Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter‘s December issue letter is online in advance of the issue itself, in which Keith Gessen “lays out a vivid and highly original account of the almost schoolyard conflict going on now between Amazon and the French-owned publishing giant Hachette.” Carter says Amazon’s response to Hachette “amounts to an economic blockade” and says of Amazon ceo Jeff Bezos, “make no mistake about it: he’s not the underdog in this pitched battle; he is the overdog. The book business is puny compared to its visibility and importance to the nation’s well-being.” Separately, Seattle Weekly has a long and […]
eNews
Digital: Diversion Launches Romance eBookstore; More Kindle Unlimited; Start Buys Cleis; and More
Digital publisher Diversion Books has set up a new division “to go deeper into the romance vertical,” EverAfter — which has launched an ebookstore and reader app on iOS and Android. “Exclusively dedicated to romance ebooks,” the store offers over 100,000 titles from traditional houses and self-published authors. They promise “flash sales, special pricing, recommendations and thousands of free ebooks” for romance fans, along with curated categories of recommend “essential titles.” The app is licensed from Page Foundry, which develops mobile ebookstore apps for clients including HarperCollins’ Book Perk; the Indie Reader Bookstore, the Chicago Tribune’s TribBooks. All titles are […]
New Google Play Features Aim to Improve Nonfiction eBook
On Thursday morning Google Play Books introduced an update to their reading app providing “a redesigned reading experience that’s optimized for nonfiction books” with feature improvements meant “to solve the ever more challenging reference book” in digital form. Their new “skim mode” makes it easier to skim across an entire book (recommending for reference works from cookbooks to travel guides). And “quick bookmarks” let you flag and navigate back and forth between multiple spots in a book. For students, the new features also make it easier to find and refer back to highlighted text passages and personal notes. Since we’re […]
Blurb to Launch Recommendations for Independent Publishing Experts
In a little over a week, on November 7, self-publishing platform Blurb will go live with a programmatic answer to one of their most persistent customer requests: Recommendations for freelance publishing professionals. Known as the Dream Team, to be featured under a “Hire an expert” navigational tab on their site, Blurb will start with a recommended set of 50 independent publishing professionals to help creators complete, polish and publish their books. The first phase focuses on the creation process: developmental editors, copy editors, illustrators, proofreaders, and designers. A second phase, still in development, will incorporate the business process: publicists, marketers, […]
People, Etc.
Tara Singh Carlson will formally move over to Putnam as senior editor. She will acquire hardcover titles for the Putnam list, while continuing to acquire trade paperback originals for Penguin, which will “predominantly” issue the paperbacks of her Putnam hardcovers as well. Joan Didion is the subject of a documentary film in progress, “We Tell Ourselves Stories in Order to Live,” co-directed by her nephew Griffin Dunne and Susanne Rostock. After shooting more than 60 hours of footage — largely with Didion — Dunne and Rostock’s company Rava Films has launched a Kickstarter campaign seeking a minimum of $80,000 in funding […]
Digital Startups Bought and/or Closed in 2014
With our story on the closing of Atavist Books, it’s helpful to examine the larger picture of the digital publishing start-up space. In response to a reader query, here is a look at 2014 activity, which breaks into two categories: Companies acquired and/or closed in distress or decline, and those acquired opportunistically, drawn from our comprehensive list of M&A activity throughout the year: Acquired and/or Closed In Distress in 2014 Atavist Books (closing) > IAC/Atavist Inc. Angry Robot > Etan Ilfeld Byliner.com > Vook Red Room (closed) > Wattpad Readmill (closed) > Dropbox Anobii > Mondadori Bilbary > liquidating CourseSmart > […]