Within minutes of each other, Amazon’s Kindle Store and Google Play launched in Brazil Wednesday evening–just as Kobo’s previously-announced Brazilian offering formally launched. The Play store includes titles by Brazilian authors as well as translations of international bestsellers, while the Kindle store sells their low-end device for R$299 ($143 US), along with 1.4 million ebooks, including more than 13,000 Portuguese-language ebooks by authors such as Jorge Amado, Lya Luft and Martha Medeiros. In addition, Kindle Direct Publishing and the various mobile apps are also available in Brazil. “We are excited to launch this new Kindle Store for Brazilian customers, offering […]
ebookstores
eNews: Hachette Commits to EPUB3; Fictionwise Will Shut Down on December 4
Long on-the-verge EPUB3 may finally land. Hachette Book Group underscored their commitment to new standard and the enhanced content it supports, announcing that they will release 16 titles in EPUB3 between this November and next March. Beginning with titles across a variety of nonfiction genres and children’s books, they plan to “publish all standard novels in EPUB3 by March 2013” as well. The news had been widely expected ever since Barnes & Noble bought the company in 2009, prior to launching the first iteration of the Nook, but Fictionwise will officially shut down on December 4, according to an email […]
Amazon Cites “Technical Issue” for Kindle Buy Buttons That Disappeared–and Returned–Overnight
Late Thursday evening Amazon customers began to notice that buy buttons for Kindle books published by agency model publishers Random House, Penguin, Macmillan, Simon & Schuster and Hachette had disappeared, with Harper buy buttons dropping off after a twenty-minute interval. The deactivation was limited to the six agency model publishers, and affected Amazon’s US store only. At 1:28 AM Friday, an Amazon spokesperson told us and other outlets “the Kindle Store is experiencing a technical issue. We’re working to correct it.” A different spokesperson wrote back at 7 AM Friday to say “the issue had been fixed.” It remains unclear […]
Apple News (iPad Mini Sales; Sony’s App; Smashword’s Sales) and ABA Advice to Kobo Sellers
Trying to counter reports the iPad mini has not caught fire immediately among the faithful, Apple announced somewhat ambiguously that “it has sold three million iPads in just three days since the launch of its new iPad mini and fourth generation iPad–ouble the previous first weekend milestone of 1.5 million Wi-Fi only models sold for the third generation iPad in March.” CEO Tim Cook adds that they “practically sold out of iPad minis. We’re working hard to build more quickly to meet the incredible demand.” Almost two years after Apple first rejected Sony’s ereading app over violations of the iTunes […]
eNews: Flat World to Drop Free Model; Inkling Opens Trade Store
Flat World Knowledge, the disruptive open-license textbook developer that has attracted investment from both Random House and Bertelsmann Digital Media Investments, is apparently changing their fundamental model as of January 1. While the site still contains their promise to students that “all of our books are available to read in their entirety, completely free online!” a post from the National Association of College Stores says that free access to browser-based textbooks is going away. Flat World CEO Jeff Shelstad tells them, “While free access goes away, our mission to be fair and affordable remains as strong as ever.” Their all […]
eNews: Kobo Opens in South Africa; Brazil’s Saraiva Looks to Sell Online Division; “Patent Troll” Moves to Amazon and BN with New Suit
Kobo has partnered with South African retailer Pick n Pay to launch their devices and ebookstore there, offering books in both English and Afrikaans. There’s further news on Brazil’s leading bookseller Saraiva, whose stock jumped earlier in the month on reports that they might be in acquisition talks with Amazon. The updated Reuters account says Saraiva is looking to sell their online business only, while retaining their 102 bookstores and publishing operation. That goal would seem to fit quite well with Amazon’s continuing aspirations to launch operations, and Kindle in particular, in Brazil–though it could also appeal to other international […]