The European Commission has begun to dissolve the Agency Model that Apple and the Big Six publishers implemented a few years ago. The EU has found that HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster, Macmillan, Hachette Livre, and Apple "engaged in a concerted practice" to raise ebook prices or prevent the emergence of lower prices across Europe. There are new agreements in place starting … [Read more...] about EU Begins to Dismantle Agency Pricing on eBooks
Business News and Statistics
Media Moguls Team Up to Form Brightline ePublishing
Barry Diller, the Chairman of AC/InterActiveCorp, and film producer Scott Rudin have banded together to form a new digital publishing company. The new initiative will be called Brightline and will publish ebooks and eventually physical books in a partnership with Atavist.Just what the world needs, another company getting into digital publishing, right? Except these two guys … [Read more...] about Media Moguls Team Up to Form Brightline ePublishing
Amazon Introduces Popular 70% Royalty Option for India
Kindle Direct Publishing Select by Amazon lets you exclusively publish your ebooks with the online company. You can then make some solid income by allowing your books to be borrowed for free through the Amazon Prime eBook Lending program. When you book is borrowed, you get paid by a growing pool of money Amazon sets aside, and the amount continues to grow. Today the company … [Read more...] about Amazon Introduces Popular 70% Royalty Option for India
Harvard Business Review Offering DRM-Free eBooks
Digital Rights Management is a hot button issue and many companies employ it to discourage illegal file sharing on the internet. It also ensures that people are not taking the books and reselling them to other people. There are plenty of reasons why DRM is adopted by the big six publishers, but others see it as hindering the ebook experience. When you buy a book it is often … [Read more...] about Harvard Business Review Offering DRM-Free eBooks
Kobo and the UK Booksellers Association Bring eReaders and eBooks to Indie Bookstores
Recently Kobo reached an agreement with the American Booksellers Association to bring Kobo's entire line of e-readers and ebooks to thousands of independent bookstores in the USA. This new initiative between the Booksellers Association brings ebooks and e-readers to 1,000 bookstores in the UK and Ireland.Kobo has made the strongest push into the United Kingdom out of all … [Read more...] about Kobo and the UK Booksellers Association Bring eReaders and eBooks to Indie Bookstores
eBook Sales Increase by 188% in the UK
In the first six months of 2012, ebook sales went up 188% in the United Kingdom, according to the Publishers Association. One of the strongest segments of market growth this year has been children’s digital books and digital non-fiction books, which saw increases of 171% and 128% respectively during the same period. This has come at the expense of printed books, which fell … [Read more...] about eBook Sales Increase by 188% in the UK
A New Report States 15% of All eBook Reviews Will Be Fake by 2014
A new report by Gartner Research points out a very disturbing trend in the ebook industry: fake or paid reviews. Many companies are actively creating duplicate user accounts and posting reviews on a book in an effort to gain more sales. In other cases, self-published authors like John Locke and Stephen Leather pay people to leave positive reviews or leave fake reviews … [Read more...] about A New Report States 15% of All eBook Reviews Will Be Fake by 2014
Overdrive Clarifies New Hachette eBook Increase Is Only 104%
Overdrive reported last week in an email to libraries that ebooks provided by publisher Hachette were going to increase by 220% this October. This is going to dramatically increase the costs for libraries to stock the ebooks in their catalogs. Overdrive reached out to Good e-Reader today to clarify that the 220% increase was an error, and instead it is only 104% (or 2.04 times) … [Read more...] about Overdrive Clarifies New Hachette eBook Increase Is Only 104%
Book Publisher Launches Educational Tablet at the Manila International Book Fair
One of the major events that occurred at the Manila Book Fair was a local book publisher announcing a new Android device. Diwa Learning Systems is trying to take advantage of the digital book boom with its new Yopad.Brian Belen, executive director of Diwa, said the China-made tablet computer will be available in the coming school year 2013-2014. The device is expected to be … [Read more...] about Book Publisher Launches Educational Tablet at the Manila International Book Fair
What New Amazon Kindle or Kobo e-Reader Will You Buy?
We have seen many new e-readers announced over the course of the last two weeks. Amazon and Kobo both staged press events where they debuted the latest and greatest devices to be launched within the next month. Amazon made the grandest splash with the launching of the Kindle Fire HD and new Kindle Paperwhite. It also updated the original Kindle Fire and Kindle 4th generation … [Read more...] about What New Amazon Kindle or Kobo e-Reader Will You Buy?
Study Shows the Majority of YA Fiction Is Purchased by Adults
Young Adult Fiction is enjoying a tremendous amount of popularity for the last few years with runaway success like The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins and Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson series. Most of these books are geared towards teenagers, but it looks like adult reading is on the rise. A recent study conducted by Bowker stated that 55% of all YA books and ebooks are … [Read more...] about Study Shows the Majority of YA Fiction Is Purchased by Adults
Bibliofile ePaper Powers Devices via Page Turns
Artist and Designer Nadeem Haidary has developed a new technology called Bibliofile that seeks to maintain the battery power of an e-reader by simply turning the pages. Her new project uses page-turning gestures to generate the power necessary to update an e-paper display. These gestures provide cognitive, mechanical, and digital feedback to the person using the device. The … [Read more...] about Bibliofile ePaper Powers Devices via Page Turns
Livraria Cultura and Kobo Partner to Bring eBooks to Brazil
Kobo and Livraria Cultura have just officially signed an agreement that will bring ebooks to Brazil at the end of October. The Kobo Touch e-Reader will be available for purchase at all 14 Livraria Cultura stores, as well as its website. The rest of Kobo's latest devices may make the trek at the end of the year. The ebooks will be available to browse and purchase directly … [Read more...] about Livraria Cultura and Kobo Partner to Bring eBooks to Brazil