In advance of Thursday’s second quarter earnings report, Amazon tries to drum up extra attention by releasing some “statistics” – since as always, the company will never flat-out tell the public exactly how many e-books or devices they’ve sold. This time, however, the numbers they tout actually inch a little closer to real, live, hard data. So let’s start with the data: jumping on last week’s announcement that James Patterson had sold 1.14 million e-books to date worldwide, Amazon says Kindle books account for 867,881 of those sales. (Of course, with print sales totalling more than 205 million copies, that […]
eNews
Now, About that Amazon Earnings Preview
Amazon has a lot to live up to when it reports those Q2 numbers on Thursday: over the last 4 quarters, the company’s reported eps exceeded the market’s consensus estimates by margins in the range of 2.24% and 37.2%. Maybe that’s why investors seem to be just a little more cautious with their expectations this time around, as iStockAnalyst reports, and why Barron’s says “Morgan Stanley’s derivatives strategists are advising clients to bullishly trade ahead of [the earnings report]”. Q2 estimates now range “from a low of $0.44 to a high of $0.76 per share, compared to a consensus estimate […]
eNews: Penguin’s Amplified Editions; Scribd Lawsuit Dropped; and More
Penguin and Starz Entertainment have collaborated on an “Amplified Edition” of Ken Follett’s PILLARS OF THE EARTH, featuring extensive video and audio clips, to tie in with the 8-part 8-hour miniseries that debuts this Friday. The app will be available on the iPad and iPhone, and will be updated on a weekly basis with new scenes and text-embedded video clips from the TV mini-series as each episode airs.AP PW (with video) A lawsuit waged by children’s book writer Elaine Scott against Scribd alleging the site’s copyright filtering technology is itself a form of copyright infringement has been dropped, after Scott […]
Briefs: LAT on ‘Future of Reading’; New Nook Gets FCC Approval; Palin Biography for Tweens Delayed; and More
Paperwork for a new edition of the Nook, codenamed Bravo Delta and CR Nook, has shown up on the FCC website (with specs and pictures withheld)The Digital Reader A front-page LAT feature hits many of the same notes on the intersection of reading, technology and digital books as did an ongoing series in the NYT last year, with the usual point-counterpoint between those who worry about people not reading enough and those who are excited by technological possibilities. LAT Zondervan is delaying publication of a Sarah Palin biography for young readers after deciding that October was not an “optimal time” […]
eNews: Google Goes Dutch, Maps Location to Literature; eBooks for Oprah iPad app; and more
Google is partnering with the National Library of the Netherlands to scan more than 160,000 books, which constitutes nearly the library’s entire collection of out-of-copyright books written during the 18th and 19th centuries, and make them available on both Google Books and the library’s website. In addition, Google has launched a joint project with several institutions, including UC Berkeley and and the University of Southhampton, to map out the relationship between location and literature via Google Earth.Inside Google BooksGuardian The iPad app for O, the Oprah Magazine that Hearst is expected to roll out sometime this fall will, according to […]
People and Announcements
Dan Smetanka has been named Editor-at-large for both Counterpoint and Soft Skull Press. Previously he was a senior editor with Phoenix Books, and brings over six titles originally on the now-closed publisher’s schedule to Counterpoint, starting with 51/50: The Magical Adventures of a Single Life by Kristen McGuiness, due for publication on August 31. Smetanka will remain in Los Angeles and will acquire fiction, narrative nonfiction, memoir, current events, and history titles. Brin Stevens has joined Velveteen Films to help launch their new book-to-film department. VarietyBarnes & Noble is partnering with Blackboard through its new NOOKStudy program that “aims to […]