Capitalizing on President Obama’s confrontation with General Stanley McChrystal, Simon & Schuster is releasing a short ebook by David McCullough called TRUMAN FIRES MACARTHUR. It’s an excerpt from his Pulitzer Prize-winning biography Truman. The 35-page title lists for $1.99 and is supposed to be available from major ebooksellers by some time later today. Yesterday afternoon GetGlue launched a Foursquare-inspired pop culture iOS app that encourages users to “check in” to favorite TV shows, music, movies and yes, books, and see what friends are enjoying in real-time. Publishing partners providing “exclusive stickers” as “rewards” include Random House, Simon & Schuster, Hachette, […]
eNews
The Latest iPad and eReader Stats and Discount Offers, and Shambhala Works with Open Road
Apple said yesterday that they have sold 3 million iPads in the 80 days after launch. With help from Father’s Day and the international rollout, the rate of sale has increased as the third million were sold in 21 days. (The first million took 28 days and the second million took 31 days, but those sales milestones both included pre-orders–first for regular models and then 3G, and then international pre-orders.) For anyone who thinks they overspent on a Nook or Kindle for Father’s Day, right before the latest price cuts were announced, the WSJ reports that you can get a […]
Amazon Cuts Kindle Price, New iOS Releases, and More
Hours after Barnes & Noble’s price cut on Nook and announcement of a new lower-priced wi-fi model, Amazon announced a price reduction of its own. They lowered the price on the regular model of Kindle from $269 to $189, effective immediately. The press loves “price wars” and of course everyone is an expert on what this means, and what it portends. Barnes & Noble is particularly vocal in media accounts. CEO William Lynch tells the NYT, “I don’t see more than two, or maybe three dedicated reading companies in the market for selling e-books. I think you are starting to […]
eNews: Nook Drops Price, Adds Inexpensive Model; Report Says Amazon Is Using Up Kindle Inventory
With Father’s Day buying finished, Barnes & Noble is dropping the list price on the original model of their nook ereader to $199 and has launched a model that connects via wifi instead of 3G priced at $149. They have released another software update as well (version 1.4) and nook owners now have access to free wifi on AT&T’s “entire nationwide network.” The company says online orders for the new model “will begin shipping this week” and they “expect [it] will be in-stock in select Barnes & Noble and Best Buy stores for immediate purchase later this month and rolling […]
Wiley Finishes Strong; Signs with Apple
Wiley reported fourth quarter sales of $436 million, up 8 percent from a year ago, and full-year sales of $1.699 billion, up five percent. Professional/trade sales rose 18 percent in the period, at $115 million, with growth “particularly in the US.” For the full year, the segment had sales of $430 million, up 7 percent. Trade ebook sales comprised $7 million (less than 2 percent of overall trade), and the company says that it now has an “ebook agreement signed with Apple.” The company took a small $800,000 restructuring charge in the fourth quarter “related to offshoring and outsourcing certain […]
Digital Announcements: S&S Serial Verticals; Chicago Meets Beck Demand, and More
Simon & Schuster has developed a program that uses non-fiction book content from their list to drive vertically-targeted consumer service websites. They have started with Tipsonhealthliving.com, Tipsonlifeandlive.com, and Tipsonhomeandstyle.com, and will follow with sites on other topics such as career & money and religion. The company says the sites were inspired by the success of content syndication partnerships that push articles derived from S&S books to partners including MSN and Yahoo!. S&S the syndication has “garnered millions of page views, generated high click-through rates and helped to increase sales levels of select titles” and the company “expects to enter into […]