Experimentation is how you learn but sometimes the lessons are tough ones. Long-form narrative may not belong on Twitter and after this week’s tweeting of a short story by Rick Moody through Electric Literature, we may not have to think about it for a while. Encouraged by the start-up quarterly whose “mission is to use new media and innovative distribution to return the short story to a place of prominence in popular culture,” Moody wrote the story specifically for Twitter “and used it as a source of creative inspiration” according to a release from EL. He comments “it really was […]
eNews
Kindle Sales Close to Half of Physical Sales?
Amazon spokesperson Cinthia Portugal updated a restated version of the company’s claim of acceleration in Kindle sales for a column in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, telling the paper that “for every 100 books we sell in physical, we sell 48 Kindle books. This is up from 35 books for every 100 in May.”PG In a more official (though not more specific) statement today, Amazon said that their own unpublished “record” for monthly sales was broken in November “even before Cyber Monday.” Kindle vp Ian Freed says in the announcement, “we’re seeing lots of people buying from one to a handful of […]
ALA Updates their Google Books Settlement Guide
Jonathan Band’s “Guide for the Perplexed” has served as a handy overview of the Google Books Settlement and now he has provided a fresh overview focusing on the newly revised agreement. A portion focuses on library-specific issues (as before), but general readers will also find it useful.Click here to view in your browser
Little, Brown Tries eOnly Title
The publisher is updating their backlist title THE VACCINE BOOK by Dr. Robert Sears in ebook form only, adding a 2,000-word chapter all about H1N1. The new version publishes electronically December 1, priced at $13.99. Sears says he writes on “everything parents need to know about this year’s H1N1 and seasonal flu diseases and vaccines so that worried parents can educate themselves without being confused by all the media hype.”
Smashwords Will Distribute to Kindle Store, Too
Following recent distribution arrangements with Barnes & Noble.com and Shortcovers, Smashwords has now added an agreement with Amazon’s Kindle store, with titles expected to appear there “sometime in December.” Smashwords says that their self-published authors and small publishers will receive 42.5 percent of the creator-set digital list price for Amazon sales, “higher than what many ebook authors can receive on their own if they publish direct with Amazon.”Release
Amazon Files Motion to Irritate Judge Chin
Amazon asked Judge Denny Chin to reverse his recent preliminary approval of the amended Google Books Settlement. They object–again–to a provision that remains the same from the original settlement, in which Google is released from future as well as current liability, which Amazon says makes the settlement unacceptable on its face. So they are really telling the judge that he has already been wrong twice. And they also ask that, even if the judge disagrees with their motion, that he reverse himself and allow a gigantic wave of repeated and expanded objections rather than limiting new filings to objections to […]