Amazon instituted new selling and shipping rules for third party media sellers that will increase the fees reaped by the etailer, and effectively end of the economic viability of selling so-called “penny books” on the site. As of March 1, 2017, the fees for selling media products, including books, will rise in two ways. The per item fee will increase to $1.80, up from $1.35 per item, and going forward “will be a fixed fee rate and not variable.” Additionally, the referral fee they charge will go from 15 percent of the item price to 15 percent of the total sales (including […]
eNews
EU Court Affirms Libraries’ Right to Lend Legal eBooks
The European Union’s Court of Justice issued a ruling on Thursday that declares EU rules about a public lending right to physical books through libraries apply to ebooks as well. The judgment imposes as a legal right what has become established business practice in the US for some time (albeit with a number of business model variations publisher by publisher): Libraries can lend legally published and purchased ebooks on a one-user-per-copy basis. EU rules require “fair compensation” to authors; what’s not clear to us from the ruling is whether those rules allow a separate practice from some publishers in the US […]
IDPF Members Approve Plan to Merge with W3C
Earlier this week, the members of the IDPF (International Digital Publishing Forum) approved the plan to merge with the larger W3C (World Wide Web Consortium), by a vote of 72 to 10 (with 44 members not voting). The organization notes that, “The plan will now proceed, with anticipated completion of the combination by January, 2017 still subject to finalization of the necessary definitive agreements.” They add, “Much work remains to be done on drafting and executing final documents necessary to effect the planned combination, as well as undertaking other transition activities contingent on that completion. IDPF expects to share more […]
People, Etc.
Radhika Jones has joined the New York Times as editorial director, books, reporting to Pamela Paul. Previously Jones was at Time Magazine, the last three years as deputy managing editor. In her new role, Jones will oversee all review coverage in The Times, both from The Times’s staff critics, and in the pages of the NYTBR. She will also be working on features, news and overall digital strategy in conjunction with Paul, who said in the announcement: “I’ve admired Radhika Jones for years for her intelligence, literary acumen, keen news sensibility and entrepreneurial approach to journalism. She is not only […]
Leaked Pictures Indicate Nook Has Cheap 7″ Tablet Coming Soon
Although Nook stopped making its own tablets several years ago when they partnered with Samsung — and has failed to sell those co-branded Samsung tablets in any meaningful quantities — leaked documents indicate the company is working on a new tablet to be marketed and sold under its own brand name. FCC documents obtained by various gadget blogs indicate the new device, called the Nook Tablet 7″ BNTV450, is manufactured by Chinese company Shenzhen Jingwah. It appears to be a cheap seven-inch screen Android model that could ostensibly try to compete with Amazon’s $50 Fire tablet. The new Nook Tablet 7 has the […]
As Amazon Investigates, Kindle Unlimited Page Reads Drop In September
Amazon announced their retroactive payment pool for Kindle Unlimited authors for September, set at $15.9 million — up $100,000 from August — paying $0.00497397. As we noted last week, many of those authors have been very concerned about sudden drops in page reads (and some have reported notable declines in Amazon ebook sales as well). The complaints were significant enough that Amazon responded three times with official messages. The first acknowledged that “we uncovered one timing-based reporting issue affecting less than 0.2% of pages read which we fixed on 9/28.” A day later, they reported, “We regularly monitor pages-read systems for […]