Amazon announced yesterday that their Kindle Owners Lending Library will expand to the UK, Germany and France “later this month,” available to Prime members (as is the case in the US). They promise “over 200,000 books to borrow,” which probably means the large collection of exclusive self-published titles (and Amazon Publishing imprint books) that form the core of the program in the US, alongside the Harry Potter books in multiple languages. They promise “thousands of local-language titles” as well, but did not indicate how many European titles are being contributed by publisher license rather than by Amazon paying per “borrow.” […]
ebookstores
Social Reading Company Tries Again with Book Locker–Will They Get Locked Out?
With an opaque TOC Frankfurt appearance and vague press release, founder of struggling social-reader-and-more company ReThink Books Jason Illian announced his expanded BookShout! site from Frankfurt. Yes, it still has social reading (even though iniatives for broad social reading outside the major platforms have had almost no consumer uptake); yes, he wants to be an ebookseller (with only about 100,000 titles or now, and of course no device line); plus BookShout! also aims to be a third-party universal book locker where consumers can access ebooks they bought from multiple sellers (readable via iOs and Android apps, which means usable on […]
Kobo Acquires French Digital Service Company Aquafadas; Expands Self-Publishing and Adds New Zealand Partners
Kobo has a definitive agreement under which they intend to acquire Franch-based digital services and rich media provider Aquafadas, which develops software for digital publishing to tablets and smartphones, and user-friendly software for Flash, HTML5, photo and video editing. Their AveComics is used by French publishers and other to publish comics to tablets and smartphones. Kobo CEO Michael Serbinis says, “Digital Reading is rapidly evolving now to new rich media categories. This transaction will strengthen both Kobo’s and Aquafadas position in our current markets and allow us to accelerate the growth of rich media with the Aquafadas Digital Publishing system.” […]
Txtr Targets Cellphone Companies with Simple, Lightweight Reader Projected to Sell for Less Than 10 Euros
At the Frankfurt Book Fair, German-based txtr (part owned by 3M) announced an ebook strategy that aims to both shake up and expand the market for eInk readers and ebook sales internationally. While telecoms and cable companies worldwide have been looking at ways of entering the ereader market, txtr has a proposition to make that happen now. “We want to unlock new groups of customers” and “liberate reading,” the company said. They are launching a nearly-free ereader–projected to sell for less than 10 euros–that is also the “world’s smallest” at five inches and what they say is the lightest reader as […]
Pottermore Will Work With Other Brands As A Platform
Pottermore ceo Charlie Redmayne closed out the Publishers Launch Conference with a bang, indicating that “Pottermore is a digital publishing business” and part his roadmap for the next 12 months is to “work with other brands” from publishing and elsewhere. “We’ve started working brands, and indeed with publishers, trying to identify digital strategies that fulfill the sort of things” they have done for JK Rowling’s work. They are “already working with one other brand” in particular in a serious way (though Redmayne later told the Bookseller this first brand partner is a “non-book” property). “You can do a lot of […]
Nook Answers with New, Lighter 7- and 9-Inch Tablets and Added Features
The question raised in tech columns lately has been whether Barnes & Noble’s Nook can keep pace with the technological refresh and innovation of the much larger Apple, Google, and Amazon–and Wednesday the company aims to answer “yes” with two new high-resolution reader-focused tablets. They are introducing the seven-inch Nook HD and the 9-inch Nook HD+, with proprietary high-quality screens, at competitive prices. The smaller model starts at $199–directly comparable to the new Kindle tablet (Nook gives you an AC adapter and no ads as part of the price, but it’s their 8GB model; their 16GB version, the same as […]