Following Cool-er’s noisy launch at BEA, we’ve been trying to clarify some of the operational details about the start-up. Their e-store, which claims to have “over 750,000 titles,” is driven by Ingram Digital, at least for the paid downloads. Founder Neil Jones told us he “can’t formally comment on the public domain titles right now” because agreements are still being formalized, and said the same with respect to partnerships with suppliers in other territories. Leaving aside public domain titles, Jones says they have “about 260,000 ebooks” available–but “what is the number of actual of titles is questionable.” That’s because the […]
eNews: Will This "Be" the Solution on Wireless Access?
At BEA we had a chance to check out the BeBook e-reader, produced in Holland and headed for distribution in the US market. CEO Johan Hagenbeuk said that he is having discussions with a number of potential partners, including both major retailers and publishers themselves. While his line of devices offers prices competitive to Cool-er (and less than Sony Reader and Kindle), he’s looking to encourage cellphone-style service models that subsidize the price of the reader in exchange for a contract to buy a certain amount of content. Hagenbeuk suggested that he company is very close to launching a simple […]
eNews: The Next Big thing for NetBook Screens?
Taiwan company Pixel Qi now has a demonstration video of what some people see as the next big innovation in screen technology. It’s an LCD screen that has electronic paper qualities and can display three different ways. As PC World describes it, it has “a black-and-white e-ink mode for reading text documents and e-books, and two color modes, designed for use indoors or in bright sunlight, that are more suitable for Web surfing and video playback. E-ink mode extends battery life by shutting off the backlight, and is intended for reading e-books, documents, Web sites or blogs and other text-based […]
People and Awards
The Boston Globe-Horn Book Awards for excellence in children’s literature have gone to Terry Pratchett’s NATION for fiction and poetry; Candace Fleming’s THE LINCOLNS: A Scrapbook Look at Abraham and Mary for nonfiction; and Margaret Mahy and illustrator Polly Dunbar’s BUBBLE TROUBLE for picture book. Dan O’Connell, who has been providing publicity and marketing services to clients of The Strothman Agency since 2003, will now run a spinoff, Epilogue Media–offering those services for a fee to outside authors as well as Strothman clients. Consumers Union will distribute their book titles through Ingram Publisher Services.
Lunch Weekly for Tuesday, June 2
Deal Reports Just e-mail to deals@PublishersMarketplace if you aren’t using the online form linked below. Report a deal using the online form The Key As usual, the handy key to our Lunch deal categories. While all reports are always welcome, those that include a category will generally receive a higher listing when it comes time to put them all together. “nice deal” $1 – $49,000 “very nice deal” $50,000 – $99,000 “good deal” $100,000 – $250,000 “significant deal” $251,000 – $499,000 “major deal” $500,000 and up FICTION Inspirational Nancy Mehl’s SIMPLE SECRETS, in which a graphic designer inherits a […]
Salinger Sues Over Unauthorized Catcher in the Rye Sequel
J.D. Salinger filed suit in a NY Federal Court against the anonymous author of the forthcoming sequel 60 YEARS LATER: Coming Through the Rye, also naming UK company Windupbird Publishing, Sweden-based Nicotext, and SCB Distributors (which sells Nicotext books in the US) in the action. The complaint declares, “the sequel is not a parody and it does not comment upon or criticize the original. It is a rip-off pure and simple.” This Courthouse News piece adds, “Salinger says the defendants are acting in bad faith to confuse the public, which is likely to think that he wrote the sequel. He […]