Eleven romance authors of both traditionally published and self-published tittles are banding together to show their commitment to “bringing high standards and professional quality to their self-published works.” Read more »
Some e-book buyers embrace a little friction, says Joe Esposito at The Scholarly Kitchen. Read more »
Breaking down the e-book bestsellers list: A new weekly feature. Read more »
Pottermore CEO Charlie Redmayne joins us at paidContent 2012: At The Crossroads.for a look at what it takes to take a beloved brand digital — and the DRM strategy for J.K. Rowling’s insanely popular Harry Potter collection. Read more »
Canadian law firms are filing class-action suits against Apple and book publishers for allegedly colluding on e-book prices. Read more »
Book publishers argue that Amazon is a vicious monopoly that has too much power over them and their content. But they need to realize they gave Amazon much of that power themselves when they agreed to shackle all of their books in DRM chains. Read more at GigaOM »
The lawsuits over price-fixing in the e-book market took a new twist today after a HarperCollins lawyer predicted that three publishers could reach a settlement with all 50 state governments in the next two months. Read more »
Here are the most interesting things that Amazon publisher Larry Kirshbaum said in an interview with Daniel Menaker last week. Read more »
Higher education costs have skyrocketed by over 430 percent since the 1980s. Now two startups aim to make college courses more affordable. Coursera offers free online courses from universities like Stanford and Princeton. And a new tool from Akademos helps professors find less expensive — or free — textbooks for their courses. Read more »
When the Ian Fleming estate gave up the digital rights to the James Bond backlist last month, Random House UK’s Vintage grabbed the English-language print and e-book rights everywhere outside the U.S. and Canada. Well, guess who’s getting those North American digital rights? Amazon. Read more »
Last week, the Department of Justice sued Apple and five book publishers for allegedly colluding to set e-book prices. What does the suit mean for readers today and in coming weeks? Read more »
Children’s e-book reading is still in very early stages — but with parents increasingly handing iPads down to their kids, publishers see room for fast growth. A new iPad app offers children’s books from brands like My Little Pony and Curious George. Read more »
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 »
Apple says it had to cut an agency-pricing deal with publishers in order to weaken Amazon’s monopolistic control over the e-book industry. But wait — didn’t Apple behave exactly the same way towards the record labels as it is accusing Amazon of behaving towards book publishers? Read more at GigaOM »
If you are one of the 64 percent of people who read in bed, do you need a dedicated front-lit e-reader? Yes, says Barnes & Noble, so that you don’t disturb that special someone sleeping beside you. Hence the new $139 Nook Simple Touch with GlowLight. Read more »
Pulitzer Prize-winning author Richard Russo, one of the newest additions to the PaidContent 2012 lineup, will talk about the changing publishing landscape, including how authors are affected by the battle over e-book pricing, 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 Justice Department is pouncing on statements by Apple like “aikido move” and “trounce Amazon” to prove its case that Apple was the hub of a illegal conspiracy to fix the price of e-books. While the statements sounds serious, the government’s overall explanation of Apple’s role […] Read more »
Our primer to today’s DOJ lawsuit against five publishers and Apple — how we got here and what comes next. Read more »
Apple and book publishers already have their hands full after the Justice Department sued them in New York today for allegedly fixing the price of e-books. Now, state governments are seeking their own pound of flesh. Read more »
Three publishers named in the DOJ’s lawsuit against agency pricing “reluctantly” agreed to settle. Meanwhile, Amazon’s smiling today. Read more »
Macmillan is ready to fight the Department of Justice lawsuit against Apple and five big publishers, CEO John Sargent writes in an open letter to the publishing community today. Read more »
The Justice Department has at last filed an anti-trust complaint in New York against Apple and five publishers over an alleged price fixing conspiracy. Read more »
At least two of the big-six publishers are refusing to sign new annual contracts with Amazon. While that could result in their “buy” buttons being turned off, it is more likely that the feud will result in less promotion of big-six publishers’ titles on the site. Read more »
In a letter to the Senate, Washington-based lobbyist Consumer Federation of America claims “this year the cost to consumers of e-book price fixing will likely exceed $200 million and the abuse will grow dramatically.” How did the CFA calculate that number? Read more »
Days after paidContent reported that Amazon has indefinitely suspended its approval program for newspapers on Kindle, Amazon has relented and kickstarted the process for at least one publisher caught up in the backlog. Read more »
As author Clay Shirky points out, the simple act of publishing something — whether it’s a book or a news article — doesn’t require an industry any more, just a button. So what do the traditional content-publishing industries do now to justify their continued existence? Read more at GigaOM »
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 »
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 »
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 »
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 »
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 »
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 »
Pew finds that e-reader and tablet owners read more books — print and digital — than people who don’t own those devices. Read more »
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 »
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 »
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 »
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 »
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 »
DRM is just “a speedbump,” Hachette’s Maja Thomas said at a copyright conference this afternoon. However, opinion within Hachette is clearly… Read more »
