Kobo has been saying for a while now they would launch an ebook self-publishing service along the lines of Amazon’s KDP and Barnes & Noble’s PubIt. Canada’s CBC News has a report that Kobo will develop an in-house publishing division akin to Amazon’s efforts, though we’re told the CBC might have interpreted the company’s plans a bit liberally. The broadcast report has one very brief sound bite from Kobo ceo Michael Serbinis, who says, “It’s part of the new market and if you expect to be a No. 1 player in that market globally it’s table stakes — you have […]
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Another Frontier for Kindle: Japan
Amazon is moving quickly on their expansion of the Kindle platform into multiple languages. Both the Nikkei business daily and Jiji press in Japan report that the company is close to launching a Japanese Kindle store, “hoping to start the business in time for the Christmas sales season.” Japanese publishers were understandably concerned about ebook pricing, but Nikkei says Amazon has been discussing “a framework in which the timing and scope of price cuts would be discussed with publishers in advance.” Japan’s electronic content market is already estimated to comprise $850 million, which is considered small since that’s about three […]
eNews: Kobo’s Tablet, Berkley/NAL’s Digital Imprint, S&S’s Author Portal, 11 Million iPads, Google’s Bookshelf, and More
Kobo is joining the ereader/tablet movement with their just-announced Vox, dubbed “the People’s eReader.” Selling for $199.99 and shipping as of October 28, it runs Android 2.3 and promises easy web browsing, e-mail, and access to “over 15,000 hot music, video and game apps.” It weighs 14.2 ounces (lighter than Nook Color or Kindle Fire), and a vibrating Kobo pulse icon signifies pages with more social activity. Kobo says it comes with three free color ebooks. Berkley/NAL has announced a digital imprint (actually they call it an “e-initial eBook imprint”) launching in January 2012, InterMix. The line will debut with […]
Amazon Is Selling English Around the World, And Bringing the World to the US
While most countries around the world wait for substantial ebook markets to develop at home, the marketplaces developed by the big North American ebook players increasingly provide unexpectedly strong opportunities to sell ebooks in multiple languages. Amazon vp of Global Kindle Content Acquisition David Naggar addressed this opportunity with data at the Publishers Launch Conference on Monday. Addressing one of the issues raised in the morning panels, Naggar said they are indeed experiencing significant growth in selling English ebooks into translation territories as well. In countries where English is not the first language, Kindle’s year-to-date unit sales in 2011 have […]
Amazon Opens Kindle Store in France
Amazon has opened a Kindle store in France at Amazon.fr with more than 35,000 titles in French (and 800,000 more, primarily in English), a French-language version of its budget Kindle for 99 Euros, and the introduction of local Kindle Direct Publishing. The store will also offer graphic novels, more than 4000 free French classics, and top French newspapers. It is their second Kindle store in a language other than English, following the German store they opened in April. “French customers are passionate about books and reading, and just as we’ve seen in the US, UK and Germany, we believe they […]
eNews: BN Pulls Graphic Novels Over DC’s Kindle Fire Deal; Crown and RealClearPolitics Partner on Campaign eBooks; and More
DC Comics’ plans to make 100 graphic novels available in digital format exclusively on the Kindle Fire did not go over well with Barnes & Noble, which should not come as much of a surprise. As a result, Bleeding Cool reports, B&N sent an email to their stores instructing them to remove editions of those graphic novels–including the popular WATCHMEN, V FOR VENDETTA, and SANDMAN–from their shelves. The books can still be ordered from BN.com. Similar to Random House’s summer announcement that it would partner with Politico to produce a number of ebooks chronicling the 2012 presidential campaign, now Crown […]