LibiriVox founder Hugh McGuire has launched Iambik Audio, starting today with a list of 11 literary fiction audiobooks from independent presses in the US and Canada, including works from Gordon Lish and Lydia Millet. They sell at “reasonable prices”–from five to ten dollars–with no DRM, so that the files can play on any device. The company is selling directly from their site now and finalizing distribution agreements with partners such as Audible, Overdrive and eMusic. The company’s FAQ indicates they “work almost exclusively on a revenue-share basis, with narrators, publishers/authors, and iambik all sharing in successful audiobooks.” McGuire explains their […]
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Apple Sells Another 4.2 Million iPads, But Analysts Are Confused
Apple reported fourth quarter sales, through September 25, recording record revenue (over $20 billion) and profit (over $4 billion). They sold 4.19 million iPads in the quarter–ahead of the 3.27 million units sold in the previous quarter (when it was on sale for 84 days, or about a week less than the full reporting period). That’s nearly 7.5 million iPads so far with the big holiday quarter still ahead, putting them on track for over 12.5 million units in 2010. Also significant is that iPad sales were greater than sales for the entire line of Macintosh computers, which also hit […]
OverDrive Takes Outside Investment
Private equity firm Insight Venture Partners has made “a major investment” in digital content distributor OverDrive, which the company will use to “provide additional resources” and “help fuel growth.” Insight managing director Larry Handen says in the announcement, “We are particularly excited about OverDrive’s strong growth, market leadership, and commitment to customers. Our investment coincides with the 20th consecutive quarter of continuous profitability. This is a tribute to the company’s management team.” With a capital base of $3 billion, Insight focuses on software, Internet and data services companies. OverDrive founder and CEO Steve Potash adds, “The combination of Insight’s focus […]
Borders Dips Toe in eBook Self-Publishing By Pairing with Start-Up BookBrewer
Borders has come up with a modest answer to Barnes & Noble’s new PubIt and Amazon’s established DTP program, announcing “Borders – Get Published” in association with start-up BookBrewer.com. The emphasis of the service is turning blogs into salable ebooks quickly and easily, though they charge a set-up fee and take 25 percent of the proceeds. (In this respect the service looks similar to plethora of sites that let you turn RSS feeds into mobile phone apps.) But they say it works for regular manuscripts as well. BookBrewer’s site says that, if you use the service independently, they can put […]
Amazon Is “Required” to “Capitulate” to Agency In the UK, Too; Still Tries to Inspire Customer Revolt
Amazon is apparently not going to resort to buy-button-backlash over the agency model in the UK, but they do still believe it’s a good strategy to get their customers riled. They write in a site note: “It is indeed correct that this group of publishers will require Amazon and other UK booksellers to accept an agency model for e-books. We believe they will raise prices on e-books for consumers almost across the board. For a number of reasons, we think this is a damaging approach for readers, authors, booksellers and publishers alike.” They disingenuously tell their UK customers “most publishers […]
Amazon to Feature Shorter “Kindle Singles”
Veterans of the ebook business may recall a modest (at best) initiative from 2005 called “Amazon Shorts,” selling “short-form literature from top authors” including Audrey Niffenegger, Stuart Woods, Robert Rhodes, Robin Cook, James Lee Burke, Danielle Steel, and Ann Beattie at 49 cents each. Amazon officially discontinued the program this June and reverted rights (with a suggestion to move that material to the Kindle platform). Today Amazon has announced what could be seen as that program’s successor, dropping the length/underwear metaphor for one from the music industry: Kindle Singles. “Singles” are described as pieces running between 10,000 words to 30,000 […]