As we first discussed in late July, Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited subscription program — which relies heavily on the 500,000-plus self-published books that are exclusive to Kindle — has put additional scrutiny on how much the retailer will pay those authors to retain their loyalty as direct sales are converted into subscriber reads. On Monday, Amazon charged their gatekeeper-free environment by announcing more than $500,000 in bonus payments for August to a newly-ordained set of “KDP Select All-Stars.” The Kindle one-percenters — or rather, the top two one-thousandths of a percent — can receive bonuses of up to $25,000 each, on […]
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Digital Briefs: Kobo In Holland, Public Radio/TV eBook Premiums, and More
Kobo has had a Dutch ebookstore since early 2012, launched in cooperation with local retailer Libris Blz, and now they have partnered with Bol.com, “the largest provider of ebooks in the Netherlands and Belgium.” BookShout has an agreement with premium supplier Forest Incentives that will enable public radio and TV stations to provide ebooks as gifts to their contributing members. Participating publishers include Harper Collins, Macmillan, Simon & Schuster, and Workman. Open Road has published 17 ebooks of poetry by John Ashbery, 87. The NYT looks at how improvements in formatting have overcome the poet’s initial objections to how his […]
Vook Acquires Byliner
After months of looking for a buyer and barely operating in the meantime, Byliner.com has been acquired by Vook. The purchase is somewhat of a full-circle pivot for Vook, which began in 2009 by producing “enhanced” ebooks with embedded videos. In the announcement, the company says, “With the acquisition of Byliner, Vook will support Byliner’s existing titles and acquire new projects for release under the Byliner imprint.” (All of the people who drove Byliner’s editorial connections that allowed them to partner with some marquee authors and institutions have left the company, however. From Vook’s author FAQ, the line will be run […]
Corporate: Harper eBooks In China, Amazon Expands In London, and Good Books Auction
HarperCollins announced an agreement with JD.com and China National Publications Import and Export (Group) Corporation to sell English-language ebooks in China. It is “the first time the company has made its e-books directly available to consumers in China through a local retailer,” though JD.com has partnered with Harper in selling their print books in China for some time. The initiative will start with approximately 800 backlist titles. Amazon UK will relocate all of their corporate employees to London by next summer, spread across three offices for the time being. Then, as of 2017, they will occupy more than two-thirds of a […]
Corporate: Bloomsbury Adds Conway; Full Fathom Digital; New Rizzoli Bookstore Lease
Bloomsbury has purchased the 200-title naval and military history list of Conway from Pavilion Books in the UK (the rebranded version of Anova). Bloomsbury will integrate the titles into their existing lines. Terms were not disclosed, but the Bookseller notes that Conway publisher John Lee will leave after 20 years in that position. James Frey’s packaging company Full Fathom Five is launching a digital imprint that intends to issue a new ebook every week starting October 1. Mashable, which reports the news, explains (?) FFF will publish “genre e-books that the new imprint believes wouldn’t fit into a traditional publishing model but […]
Amazon Adds KDP For Kids
Amazon has officially launched a KDP Kids initiative that provides authors access to a Kindle Kids’ Book Creator to help create files for illustrated children’s books “that take advantage of Kindle features like text pop-ups.” The new software is offered as a download for both Mac and PC that Kindle svp Russ Grandinetti says in the release their new tool “makes it easy. In addition to helping authors craft their books, we’re helping customers find them with things like age and grade range filters.” A little more description is posted here.