The library ebook lending market is getting increasingly competitive, and diverse. At this year’s ALA Conference in New Orleans, major new ebook lending schemes, product improvements and new business models have been announced by a variety of players. 3M officially unveiled their comprehensive new ebook lending service offering, and is in the middle of a battle over whether libraries that have been OverDrive customers are contractually allowed to move their already-purchased ebook collections to 3M or other vendors. (Permission is required from the publishers in any event. The Kansas Digital Library Consortium is the system testing this provision, and they […]
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More eNews: Dystel & Goderich Will ‘Formally Represent’ Self-Pubbed Work By Clients, Kindle Heads to France, and More
Dystel & Goderich Literary Management, which represents several notable self-publishing successes including J.A. Konrath and John Locke, announced on their blog they will officially “represent” clients who want to self-publish and help them with the process. As they explain: “what we are going to do is to facilitate e-publishing for those of our clients who decide that they want to go this route, after consultation and strategizing about whether they should try traditional publishing first or perhaps simply set aside the current book and move on to the next.” DGLM will charge their regular 15 percent commission for services in […]
Politico and RH Team Up for 2012 Election eBooks; Bundling; Pan Macmillan Digital Backlists; and More eNews
Politico and Random House are partnering to publish four “instant” digital books throughout the 2012 Presidential election beginning this fall. The as-yet-untitled series, with books to be in the 20,000-30,000 word range, will be reported and written by Politico chief white house correspondent and Playbook founder Mike Allen and former Newsweek editor Evan Thomas, with Jon Meacham to edit. Meacham pitches it as “a kind of Theodore White for the digital age” and tells the NYT that “an impetus here is to encourage people to think of book publishers in a more periodical way.” Politico editor-in-chief John Harris adds in […]
Still More on Pottermore: Themed Sony Reader Rumors, and Retailers Express Worry
The expected media frenzy after JK Rowling’s Pottermore announcement Thursday came with the usual hyperbole and breathless talk of how selling ebooks direct will “change” publishing (because one can always extrapolate on the future based on the creative approach of one author, especially one as successful as Rowling in terms of marketing to and reaching readers) or that Rowling blazes a trail for self-publishing, never mind that her main publishers Bloomsbury and Scholastic will receive royalties off of each and every direct ebook sale. More interesting and relevant is how Pottermore affects physical and online retailers whose profits once depended […]
AAP eBook Numbers Rise, Making Up About 19 Percent of April Trade Sales
Monthly ebook sales as measured by the AAP from 14 reporting publishers rose slightly in April to $72.8 million, the second-biggest ebook sales month so far this year after February’s monster month of $90.3 million. Once again, that puts ebooks behind adult trade hardcover ($111.4 million) and trade paperbacks ($95.9 million) for the month, and but this time they comprised just under 19 percent of all trade sales for April. The sales numbers seem to indicate that Random House’s move to the agency model in March (when ebook sales were at $69 million) has been absorbed into the overall ebook […]
eNews: Apple Set To Lose ‘Appstore’ Suit; Carina Press Profiled; and More
A judge hearing Apple’s lawsuit against Amazon for using the term ‘appstore’ (which Apple believes is trademark) said in a hearing Wednesday she is “probably” going to rule against Apple because Apple hasn’t demonstrated confusion among consumers. U.S. District Judge Phyllis Hamilton said she will review court filings before issuing a final decision. Bloomberg Fast Company profiles Harlequin’s digital-only imprint Carina Press and its executive editor Angela James. Carina plans to publish 190 books this year, and though Harlequin never breaks out revenue for individual imprints, director of digital publishing Malle Vallik said, “We’re doing very nicely, above where we […]