From this side of the Atlantic it looks obvious, but following the launch of the local Kindle store and price competition from WH Smith, at least some UK trade people are both upset and somehow surprised by the turn of events. Upset enough to give colorful quotes to the Bookseller, but not so firm on principle as to be identified by name, a “senior publisher” declares “it’s absolutely absurd to devalue our product but I’m not surprised because our industry is populated by nincompoops.” It’s not exactly clear who falls into this colorful category, since the same executive who is […]
eNews
eNews: Rice Digital Press Experiment Folds, As Inkling Launches to Adapt Textbooks to iPad
University press publishing can be difficult regardless of the medium, and Rice University has decided to end their four-year experiment with a digital-only press. The former provost who authorized the venture originally Eugene Levy says, “The hope was that, without the burden of having to maintain a print inventory, the press might sustain itself largely on revenues from print-on-demand book sales. Unfortunately, book sales remained very slow, and projections discouraged the anticipation that revenues would, in the foreseeable future, grow to a level that could materially cover even minimal costs of operations.” The press had closed once before, in 1996.http://chronicle.com/blogPost/Rice-U-to-Close-Its-Digital/26342 […]
AAP June eBook Sales Rise Slightly–Conclude As You Wish
The APP and IDPF released their admittedly-limited data on ebook sales for June (and thus the second quarter and first half of the year), which as usual is leading to a variation of interpretations. eBook sales are rising, falling, slowing down, plateauing and doubling or tripling all at the same time, or so the stories go. The data shows sales of $29.8 million for June (and $88.7 million for the second quarter, versus $91 million for the first quarter). As a reminder, it reflects publishers’ wholesale dollar sales only, and it only tracks a dozen publishers, so it does not […]
eNews: Pandigital’s Second Reader; Approval for German Digital Joint Venture; More Word on Google/Verizon Tablet
Barnes & Noble’s ebookstore powers the Pandigital readers, as the company best known for their digital frames announced a new more tablet-like model with a color touch screen. Listing for $199, “it will be available at several national retailers next month.”ReleaseCnet review A joint venture between Bertelsmann and Holtzbrinck to create an online distribution company focused on German-language digital products was cleared by the European Commission.Bookseller Rumors continue to build on the release of a tablet running a version of Google’s Chrome operating system, built by HTC, now said to be set for a November 26 release.
Barnes & Noble Rolls Out “Completely New” Rebranded Nook Reading Apps
The bookseller has released new versions of its ereading apps for Apple mobile devices and PCs, now unified under the Nook brand (as previously covered). The iPad version of their app now lets readers “rate” the books they’ve read, and the line of apps promise much more customization of fonts, colors and other aspects of the screen appearance.Release In the UK, WH Smith has taken the lead in ebook pricing wars, offering all ebooks at half the publishers’ digital list price.
eNews: New Sony Readers, Wordnik’s Thesaurus, Amazon’s DTP for UK
It would be a bigger headline if Sony were not rumored to be releasing new ereaders soon. This reports claims they will be “attractively priced” and, also as expected, used the newer, brighted eInk screens.Sony Insider Wordnik.com has launched their online thesaurus, which they say is better than standard references since it “shows related words in context.”ReleaseSite As expected, Amazon has opened their digital text platform in the UK to go along with their recently-launched ebookstore, accepting works in English, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese and Italian. The UK royalty is 35 percent for now. Amazon indicates to the Bookseller “it […]