On Friday, at the invitation of the AAP and Google I moderated a panel discussion with John Sargent from Macmillan and Richard Sarnoff from Bertelsmann that had the modest and focused goal of illuminating for publishers some of the basics of the proposed settlement of the Google Book Search lawsuits. The session was strictly limited to publishers only, which was apparently just the stimulus to make a number of people (mostly press) want to attend, only to get turned away at the door. Sargent’s opening statement addressed head-on the question of what will happen if the settlement is not approved […]
eNews
Amazon to Integrate BookTour.com–Which Will Promote Physical Stores
While interviewing Softbanks’s Eric Hipeau for a BEA panel today, author, magazine editor and founder of BookTour.com Chris Anderson let slip that soon his company’s author tour information will be integrated into Amazon. The etailer took a minority stake in BookTour, reported in April (though at the time it wasn’t clear if there were other investors; Anderson was the only funder.) Amazon is due to start integrating BookTour’s information about author appearances across the country soon, starting with relevant data for Amazon’s “Author Pages” feature. Anderson and BookTour ceo Kevin Smokler made it clear that Amazon will not edit or […]
EU to Consider Closer Look at Google Settlement
Germany plans to ask the European Commission to take a closer look at the Google Book Search settlement and the library scanning program, and “France, Austria and the Netherlands also said to be keen to have the issue put on the table.” One European diplomat says there is concern about putting the European digital library Europeana (which presents public domain works only) on an equal footing with Google’s book database. A separate article reports that “EU competitiveness ministers meeting in Brussels tomorrow and Friday are likely to ask the Commission to launch an investigation into the implications of the project […]
UK eBook Announcements
As part of their Book and Beyond program, Random House UK officially announced the release some of their current bestsellers through Apple’s App Store (while embargoed, the news was already reported by a UK paper.) Developed in partnership with Verlagsgruppe Random House in Germany, each ebook is sold as a standalone app rather than working through a particular reader, and they are priced at 7.49 pounds and up.Release Separately, Penguin UK announced an agreement to make its full catalog of epub titles (“around” 2,000 and growing) available through GoSpoken.com’s platform for mobile devices. And DK just launched their top 10 […]
Day in the Life Co-Creator Rick Smolan Pushes Boundaries of Customizable Book with "Obama Time Capsule"
Rick Smolan’s latest collection of themed photographs, THE OBAMA TIME CAPSULE, takes his previous experiments with customizable jackets further, now offering each customer an individualized book. It’s on sale exclusively through Amazon. Buyers can add their names to the authors on the front cover, and include personal photos on the back cover, and “celebrity supporters” page. You can add your child’s art work to the Kids for Obama page and insert your own name on a fascimile inaugural invitation. Books are promised to arrive two to three weeks after ordering. Hewlett-Packard is printing the on-demand books and executive Andrew Bolwell […]
Michigan Expands Agreement On Google Books–Without Consulting Other Libraries
Presuming the Google Book Search legal settlement is approved, the University of Michigan announced that they had renegotiated an “expanded agreement” with the search company. Addressing some libraries’ concerns about the as-yet-undetermined institutional pricing of the database of full-text books, the parties agreed on a system that will let partner/contributing libraries review the pricing and challenge it through arbitration if they believe it’s too high, in which case “Google will be required to work with the Registry to adjust the pricing accordingly.” Price will be less of an issue for Michigan itself, which will receive free access to the full […]