Archive for Digital Publishing News
Kindle Lending Website Lendle put up for Sale
Posted by: | Comments
Lendle was one of the first eBook lending websites on the internet that focused on Kindle Books. The company announced today that they were putting their business up for sale and getting out of the Kindle segment.
Amazon initially launched their lending program a few years ago and allows users to share eBooks with their friends. Select digital book titles are flagged lending enabled and are allowed to be loaned out one time, for up to two weeks. Lendle has fulfilled over 70,000 loan requests and has 330,000 books available for loan.
The essence of the companies service is to facilitate the process of posting and borrowing books. Often when you have a Kindle you might be the only one in your circle of friends that has an e-reader. Lendle provides a bright and vibrant community that posts reviews and shares content with each other.
The sale of Lendle will be absolute and entail the brand, website and all of the code. The admin team said in a company blog post that “Lendle means a lot to us. We’ve put over a year of our lives into growing a great community and implementing new features and we’ve done our best to put a unique spin on social-lending to ensure that Lendle stands out amongst the competition. Even so, there’s still a vast untapped market for social-lending that is millions of potential Lendlers strong, and we think a nimble and innovative home for Lendle can only lead to great things.”
There is no word yet on the price but this should be a viable investment. Amazon is entering the publishing segment and actively marketing their own books published under their own banner. Undoubtedly a fair portion of these will be flagged ‘lending enabled’ and allow users to lend books to each other.
Adobe Unveils its Newest Digital Publishing Suite Features
Posted by: | Comments
Adobe hosted its Digital Publishing Summit in New York yesterday and brought a full complement of new features for its digital publishing devotees. The new design includes a content viewer for iPhone that will allow content creators to develop material for iPhone and iPod Touch users as easily as for tablet readers; another add-on includes the ability to let readers share content to social media sites directly through the article. Also included was an interface with Adobe Edge, which will let developers preview their content before sending it to DPS with Adobe InDesign.
One of the major announcements at Adobe’s Summit was the Meredith Corporation is another in a growing line of companies that will be using DPS to bring their content to tablet readers. Meredith publishes magazines such as Better Homes and Gardens and Parents, and will join other publishers like Conde Nast and Source Interlink in using Adobe to develop graphic-intensive digital editions for tablets.
“We’re excited to publish our leading brands to multiple channels using Digital Publishing Suite,” said Liz Schimel, executive vice president and chief digital officer, Meredith Corporation, in an article for EON. “With our tablet editions, we’re looking forward to delivering content that entertains and delights our readers on these new devices – and that also drives additional revenue and subscriptions.”
“As the number of tablets and mobile devices increases, so do the potential readers of our magazine, and we must be there to meet them on the devices they choose,” said Bill Marr to EON, creative director for National Geographic magazine and another DPS user. “Using Alternate Layout in Adobe InDesign CS6 in combination with Digital Publishing Suite will allow our staff to modify layouts quickly to take into account various screen resolutions and aspect ratios, while preserving the essence of the original design so our look and brand are consistent across the marketplace.”
UK Authors Want to Be Paid by Libraries When Their eBook Is Loaned Out
Posted by: | Comments
UK Authors are petitioning the government to implement a policy for digital books that are loaned out by the public libraries. Authors are paid 6.05p every time their physical books are borrowed, up to a maximum of £6,600. This mandate is under the government-funded Public Lending Right scheme. At the moment ebooks and audiobooks do not currently pay the authors anything when patrons borrow them online.
The Guardian Newspaper in the UK conducted an interview with Nicola Solomon of the Society of Authors. She said that the current state of affairs with digital ebook lending was “terribly unfair” and said that “authors should be properly remunerated” for their work. “It’s very important to understand that authors do rely on PLR – it’s not just a nice little bonus. Many authors get PLR who are not bestsellers but do very well in libraries. People borrow very different books from the book they buy,” she said. “And authors can’t continue to write if they are not paid for their work.”
Authors have a legal right to the payments, she said, and could even consider going to court to recover them. “Since 1992 ‘rental and lending right’ has been a part of copyright protection. That means that authors have a legal right to equitable remuneration whenever their works are lent out,” she said. “The failure to make the payments means that the government and libraries are actually infringing the author’s copyright every time they make an ebook loan and authors would be entitled to sue for the losses caused by that infringement. We have no current plans to sue, and don’t know of any authors who are planning to do so – we would hope that the Government would recognise its legal and moral responsibility to make payments to authors particularly as ebook lending from libraries is becoming significant.”
Apple’s Motion to Dismiss eBook Price Fixing Lawsuit Denied
Posted by: | Comments
Photo courtesy of tablet-news.com
In the ongoing legal battle with Apple, one that has even been taken up by the U.S. Department of Justice, the first major motion of the proceedings was handed down today and ultimately denied. Apple filed a motion to dismiss that class-action suit brought by Seattle-based law firm Hagens Berman, but that motion was denied by Judge Denise Cote.
Apple’s motion was essentially filed on the grounds that the plaintiffs didn’t have evidence of their misconduct when they allegedly conspired with five of the Big Six publishers to set ebook prices artificially high. The lawsuit claims that this was done with the specific intent of forcing Amazon’s hand and causing the online retailer to raise the prices of its ebooks.
This ruling is in regard only to the civil suit filed on behalf of consumers. The DoJ has its own investigations and proceedings underway, as do several state governments. Three of the publishers named in the case have already signed deals with those states.
According to Judge Cote’s decision, Apple’s motion was denied under the Sherman Act; this ruling specifically addresses the alleged collusion that stemmed from Apple and the publishers working together to set the prices on ebooks. Due to the fact that parties involved in secret collaborations rarely put everything in writing, then inferences are allowed based on the actions and outcomes.
“We look forward to uncovering additional evidence in the discovery phase of this litigation,” said Berman in a press release about the motion today. “We litigated this case because we strongly believe that consumers were harmed by Apple and the publishers’ tactics and we will not settle without an effective plan to repay consumers for their losses.”
The purpose of the class-action suit is to recover some of the estimated $250 million that consumers overpaid following the supposed secret dealings between Apple and the publishers.
“Fortunately for the publishers, Apple was also terrified of Amazon’s pricing and the popularity of its Kindle device,” said Berman. “Rather than compete on merit, price and convenience, we intend to prove that the cabal simply tried to game the system.”
4 Nook Kids eBooks Nominated for Cynopsis Kids !magination Awards
Posted by: | Comments
Barnes and Noble has four of its Nook Kids eBooks up for the Cynopsis Kids !magination Awards. The four Enhanced NOOK Books to be nominated in the ebook category at the first annual Cynopsis Kids Awards are Go Dog Go! (Random House), A Charlie Brown Christmas (PEANUTS Worldwide), Birdies Big-Girl Shoes (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers) and You Will Be My Friend! (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers). All are available in a fun, engaging, digital format, only for Barnes & Noble customers on NOOK Tablet and NOOK Color.
Most of these books that have been nominated have various cool features that separate them from the competition. The Barnes and Noble Read Aloud feature found in the Nook Tablet is one of the main draws. It allows the narrator of the book to read to your kids, but also has the ability for parents or anyone else to narrate the book for you.
Cynopsis: Kids! is a daily e-publication covering the kids’ entertainment business and is the must-read by leaders in the programming, licensing, and kids’ marketing arena. Celebrating 10 years in 2012, Cynopis: Kids! is one of the most comprehensive sources of information for the kids’ reading and entertainment industry.
The Cynopsis Kids !magination Awards honor the year’s most outstanding achievements in content creation and marketing between October 2010 and December 2011. Presented by one of the industry’s most-read and trusted publications, Cynopsis Media, the awards are open to all production companies, studios, producers, networks, animators, developers, licensing companies, marketing and PR firms, ad agencies, and toy companies.
Inkling Partners with Follett for Digital Textbooks at College Bookstores
Posted by: | Comments
Inkling, a San Francisco based start-up, is best known for its digital textbooks that are optimized for the iPad. The company has fostered relations with McGraw-Hill and Pearson. Today Inkling execs have reached an agreement for digital distribution into 900 college bookstores with Follet. This deal currently makes Follett Inkling’s largest distribution partner.
Inkling’s interactive textbooks will be available to Follett students through any web browser and also on iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch devices. Inkling titles include numerous features such as video, interactive assessments, animation, music, slideshows, and 3D models.
Instead of buying the full textbook, you can actually buy specific chapters for only a few dollars. This makes tremendous sense if only a few chapters of the book are relevant to your course of program. Follett students, for the first time, will have the flexibility to purchase Inkling titles using multiple forms of payment, including financial aid or campus cards.
“Inkling has built an engaging, interactive experience that helps students succeed,” said Matt MacInnis, CEO of Inkling. “Our partnership with Follett means millions of students will gain access to a unique, next-generation learning tool. This is a major step forward.”
Wiley Takes on Verizon Over Piracy Concerns
Posted by: | Comments
John Wiley and Sons, publishers of the widely popular bestselling For Dummies series of titles, have been doing battle of late over piracy of its ebooks. As recently as last month, Wiley estimated that more than 74,000 of one of its popular titles alone had been illegally downloaded. In April, the publisher filed a lawsuit against 200 people based on the IP addresses after a deal was offered to all of the identified downloaders.
Now, Wiley is asking for personal information on Verizon customers in order to move forward with lawsuits against users who have illegal copies of ebooks, a request that Verizon has so far denied. The service provider has cited concerns over invasion of privacy and how the information could be used in other ways.
For its part, Verizon simply remains unconvinced that an IP address is an automatic guarantee that the actions were committed by the address owner. That’s not a far-fetched concern, as the registered user may not be the same person who engaged in illegal downloading. Other internet service providers, however, have caved to the pressure of the subpoenas and provided the requested information on their clients.
In April’s lawsuits. Wiley was only demanding the minimum punitive damages from the people whose IPs they recovered, typically $750. However, for those consumers who had been identified as infringing but refused to cooperate, the fine was as much as $150,000 per instance.
eBook Review: The Witness by Nora Roberts
Posted by: | Comments
Verdict: 4.5 Stars
Roberts is one of those rare writers who can blend genres as easily as flipping on a light switch. Part literary fiction, part romance, and still completely a mystery/spy novel, The Witness really brought something for every reader to the table.
When sixteen-year-old Stepford child Elizabeth Fitch commits one completely typical act of teenage rebellion, her entire life is destroyed. By the end of her one night of abandon, she is the prey of the Chicago-based Russian mafia after witnessing the calculated point-blank hit on one of their own and the murder of the man’s date. Her federally protected safe house is raided by crooked cops just short of her testifying against the kingpins, sending her on a twelve-year hiatus as a fugitive with a new identity every few months.
When Liz-turned-Abigail is finally ready to stop running thanks to letting her guard down just enough to let the local small town police chief into her life, she will call upon her savant-like skills with computer hacking and cybercrime to bring down the mob on her own. To keep it interesting, there’s a local self-appointed power hungry bigwig with some money to throw around making her life all the more miserable.
The thing that made The Witness so enjoyable was the sheer amount of research Roberts puts into her books. There was never a moment where the reader is left thinking, “Give me a break, that can’t happen.” From her knowledge of computer crimes, mafia internet crime rings, even the details on a host of handguns and weapons that come into play in the book, Roberts left no detail to chance. The Witness is a gripping book that leaves you wondering how one woman is going to take down the bad guys—all of them—single handed.
Harry Potter eBooks Available on Kindle Lending Library June 19th
Posted by: | Comments
All seven of the of the Harry Potter ebooks are coming to the Amazon Kindle Lending Library on June 19th, 2012. If you are an Amazon Prime member you can download and read one of the Potter books for free every month with no wait time. Instead of having to buy the books to read them, Amazon will let you read one for free!
The Harry Potter ebooks will be available in many different languages such as English, French, Italian, German, and Spanish. Just as with any other Kindle book, your notes, highlights, and bookmarks in borrowed books will be saved, so you’ll have them later if you purchase or re-borrow the book. Books are borrowed from a Kindle device, and customers can have one book out at a time.
“We’re absolutely delighted to have reached this agreement with Pottermore. This is the kind of significant investment in the Kindle ecosystem that we’ll continue to make on behalf of Kindle owners,” said Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon.com. “Over a year, borrowing the Harry Potter books, plus a handful of additional titles, can alone be worth more than the $79 cost of Prime or a Kindle. The Kindle Owners’ Lending Library also has an innovative feature that’s of great benefit for popular titles like Harry Potter – unlimited supply of each title – you never get put on a waiting list.”
DCL Survey Shows Content May Be Businesses’ Most Valuable Asset
Posted by: | Comments
Data Conversion Laboratory released the findings of its most recent survey yesterday and even DCL was a little surprised by the results. This April survey was all about content and what companies perceive it to mean in terms of wealth and the marketability of companies.
“Notable is that 27% of respondents’ estimate corporate content to be worth 75% of company value,” according to the press release on the survey. “That’s quite an incredible acknowledgement of the shift in corporate value. And just as surprising, 44% said their content would make up half the value of their company! We’ve spoken about knowledge workers for years – but the shift to knowledge corporations may be even more profound.”
But what does this mean for reading consumers who are relying on digitally converted content from major businesses and small companies alike?
“Consumers are getting more and more comfortable with their mobile devices, and are used to the convenience of it all,” said Mark Gross, CEO of Data Conversion Laborartory, to GoodEReader. “As a result expectations are rising that they will have accurate and high-quality self-help support where and when they need it – on their mobile device. So it is your readers that are driving the trend for companies to scramble to publish online. Our instant, mobile device culture is driving the trend as they are using these devices to access any information they want – and not just to read a novel.”
It is very promising to hear that consumers are actually the driving force in many cases behind corporations’ decisions to go digital. It should therefore come as no surprise that of the companies surveyed, fifty percent said that they want their product service manuals to be digital, presumably to put them in the hands of their customers instantly and in an easy-to-read format. Another 77% of respondents said they wanted to convert their content to a digital format specifically for their customers to use.
While much of the consumer population might still think of Kindles or Nooks when they think of digital reading, the advent of so many practical, day-to-day niches for e-reading has meant a greater demand for electronic and a greater need for companies who serve to convert data and content.
Marvel Signs Exclusive Deal with Comixology for Single Issue Digital Comics
Posted by: | Comments
Marvel Comics has enjoyed a resurgence in the last few years with their official apps for iOS and Android. Both of these platforms are currently being maintained by Comixology and both companies enjoy a great working relationship. Today Marvel has announced a new single issue digital exclusive deal with Comixology that will make their content available via comiXology’s Digital Storefronts for brick-and-mortar retailers.
The Comixology-powered Marvel Comics app launched in 2010 and has remained one of the top grossing apps in the iTunes store and Google Play Market. This year Marvel has been on a mission to offer their digital versions the same day as the print ones come out. They even have offered incentives for people who buy the printed versions to get the digital editions for free.
Marvel fans will enjoy continued access to single-issue digital comics via the Marvel apps available for Apple iOS and Android, as well as the new web-based Marvel Comics Shop , all powered by Comixology. Marvel comics can also be found on the Comixology platform available on Apple iOS, Android, Kindle Fire, and their main website.
The main part of this deal is the enhanced distribution method for both Marvel and Comixology. When you download the official Marvel app you have to register for a Comixology account. This will sync all of your purchases across all of the platforms and allow you to access any of your digital comics on the official Comixology apps. If you wanted to buy new Marvel single issues, you don’t even need the dedicated Marvel app anymore, just the Comixology version.
“As the industry leader, Marvel is committed to growing the comics market through digital innovation—and bolstering our existing partnership with comiXology continues that,” explained Peter Phillips, SVP & General Manager, Marvel Digital Media. “This agreement is a huge win for current and future fans of the Avengers, X-Men, Spider-Man and Marvel’s entire library of exciting characters.”
Shareholder Sues Books-A-Million to Prevent a Takeover
Posted by: | Comments
A few weeks ago we reported that the majority shareholder of Books-A-Million wanted to take the company private. The Anderson family offered to buy shares at a premium price and valued the company at 48 million dollars. Today an irate shareholder filed a lawsuit in California to prevent the company from going private.
The Shareholders Foundation is a legal monitoring service and reported that the investor filing the claim felt that the current offer of $48.8 million undervalued the company. Initially, the Anderson Family gave a preliminary buyout offer of $3.05 a share to take the company private and maintain more control. Before the announcement happened the shares were valued at $2.55 and then jumped up 25% to $3.15 when the buyout news became public. It seems that a number of investors want a larger slice of the pie now that the company is attracting more attention and shares on the public market are going up.
Books-A-Million is seeking to capitalize on the demise of Borders to become the United States’ second largest bookstore. In order to really take advantage of the situation they need to overhaul the existing management structure and a single force needs to determine the game plan in order to transform their business.
Can Digital eBook Lending from Libraries Hamper Book Sales?
Posted by: Michael Kozlowski | Comments (3)At a recent event in London many publishers and booksellers got together to talk about the current state of affairs in the world of digital publishing. One of the hot topics of the day entailed libraries lending out digital books and how it effects bookstores. Waterstones m.d. James Daunt said that library e-lending could be disruptive to brick-and-mortar booksellers. “If you can download a book for free and read it, why would you want to own it?”
The essence of this issue is if digital lending from libraries actually hurts online bookstores? Obviously libraries have been lending out physical books for hundreds of years but the digital frontier is evolving dramatically and many online retailers are struggling to adapt. If people can just borrow books for free, what incentive do they have to purchase it?
My opinion is people with lower incomes traditionally are the ones that patronize libraries in the digital realm. Tangible libraries in small towns have more functions than just lending books, but they also provide parents with an easy way to get their kids out of the home and discovering the love of reading. It also functions as a study hall for students to all get together and work on group projects. I would say that libraries that lend out digital books do not directly hinder online retailers that sell the books, because they are not in the position to buy them anyways.
I don’t think its fair to blame libraries for devaluing books by lending them out for free. This is actually the main reason why many publishers pulled out of doing business with Overdrive. Many bigwigs are of the belief that if you give it away for free it really makes the item worthless. I think people are looking to deflect the blame from their existing business model that often becomes irrelevant fairly quickly, due to the dramatic shifting landscape of digital books and online retailing.