eBook subscription service Oyster announced on Wednesday morning that they have added the Harry Potter series to their collection, along with 3 Hogwarts Library titles. Amazon first licensed the Potter books from Pottermore for borrowing in May 2012, originally on an exclusive basis “at least until 2014,” for inclusion in their Kindle Owner’s Lending Library across five languages. When the company launched their broader ebook subscription service Kindle Unlimited in July 2014, the Potter books were featured prominently in that program as well. Chase’s Calendar of Events, a fun, quirky property databasing all manner of holidays, daily observances and commemorations that […]
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In the UK, Foyle’s ceo Sam Husain, 67, will retire in April, the Bookseller reports. Former toy retailer Hamley’s coo Paul Currie will take over the leadership for the bookseller, and Husain will stay on as a non-executive director. Also in the UK, Kieron Smith, who had been managing director of bookseller Book Depository before its sale to Amazon, has been hired by Blackwell’s as digital director, starting in February. He fills the slot vacated by Matthew Cashmore. Smith’s recent project, the online Best Little Bookshop, has closed. Hanna Masaryk is joining Greenburger Associates as children’s/YA scout. She was previously an agency assistant at Curtis […]
Blinkbox Books, Bardowl to Shut Down
The week begins with the closing of two UK-based digital companies. Blinkbox Books, Tesco’s ebook service, will cease operations by the end of February after failing to find a buyer. The company said, “We’ve learnt a lot since launching the service and whilst we saw encouraging levels of take up, we believe that we can do more for our customers by focusing on our core business….Our focus now is on the colleagues affected and our customers.” Up to 60 jobs are in jeopardy as a result. Tesco was reported to have been in exclusive talks with Waterstones a possible sale of the platform. Tesco […]
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At Paper Lantern Lit, Tara Sonin has been promoted to marketing associate. Liz Button has joined the ABA‘s content team as a writer/researcher for Bookselling This Week, and Naya Moss is a new hire on the booksellers’ association’s technology team, providing general technological assistance to ABA staff. Author or co-author of 21 books and well-known Jesus scholar Marcus Borg, 72, died on Wednesday. Harper One publisher Mark Tauber said in a statement, “His life and his work have been a challenge, a comfort and an inspiration to literally millions of readers and students over the years. Marcus was unafraid to follow the […]
Amazon Launches Self-Published Textbook Creator, KDP EDU
Apple launched iBooks Author all the way back in early 2012, so the only surprise about Amazon’s new self-published digital textbook platform, KDP EDU, is that it took so long. The public beta of Amazon’s Kindle Textbook Creator tool allows educators to turn PDFs of their textbooks and course materials into Kindle books. Available features include flashcards, multi-color highlighting, and the ability to capture key phrases and images and save them to a single location. (Textbooks created with Amazon’s tool are “only available through the Kindle store,” per Amazon’s EULA, just as Apple limits ebooks created with their software to their store.) KDP director […]
DBW Author Survey: Whether Traditional or Indie Published, the Windfall is Low
In conjunction with last week’s big Digital Book World Conference, DBW.com released their latest author survey in conjunction with Writers Digest, The Author-Publisher Relationship In a Changing Market, with analysis by Dana Beth Weinberg. This year’s report takes a fresh approach, focusing on “different modes of publishing based on allocation of risk and distribution of rewards.” It points to some key divisions in thinking and strategy between authors who publish traditionally and those who publish independently (or do both), but ultimately demonstrates that the windfall is minimal on average — and those who expect the streets of independent publishing to be lined with gold may need a […]