Within the last day two book publishing ceos have put up detailed posts on the costs and complexities of well-executed digital publishing. Sourcebooks ceo Dominique Raccah‘s essay presents information we’ve covered before based on her conference presentations of this material (including at last year’s BEA) but is well worth reading if you have not seen her presentations.Sourcebooks Thomas Nelson ceo Mike Hyatt‘s post “Why Do eBooks Cost So Much? (A Publisher’s Perspective) is interesting both for the points he makes as well as his engagement with his readers, since his blog is designed to elicit comments and he engages diligently […]
eNews
Callaway Launches Digital Content Studio with Financing Led by Kleiner, Perkins
With the release of the iPad earlier this year Nicholas Callaway announced he was creating a studio to develop apps and released an app based on his company’s Miss Spider character. That app captivated Apple ceo Steve Jobs enough that he connected venture capitalist John Doerr at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers with Callaway, who today officially announces $6 million in Series A financing led by Kleiner’s iFund. It’s the only second investment from this fund focused on the iOS platform. Founding board member of Google and founder of Sherpalo Ventures Ram Shriram and founder of Farmville-creator Zynga Mark Pincus […]
Canongate’s Classics Play
Canongate has launched an on-demand classic program reminiscent of the Faber Finds line, reissuing over 100 Scottish classic as ebooks and print-on-demand-only paperbacks. One twist is that the editions are sold exclusively through The Book Depository until March, when they will expand to other retailers. They also received funding from Creative Scotland.CoverageBook Depository shop
Scholastic’s Social Network for Readers, Peroozing Favorite Novelists’ Recommendations, and More
Scholastic launched a social networking site “for readers around the world,” called YouAreWhatYouRead.com. In addition to building community around lists of favorite books they call Bookprints–with a stream of comments, news and reviews to be added soon–the site features celebrity Bookprints from 125 notables, including Scarlett Johansson Jodi Picoult, Malcolm Gladwell, Judy Blume, Bill Clinton, and others. Pitched for readers of all ages, it includes a separate community for younger readers “that provides kid friendly information about books and other activities.” Scholastic executive Maggie McGuire says in the announcement the site is “a celebration of the books that bind us […]
Right Alongside BN, Kobo Launches Their Newsstand
As further evidence of the coming push to expand options for newspapers and magazines in the growing ereading market, today Kobo follows Barnes & Noble’s planned newsstand with their own offering, live as of today. Their site offers about 30 newspapers and magazines to start, and Kobo executive Michael Tamblyn says “this is just the beginning of an aggressive expansion into newspapers and magazines.” All of the offerings work via their iPad and iPhone apps as well as on the Kobo reader. The Apple apps include images in full-color and the iPad versions have a three-column format “that evokes the […]
Google Books Adds An On-Site Partner Providing POD for Over 2 Million Public Domain Titles
Following last year’s agreement to allow the Espresso Book Machines to print the catalog of public domain books available through Google Book Search, the search giant finally has an online partner. All of the 2 million or so public domain titles in GBS now include a direct link under “Get this book” to QOOP’s store. (Actually it looks like every book in GBS has that link–so many times you click through only to be told “the link you followed is either broken or for a book that cannot be printed at this time.” When it works, the pricing appears to […]