BN has finally announced an electronic self-publishing program via BN.com and their ebookstore to compete with Amazon and others, “coming in summer.” The company announced scant details, but assures independent publishers and individual authors that they “will appreciate PubIt!’s simple and competitive royalty model and compensation process.” As described on their placeholder web page, they will convert digital files to EPUB. The program is pitched for both ebooks and broader “digital content.” Director of digital products Theresa Horner is the BN executive quoted in the release.Release
eNews
Today's Bulletins from Open Road, Vook, Amazon, Kobo and Google Editions
Open Road has announced their first original title, former diplomat Mitchell Reiss’s NEGOTIATING WITH EVIL, “a guide to talking — or not talking — to terrorists and insurgents.” Reiss met Jane Friedman while traveling last year in Africa. He’s getting no advance, and a 50 percent profit share. The ebook releases in September with a print version to follow. Friedman reiterates her belief that “exciting videos are going to move the needle” in marketing books. Speaking of videos, the latest Vook adds studio and concert footage and interviews to a version of Marc Canter’s Guns N’ Roses book RECKLESS ROAD […]
Amazon Adds Crossing, New Imprint for Fiction In Translation
The etailer announced a new imprint today, Amazon Crossing, which will publish English-language translation of works from other languages, starting with Tierno Monénembo’s French novel (and winner of the prix Renaudot) THE KING OF KAEL, translated by Nicholas Elliott. Run by vp of books Jeff Belle, he says “our international customers have made us aware of exciting established and emerging voices from other cultures and countries that have not been translated for English-language readers.” As with their Encore program, they say that they will “use customer feedback and other data from Amazon sites around the world to identify exceptional books […]
More eBook Bestsellers
With a new week’s data (above) from Amazon’s Kindle, we’re rounding out last week’s comparison charts showing differentiations among the bestseller lists at leading ebook platforms with a comparable chart of the week’s bestsellers from Kobo: Kobo (May 15)1. Dead In The Family, Charlaine Harris*2. The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, Stieg Larsson+3. The Lost Symbol, Dan Brown+4. Lover Mine, J.R. Ward*5. Eclipse, Stephenie Meyer6. Breaking Dawn, Stephenie Meyer7. Sh*t My Dad Says, Justin Halpern8. Savor The Moment, Nora Roberts* 9. The Girl Who Played With Fire, Stieg Larsson+10. Triple Heat, Jolene Beauchamp * Not carried in the Kindle store+ […]
Konrath Signs Directly with Amazon
J.A. Konrath, who has blogged extensively about his success in selling his own Kindle versions of his books (generally at very low prices) has now signed directly with Amazon Encore as the publisher for the new book in his Jacqueline “Jack” Daniels series. (Hyperion has been his print publisher.) SHAKEN will be published as a Kindle edition first, in October 2010, priced at $2.99, with a print version following in February 2011. On his blog Konrath poses and answers some questions not covered in the press release” Q: You signed a print deal? I thought you weren’t signing any more […]
Sh*t You Find On Different eBook Bestseller Lists
With reports that Amazon will start listing paid Kindle bestsellers on their site at an unspecified time in the future (as they have done promotionally via Publishers Lunch since the beginning of 2009), we were interested in the variations in bestsellers among different platforms. Though not completely equivalent comparisons because of dating (which particularly shows on the Sebastian Junger’s May 11 release), take a look at the overall market–represented by USA Today, which does incorporate Kindle sales–against four of the ebookstores. The iBookstore stands apart with Sh*t My Dad Says at No 1 for much of this week, while the […]