As long expected, Amazon announced today the launch of their first non-English Kindle store, debuting in Germany with “over 25,000 German-language titles,” including “71 of 100 Spiegel bestsellers” and “thousands of German classics downloadable for free.” The store appers to have lots of English-language titles for German customers as well, since the company says the store has over 650,000 titles in total. When the German Publishers and Booksellers Association launched their own ebookstore last November through Libreka.de, they also began with approximately 25,000 German-language ebooks for sale (which is still the count displayed on the site). Amazon says their title […]
Archives for April 2011
More on Kindle’s Library Lending Program
here are lots of questions about OverDrive’s new, forthcoming ebook lending program with Kindle, and the provider gave at least some answers on their blog. Basically, they will be making available the titles already in the OverDrive catalog in a format that can be read on the Kindle platform as well. (“Your existing collection of downloadable eBooks will be available to Kindle customers.”) So this is not an initiative that, at least for now, expands the selection of ebook titles available to library patrons. Amazon spokesperson Kinley Campbell confirmed to us separately that the program is currently designed to supplement […]
People
Paul Whitlatch has been promoted to associate editor at Scribner. At Simon & Schuster Children’s, Anna McKean has been promoted to publicity manager.
BEA Features Five Authors for Combined Stage and Signing
BEA organizers have announced a new slate of five high-profile author stage appearances for this year’s show that will combine 15 to 20 minutes of speaking with an hourlong autographing that follows. Seating, at their Uptown Stage, is limited to 150 people, first-come, first-served and autographing tickets will be given to those who are seated and additional standees. The featured author/speakers are: Tuesday 5/24 10:00 Charles Frazier, Nightwoods 1:30 John Lithgow, Drama: An Actor’s Education Wednesday 5/25 10:00 Michael Moore (untitled) Thursday 5/26 10:00 Jane Lynch, Happy Accidents 1:30 Jane Fonda, Prime Time Speaking of BEA, Simon & […]
Lexington Mall Owner and Gordon Brothers Split Joseph-Beth Stores After Auction, But BAMM Will Take Over VA Location
In an auction that stretched late into the afternoon, the five remaining stores owned by Joseph-Beth found a variety of new owners, some of which were unexpected. Liquidation firm Gordon Brothers was the high bidder for the Memphis-based Davis-Kidd and the Fredericksburg, VA stores, but immediately transferred ownership of the VA store to Books-A-Million, which has a significant presence in the state. The outcome for stores in Cincinnati, Cleveland and Lexington, however, provided a late-game surprise, with the Mall on Lexington Green emerging as the high bidder. Until late last week Joseph-Beth president Neil van Uum was the only announced […]
Amazon Will Finally Work with OverDrive to Let Library Patrons “Borrow” Kindle Books
Library ebook lending looks ready to receive a significant lift as Amazon announced this morning that they will finally work with Overdrive to enable Kindle ebooks for library patrons. The program launches at an unspecified date “later this year.” They say the initiative will work on all Kindle devices as well as of their free ereading apps. (Up until now, Amazon’s Kindle files have been incompatible with Overdrive’s system, which relies on EPUB and Adobe Content Server–neither of which is supported by Amazon.) If a library user creates annotations or bookmarks in a borrowed ebook, those will be preserved by […]