Amazon filed five different arbitration demands against an assortment of people and companies trying “to gain an unfair competitive advantage” within the KDP ecosystem. Two cases allege the creation of “false, misleading, and inauthentic customer reviews for their self-published books sold on Amazon.” Amazon says that, “Despite substantial efforts to stamp out the practice, a…
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Kobo Adds Audio Subscription, Sales
Kobo has launched a broad program of digital audiobooks, available for individual purchase but also available through a $9.99/month subscription, promising “the best value on a subscription plan in the category.” The service is also available in Canada ($12.99/month), the UK (£6.99/month), Australia ($12.99/month), and New Zealand ($13.99/month). CEO Michael Tamblyn says in the press…
Quarto Falls on Profit Warning, and China Literature Heads for IPO
Ahead of reporting results for the first half of 2017, Quarto Group warned that its earnings guidance “for 2017 and beyond has been set too high.” That’s due to both “a lower-than expected trading performance in the year to date” during “the ongoing soft retail environment” as well as an accounting adjustment from the previous year….
Corporate: Ingram Pairs with Optiqly; BISG On Rights
Marketing technology and services startup Optiqly — still in private beta and launching shortly — will provide a version of their tools through Ingram’s CoreSource as a subscription service, adapted to focus on servicing the company’s distribution clients. The deal provides Ingram an exclusive among a limited set of large distributors and wholesalers. Ingram Content…
Digital: Kobo Acquires Shelfie, Lost My Name In JV with Roald Dahl Estate
After taking on Shelfie’s customers in February after the service closed, Kobo has now acquired what was left of Shelfie itself — including their technology assets, IP, and the infrastructure on which the ecosystem runs, plus the hiring of Shelfie’s teams. Kobo says that in “the coming months,” it will “work to integrate the Shelfie platform…
Securely Yours: A PM PSA
With internet privacy imperiled by Congress in the US, the major browsers have been encouraging web site owners to move to entirely secure sites — and following recent updates, most of the popular browsers will flag regular HTTP links as “not secure.” After a brief scramble, we have updated the entire PublishersMarketplace.com site to secure HTTPS…