In advance of any official reckoning between Apple’s reinterpreted rule requiring “that if an app offers customers the ability to purchase books outside of the app, that the same option is also available to customers from within the app with in-app purchase,” the makers of the iFlow Reader app are angrily throwing in the towel. BeamItDown Software publisher Philip Huber announced that the company and its ereading app will cease operations on May 31. They launched their ebookstore in December 2010 and say in a posted letter to customers that “two months later, Apple changed the rules and put us […]
Pricing
Thriller Writer Barry Eisler Walks Away From Lucrative Print Deal to E-Publish Next John Rain Novel
Two months after thriller writer Barry Eisler moved houses to St. Martin’s Press crime imprint Minotaur Books for his next John Rain novel, The Detachment, he reveals in a lengthy online conversation with his friend and fellow writer Joe Konrath that the deal is off. Instead, Eisler will publish the book on his own around mid-June, far sooner than the Spring 2012 publication date scheduled by Minotaur. “I know it’ll seem crazy to a lot of people,” Eisler states, “but based on what’s happening in the industry, and based on the kind of experience writers…are having in self-publishing, I think […]
eNews: CEO Nourry on Hachette US EBook Sales; Airport E-Bookstores; Android Kindle Speculation
At a conference last week Hachette Livre CEO Arnaud Nourry told Le Figaro that Hachette Book Group USA ebook sales since January “are in line with the national average,” which the AAP reported as comprising approximately 23.5 percent of the total trade in January. Indeed, HBG is one of the 14 publishers who report ebook sales to the AAP to begin with. Le Figaro Some Borders stores in the midst of closing-out sales have discounted the Kobo Wi-Fi reader to $59.99. CNET Taiwan International Airport will open arguably the first airport e-bookstore, which stocks four hundred titles available in ePub […]
EU Raids Publishers’ Offices as Part of Price-Fixing Investigation
Numerous reports out of Europe this morning indicate that the European Commission conducted surprise inspections of various publishers in several countries on the grounds of possible e-book price-fixing. Amelia Torres, spokeswoman for Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia, confirmed the investigation to the AFP, saying that “the competition services Tuesday conducted inspections in publishing houses in several European Union countries due to suspicion of anti-competition practices in the pricing of e-books” on the grounds that “the companies concerned may have violated EU antitrust rules that prohibit cartels and other restrictive business practices.” Torres stressed the EU was “not naming the publishing houses […]
More On eBook Bestsellers, and An Interesting Precedent
Continuing–and expanding on–the trend since Christmas, 19 of the top 50 titles on the USA Today bestseller list sold more units as ebooks than in print. And that was true for five of the top six titles. Among them, Lisa Gardner’s 99-cent ebook ALONE finally gets a ranking to match its position on etailers’ charts. Which will only spark further discussions among publishers about ebook bestseller strategies and standards. In a different taboo-breaker, you know how the big houses all declare they will never buy print rights only to a new book, while others have believed print buyers will emerge […]
Google One Pass Takes Direct Hit at Apple By Giving Publishers A Way To Control The Price of Digital Content
As publishers grow increasingly concerned about Apple’s recent restrictions on how digital content that is accessible through iOS apps can be sold, Google conveniently announced its own payment system, One Pass, in which “publishers can maintain direct relationships with their customers and give readers access to digital content across websites and mobile apps.” Readers who purchase content from a One Pass publisher through almost any device they choose can use a single sign-on with an email and password. For publishers, Google touts the ability to customize how and when they charge for content while experimenting with different models to see […]