Teen writing site Figment has secured an additional $1 million in angel investor funding, which will go to developing new sales, marketing and distribution models and a marketplace where authors and publishers can sell their works. Figment will also move into publishing this fall with Blake Nelson’s DREAM SCHOOL, a sequel to his novel GIRL serialized in the 1990s by Sassy magazine. Nelson and Figment will split royalties equally, and PGW will distribute the book online and as a limited-edition print book. PaidContent Yale University has made its entire digital image collection available online for free and for unlimited use. […]
Financing/Start-Ups
Random UK Goes Agency; Ed Victor Launches Publisher; and More eNews
There is a lot of ebook news from the UK, today. Random House UK has adopted the agency model, following a similar move at the beginning of March in the US. As of today, the company’s approximately 6,000 ebook titles are available for sale through Apple’s iBookstore in the UK as a result. Random UK spokesperson Maureen Corish says “We were the only major English language trade publisher not to have our ebooks on sale via the iBookstore, so today’s announcement sees us forging a new commercial relationship as part of our commitment to increasing consumer choice and making our […]
Penguin Introduces Book Country, A Community for Genre Fiction Writers
Today Penguin launched the public beta of Book Country, a new subsidiary company and website whose aim is to build a writing community and social network centered around genre fiction, especially romance, science fiction & fantasy, and mysteries & thrillers. Membership is free and allows writers to post unpublished manuscripts and receive detailed feedback–ranging from genre categorization to more focused comments on specific craft aspects–from community members, essentially acting as an ongoing online workshop. Starting this summer Book Country intends to generate revenue by having members to self-publish print and e-book editions of their work for a fee, and in […]
Kobo Finalizes $50 Million Financing
Kobo has closed an investment round that raised $50 million in new financing. For those paying attention, note that it’s actually the second announcement about the same funding round. In early March they disclosed new financing led by Fidelity Investments, without releasing the amount raised. Tuesday’s announcement revealed the amount, but pretended to keep Fidelity’s name of out it. Indigo invested $13 million, and current investor Cheung Kong Holdings also contributed a nominal amount, with Fidelity adding approximately $37 million. Indigo’s investment has been diluted from 58 percent down to 51 percent, so they still have control of the company. […]
Briefs: Billy Joel Cancels Memoir; Open Road Projects $10M in Sales in 2011; and More
A little more than two months before HarperCollins was due to publish Billy Joel‘s memoir The Book of Joel, with a finished cover unveiled and a manuscript draft turned in, the book deal is off. “It took working on writing a book to make me realize that I’m not all that interested in talking about the past, and that the best expression of my life and its ups and downs has been and remains my music,” he said in a statement. Spokeswoman Tina Andreadis said that Joel’s memoir “was well into the editing process, but that Joel had not approved […]
Amazon API Returns to Lendle; Inkling Gets Investment From McGraw-Hill and Pearson; and More eNews
After what turned out to be a brief hiccup, Amazon has now reinstated access to its API access for ebook lending service Lendle. The problem turned out to be Lendle’s BookSync feature, which syncs a user’s Kindle books with their Lendle account and which Amazon said violated its terms of service. Lendle has now disabled what it termed a “very useful, but non-essential feature” and added “we need to work towards a Lendle product that does not rely on APIs provided by Amazon or any other third party.” Lendle statement Interactive textbook company Inkling secured “significant minority investment” from […]