The team behind Webtoon and Wattpad has launched Yonder, a new serialized fiction app. They write in a release that Yonder “elevates serialized fiction, with a focus on curation, stories from influential authors and publishers, and an enhanced experience that rewards readers with more to read.” Publishing partners with content on the app include Blackstone Publishing, Aethon, Sterling and Stone, Portal Books, and Wraithmarked. The app is currently available on Android and the company says it’s coming soon on iOS. Yonder does not have ads, but every story on the platform allows readers several chapters for free before requesting that […]
eNews
Ingram Invests in NFT eBook Company
Ingram Content Group has closed a seed funding round for NFT ebook company Book.io. The startup puts ebooks and audiobooks on the blockchain, where they can be sold as NFTs. The company says in a release that Ingram’s print-on-demand service Lightning Source will work with Book.io “to bundle NFT eBooks with bespoke printed physical books” in a process they’re calling “Mint & Print.” Ingram president and ceo Shawn Morin, said, “Ingram Content Group is excited to join with Book.io in pioneering new supply-chain models for eBook delivery that take advantage of the security of blockchain technologies, the promise of Web […]
Amazon Tightens Ebook Return Policy
In a win for authors and publishers, Amazon will adjust its ebook return policy to restrict returns on books that have been more than 10 percent read. The Author’s Guild and the UK Society of Authors advocated for the change with Amazon’s senior executive team. The AG writes that the new policy will take effect by the end of the year: “Any customer who wishes to return an ebook after reading more than 10 percent will need to send in a customer service request, which will be reviewed by a representative to ensure that the return request is genuine and […]
Distribution: Penzler Imprints and Open Road
Otto Penzler has expanded his longtime relationship with Open Road, which has marketed and distributed MysteriousPress.com titles since the line’s founding in 2011. Now Open Road will power the marketing and distribution of ebooks from Penzler Publishers’ American Mystery Classics and Scarlet imprints. (Norton will continue to distribute the print editions.) “Speaking as a bookseller as well as a publisher, it’s clear that Open Road’s eBook marketing technology drives sales increases not only for ebooks, but for the corresponding print editions as well,” Penzler said in the announcement. “We’re looking forward to more growth as Open Road’s marketing technology is […]
Amazon to Discontinue Kindle In China
Amazon announced today that it will stop supplying retailers in China with Kindle ereaders this week, and plans to shutter its ebookstore there in June 2023. In 2024, the Kindle App will be removed from stores and users will no longer be able to access digital books they have purchased. Chinese customers who purchased a Kindle device in 2022 have been offered a refund. Reuters reports that the company said it’s “adjusting the strategic focus of its operations” but that its other remaining businesses in China will continue. Amazon effectively closed its main eretailing business in China in 2019, and […]
Maryland Claims eBook Lending Law Is About “Consumer Protection” Not Copyright, But Clearly Seeks to Remedy Lack of Digital First Sale Doctrine
The state of Maryland filed their reply to the AAP’s motion for a preliminary injunction blocking the state’s new library ebook law while the matter is litigated. The state claims the interference with Federal copyright law is incidental and accidental rather than primary: The AAP’s complaint, they write, “rests on the mistaken assumption the Maryland Act is a copyright law and not a regulation of unfair trade practices. State copyright laws are preempted by federal law, but State laws restraining unfair trade practices are not…. The Maryland Act, by contrast, is a consumer protection statute regulating reasonable terms regarding licensing […]