With the continuing rollout of Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited subscription program to additional territories, the total payout to participating authors continues to grow, even as the per-borrow payment remains near its lowest levels. Every month on or about the 15th, Amazon tells authors how much they will be paid on a retroactive basis, still terming the payment a “bonus” rather than something they earned and are entitled to receive. For January borrows, Amazon said they are adding $5.5 million to the payout pool, for a total fund of $8.5 million. That works out to just under $1.38 a book (covering approximately 6.175 […]
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Scribd Adds Comics, Jeb Bush Samples Book of eMails
Scribd‘s latest addition to their subscription catalog is a comics vertical, with over 10,000 comic books and graphic novels from publishers including Marvel, Valiant, IDW/Top Shelf and Archie. CEO Trip Adler says in the announcement, “We are very excited to take this step in expanding our subscription service beyond books. This addition gives comics readers the freedom of unlimited reading, while also giving our ebook and audiobook lovers the opportunity to discover comics and graphic novels.” For a different type of ereading, Jeb Bush has posted a PDF of first chapter of his forthcoming ebook, which chronicles his time as governor of Florida […]
And Then There Were Three: New Hachette Agency Pricing Trickles In
Hachette Book Group officially implemented their new ebook agency pricing on February 1, feeding new pricing data to retailers in that evening’s ONIX feed — and ever so slowly, you can start to see those changes showing up in the marketplace. On Amazon, the new Kindle pricing is most evident on some pre-orders — such as Jeffery Deaver’s SOLITUDE CREEK, with an ebook price of $14.99 and a print price of $28 — and some high-priced print titles. The ebooks with new pricing carry the telltale signifier, “this price was set by the publisher.” For some reason, retailers have not yet […]
November AAP Sales Down Again On Weak Hardcover Shipments
After a surprisingly positive October 2014 sales report, the AAP’s statistics for November returned to the pattern that they have followed for most of the year: Adult sales declined almost 8 percent, down $37 million to $442 million, as children’s rose, up $23.6 million to $190.6 million. The real weakness was in those market-leading new hardcovers that we have been talking about in past reports, with net sales in November of $155.5 million — versus $206.2 million in 2013. eBook sales also declined for the second consecutive month, at $116 million overall, with adult ebook numbers roughly flat and children’s/YA […]
Daily Amazon: Flame Out On Tablet Sales, Interest In Radio Shack, and More
Suspicions about broad weakness in the market for new tablets were confirmed by the latest fourth quarter Tablet Tracker report from International Data Corporation. Apple already reported that iPad sales declined to 21.4 million units in the holiday quarter, still the dominant player in the market. More surprisingly, IDC says that Amazon shipped only 1.7 million Fire tablets across the line, despite refreshing their offerings last September. By IDC’s count, Amazon’s tablet shipments were down almost 70 percent from 5.8 million units in Q4 2013. Similarly, the company estimates Amazon shipped only 3.3 million tablets all year last year, down […]
Germany’s Txtr Files for Insolvency
German ebook solutions and services provider Txtr filed for insolvency proceedings with a German District Court, which has appointed a provisional administrator to oversee the sale of the company’s assets. People familiar with the situation say that Txtr had been exploring a sale in recent months, and it’s now expected that their assets will be sold from within the bankruptcy estate. In a statement, Txtr said it is working with Olswang Restructuring Solutions and “will continue to search for an acquirer,” indicating that “a number of companies have expressed interest in txtr’s business, technology, organization and user base.” For now, the company says, “there is […]