Google has acquired eBook Technologies Inc., co-founded and run by president Garth Conboy and ceo Jon Rivlin, for undisclosed terms. The search giant comments very briefly, “Together, we hope to deliver richer reading experiences on tablets, electronic readers and other portable devices.” Conboy and Rivlin are longtime ebook pioneers, both having served in executive positions at SoftBook Press and then Gemstar in the first ebook bubble. Conboy currently serves as chairman of the board of the IDPF, and Conboy and Rivlin both are the inventors/co-inventors of many ebook-related patents, including cryptography and secure content distribution, eBook UI, resource/database dynamic conversion […]
eNews
eNews: BAM Launches Reader App with Bluefire; S&S Joins Foursquare; Nelson Enrolls 20,000 Bloggers
Books-a-Million has launched their own reading app for the iOS platform, which works with Adobe’s DRM and they say will display ebooks originally purchased for the Nook. (BAM sells the Nook devices through their physical and online stores.) An offer on the BAM web site promises $100 in coupons with the first ebook purchase through the app. It looks as if the app was released in late November, but BAM has just put out a press release touting it today. It was created by Bluefire Productions, which says this is their “first private label application.” On the release date issue, […]
Grand Central Thriller Authors to Promote Each Other
Grand Central is trying a new kind of free ebook giveaway, cross-promoting two titles with each other. So the ebook of Brad Meltzer’s new book THE INNER CRICLE will include a free edition of Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child’s 2002 novel The Cabinet of Curiosities, and the ebook of Preston and Child’s new title GIDEON’S SWORD will include Meltzer’s 2005 book The Zero Game. The publisher says the idea began with a suggestion from Preston and Child to Meltzer: “Doug and Lincoln emailed me and asked. They thought it would be a great way for us to thank readers while […]
eAnnouncements: Kobo Aims for 20 Million, Disney Downloads 1 Million
One of our quiet New Year’s resolutions was to take this year’s Consumer Electronics Show in moderate stride, since experience has shown a lot of what will be presented there is either overhyped, coming later, or not coming at all (as you enjoy your many oversized eInk readers and 3-D television sets). So we’ll try to keep our focus on things that belong on book publishing radar. In brief, Kobo trumpets non-specific “relationships with over a dozen partners” that they estimate will result in Kobo apps “preloaded on 20 million devices this year.” Those partners include tablet-makers (such as the […]
19 of Top 50 USA Today Bestsellers Sold More eBooks than Print Versions
USA Today has analyzed the bestseller list they will publish in the paper tomorrow, reflecting sales in the unusual post-Christmas week. Launched by millions of newly-gifted devices with e-reading capability and assisted by lousy weather in many parts of the country, all six of top bestsellers for the week sold more ebooks than print books, as did 19 of the top 50 titles. USA Today notes that “tt’s the first time the top-50 list has had more than two titles in which the e-version outsold print.” (Many publishers have indicated that their biggest titles were already selling anywhere from 20 […]
eNews and More: FiledBy Works With Ingram; Johnson eBook; More Kindle Tablet Apps; and Kaplan’s Free Promotion
FiledBy is providing author-generated book information to the Ingram Content Group to populate their title databases including iPage. As part of the agreement, Ingram will also stream book and author data to FiledBy for inclusion on their website. Ingram Chief Content Officer Phil Ollila says, “Our work with FiledBy will give us an additional source to obtain the most up-to-date and accurate bibliographic data for books in our database.” Putnam has released Spencer Johnson’s longtime bestseller Who Moved My Cheese?, first published in 1998, as an ebook today. Amazon confirmed today that they will support all of those new Android […]