On their web site, Borders is taking pre-orders for two units from Micro Cruz in the mode of the recently-panned Pandigital unit. One is color touch screen ereader that looks like a tablet; the other adds an Android operating system to actually work as a cheap tablet.Borders Also taking the cheap-looks-like-a-tablet route is drugstore chain CVS. According to advertising materials found by Engadget they intend to sell a different 7-inch color ereader for $179 from LookBook. The store for the reader is powered by Kobo. It will be interesting to see whether this new wave of machines expands the market […]
Archives for August 2010
How Can the UK Be Surprised By eBook Price War?
From this side of the Atlantic it looks obvious, but following the launch of the local Kindle store and price competition from WH Smith, at least some UK trade people are both upset and somehow surprised by the turn of events. Upset enough to give colorful quotes to the Bookseller, but not so firm on principle as to be identified by name, a “senior publisher” declares “it’s absolutely absurd to devalue our product but I’m not surprised because our industry is populated by nincompoops.” It’s not exactly clear who falls into this colorful category, since the same executive who is […]
20 Books for Fall
NY Magazine also lists their 20 “most anticipated” fall books: 1. Our Tragic Universe, by Scarlett Thomas2. Zero History, by William Gibson3. The Hilliker Curse: My Pursuit of Women, by James Ellroy4. Ape House, by Sara Gruen5. C, by Tom McCarthy6. Storyteller: The Authorized Biography of Roald Dahl, by Donald Sturrock7. Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self, by Danielle Evans8. Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert, trans. Lydia Davis9. Untitled on the Obama Administration, by Bob Woodward10. By Nightfall, by Michael Cunningham11. Nemesis, by Philip Roth12. Great House, by Nicole Krauss13. Mourning Diary, by Roland Barthes14. How to Read the […]
Barnes & Noble Today: Waiting for Earnings, As Riggio and Burkle Both Say They Don’t Want to Work Together
The next news event for Barnes & Noble will be the reporting of first quarter earnings tomorrow morning. Analysts surveyed by Thompson Reuters are expecting a loss of 80 cents a share on sales of $1.42 billion, though the company’s guidance was for a new loss in a range of 85 cents to $1.15 a share. The net loss for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2010, reported June 28, was 89 cents a share. At the time, BN said they expected first quarter Barnes & Noble.com sales–where Nook revenues are recorded–to increase between 30 percent and 50 percent. BN store […]
Lunch Weekly for Monday, August 23
Deal Reports Just e-mail to deals@PublishersMarketplace if you aren’t using the online form linked below. Report a deal using the online form The Key As usual, the handy key to our Lunch deal categories. While all reports are always welcome, those that include a category will generally receive a higher listing when it comes time to put them all together. “nice deal” $1 – $49,000 “very nice deal” $50,000 – $99,000 “good deal” $100,000 – $250,000 “significant deal” $251,000 – $499,000 “major deal” $500,000 and up FICTION Debut Erin Duffy’s BOND GIRL, a behind-the-scenes look at the financial world […]
eNews: Rice Digital Press Experiment Folds, As Inkling Launches to Adapt Textbooks to iPad
University press publishing can be difficult regardless of the medium, and Rice University has decided to end their four-year experiment with a digital-only press. The former provost who authorized the venture originally Eugene Levy says, “The hope was that, without the burden of having to maintain a print inventory, the press might sustain itself largely on revenues from print-on-demand book sales. Unfortunately, book sales remained very slow, and projections discouraged the anticipation that revenues would, in the foreseeable future, grow to a level that could materially cover even minimal costs of operations.” The press had closed once before, in 1996.http://chronicle.com/blogPost/Rice-U-to-Close-Its-Digital/26342 […]