Open Road Integrated Media will publish five backlist titles by Michael Chabon starting today, including novels THE MYSTERIES OF PITTSBURGH and THE WONDER BOYS. In an interview with the AP Chabon called the 50 percent royalty Open Road offered for the books “fair and generous” while took issue with industry standard (which the AP said was “around 25 percent” but which we take to mean 25 percent of net proceeds) for ebook royalties as offered by current publisher HarperCollins and past publisher Random House, which will publish the ebook edition of THE ADVENTURES OF KAVALIER AND CLAY next June. “I […]
eNews
People: BN’s Astarita To Lead Rodale Digital Team
Anthony Astarita will join Rodale as svp, general manager for digital and brand development on January 3, according to the NYT. Astarita has been vp, general manager for e-commerce and digital products at Barnes & Noble for the past 3 years (helping to develop and market the Nook line of digital products) and joined the company in 1998. Rodale ceo and chairwoman Maria Rodale said in a statement that Astarita brought “a wealth of digital expertise and notable credibility to the ambitious digital efforts Rodale has set for 2012 and beyond. He’s poised to expand our global digital business to […]
A Million Kindles A Week; BN Said to Increase Nook Orders; and More eNews
Yesterday Amazon issued a press release saying they are selling “well over 1 million Kindle devices per week…for the third week in a row,” across all of their Kindle readers. They answer recent criticism of their new tablet by saying “Kindle Fire sales increased week over week for each of the past three weeks.” While the company has put Kindle sales in the “millions” before, it’s the first time they have declared sales of more than a million units in a week. Separately, Digitimes has updated their supply chain reports on devices expected to be manufactured for Barnes & Nook. […]
Nook Headed to UK
Barnes & Noble executive Theresa Horner told the UK Publishers Association’s International Conference today “I imagine that in the not too distant future you’ll be able to find one of these devices here” in the UK. It remains unclear whether BN will be working with Waterstone’s or pursuing another path into the UK market. Horner commented: “I think B&N would say that having a chain of book stores is a great asset for selling book products, and if you think creatively about selling content, there is an endless well of possibilities for doing that.” In early November BN ceo William […]
Luxembourg Decides for Europe, Dropping eBook VAT to 3%
The European debate over whether to grant ebooks the same low VAT rate as print books may have just gotten a lot simpler. Luxembourg, the grand duchy of online tax evaders, has ruled that the “super-reduced 3% VAT” that has applied to print books will prevail for ebooks as well, beginning January 1, 2012. Luxembourg currently levies 15% VAT on most goods, including ebooks. The change will significantly advantage Amazon and Apple against other ebooksellers, since both companies have their European headquarters and tax domiciles in Luxembourg, from which they technically sell digital goods across Europe. (VAT is applied according […]
eNews
In another twist on short-form content, Potter Craft is starting to sell twenty individual patterns from five of their most popular craft books, for $4.99 each. INscribe Digital is working with L.A. Theatre Works to distribute their enhanced eBook content, which pairs audio from actors including Paul Giamatti, Edward Asner, Stacy Keach, Ed Begley Jr., Ted Danson, Richard Dreyfuss, Helen Hunt, John Lithgow, Michael York, Jacqueline Bisset, and Eric Stoltz with plays by Shakespeare, Oscar Wilde, Eugene O’Neill, George Bernard Shaw and others. The first game app from Random House Digital and their new subsidiary Smashing Ideas, Stunt Bugs, is […]