The Google Books blog has an interesting post on their current rough count of, using a definition of “book” that is “very close to what ISBNs are supposed to represent” if only all books had ISBNs and all non-books didn’t. So they do “count” different versions of the same work: lots of different editions of Hamlet, with different forewords, commentaries, and translated into different languages, as well as hardcovers and paperbacks of the same editions. On that basis, the current tabulation is 129,864,880 books. That number is likely to decline, however, as their algorithms get better at detecting libraries’ bound […]
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Amanda Ridout, who left Harper UK as managing director in May 2009 to pursue “confidential” ventures, has joined Phaidon as managing director. Investor Luke Johnson, who owned Borders UK on its path to bankruptcy, is joining the Phaidon board as a nonexecutive director. Emily Lavelle has joined Public Affairs as a publicist. She was most recently an associate publicist at Crown. Spiegel has posted an English version of their interview with Random House ceo Markus Dohle. The piece drew wire service attention at the beginning of the week for his guess that “I can imagine that we’ll end up above […]
Daily Kindle: 20 Percent of eBooks Go to App-Only Customers; New Units Have Inactive Microphone; New Ad Contest
Amazon Kindle vp Ian Freed tells CNet in an interview that 20 percent of the Kindle books sold are to customers who do not own a Kindle reader. It’s the first time the company has given any indication of the size of their app-only business. Freed adds, “we see a lot of customers start with apps and buy a Kindle later.” On ebook market share, he confirms that you can’t trust percentages cited by any of the vendors–Apple, BN, Sony or Amazon itself–since none of them actually know how much business their competitors are doing, or the size of the […]
From Barnes & Noble, Student-Focused Announcements
With colleges about to open for the fall semester, Barnes & Noble officially launched their online textbook rental business, competing with Chegg and others in this fast-growing sector. At the same time, they have added a free “study platform and software solution that gives college students the freedom and flexibility to access eTextbooks, other digital content and organizational tools to learn more efficiently, collaboratively and across content sources and formats.” It works on standard PCs and Mac computers. Called Nook Study, information about the app and downloads are available from http://www.barnesandnoble.com/nookstudy/.Release
Plus, Another eReader Gives Up
Foxit Corporation admitted today that they will “cease development of the eSlick Reader, its own electronic reading device” and focus on their PDF viewing software and other solutions. In the announcement, avp of sales Erik Bryant bravely pretends that “our decision to discontinue eSlick is to eliminate the possibility of competing with our partners.”Release
Connecticut’s Statement on eBook Pricing Focuses on MFN Clauses
Following yesterday’s short piece on the questioning of Apple and Amazon by the Connecticut attorney general’s office they issued a press release and posted letters sent to both companies. AG Richard Blumenthal is currently running for the US Senate seat being vacated by Christopher Dodd. Though favored to win, Blumenthal suffered somewhat in May after admitting that “on a few occasions I have misspoken about my service” in the military, erroneously indicating he had served in Viet Nam. (The NYT also revealed that Blumenthal received multiple deferments between 1965 and 1970 before joining the Marine Corp Reserve.) Some observers wonder […]