The industry debate over whether or not to remove DRM from ebooks has moved from philosophical and strategic differences of opinion to a potential contract (and territorial) dispute that threatens to strand some authors in the middle. On opposing sides are Little Brown UK–a substantial sci-fi and fantasy publisher through the Orbit imprint–and Tor, which shares some authors with Orbit, and lifted DRM from their entire list of ebooks as of July. Little Brown UK ceo Ursula MacKenzie corresponded recently with at least some agents, reportedly to express concern about the impact of Tor’s new DRM-free policy on LBUK’s publishing […]
eNews
Briefs: Harper Will Convert DIESEL Books Into Temporary Record Store To Promote Chabon Novel; Nook Device Prices Drop; And More
As part of its extensive marketing campaign for Michael Chabon’s forthcoming novel TELEGRAPH AVENUE, Harper will convert the Oakland branch of California independent Diesel Books into Brokeland Records — which is the record store co-owned by the main characters in Chabon’s book — between September 7 and 14, the WSJ reports. The store, which will host the launch party for TELEGRAPH AVENUE on September 12, “will sell used jazz records provided by an independent record dealer named Berigan Taylor” and Harper is creating exterior Brokeland Records signage and merchandise. Barnes & Noble has dropped the price of its tablet devices, […]
Charting the Slowdown In eBook Growth
Further to yesterday’s reporting of AAP monthly sales data for April, we have updated versions of our standing charts of ebook sales patterns. One clear trend is that the days of doubling or more are over; as the ebook sales base rises, the year-over-year growth is moderating. In fact, over the past few months, that growth rate has dropped dramatically. As this tabulation shows, September 2011 was the last time AAP-monitored ebook sales doubled. The growth rate diminished in October, just in time for the biggest quarter of book sales, and held through the post-Christmas ebook spike in January. But […]
Fifty Shades And Lower Returns Bump Up April AAP Numbers, With eBooks At 19.6 Percent Overall Sales
After a flatter overall trade market in March, the AAP numbers for April are the first to reap the benefits of big sales from EL James’ FIFTY SHADES OF GREY TRILOGY, though the numbers have much more to do with cleaner returns (and getting past the Borders bankruptcy) rather than an outright improvement in sales. Net trade sales from reporting publishers totaled $386.4 million for the month, a big $33.8 million ahead of the revised total for April 2011. Net children’s and young adult sales jumped from $97.2 million a year ago to $120.9 million this year. Adult ebook sales […]
Textbook Time: Kno Adds K-12 eTexts and Amazon Joins Book Rental Market
Back to school time looms, which means more textbook announcements. Start-up Kno is expanding from their base in college textbooks to the K-12 textbook market. They offer one-year rentals for $9.99 or less (though any parent knows that trying to “finally stop their kids from carrying their heavy backpacks to and from school” is a pipe dream). Their first K-12 digital textbooks come from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. In a separate press release, Amazon announced that they are finally renting physical textbooks to college students, just like most of the major competitors in the market (from Barnes & Noble College, Nebraska […]
eNews: Amazon UK Says Kindle Sales There Surpass Print; AG Asks Court To Declare GBS “Is Not Fair Use”; And More
Amazon UK issued a press release Monday touting the news that ebook sales now outpace all print sales combined, measured across 2012. For every 100 print books sold from Amazon.co.uk (in all formats combined), they’ve sold 114 Kindle editions. As usual, their ratio excludes free Kindle books (but does include very inexpensive ones, and KDP titles). Amazon US passed a similar milestone as of April 1, 2011. They also declare EL James as Amazon UK’s all-time bestselling author, they say, her combined print and Kindle sales eclipsing JK Rowling’s total sales at the site. Amazon UK has sold more than […]