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 […]
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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 […]
Briefs: 2 Million Copy First Printing for ‘The Secret’ Follow-up; Poetry a Hard Sell in E-Form; ; And More
Atria has announced a 2 million copy first printing for THE POWER, Rhonda Byrne’s follow-up to THE SECRET, which will be published next month.AP The AP also looks at why poetry has proven to be “the least adaptable to the growing e-book market”: no one’s quite certain how to figure out how to keep the integrity of a poem intact in digital formats.AP This week’s NYT trend piece: nanny lit isn’t going away, it’s just changed, “showcasing complex and imperfect nannies whose personal stories intersect with thorny larger questions about race, class, immigration and parenthood.”NYT The estate of Adrien Jacobs […]
The $99 E-Reader Has Arrived – Sort Of – and More eNews
Yesterday Amazon was selling refurbished Kindles through its warehouse at $109 (the company is now out of stock) but Books-a-Million customers can now buy the Sony 505 e-reader for $99 (or $89.10 for those with membership cards)AmazonBAMM The Entourage eDGe is priced nowhere near $99, but the dual-screen e-reader is now shipping from Best Buy.Listing The WSJ profiles a number of Japanese publishers tackling digital initiatives, including printing company Da Nippon, which announced last week that it would open Japan’s largest store for electronic books by the fall.WSJ A copyright infringement lawsuit launched by Zhonghua Book Company against Hanvon, the […]
eNews: Microsoft Wants to Patent Page Turns; Sony’s Hybrid Gizmo; Borders’ Free eBooks; and Cool-er Liquidation Confirmed
Following the granting of a patent to Amazon for dual-screen technology exactly like what the Nook uses, now a patent application made in January 2009 by Microsoft has just been published. According to the Register, they want to protect the electronic page-turning animations used by Apple’s iBooks and others. (In addition to the single-page turns that iBooks shows, the patent also envisions the ability to turn whole chunks of page in a single swipe.)Register In an article on how game-makers are looking at adding 3G connections to their machines following the popularity of wireless connections on ereaders, the WSJ says […]
eNews: Borders Opens eStore; Amazon Has Apparently Patented Nook-Like Technology; Samsung Retreats from US Market
Borders officially launched “their” ebookstore, which puts a Borders veneer on a Kobo-powered store, and innocently announces that their “goal is to secure a 17 percent share of the eBook market by July 2011.” (The company still estimates that they have about 15 percent of the overall US book market, even as their sales have declined. With US sales for the most recent fiscal year of $2.65 billion, if you figure that roughly 70 percent of their sales are books–or $1.85 billion–their market share estimate is based on a book market of only $12 billion, as opposed to the more […]