The slimmer, thinner, camera-laden iPad 2 was unveiled yesterday with typical Apple fanfare, releasing March 11 in the US and March 25 in 25 other countries. The surprise was the appearance of Steve Jobs who presented expected news: now that Random House has adopted the agency model, their full electronic list of 17,000 is available through the iBookstore in the US. (Random House Canada indicated that they will not be joining the iBookstore for now, as their “digital terms of sale remain unchanged at this time.”) Apple bragged that over 100 million e-books have been downloaded–not sold–worldwide since the iBookstore’s […]
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EU Raids Publishers’ Offices as Part of Price-Fixing Investigation
Numerous reports out of Europe this morning indicate that the European Commission conducted surprise inspections of various publishers in several countries on the grounds of possible e-book price-fixing. Amelia Torres, spokeswoman for Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia, confirmed the investigation to the AFP, saying that “the competition services Tuesday conducted inspections in publishing houses in several European Union countries due to suspicion of anti-competition practices in the pricing of e-books” on the grounds that “the companies concerned may have violated EU antitrust rules that prohibit cartels and other restrictive business practices.” Torres stressed the EU was “not naming the publishing houses […]
Harper Explains E-Book Circulation Cap As A Way to “Find the Best Model For All Parties”
With librarians growing increasingly (and vociferously) critical of HarperCollins’ recent announcement that it would cap e-book lending circulation to 26 checkouts, President of Sales Josh Marwell published an open letter outlining the rationale for the company’s decision. Early on he states HarperCollins’ goal is “to continue to sell e-books to libraries, while balancing the challenges and opportunities that the growth of e-books presents to all who are actively engaged in buying, selling, lending, promoting, writing and publishing books.” Arriving at the number 26 came about after “many months examining the issues”, discussing the matter with agents, distributors and librarians. In […]
Briefs: HMV Warns It May Violate Banking Covenants; Debts Owed to REDGroup Creditors; Lewis Sued for Defamation by Asset Manager; and More
As speculation mounts over whether minority stakeholder Alexander Mamut will buy Waterstone’s, the chain’s parent company HMV warned investors this morning that it expects to violate banking covenants as a result of full-year profits falling below expectations. While HMV said it was in talks with lenders to amend its credit loan agreements, which remain available, chief executive Simon Fox admitted in a statement that “trading conditions remain tough, reflecting a difficult consumer environment as well as the changing markets in which we operate.” He added that HMV “is adapting quickly to respond to these external factors, and we are confident […]
Random House Adopts Agency Model in the US
A year after the iPad–and the agency model–was launched, Random House is joining the other five largest trade publishers (whom we originally dubbed The Agency Five) and adopting that sales model for ebooks. They say in a statement: “Going forward, Random House will set consumer prices for the e-books we publish, and we will provide retailers with a commission for each sale.” The move by Random House to the new “industry standard” (for the large houses that have the leverage to use the agency model with Amazon) has been expected by those reading the quiet signals from the Random House […]
HarperCollins to Cap eBook Loan Licenses
As has been widely reported, HarperCollins announced Friday that for new titles released on or after March 7, library ebook vendors will be able to circulate these titles a maximum of 26 times before the license expires and libraries will need to buy a new license. The news first emerged in a letter from OverDrive CEO Steve Potash to member libraries, which at that point said the distributor was “required to accept and accommodate new terms for eBook lending as established by certain publishers.” The letter further noted that the new limits apply to “all eBook vendors or distributors offering […]