Amazon’s latest announcement has two interesting aspects: They are bundling digital children’s content across media into a combined “library” or subscription, and they are broadly selling that subscription to all customers, not just Prime “members.” Called Kindle FreeTime Unlimited, the all-in-one subscription service works on any Kindle Fire device and will be available as part of an automatic OS software update “in the coming weeks.” The package features books, games, educational apps, movies and TV shows focused on children ages 3-8. Amazon Prime members get preferred pricing–$2.99/month per individual child (or $6.99 per family)–but others can subscribe for $4.99/month (or $9.99 […]
Children's
eNews: Penguin Expands eBook Library Lending Pilot with Baker & Taylor; Sourcebook’s “Put Me In The Story” Children’s Book App
Penguin is expanding its library ebook lending pilot programs through a new distribution agreement with Baker & Taylor that will make their titles available to public libraries in Los Angeles County and Cuyahoga County, Ohio, the NYT reports. Penguin tells us they “hope it is up and running before the end of the year.” The new initiative will employ the same lending terms as Penguin’s pilot with 3M and the New York public libraries from earlier this year: Titles are available for library lending six months after publication, sold at standard ebook prices, available for one-lend-at-a-time, with each purchase valid […]
eNews: iBooks Expected to Add Countries; CoreSource Adds Retailers; Pew Data Should Be Viewed Carefully; and More
With confirmation expected to this afternoon’s Apple presentation (which starts at 1:00 Eastern), there are reports on various blogs and websites that 18 more countries are listed as “pending” to sell iBooks–including New Zealand, Brazil, and Mexico, along with 16 other countries in Latin America, South America. After 10 months of posturing, French newspapers Les Echos reports that the European Commission has issued a stern warning to France over their lowered 7 percent VAT on ebooks. If the rate isn’t lifted in a month, the EC might go to the European Court of Justice. As the Bookseller points out, the […]
WIMPY KID Goes Digital, With eBooks Available on October 30
The first six books in Jeff Kinney’s DIARY OF A WIMPY KID series, which have sold more than 75 million copies worldwide, will finally be available in ebook format as of October 30, while the newly arriving seventh volume, DIARY OF A WIMPY KID: THE THIRD WHEEL, will be published simultaneously in print and digital on November 13. “The decision came after a lot of thought and deliberation,” Kinney told the AP. “I am very excited about this. It feels like the time is right.” Published under a new banner of Wimp-E-Books, the digital editions will list for $13.95, at […]
eNews: Google Launches in Korea, and More
Apparently Google launched an ebook venture in Korea earlier this month, with participation from publishers including Woongjin, Ridibooks and Munhakdongne Publishing. An unnamed official told The Korea Herald (found via The Digital Reader), “We picked Korea since the adoption rate of smart devices, including smartphones, are one of the highest among other nations.” Korea Herald Yale University Press announced that they have received a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation “to launch extensive market research and development of a new electronic model for illustrated books.” The award and subsequent work is intriguing since so far illustrated books have lagged […]
From the Cloud, Hachette Announces Three Services for Other Publishers
At today’s Publishers Launch Conference on Book Publishing In the Cloud, Hachette Book Group chief operating officer Ken Michaels announced three software-as-a-service offerings that the publisher developed for their own use and will now make available for license by other publishers, “allowing the industry to take advantage of our innovations.” BookRadar, developed with and now marketed by CoEnterprise, lets publishers automatically monitor how their digital titles are displayed on key retailer sites. It highlights discrepancies (or compliance) in pricing as well on sale availability and release dates–compared to the publisher’s own ONIX data–and creates vendor performance scorecards. Separately, it also […]