Amazon’s new restrictions on ebook returns will be rolled out in the US by the end of the month, the Authors Guild reports. The policy, encouraged by the Guild and announced in September, will limit automatic returns on books where more than 10 percent has been read. This change to the policy was supposed to be implemented by the end of 2022, and a press release states that Amazon is “in the final stages of making these technical changes.”
ebookstores
Ingram to Shut Down Aerio
Aerio, the innovative platform that enabled anyone to sell books easily online and brought Ingram Content Group their first direct-to-consumer option when they acquired the company (founded as Aerbook) in 2015, will close as a freestanding service at the end of January 2023. The company told customers in a “service alert” sent by email on Tuesday. Our queries to a company representative were not answered. Aerio provided the technical foundation on which the better-known Bookshop.org was built. And the advisory note sent to Aerio customers suggests, “Another great selling solution is Bookshop.org!” Aerio storefront sites will shut down on January […]
Amazon Tightens Ebook Return Policy
In a win for authors and publishers, Amazon will adjust its ebook return policy to restrict returns on books that have been more than 10 percent read. The Author’s Guild and the UK Society of Authors advocated for the change with Amazon’s senior executive team. The AG writes that the new policy will take effect by the end of the year: “Any customer who wishes to return an ebook after reading more than 10 percent will need to send in a customer service request, which will be reviewed by a representative to ensure that the return request is genuine and […]
Amazon to Discontinue Kindle In China
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 Kindle device in 2022 have been offered a refund. Reuters reports that the company said it’s “adjusting the strategic focus of its operations” but that its other remaining businesses in China will continue. Amazon effectively closed its main eretailing business in China in 2019, and […]
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 business. Glose and their roughly 20 employees will remain based in Paris, their ceo Nicolas Princen becoming vice president of books at Medium. Glose claims 1 million readers worldwide, and their separate Glose Education “serves as the ebook provider of choice for over a dozen […]
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 intention to close their business on January 31st, 2020.”) Harlequin recently switched to Glose as their new ebook provider. Direct ebook sales have been disabled on the main Harper Collins online store, but the company tells us they are switching to Glose as well and […]