulted in brisk sales of the coming titles, and had also boosted sales of other products.”WSJ
Random House Expands Statement On Cancelled Ref Book
“After a close legal review of the final manuscript of Blowing the Whistle by Tim Donaghy, and our independent evaluation of some of the author’s sources and statements, Triumph Books and Random House have decided not to go forward with the book’s publication. Our decision is wholly our own and was made without consultation with any outside parties or individuals.”USAT