The Diesel eBookstore started blogging recently, in part to communicate with customers about the business interruptions from the transition to the agency model by at least some publishers. They reported that “negotiations between our distributors and the Agency Five publishers are taking a lot longer than expected” and “there is no current ETA” on when those files will be reinstated and sales-tax compliant. As they note in their most recent post, per our report from last week, after the agency titles are restored Diesel will need to collect sales and forward it to publishers, who will remit and report to […]
eNews
eNews: Confirming Best Buy and nook; A Nokia eReader and Google Tablet?
Barnes & Noble officially confirmed last week’s report that Best Buy will carry the nook ereader as of April 18. The new part is the indication that this will be an “exclusive” partnership.Release Separately, the NYT says that Nokia (which recently hired Matt Shatz from Random House) is “planning to enter the digital book market through a slate-cum-e-reader.” They reiterate that Google is “exploring the idea of building its own slate, an e-reader that would function like a computer.” Google CEO Eric Schmidt “told friends at a recent party in Los Angeles about the new device, which would exclusively run […]
iBookstore Updates and More Stats
Steve Jobs announced yesterday that iPad sales had risen to at least 450,000 units, and iBookstore downloads (not sales, as the paper of record had it) reached 600,000 books. Jobs also presented Apple’s new iPhone OS 4, available this summer. As hoped for, the company will bring the iBookstore and iBooks to iPhones and iPod Touches as part of the updated operating system. Like other reader apps, that move will allow consumers to read (and sync) their iBooks across iPhones, iPod Touches and iPads.
Perseus Opens Up Digital Distribution Service; Will Aggregate for iBookstore
The Perseus Books Group is expanding their digital distribution service Constellation to make it an option for any independent publisher, now opening it up to clients who are not already customers of the company’s physical distribution services. In concert with that strategic move, Perseus has been named an approved aggregator for Apple’s iBookstore, joining the list of seven other companies that we covered earlier in the week. As is the case for existing Constellation publishers, new clients can choose which of the 20 Constellation partners they want to work with through the service–from the iBookstore only, to the full roster […]
Life Under Agency, Continued: Hybrids Aren't Just for Cars
We’re going to keep grinding our way through the idiosyncracies and challenges of life under the agency model, understanding that all of this is a constantly moving target. While Random House has gotten all the attention as the biggest trade publisher whose titles are not available via the just-launched iBookstore, it should be underscored that so far, very few companies of scale outside of the Agency Five have a presence there. In addition to those already announced–Perseus, Nelson, Workman, Sourcebooks, and F+W–we found lists of titles from Hyperion and Kensington (henceforth known as the Non Five). But the list of […]
Your iBooks Distribution Options
The distribution picture for getting your books into the iBookstore is becoming clear with a raft of announcements from service providers and an informational page at the iTunes site. While music and music video vendors can fill out an online vendor application for Apple’s review, it appears that book publishers currently have two options only. Either an iBookstore representative has issued you an “application code” to apply for the iBookstore directly, or else you are directed to a list of seven “Apple-approved aggregators.” As Apple notes, “if you choose to work with an aggregator to distribute your content on the […]