Penguin Group has given publisher manager Molly Barton the additional new role of associate publisher of eSpecials. A program that started with the freestanding sale of Alan Greenspan’s new epilogue for the paperback edition of The Age of Turbulence, sold electronically for five dollars, the eSpecials will extend beyond Penguin Press as original announced as a “service to writers across all of its imprints.” They say other specials from Christine Feehan, Jan Karon and Patricia Briggs “are already in the works” and that the program will range from “important updates to nonfiction works to unknown novellas by bestselling novelists.”
eNews
Michigan Adds Espresso Book Machine
The University of Michigan has installed a machine from On Demand to print their own books one at a time, drawing on their collection of digitized out-of-copyright books, thanks to Google. They say its costs about ten dollars a book, and “the service is available to researchers, students and the public.” In the announcement, Michigan notes that their libraries have digitized “nearly 2 million books” since 1996.UofM post
Rise of the Bigger eReaders
Holland’s iRex Technologies will officially announce a new, larger version of their pricey iRex ereader on Monday. Forbes reports: “The iRex Reader 1000 offers a 10.2-inch diagonal E-Inkscreen, far larger than Kindle’s 6-inch screen or even iRex’s own 8.1-inch diagonal iLiad, its last e-book model. That stretched display is designed to work with any file format, be it an e-book, a full-sized PDF, a Word document or HTML. Like earlier iRex devices, it sports a stylus and touch screen for taking notes and marking documents.” It will cost between $650 and $850.Forbes
Harper to Launch "Book Army"
Into the crowded field of social networking around books, HarperCollins will launch BookArmy.com next week, which “will list every book with an ISBN and aims to drive sales and build a community of readers” according to New Media Age. A recommendation engine “will constantly feed users suggestions based on what books they like, what their friends like and what those with similar tastes enjoy. Authors will be encouraged to create and manage their own pages, while readers will be able to compile virtual bookshelves and write reviews to share with others.Those browsing books will be able to access a synopsis, […]
Sony Reader's Target Rollout
This weekend Target is launching endcaps in the electronics section of all of the chain’s 1,634 stores carrying the Sony Reader and related accessories. Buyers also receive a coupon code redeemable for a free download Philippa Gregory’s The Other Queen, which releases on September 16. CNet
Do You XML?
O’Reilly and the Ideal Logical Company have partnered in a new information enterprise that will include conferences, a survey, and research papers “to understand and spread the knowledge publishers need to move forward with XML.” They note: “The StartwithXML project will explore all the issues of moving to a StartwithXML workflow through interviews and case studies with publishers and with the channel partners they will be working with to reach new readers in new ways. We’ll be looking at what benefits can come to a publisher today from working this way, and what important steps to the future are enabled […]