As long expected, Amazon announced today the launch of their first non-English Kindle store, debuting in Germany with “over 25,000 German-language titles,” including “71 of 100 Spiegel bestsellers” and “thousands of German classics downloadable for free.” The store appers to have lots of English-language titles for German customers as well, since the company says the store has over 650,000 titles in total. When the German Publishers and Booksellers Association launched their own ebookstore last November through Libreka.de, they also began with approximately 25,000 German-language ebooks for sale (which is still the count displayed on the site). Amazon says their title […]
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More on Kindle’s Library Lending Program
here are lots of questions about OverDrive’s new, forthcoming ebook lending program with Kindle, and the provider gave at least some answers on their blog. Basically, they will be making available the titles already in the OverDrive catalog in a format that can be read on the Kindle platform as well. (“Your existing collection of downloadable eBooks will be available to Kindle customers.”) So this is not an initiative that, at least for now, expands the selection of ebook titles available to library patrons. Amazon spokesperson Kinley Campbell confirmed to us separately that the program is currently designed to supplement […]
Amazon Will Finally Work with OverDrive to Let Library Patrons “Borrow” Kindle Books
Library ebook lending looks ready to receive a significant lift as Amazon announced this morning that they will finally work with Overdrive to enable Kindle ebooks for library patrons. The program launches at an unspecified date “later this year.” They say the initiative will work on all Kindle devices as well as of their free ereading apps. (Up until now, Amazon’s Kindle files have been incompatible with Overdrive’s system, which relies on EPUB and Adobe Content Server–neither of which is supported by Amazon.) If a library user creates annotations or bookmarks in a borrowed ebook, those will be preserved by […]
Kobo Finalizes $50 Million Financing
Kobo has closed an investment round that raised $50 million in new financing. For those paying attention, note that it’s actually the second announcement about the same funding round. In early March they disclosed new financing led by Fidelity Investments, without releasing the amount raised. Tuesday’s announcement revealed the amount, but pretended to keep Fidelity’s name of out it. Indigo invested $13 million, and current investor Cheung Kong Holdings also contributed a nominal amount, with Fidelity adding approximately $37 million. Indigo’s investment has been diluted from 58 percent down to 51 percent, so they still have control of the company. […]
Ingram Pairs with Recorded Books to Go After Overdrive’s Library Audio Service
Ingram put out an elliptical press release yesterday that we have clarified with help from their general manager of Ingram Library Services, Rich Rosy. Recorded Books is launch a platform called OneClickdigital later this quarter to distribute downloadable audiobooks to library patrons, which sounds like an alternative to Overdrive’s established offering. In the announced collaboration, Ingram will distribute other publishers’ audio files through Recorded Books’ new platform, though of course only for those publishers who choose to consent to the platform’s business model. Rosy says “Ingram will add almost 14,000 audio titles from approximately 80 publishers to the platform.” He […]
A Few More Servings of Controversy and Questions
The controversy surrounding Greg Mortenson, his book THREE CUPS OF TEA, and his charity the Central Asia Institute continues to grow and expand in unforseen ways. Author Jon Krakauer, whose accusations were the centerpiece of what was offered on Sunday night as 60 Minutes’ own investigation, has written a 75-page book on the same subject, THREE CUPS OF DECEIT: How Greg Mortenson, Humanitarian Hero, Lost His Way. It’s the launch ebook for Byliner.com, which is providing free PDFs through April 20 (and promises that all author proceeds will go, yes, to charity: the Stop Girl Trafficking Project). That provokes all […]