eNews

Ebook distributor and online self-publishing platform Smashwords announced late Friday that BarnesandNoble.com will sell titles from the company as part of its new “premium feed.” Smashwords, which says they publish about 2,600 titles electronically, will sell to BN.com at a traditional discount of approximately 50 percent, and will keep approximately 7.5 percent as their commission, giving authors and publishers 42.5 percent of the sale. Founder Mark Coker says that “additional distribution relationships are forthcoming.” He says that “until today, it was difficult if not impossible for independent authors and publishers to gain such mainstream digital distibution.”Company announcement

Europeana, the EU’s digital library, has more than doubled its collection of digital books, maps, photographs and other items since its November 2008 inception and with projections of up to 10 million by 2010, the European Commission has opened up a public inquiry on the future challenges for book digitisation in Europe and the need to reform copyright framework that runs until November 15. In a statement, Viviane Reding, EU Commissioner for Information Society and Media “finds it alarming” that Europeana makes only 5% of all digitized books available, with much of those works from a single country. Other issues […]

WHSmith and Waterstone’s appear to be heading towards a price war on Sony Readers once the latter retailer’s exclusive period ends on September 17th. Waterstone’s will be selling the new Sony Reader – Touch for £249.99, however the WHS website is selling it for £219. With the Sony Reader – Pocket Waterstone’s is taking pre-orders for £179.99 whereas WHS is offering it at £159.The Bookseller But don’t expect the Daily Edition, Sony’s touchscreen wireless reader, to be available in the UK anytime soon. Sony did confirm it will be sold there, but that it may take “a year or two.”PC […]

Google Books will make over one million public domain titles available in EPUB format in order “to make these books more accessible by helping people around the world to find and read them in more places.”Google Books Blog The Internet Archive’s Peter Brantley tells the Guardian about the Open Book Alliance, a “hodgepodge” of corporations like Microsoft, Yahoo and Amazon as well as libraries and journalists who oppose the Google Books Settlement. “We see this as an organization that’s really quite heterogeneous in its composition,” he said,  “each of [organization] whom, by the way, has very distinct and very specific […]

Documents filed with the SEC on Friday indicate that former HarperCollins CEO Jane Friedman has raised $3 million from Bay Area Holdings Inc., a fund of venture capital firm Kohlberg Ventures, for her new company, OpenRoad Integrated Media LLC. Jeff Sharp, an independent movie producer, and Chris Lederer, former CMO at HarperCollins, are listed as executives of OpenRoad, which lists a Spring Street address for its offices. Reiter, Kailas & Rosenblatt represented OpenRoad, described on the law firm’s website as “a start-up entity which is engaged in developing a platform for eBook marketing and publishing.” PW also notes that Sharp […]