The rumor on Barnes & Noble’s press event for next Tuesday is that the company will launch a color touchscreen ereader priced at $249. CNET cites an anonymous “tipster” who “has proven reliable in the past.” Separately, SlashGear points out that Barnes & Noble registered the URL NookColor.com in March (and updated their registration record earlier this month).CNET In other Barnes & Noble news, Delaware chancellor Leo Strine Jr. agreed with shareholders who have sued the company over the purchase of Barnes & Noble college last year, saying the acquisition process “gives off a very fishy smell.” Strine therefore declined […]
More Digital: Kobo, Territory Troubles, Yes iPad Owners Read Books, and News Corp.’s Pullback
Yesterday Kobo announced that they too will have their wireless eReaders on sale in 2,500 US Wal-Mart stores starting next week. The Bookseller what many people already knew: Kindle’s territorial controls on downloads are very easily subverted. In the magazine’s case, they repeatedly purchased cheap US versions of ebooks by supplying a US mailing address–even though the address associated with their credit card was in the UK. This issue will only get bigger (though the problem is primarily for non-US publishers trying to compete with the availability and pricing on US editions).Bookseller Nielsen released highlights of the first in a […]
People
Author of Which Witch?, Journey to the River Sea, The Secret of Platform 13 and many other children’s books Eva Ibbotson, 85, died at home on Wednesday.Guardian Harper UK is restructuring their sales divisions and group sales and marketing director (and former Borders UK executive) David Roche will leave at the end of the year. He says his agreement from the beginning was to stay for only two years, the Bookseller reports. His position will be eliminated, and Simon Johnson has been promoted to managing director of commercial, with responsibility for sales and rights, along with strategy, business development, and […]
Amazon Boosts Sales But Margins Suffer, Worrying Wall Street, and Media Sales Slow
Amazon reported yesterday that third quarter sales rose 39 percent to $7.56 billion, with net income of $231 million and operating income of $268 million, up 7 percent. While they beat analysts’ expectations, somewhat moderated after coming up short in the second quarter, operating margin looks to have fallen considerably, from 4.6 percent down to 3.5 percent. With earnings lagging sales growth throughout this fiscal year, the company’s shares were down sharply last night in the after-market, but investors reconsidered this morning and the stock is rising again. The press release “highlights” are almost all Kindle, so you have to […]
Blog Gets Dorchester to Respond on Publishing eBooks Even After Reverting Rights
Yesterday the Smart Bitches blog reported on two former Dorchester authors, Jana DeLeon and Leslie Langrty–both represented by agent Kristin Nelson–who said that the publisher had reverted rights to their books but continued to sell ebook versions. Both authors and agent Nelson said they have contacted the house multiple times asking for the ebooks to be removed from sale with no effect, and they recently sent DMCA takedown notices to etailers including Amazon and BN.com, so far with no effect. (In Langtry’s case, not only does she say Dorchester was selling her ebook without rights, but they also offered it […]
Nook Goes to Wal-Mart
Barnes & Noble announced that Wal-Mart will carry the Nook reader in 2,500 stores starting as early as October 24 and online as well. Perhaps as important, the announcement notes that Nook “will be prominently featured as the premier eBook Reader in the consumer electronics area. Many Wal-mart stores will feature a Nook-branded eReading area where shoppers can see and touch a demonstration device.” The next coup–not indicated at all in the announcement of course–is when or if Nook partners with Wal-mart to sell ebooks on their web site, too. Wal-Mart is carrying iPads now as well.Announcement