Amazon announced same-day delivery of assorted products in New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington DC, Las Vegas, and Seattle. More quietly, and to everyone’s detriment, the etailer confirmed on a forum recently that the data API for Kindle books isn’t broken–it has been removed for good. The post simply states: “We apologize for the confusion surrounding Kindle Books. Kindle books are not available via the Product Advertising API.” What that means is that informational services for searching Amazon’s database (of which our own Amazoom is just one) no longer show any Kindle availability or data. It also means everything about […]
eNews
Library eBook Lending Rises, As Publishers Wonder About the Terms
Following up on Barnes & Noble’s hope to allow limited “lending” of ebooks by customers, the NYT looks at the growing demand for library patrons “checking out” downloadable ebooks from public library web sites. Overdrive says their number of checkouts has passed 1 million so far this year, up from abou 600,000 for all of last year. Of course those downloads don’t work on many of the most popular platforms, like Kindle and iPhone. But publishers are increasingly concerned about the business terms as ebook adoption grows. Simon & Schuster spokesman Adam Rothberg says, “We have not found a business […]
There's Your Barnes and Noble's E-Reader?
Gizmodo has a fine set of leaked pictures of the forthcoming Barnes & Noble eReader.The main screen is a standard black-and-white e-ink display–but at the bottom is a smaller touch-screen color LCD, to use to show for titles (with color jackets) and for other features like a on-screen keyboard. The LCD is said to be inactive while reading, so it probably won’t drain the battery too much. The device is equipped for wireless connections with a to-be-named service provider. The report says that BN will be selling the company’s own books (from Sterling) at a “deep discount.” As for the […]
Jane Friedman's Open Road Licenses eBook Rights to Backlist
Former HarperCollins ceo Jane Friedman officially announced her new venture Open Road Integrated Media at Frankfurt today, though the unit was first reported on in August when her funding of $3 million was disclosed. The company describes itself as a “content marketing company that places the e-book in the center of a multi-platform universe which includes film, video and other forms of digital entertainment.” They’ll produced enhanced ebooks “featuring both aggregated and originally produced video and audio content such as author profiles, behind the scenes features and mini-docs.” Focusing initially on backlist works from successful authors–similar to the model initiated […]
Everyone's Got a Frankfurt Press Release
One of the more interesting comes from LibreDigital, which assembled “aggregate statistics on how books are being browsed across retail and social networking sites.” They found that women browse more–comprising 54 percent of viewers, but spending “nearly 70 percent more time browsing books online than men do.” That makes it no surprise that the most popular genre browsed is romance novels. They were followed by books for tweens/teens and business books. On average, browsers looked at 46 pages of each book viewed. CEO Russell Reader says “We know that allowing readers to preview book chapters before buying has a positive […]
Baker & Taylor Launches POD Program; Lightning Serves Up Mueller
Baker & Taylor announced print-on-demand and digital-short run replenishment services, working with RR Donnelly. Meanwhile, Lightning Source has a release trumpeting how they helped the University of Nebraska Press meet the demand spike for Herta Mueller’s NADIRS after the announcement of her Nobel Prize victory.Release