After soft-launch in Holland late last year, Kobo’s will formally roll out their ebookstore there on January 30 with “thousands of Dutch titles,” while Dutch retailer Libris Blz will sell the Kobo Touch for €129. “Through our new partnership with Libris Blz, we’re confident our expansion into the Netherlands will be a huge success,” Kobo ceo Michael Serbinis said in a statement. “Kobo’s focus has always been to bring e-reading and e-books to people everywhere around the world. By launching in the Netherlands, and bringing e-reading to the passionate Dutch reading community — we are one more country closer to […]
eNews
Agency Lawsuit Is Expanded; Draws On Information from Amazon
On Friday, the lead law firm in the consolidated class action suits over the agency ebook pricing model Hagens Berman filed an expanded, revised and amended 86-page complaint and promptly issued a press release, as they did with their original filing last August. To understand the case you shouldn’t rely on that release, however, which misspells the name of defendant “Hachett Livre” and trumpets having “uncovered statements” in exotic places like the New Yorker, Steve Jobs’ biography and company blogs. The complaint itself follows the same reasoning as the original filing, basing their allegation of conspiracy on reasoning–that for any […]
eBook Sales Rise 350% at Disney
President of Disney Publishing Worldwide Russell Hampton opened the afternoon sessions at the Publishers Launch Conference Children’s Publishing Goes Digital on Monday, saying “The digital revolution is about giving readers choice and growing our collective business.” He added, “It is our challenge as publishers to make our offerings accessible to children so that they may read what what they want, when they want, how they want.” Citing a variety of signs of digital growth in Disney’s business lines, Hampton noted that 30 percent of the first week sales and 20 percent of all sales of Rick Riordan’s latest hardcover bestseller […]
Nook Kids Asks for More Audio and “Boy Content”
Nook Kids director of business development/content acquisition Kevin O’Connor shared a variety of observations on what’s working well in the Nook Kids store at Monday’s Publishers Launch Conference Children’s Publishing Goes Digital event. “I beg you, beg you, beg you beg you to create audio for your ebooks. It’s so essential for it to sell. The vast majority of what we sell is either interactive or has audio in it. It’s naturally going to sell better.” O’Connor, who was previously in the music business, cited singer/performer Laurie Berkner’s PARTY DAY as among their stronger ebook sellers. “Boy content [is] overperforming” […]
PLC: Understanding the Children’s Digital Book Market
As part of our Children’s Publishing Goes Digital Conference, Bowker vp publishing services Kelly Gallagher presented new data on the state of the children’s digital book market and signs of increasing digital adoption.The survey of 2,000 parents & guardians of children ages 0-12 and 1,000 teens aged 13-17 was largely conducted in between October 7 and November 2, 2011, before the release of the Kindle Fire, the Nook Tablet, and the Kobo Vox, but additional data was fielded “as recently as last week,” taking into account the likely significant impact those devices have had on the children’s digital market. While […]
eNews: Pew Says Device Ownership Doubled Over Holidays; Kindle Is UK’s Most Unused Present; And More
Two separate surveys of more than 2000 Americans conducted by the Pew Internet & American Life Project in December and January found that the share of adults who owned tablet computers increased to 19 percent from 10 percent, with the same increase for adults who owned e-readers. (Women bought ereaders more than men, with the reverse being true for tablets.) In addition, the number of Americans owning at least one device, either a tablet or an e-reader, rose from 18 percent in December to 29 percent in January. The jump was particularly significant according to Pew because ownership of tablets […]