A new initiative from DailyLit/Plympton, the Harvard Book Store and the Creative Action Network lets artists design custom covers for classic books, then sell the books in print and digital editions. Read more »
The long-delayed Bookish, a website backed by Hachette, Penguin and Simon & Schuster and designed to promote book discovery and sell books, launched Monday night and is designed to be a one-stop shop for readers looking for their next book. Read more »
A blog post by Nick Carr about the future of the printed book touched off an epic comment debate between the author and media theorist Clay Shirky about whether the book format itself will die out and be replaced. Read more »
A federal court has found that scanning books for search — which Google was doing for a university project called the Hathi Trust — is clearly covered by the “fair use” principle in copyright law, which could help Google in its own lawsuit with the Authors Guild. Read more at GigaOM »
After seven years of legal battles, Google has finally reached an agreement with American book publishers that will let it scan and digitize books. The deal stands to make things better for readers and publishers — although Amazon is probably not happy about it. Read more at GigaOM »
Barnes & Noble’s first overseas retailer for its Nook e-reader will be the respected UK department store John Lewis. But shoppers won’t find Nook Color nor Nook Tablet on British shelves yet. Read more »
An incident in which an e-book lending site was shut down by a horde of angry authors with takedown notices — most of whom misunderstood the site’s purpose — is another example of how the publishing industry is fighting the same battles as the music industry. Read more at GigaOM »
Comedian Louis CK, who made $1 million selling downloads of a show through his website, has sold $4.5-million in tickets to a new tour in 48 hours. He and musician Amanda Palmer show that for content creators, building a community is more important than ever. Read more at GigaOM »
Google and Amazon have applied for dozens of new top-level domains — including .blog and .book, as well as .search and .cloud — and many of these will be for the exclusive use of the two companies, which critics say is bad for the web. Read more at GigaOM »
HarperCollins has launched Epic Reads, a digital community designed to connect readers with HarperTeen authors and books. But this is not a retail site. Read more »
Berlin startup Readmill’s iPad-based social reading app has got plenty of attention. Now it’s getting a significant update that will make it simpler and easier to use for everyone — including making it more useful for independent publishers to hook themselves in to. Read more at GigaOM »
Wattpad, which describes itself as the world’s largest online community of readers and writers, has raised $17 million from a group of venture funds led by Khosla Ventures. Khosla partner Andrew Chung says he thinks Wattpad can do for writing what YouTube has done for video. Read more at GigaOM »
Book publishers are trying hard to argue that e-books cost almost as much to produce as printed ones, and therefore prices for e-books should be higher — but the bottom line is that consumers don’t care what a publisher’s costs are, nor should they. Read more at GigaOM »
Sales of e-books may have already overtaken those of hardback in 2011 by volume, but it will take until 2014 for actual sales revenue to catch up, according to one forecaster. Read more »
As the Department of Justice pursues an antitrust case over e-book prices, publishers say they need “agency pricing” to prevent Amazon from increasing its monopoly and decimating the book industry. So who should we be rooting for, the giant retailer or the giant publishing houses? Read more at GigaOM »
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 »
Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN) is denying a frustrated publisher’s claim that it has indefinitely stopped adding any more newspapers and magazines to i… Read more »
DRM is just “a speedbump,” Hachette’s Maja Thomas said at a copyright conference this afternoon. However, opinion within Hachette is clearly… Read more »
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 »
New monthly stats from the Association of American Publishers show strong growth for both print and e-books in January 2012. Read more »
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 »
J. K. Rowling’s Pottermore shop, the exclusive source for Harry Potter e-books and digital audiobooks, launched yesterday, and some muggles… Read more »
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 »
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 »
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 »
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 »
Two new book-related startups that launched in beta this week seek to redefine the book buying, browsing and selling experience. Read more »
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 »
Google (NSDQ: GOOG) will reportedly start selling e-books in France. Read more »
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 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 »
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 »
Twenty-two Chinese authors now plan to sue Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) for 50 million yuan ($7.9 million), claiming 95 of their books were published… Read more »
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 »
Ian Fleming Publications attracted attention when, in 2010, it announced it would publish the James Bond e-books directly instead of selling… Read more »
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 »
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 »
“Our industries do something that no one else can do,” the Motion Picture Association of America’s Fritz Attaway said at the Association of… Read more »
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 a conference last week, an Encyclopaedia Brittanica executive rose from the floor to challenge keynoter Jimmy Wales of Wikipedia.
“I don… Read more »
