Anti-trust investigations are supposed to be tight-lipped affairs in which all sides lawyer up until the case settles or goes to trial. Well, that’s how it’s supposed to work at least. But in the case of book publishers and Apple, people are tossing legal duties to the wind in the hopes that press leaks will shape a settlement. Read more at paidContent »
The majority of U.S. public libraries now offer e-books, but libraries’ relationships with book publishers are fraught, says the American Library Association in its 2012 annual report. Read more at paidContent »
In a move to build community and learn more about its customers, mid-sized publisher Sourcebooks is launching a romance e-book club that gives members e-books, discounts and access to online parties and live events for $9.99 for six months. Read more at paidContent »
By requiring retailers to encrypt e-books with DRM, big publishers are essentially banning online indie bookstores and increasing their own dependence on the whims of Apple and Amazon. Emily Gould and Ruth Curry of Emily Books look at the problem DRM poses indie booksellers. Read more at paidContent »
Google is reportedly ending its program that allows independent booksellers to sell Google e-books through their websites. Below is the full letter that the American Booksellers Association sent to members announcing the news. Read more at paidContent »
Hoping to tap into a new U.S. audience whose first language is Spanish, Amazon today launched “eBooks Kindle en Español,” which carries 30,000 e-books in Spanish and offers Spanish-language customer support. Read more at paidContent »
Pew finds that e-reader and tablet owners read more books — print and digital — than people who don’t own those devices. Read more at paidContent »
The Harry Potter e-books are priced at $7.99 each or $9.99 each. Assuming an average price of $9.13, that means around 164,000 copies were sold in the first three days. Read more at paidContent »
Barnes & Noble has said it won’t carry Amazon Publishing titles in its stores, but it’s backing down in the case of the children’s book line Amazon recently acquired. Read more at paidContent »
It’s been a week since the Pottermore shop launched — making the Harry Potter e-books and digital audiobooks available (legally) for the first time. One week in, how is Harry selling? Read more at paidContent »
Worldreader has already distributed over 75,000 e-books to students in sub-Saharan Africa. Now the literary nonprofit is launching an e-reading app designed for basic mobile phones. Read more at paidContent »
As almost every other form of media from newspapers to television becomes more conversational, books have remained relatively anti-social. Author and tech blogger Clive Thompson says he is excited about a future in which e-books are more social — but is that what readers want? Read more »
The plaintiffs who are accusing Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) and publishers of fixing e-book prices say they don’t have to show an actual meeting took… Read more at paidContent »
DRM is just “a speedbump,” Hachette’s Maja Thomas said at a copyright conference this afternoon. However, opinion within Hachette is clearly… Read more at paidContent »
Large book publishers’ most recent earnings reports reflect a new normal: Revenues are roughly flat, but profits are up — in large part due… Read more at paidContent »
Smashwords says its internal data shows that the agency-pricing model — which is the subject of a federal antitrust case against Apple and the major book publishers — doesn’t mean higher prices for e-books. But does that mean the Justice Department’s case is irrelevant? No. Read more »
New monthly stats from the Association of American Publishers show strong growth for both print and e-books in January 2012. Read more at paidContent »
Two days after the Pottermore shop launched, Harry Potter e-books and digital audiobooks will be available in libraries as of noon ET today. Read more at paidContent »
J. K. Rowling’s Pottermore shop, the exclusive source for Harry Potter e-books and digital audiobooks, launched yesterday, and some muggles… Read more at paidContent »
Within hours of the Harry Potter series going on sale as e-books for the first time, the Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN) Kindle Store hit a wall: titles… Read more at paidContent »
Author J.K. Rowling has chosen to do a number of interesting things with the launch of the e-book versions of her Harry Potter series. While not everyone wields as much power as Rowling, there are lessons other book publishers should learn from what she is doing. Read more »
The Pottermore e-bookstore is open earlier than expected, with all the Harry Potter e-books and digital audiobooks available (DRM-free) for… Read more at paidContent »
If you liked The Hunger Games, Harry Potter and Twilight, you’ll love Popular Book Series of the 21st Century: Harry Potter, Twilight, The M… Read more at paidContent »
Teen dystopian trilogy Hunger Games appears to be on its way to blockbuster-dom, pulling in $19.75 million at the midnight premiere of the… Read more at paidContent »
Two new book-related startups that launched in beta this week seek to redefine the book buying, browsing and selling experience. Read more at paidContent »
Romance author Barbara Freethy has seen huge success making her out-of-print titles available as self-published e-books. She’s now sold 1.6… Read more at paidContent »
Google (NSDQ: GOOG) will reportedly start selling e-books in France. Read more at paidContent »
Google (NSDQ: GOOG) will reportedly start selling e-books in France. Read more at paidContent »
Analysts don’t know how many Kindle Fires have been sold any more than you do. Sometimes, though, they do cool stuff like an analysis (PDF)… Read more at paidContent »
At a Nook Developers Workshop in London today, Barnes & Noble (NYSE: BKS) said it won’t be opening stores outside the U.S., but did not offe… Read more at paidContent »
As more publishers experiment with e-singles, Hearst is unique in articulating a specific business strategy for the format: E-singles are “a… Read more at paidContent »
The Harry Potter e-books, which will be released for the first time by Pottermore in April (after months of delays), are now appearing in th… Read more at paidContent »
Ian Fleming Publications attracted attention when, in 2010, it announced it would publish the James Bond e-books directly instead of selling… Read more at paidContent »
The majority of U.S. college students now prefer digital formats whether they’re reading textbooks or “fun” books, according to a new survey… Read more at paidContent »
It’s been a few weeks since Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN) removed the Kindle versions of 5,000 titles from distributor Independent Publishers Group, b… Read more at paidContent »
Erotic e-books are getting a lot of attention lately, particularly following a seven-figure deal for the Twilight-inspired trilogy 50 Shades… Read more at paidContent »
A look at two new reports about shipments of media tablets and e-readers shows that nobody really has any idea yet whether tablets are canni… Read more at paidContent »
Fifty Shades of Grey, the erotic novel that started out as Twilight fan fiction and that will now be re-published by Random House’s Vintage,… Read more at paidContent »
As regulators on both sides of the Atlantic investigate publishers and Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) for allegedly colluding to fix the price of e-book… Read more at paidContent »
The top-ten list of bestselling Kindle Singles includes a number of big-name writers. But how is the format working for writers who don’t ha… Read more at paidContent »
