Amazon announced today that it will stop supplying retailers in China with Kindle ereaders this week, and plans to shutter its ebookstore there in June 2023. In 2024, the Kindle App will be removed from stores and users will no longer be able to access digital books they have purchased. Chinese customers who purchased a […]
ebookstores
eBook Player Glose Is Acquired by Medium
In its ever-ambitious search for a business model and clear expression of why it exists at all, website Medium has acquired Paris-based Glose — an ebook platform and store, perhaps best known in the trade as the ebook vendor HarperCollins switched to for selling their ebooks directly to customers, after BookShout went of out of […]
A New Vendor for Harper’s eBooks
Harper Collins had used Bookshout.com since 2016 as the platform for ebooks sold directly to customers from their websites, but recently the Harlequin site told customers that “BookShout closed their business in early 2020, ceasing all operations.” (In an earlier email, Harlequin had told customers, “On December 30th, 2019, Bookshout unexpectedly informed us of their […]
Kobo CEO Tamblyn’s Tips for Raising eBook Revenues
It’s only appropriate that a Book Industry Study Group (BISG) annual meeting Friday that opened with predictions of continuing tight markets for book paper and manufacturing concluded with Kobo (“often thought of as ‘Kobo-Who-We-Wish-Were-Bigger-In-the-US'”) ceo Michael Tamblyn running down six ways to sell more digital product — and retain readers’ attention — with better metadata. […]
EU to Allow Members to Drop E-Book Tax Rates
After two full years of debate (and years more of hand wringing), European Union member states now have the option to lower VAT tax rates on ebooks to the same rate charged for printed books — which in some countries are tax free. The measure unanimously agreed on by the EU’s Economic and Financial Affairs […]
Walmart eBooks, Kobo Integrates OverDrive, NYPL’s Instagram Books
As we previewed on Tuesday, today is the official launch day for Walmart ebooks (including digital audiobooks as well), in partnership with Rakuten Kobo. In separate news, Kobo has added “one-touch public library lending” to all of their ereading devices, for libraries that use Rakuten’s OverDrive. Kobo ceo Michael Tamblyn says in the announcement, “The insights […]