Author Solutions, which already gobbled up competitor iUniverse, has now acquired Xlibris, too. The company says the combined lists now comprise almost 100,000 titles from 70,000 authors. CEO Kevin Weiss says “Xlibris brings a demonstrated expertise in marketing services, which perfectly complements the strength of AuthorHouse’s publishing and illustration services and iUniverse’s industry-leading editorial services. Both first-time and mid-list authors, writing in all genres, will find one of our brands offers the services they need to accomplish their publishing goals.” The addition brings takes their annual title count from about 12,000 up to 19,000, and still growing. Random House was […]
eNews
Indigo Launches Mobile Reading Initiative at CES
Canadian retailing giant Indigo is launching Shortcovers, their effort to stake out a dominant place in the “app-world” reading market, at the Consumer Electronics show. Launching in the US at the end of this month and in Canada shortly thereafter, the start-up is leveraging parent company Indigo’s relationships with publishers. (In a video interview with USA Today shown on the Shortcovers site, company cto Michael Serbinis has Marley & Me and The Snowball currently on his iPhone.) The system promises Kindlesque ease and variety of free sample chapters from books, along with other reading material including articles, news stories, speeches, […]
One Dollar Ebooks
Orbit has launched a promotional program offering a different book each month, selling for just one dollar each. Vendors include Amazon and Sony, along with Stanza, eReader, Fictionwise, Diesel, and MobiPocket. This month’s offering is Brent Weeks’ debut THE WAY OF THE SHADOWS. Publisher Tim Holman says: “We believe that this promotion will give readers a great opportunity to discover new writers. Most of our consumer marketing has an online focus, and the digital marketplace offers the perfect platform for price-promotion initiatives such as this…. The range of titles chosen for the promotion includes a mix of frontlist and backlist, […]
A Bland Review of the Google Settlement
The NYT has a piece that explains how Google has been scanning millions of books “that had been locked away on the dusty shelves of libraries and in antiquarian bookstores.” With a legal settlement awaiting approval by the court, “just what kind of commercial opportunity the settlement represents is unknown, but few expect it to generate significant profits for any individual author. Even Google does not necessarily expect the book program to contribute significantly to its bottom line.” AAP chairman Richard Sarnoff comments, “I think there will be a few authors who do see significant dollars out of this, but […]
Amazon Organizes By Author
Hot on the heels of the pre-beta introduction of FiledBy Author, Amazon has launched the beta version of their new construct for finally organizing book data and discussions around authors. Called Author Stores (which seems like a misnomer at the moment, since they are not “stores” controlled by authors at all), the site describes the feature as “new corners of our bookstore dedicated to offering customers a new way to browse and shop favorite authors, discover new books, and more. Today each Author Store includes a bibliography, and can include a biography, author photo, and discussion board. But stay tuned–we’ll […]
NYT on eBooks
Finishing out the year of the most overcovered story, the NYT looks at the state of play for ebooks. Following massive increases in percentage sales, one percent of total volume at the big houses is in sight! There’s little new here, but the article does introduce another interesting fake statistic: “Amazon’s Kindle version of The Story of Edgar Sawtelle now represents 23 percent of total Amazon sales of the book, according to Brian Murray, chief executive of HarperCollins Publishers.” Also, “after some initial hesitation, authors like Danielle Steel and John Grisham are soon expected to add their titles to the […]