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
eNews
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 […]
Sony Reader Goes to France–But It Isn't Simple, and Another Reader Is On the Way
The Sony Reader will launch in France next month, in an exclusive partnership with retail chain Fnac, along with publisher Hachette Livre (two Hachette books are included in the 300-euro price). A press conference is scheduled for next Tuesday to announce the launch. In the meantime, France’s Virgin Megastore is speaking out, claiming to be concerned that “exclusive arrangements hamper the development of supply for legal downloading.” The Bookseller says that subsidiary VirginMega is “working on a digital book project that would be open to all publishers.”Bookseller Separately, Business Week looks at a trial program in the country through France […]
Sony UK Stats
The UK launch of the Sony Reader has taken a page from Amazon’s playbook, with excitement over unspecified numbers and demand. Waterstone’s, which has a two-week exclusive on initial sales before the device rolls out among other retailers, has–you guessed it–“sold out” of their initial stock of “the thousands of Readers supplied for launch” (e.g. their initial order.) But there are more on the way: they are “working with Sony to ensure regular deliveries of stock to stores – no one will have to wait very long to get their Reader.” Commercial director Neil Jewsbury tells the Bookseller “we’ve also […]
First Lady Bios, First on Kindle
Globe Pequot is releasing biographies of the two potential First Ladies Cindy McCain and Michelle Obama as Amazon Kindle exclusives in advance of the print releases. Elizabeth Lightfoot‘s Michelle Obama: Grace and Intelligence in a Time of Change is available electronically today, with an announced print release date of November 26. Alicia Colon’s Cindy McCain: Elegance, Good Will and Hope for a New America will be available on Kindle on September 15, but “will only go to print if John McCain wins the election.” Amazon release
New Adobe Software Protects ePub Files
Adobe announced their Content Server 4 for release on September 22, “a new server software solution that copy protects downloadable eBooks for Adobe Digital Editions” in pdf and ePub formats. Developed “in concert with” over 30 publishing-related partners, the new software “improves file security and flexible permissions, as well as retail and library lending support.” The ePub support is billed in particular as allowing publishers to “securely distribute reflowable digital content to the smaller screens of mobile devices.” Press release