Start-up Zola Books has raised another $3.9 million in financing, “to grow [their] engineering and strategic partnership initiatives.” (The $5.1 million figure you might have seen includes previous funding.) New named investors include Cablevision founder Charles Dolan, Bob Kohn, Jeff Pulver, David Placek, director Paul Saltzman (Prom Night in Mississippi); Peter Sundman, and early-stage investor fund Radcliff Group. More authors connected to Zola founder Joe Regal’s literary agency have also participated, with Gregory David Roberts (Shantaram) and Martin Clark joining previous participants including Audrey Niffenegger and Josh Bazell. Zola has acquired exclusive ebook rights for five backlist works by Joan […]
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Amazon Lures More Exclusives with New Price Deals
Amazon has given authors who publish their ebooks exclusively through the site via KDP another potent merchandising weapon: the ability to offer timed price discounts. Called Kindle Countdown Deals, the new initiative lets authors and publishers create their own price promotions and promotes them via a highlighted Amazon page. Timed price deals can last from one hour up to seven days, and titles that already qualify for the 70 percent royalty rate retain that share even if the discount drops them below the standard $2.99 threshold. All it takes is giving Amazon an exclusive.
In the UK, Harper and Foyles Dabble with Pricey Bundles
Harper has launched another modest experiment in the UK, offering bundles of print and ebook editions on 8 titles, exclusively through Foyles. The ebooks are redeemed through a printed voucher shrinkwrapped with the hardcover edition. The Bookseller reports that “Foyles said the price of the bundles will be around £5 more than buying the hardback title alone.” But that seems to compare the bundle price to the paper list price, rather than Foyles’ own selling price; the effective cost of the bundles looks to be much higher. On Foyles’ site, the bundle of Amy Tan’s Valley of Amazement at £22.99 […]
Harper Launches Reader App and Direct eBook Sales, Starting with CS Lewis
HarperCollins has relaunched their CS Lewis and Narnia websites, adding for the first time a direct-sales ebookstore to both sites, selling Lewis’s work in English in ebook editions in major territories around the world. As part of that new ebook sales offer, they have launched a branded Harper Reader app on iOS and Android. A customized version of the Bluefire Reader, it displays the encrypted EPUB files that Harper is selling — along with digital “extras” that Harper is offering their direct customers. So when you download the app, it comes with an “exclusive” free copy of Beyond the Wardrobe: […]
Amazon Launches New Weekly Digital Literary Journal “Day One”
Amazon enters the world of literary journals with Day One, a weekly magazine the company says is “dedicated to short fiction from debut writers, English translations of stories from around the world, and poetry.” The first issue is available for download now and includes the short story “Sheila” by Rebecca Adams Wright, the poem “Wrought” by Zack Strait, cover art by Forsyth Harmon, and a letter from the editor, Carmen Johnson. Day One is based out of Amazon’s New York office. A full-year subscription to Day One goes for $19.99 but Amazon is offering a limited-time price of $9.99 for […]
New $119 Nook Glowlight Arrives A Day Early; Kobo Expands In Ireland
Rumor had it that Barnes & Noble would announce the latest incarnation of its Nook GlowLight on Halloween, but the company did so on Wednesday morning. The newest version of the frontlit e-reader, retailing at $119 and shipping immediately, weighs just 6.2 ounces — “the lightest ever, but [also] 15 percent lighter than the Kindle Paperwhite” according to the announcement — and has its “highest resolution E-Ink display” with 62 percent more pixels. Full-page flashing on page turns is said to have been eliminated from the new GlowLight, which features “next-generation lighting technology that is completely uniform across the display […]