In August author/marketing guru/entrepreneur Seth Godin announced on his popular blog that he would no longer “publish in a traditional way.” The basis thesis was that, now that Godin is in direct and meaningful contact with his core readership, “adding layers or faux scarcity doesn’t help me or you.” That post inspired ideas in multiple quarters, including at Amazon.com–which has worked with Godin on a variety of promotional initiatives over the course of his career. They crafted a new suite of services that is being called “Powered by Amazon,” which the release says “enables authors to use Amazon’s global distribution, […]
eNews
Barnes & Noble Launches Monthly Inexpensive “Spotlight” Nook Books
And in this corner, Barnes & Noble has their own new approach to low-priced ebooks they hope to promote and spread. Their “Spotlight” program will offer a new title every month from the “author of a popular or breakout series” sold “at irresistible prices” to help “can discover new authors and dive into an exciting series for a wallet-friendly price.” The program, run by editorial director of digital content Liz Scheier, begins this month with Faye Kellerman’s THE RITUAL BATH, the first book in her Peter Decker and Rina Lazarus’ series, selling for 99 cents. Featured books have their own […]
Amazon’s Goolge-Esque Web eBooks and Affiliate Referral Fees Announced for “The Coming Months”
Amazon’s other announcement of note, previewed in yesterday’s Lunch and presented in full at the Google Chrome OS event yesterday in San Francisco, was indeed a planned expansion of their Kindle for Web platform. The currently-available Kindle for Web beta only shows sample chapters, but Amazon intends to have KFW take advantage of HTML5 to provide browser-based access to full Kindle ebooks–just like Google eBooks. They’ve announced it on the heels of the debut of Google eBooks, but for now are only saying that the new service “will be available in the coming months.” (The piece in Computerworld had one […]
AAP-Tracked eBook Sales Hold Steady, But Are Under 7 Percent of Month’s Sales
The AAP reported their October sales numbers this morning, with everyone’s favorite number to watch–their tabulation of ebook sales for 12 reporting publishers–up slightly at $40.7 million. (They have been about the same, month to month, since July.) With net print trade sales from a larger group of publishers reported at $569 million, ebooks comprised 6.7 percent of sales for the month. That’s below the 8 percent of trade sales that ebooks comprise for the entire year through October. (We’ve discussed previously that monthly ebook figures may not be all that precise; also as previously written, our percentages differ from […]
Now Kindle Editions, Of Course
Amazon waved their pr hands furiously during Barnes & Noble’s introduction of Nook Color, and today they make news for the possibility the company is developing their own browser-based equivalent to Google eBooks. To be fair, and clear, the company did not make any announcement: a short piece in Computerworld with just a glimmer of information has spread far and wide. Amazon told Computerworld they will offer some kind of unspecified “demonstration” today of a revised, expanded vision of their Kindle for Web app, which currently only shows and shares book samples. Just like Google eBooks, it will “enable users […]
Friendly Google Video Shows You What eBook Cloud Looks Like
Just posted on Google’s YouTube: “The idea behind google ebooks is to truly set your reading from all these limitations.”