The Politico collaboration with Random House has its first ebook bestseller in PLAYBOOK 2012: THE RIGHT FIGHTS BACK by Mike Allen and Evan Thomas, which hit the NYT eBook Nonfiction list at No. 8 and the Combined Nonfiction list at No. 32. By our tracking, this is just the second e-only title to make the NYT’s eBook Nonfiction list, after Sarah Burleton’s WHY ME?, a self-published memoir of an abusive childhood that has been holding steady on the bottom half of the list since mid-October. The short-form Politico work is priced at $2.99. Self-published digital titles, inexpensive short-form works and […]
Libraries
Penguin Adds Opaque Statement Indicating Kindle Lending Restoration May Be Temporary
On Wednesday afternoon Penguin issued another statement on the Kindle library lending issue that showed further disagreement with OverDrive. The supplier had said earlier in the day (reported in Lunch) that Kindle lending for Penguin books had been restored–without noting that this was a temporary restoration “until the end of the year.” The two companies also disagree on exactly how the Kindle lending was suspended in the first place. OverDrive had said Monday they were “instructed to suspend availability of new Penguin eBook titles from our library catalog and disable ‘Get for Kindle’ functionality for all Penguin eBooks.” But Penguin’s […]
Penguin Returns to Kindle Lending
OverDrive announced on its blog Wednesday that Kindle availability for Penguin eBooks already in library catalogs “has been restored as of this morning. Penguin titles are available for check out by Kindle users and the Kindle format will be available for patrons who are currently on a waiting list for a Penguin title. This does not affect new releases, which remain unavailable.” They added, “At this time, no further information is available. We hope to share more details in the near future.” Separately, Early Word asked Random House about their current view on library ebook lending, and received this tepid […]
Authors Guild Says Kindle Lending Library Is “Outside the Bounds of the Publisher’s Authority”
In a strongly worded memo issued Monday afternoon, the Authors Guild took issue with Amazon’s Kindle Lending Library for Prime customers, in particular those titles available without express permission from publishers and authors. “How can Amazon get away with this? By giving its boilerplate contract with these publishers a tortured reading,” the Guild said, adding that permission appeared to be dispensed with “because, as Amazon apparently sees it, its contracts with these publishers merely require it to pay publishers the wholesale price of the books that Amazon Prime customers download.” The reasoning is “nonsense”, from the AG’s understanding of Amazon’s […]
eNews: Amazon Augmented Reality App; La Vanguardia’s New eBookstore; and More
Though Amazon’s ebook lending service for Prime members is the big story for the day, they also launched another service (through subsidiary A9.com) worth remarking upon. Flow Powered by Amazon is a free augmented reality iPhone app that, when pointed in the direction of any good with a UPC barcode (like video games, DVDs and books) will display Amazon product information, including the option to play multimedia content and read customer reviews. Release La Vanguardia, Spain’s 4th largest newspaper (and the top newspaper in Barcelona, where most of Spanish book publishing is located) announced on Wednesday that it is launching […]
Amazon Launches Prime eBooks Benefit Plan, Now Called Kindle Owners’ Lending Library
As we reported in September, after months of trying to enlist publisher participation in an ebook library for Amazon Prime members, the etailer has launched that initiative with a modest base of about 5,000 titles. Called Kindle Owners Lending Library, it makes available selected, mostly backlist titles, with promoted books coming from publishers including Scholastic, Norton, Bloomsbury, Grove/Atlantic, Workman/Algonquin, F+W Media, Lonely Planet, and Amazon’s own publishing imprints. Rosetta Books tells the WSJ they alone are contributing about 200 titles. None of the six largest publishers are participating (and when we discussed it with them in September, none of the companies […]