As promised earlier this fall, Amazon’s newest Kindle Stores launched Thursday in Spain and Italy, along with local-language Kindles retailing for 99 euros and the Kindle Direct Publishing service for authors and small publishers. The Italian Kindle Store features over 16,000 Italian-language Kindle titles, while the Spanish store offers more than 22,000 Spanish-language Kindle titles, including 3 exclusive backlist nonfiction titles self-published through KDP by El País journalist and bestselling author Rosa Montero. (Montero also has 2 Kindle titles available from her current publisher, Planeta imprint Seix Barral, and 4 more of her backlist books published with her agency Balcells in an earlier experiment […]
eReaders
Retail News
Initial accounts of overall retail sales on Black Friday were positive, with ShopperTrak estimating that sales were up 6.6 percent, setting a new record total and recording the strongest year-over-year gain since 2007. On Small Business Saturday, the Obama family went shopping at Kramerbooks on Dupont Circle, reportedly buying The Invention of Hugo Cabret, Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Cabin Fever, Tails, The Tiger’s Wife, The Phantom Tollbooth, Zen Shorts, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, and Descent into Chaos: the United States and the Failure of Nation Building in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Central Asia. For Cyber Monday, Open […]
International: Ediciones B, Planeta Launch Digital Imprints; and More
Spanish publisher Ediciones B launched a new digital imprint, B de Books, where the house will publish e-originals and ebook editions of its trade titles DRM-free, some at prices that are aggressively low for the Spanish market. Patricia Cornwell’s THE SCARPETTA FACTOR was available at launch for €1.99, and John Locke’s LETHAL PEOPLE will be released in January at €2.99. Commenting on the decision to publish DRM-free, B de Books director Ernest Folch said DRM had become a “barrier to readers” and is ineffective, since “DRM-protected titles are pirated the minute they hit the market.” El Cultural (in Spanish) Meanwhile Planeta […]
Kobo Offers Ad-Supported Reader; Fire Ships Early, to Tepid Reviews; LAT eBooks
Within the next two to three weeks, Kobo will match Amazon’s ad-bearing ereaders with their own “Kobo Touch with Offers” with “valuable offers and sponsored screens in discreet places outside of the reading experience.” The ad-driven model will sell for just under $100, a $40 discount over the ad-free model. Amazon has begun shipping the Kindle Fire a day early, and will start shipping their new eInk readers tomorrow, six days ahead of the promised date. Early reviews of the Fire are surprised to find that this inexpensive semi-tablet acts like what you would expect for the price. In the […]
BN Introduces the $249 Nook Tablet, Takes Multiple Shots at the Kindle Fire
You would think the drama would have been taken away from Barnes and Noble’s presentation of their new Nook devices Monday morning in New York, following the thorough (and completely accurate) leaking of that information last week, as we reported on Friday. What’s most important is that BN answered the lingering question of “can they really compete with Amazon?” with a clear indication that they have come to play. What’s more, and unlike previous Nook presentations, the gloves are clearly off and every aspect of Monday’s presentation focused on why BN believes they have better devices and “incredible values” that take Amazon head […]
Barnes & Noble Set to Launch Nook Tablet; $99 eReader with “No Annoying Ads”
Engadget has obtained a number of internal Barnes & Noble documents in advance of Monday’s Nook press conference. The materials indicate the company will launch a $249 fully-featured media tablet with specs that meet or exceed the Kindle Fire. With Amazon’s tablet releasing November 15 and Kobo’s new Vox already out, the Nook tablet it set to arrive in stores for demonstration on November 15 and be available to customers on November 16. The internal spec documents indicate it will have double the ram of Fire, a faster processor, and twice as much internal storage, at 16 GB. They are […]