Barnes & Noble’s self-publishing platform has officially changed from Nook Press to Barnes & Noble Press (after changing in 2013 from PubIt! to Nook Press). Most notably, they have increased the royalty offered for higher-priced ebooks; titles listed at $10 or more, up to $199.99, now qualify for a 65 percent royalty, up from 40 percent previously. eBooks can now be offered for pre-order up to 12 months ahead of publication. On the print-on-demand side, they have added more trim sizes, along with glossy cover and color printing options.
eNews
Google Play Audiobooks Launch
After various hints online, and in a move publishers have been waiting for, Google Play officially launched digital audiobooks, offered for sale in 45 countries and nine languages:English, German, Spanish, French, Italian, Russian, Korean, Japanese and Polish. A launch promotion prices some top titles at less than $10, and they have an offer for 50 percent off the first audiobook purchase. Google bills listening “without a subscription” and “with no commitments” prominently as a virtue, an unstated comparison to Audible’s efforts to turn everyone into a subscriber, whether or not that is what they intended. Store
Next, Macmillan to Close Romance Community Site
Macmillan is closing another digital property, announcing the end of their six-year-old romance community website, Heroes and Heartbreakers. (Earlier this week, the company announced the closing of self-publishing platform Pronoun.) In a statement, Macmillan said: “As the digital habits of readers and consumers evolve, our strategic direction for reaching them evolves as well. Macmillan will be saying goodbye to the Heroes and Heartbreakers website by the end of 2017 and going forward will focus on engaging romance fans via our e-newsletter – which has a robust, growing circulation – and on social media.” Four staff members who work on H&H […]
Ingram Acquires OptiQly
The assets of start-up Optiqly, which launched in public beta recently, have been acquired by Ingram Content Group. Ingram’s ventures unit had been the primary seed investor in Optiqly, and Ingram’s CoreSource had signed on this summer to provide a version of the company’s tools as a subscription service to their large roster of distribution clients. Optiqly is designed to “help interpret dozens of signals and ranking factors that impact sales performance” of books at Amazon, and provides recommendations for optimizing discovery and conversion within the Amazon store. No formal announcement of the deal has been made, but clients were […]
The Final Pivot: Pronoun to Close, Luebbe Writes Down oolipo
Macmillan announced online that their digital self-publishing service Pronoun is “winding down” and expected to close by mid-January. The “epilogue” post says, “While many challenges in indie publishing remain unsolved, Macmillan is unable to continue Pronoun’s operation in its current form. Every option was considered before making the very difficult decision to end the business.” Macmillan acquired Pronoun in mid-2016. It was the successor to what began start-up like as Vook in 2009 — first focused on ebooks with embedded videos. Along the path of pivots the company acquired Booklr and Coliloquy, and absorbed what was left of Byliner after it […]
New Kindle Oasis Is Waterproof
Amazon announced its new ereader, the Kindle Oasis, on Wednesday morning after a banner ad for the Amazon Android app leaked some of the details. The new device is waterproof: “it’s designed to withstand getting splashed at the beach or dropped in the bath tub, hot tub, or pool.” It also has a fast-charging battery that enables it to charge in two hours, plus the longer-than-before battery life. It’s priced at $249.99 for the 8 GB model and $279.99 for the 32 GB model, as ever, with ads. Other features include a 7-inch screen, the highest-resolution yet, and the “fastest page turns of any Kindle e-reader.” […]