As the European Union wrestles with its very financial foundations, their antitrust agency the European Commission is focusing on the essential issue: It will formally investigate whether the original Agency Five and Apple “have engaged in illegal agreements or practices that would have the object or the effect of restricting competition in the European Union or in the European Economic Area.” The Commission says it is “examining the character and terms of the agency agreements entered into…for the sale of e-books. The Commission has concerns that these practices may breach EU antitrust rules that prohibit cartels and restrictive business practices.” […]
eNews
eNews: Indiebound Reader App Launches; eBooks in Europe; and More
Indiebound has launched its ebook reading app, Indiebound Reader, in conjunction with Bluefire, as announced in August (and originally set for release in October). So far the app is only available for Android devices, but “it will soon be available” for iOS devices. Consistent with Apple’s revised rules, the iOS version will be for reading only, and will not include in-app purchasing. Indiebound Reader page At the same Reuters Global Media summit where Penguin ceo John Makinson spoke of “dark clouds” hovering over the publishing horizon in 2012, Hachette ceo Arnaud Nourry was more optimistic about the prospects for digital […]
eBook Sales Register Lower in September
The AAP announced their tabulation of sales for September from reporting publishers. In the closely-watched ebook sales category–where the AAP’s monthly number is the only standing statistic we have to go on, the 18 reporting publishers recorded sales of $80.3 million, down from $88.8 million in August. (Two university presses, Stanford and University of Nebraska, were added to the tabulations starting this month.) With strong fall shipments of printed books, ebook sales were lower than both hardcover and trade paperback adult sales, and comprised 15.7 percent of all recorded trade sales. (As a reminder, the AAP counts religious sales as […]
Kindle Launches in Spain and Italy, and More eNews
As promised earlier this fall, Amazon’s newest Kindle Stores launched Thursday in Spain and Italy, along with local-language Kindles retailing for 99 euros and the Kindle Direct Publishing service for authors and small publishers. The Italian Kindle Store features over 16,000 Italian-language Kindle titles, while the Spanish store offers more than 22,000 Spanish-language Kindle titles, including 3 exclusive backlist nonfiction titles self-published through KDP by El País journalist and bestselling author Rosa Montero. (Montero also has 2 Kindle titles available from her current publisher, Planeta imprint Seix Barral, and 4 more of her backlist books published with her agency Balcells in an earlier experiment […]
Godin’s Domino Project Wraps Up
Just about a year after it was first announced, Seth Godin’s The Domino Project is issuing its twelfth and final book. Except for “a digital bonus coming soon,” that is. He writes, “By most of the measures I set out at the beginning, the project has been a success. So why stop? Mostly because it was a project, not a lifelong commitment to being a publisher of books. Projects are fun to start, but part of the deal is that they don’t last forever.” Godin explains on his blog nine of his “takeaways” from the venture. Among the things that […]
S&S Releases eBook Edition of Fahrenheit 451
Science fiction writer Ray Bradbury has finally overcome his longstanding aversion to digital books and authorized an ebook edition of his most famous novel, FAHRENHEIT 451, which Simon & Schuster released Tuesday. The ebook deal comes as part of a new publishing agreement brokered by Bradbury’s agent Michael Congdon with S&S that includes all English-language print and digital formats of FAHRENHEIT 451 in North America, and also includes English-language mass-market rights in North America to Bradbury’s THE MARTIAN CHRONICLES and THE ILLUSTRATED MAN, both of which will be reissued in March. The ebook edition of FAHRENHEIT, originally published in 1953, […]