At today’s iPad announcement Apple introduced a new ebook app, using epub, called iBooks. The logos of all of the big six were displayed on stage as participating partners, leaving aside Random House. (We could not reach Random House yet for comment.) Sample price baskets shown top out at 14.99 though they did not speak to price or business details at the event. The new iBooks bookstores was called similar to iTunes, and integrates with the iBooks reading app. Steve Jobs gave props to Amazon: “Amazon has done a great job of pioneering this… we’re going to stand on their […]
More Consumer eReading Insights from New BISG Study
Kelly Gallagher started today’s Digital Book World presentations with the first highlights of data from the BISG’s new survey of consumer attitudes towards ereading. Aiming to evaluate “how traditional print-book buyers are interacting with ebooks”–and to be repeated two more times this year to track changes in readers’ habits–they surveyed about 550 people from their panel of survey panel of 36,000 book readers (after “qualifying” a mere 2.4 percent of that group overall as able to speak about ereading habits at all). As with other data presentations, our caution–data-heavy slides went flying by so are hard to present fully here. […]
DBW: Looking for the E-Book's Tipping Point
The morning keynote panel discussion at Digital Book World’s second day tried to answer a whole lot of very important questions on the digital front, like what percentage of e-book sales will be the disruption point, the relationship between digital growth and print decline (if there even is such a relationship) the messy ramifications of territory, whether an agency model will stick, and, more practically, what is each panelist’s preferred mode of reading. Moderator and DBW founder Mike Shatzkin was not shy in peppering his panel of “four smart eloquent guys” with his queries, and on hand to field them […]
WH Smith Holiday Comps Down 5 Percent
In a brief trading update, UK retailer WH Smith congratulated itself for having same-store sales at their high street stores decline 5 percent for the eleven-week holiday selling period ending January 23–slightly weaker than the 4 percent comp decline for the past 21 weeks.Company release
DBW: New Biz Models Changing the Commercial Rules of Publishing
During the final session of panels Tuesday, Don Linn assembled an eclectic mix of independent booksellers, digital publishers and entrepreneurs to delve into some of the new business models that may change publishing, once they are more well established. Because each presenter told their tales separately, so too will this report be separated out by individual: Chris Morrow of Northshire Books: “I’m here to remind you that physical bookstores still exist, and most of you still sell books through physical bookstores.” He went on to discuss why POD at the retail level is important (case in point: the store has […]
Rice's Book Announced for October
Condoleezza Rice’s book Extraordinary, Ordinary People: A Memoir of Family has been set for an October 12 release by Crown, accompanied by ebook and audio versions, along with a young adult version from Delacorte. Rice says, “After I left Washington, it seemed important to write about how my very special parents, my extended family, and so many mentors shaped me for the challenges that lay ahead. I decided that was the story I wanted to tell first.” Separately, St. Martin’s has moved up the release date of Andrew Young’s tell-all about former boss John Edwards, THE POLITICIAN, to January 30.