Diesel eBookstore celebrates the restoration of the final agency model publisher to their store with a look at agency six months later. Writing that “the A5 performed an impressive near-checkmate on the eBook chessboard,” they look at the pros and cons of operating in a partial-agency world. Among the weak points–related to the two stories…
ebookstores
Right Alongside BN, Kobo Launches Their Newsstand
As further evidence of the coming push to expand options for newspapers and magazines in the growing ereading market, today Kobo follows Barnes & Noble’s planned newsstand with their own offering, live as of today. Their site offers about 30 newspapers and magazines to start, and Kobo executive Michael Tamblyn says “this is just the…
Checking the Numbers As Amazon Distracts with Press Releases
With Barnes & Noble expected to announce a color touchscreen device this afternoon, Amazon continues to push a steady stream of press releases to try to distract the media. Today they say they have completely redesigned the front end of their entire site to be optimized for iPad, though Amazon Windowshop app. Yesterday it was…
Territorial Mess, Continued: Waterstone’s Stops “Overseas” eBook Sales
The Bookseller reports that Waterstone’s has discontinued selling ebooks to customers with billing addresses outside of the UK and Ireland. Spokesman Jon Howells says “it is basically due to rights of controlling where we sell books to” adding that “this is not a temporary move.” In an e-mail to customers the bookseller said “we have…
Typical Starbucks Fanfare Hides Some Real Book News from Libre Digital and Others
Starbucks is one of those companies the media loves to over-cover (consider, say, free wifi at the coffee shops, versus free wifi at McDonald’s) and today they announced yet another complicated promotional entertainment offering. Traditionally these initiatives are great for free media, and then tend to fizzle away after a couple of pops. (The roster…
