Kobo will reestablish a presence in US retail booksellers that they have lacked since Borders liquidated under an agreement with the American Booksellers Association that takes over from the soon-to-be-cancelled Google eBooks relationship. The WSJ says the new agreement will be effective in October (ahead of Google’s scheduled termination of their affiliates in January 2013); the ABA simply says it will launch “this fall,” with approximately 400 stores expected to participate. The ABA held conversations with a variety of potential new partners, said to include such providers as Copia and the soon-to-launch Zola Books (which is enrolling its own independent […]
eNews
Nook’s First UK Partner Is Electronics Retailer, Plus Amazon and Apple Updates
Barnes & Noble announced that department store John Lewis will be its first UK retail partner as of October, selling Nook Simple Touch and GlowLight in 37 stores as well as on its own website. “John Lewis is where knowledgeable customers turn for trusted advice on the best products to purchase, and they are a perfect partner to help launch Nook in the UK,” said BN president of digital products Jamie Iannone in a statement. “We look forward to bringing more choice and convenience to discerning UK customers with our critically acclaimed line of reading devices and expansive selection of […]
eNews: Amazon Sets September 6 Press Conference; Washington Post Does eBooks; And More
Amazon will host a press conference on September 6 at 10:30 PDT (1:30 EDT) at the Barker Hangar near Santa Monica Airport. The company provided no additional details of what they will announce next month, but it’s fair to speculate that any number of new devices, from the latest versions of the Kindle Fire and eInk devices, will be discussed. The Washington Post will launch a line of branded ebooks this fall, in conjunction with Diversion Books, that will “focus on a targeted topic featuring content from the Washington Post archives” and be available on all major online retailing platforms. […]
People, Etc.
At Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, Hallie Patterson has been named senior publicist. Previously she was senior publicist at at HarperCollins Children’s. In addition, Flinn Gillan has joined the School & Library Marketing group as marketing assistant. Previously he was a marketing coordinator at Garland Science. Judi Powers has resigned as director of marketing and publicity at Sterling Children’s Books to return to college and pursue a career in jewelry design. She can be reached at judi_powers@yahoo.com. In the UK, Eloy Sasot has been promoted to director of pricing and analytics at HarperCollins UK, reporting to Simon Johnson. Random […]
BN Tries to Explain
In Tuesday’s conference call with investors, Barnes & Noble ceo William Lynch tried explaining the decline in digital content growth a couple of different ways, which are not obviously consistent with each other. On the one hand, per our reporting, publishers reported “a bit of a deceleration of the growth overall in the e-book market [more than a bit, actually] which was to be expected.” On the other hand, Lynch underscores that digital content growth is heavily dependent on new device owners filling up titles: “consumers fill up their lockers and those first two to three months are vital as […]
Amazon Launches Kindle Store in India
Amazon officially launched its Kindle store in India Wednesday, which will include more than 1 million titles and Kindle Direct Publishing options for authors. Amazon will also sell the bare-bones version of its Kindle devices for R6,999 at Croma retail stores across India. “We are proud to launch this new Kindle store for Indian customers – offering Kindle book purchases in rupees and the ability to buy and read the work of many great Indian authors,” vp Kindle Content Russ Grandinetti said in the release. “In addition, we are excited to work with Croma to make Kindle available at retail […]