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Kindle, We Have a Problem: Amazon's Pricing Policies Affect Publishers
In the comics world, most of the digital conversation is about comic books as apps for tablets and smart phones. However, while there is a nascent market for comics on e-book readers like the Kindle and B&N’s color device, the Nook, Amazon’s recently introduced digital “delivery fee,” charging publishers 15 cents per megabyte to transfer a book’s file to the Kindle, has forced some comics publishers to rethink using the Kindle platform.
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E-books Boost Sales: From the AAP
The Association of American Publishers' domestic sales report for 2010 showed e-book sales jumping significantly from last year, rising 164.4%, with e-books bringing in $441 million at the 14 companies that reported sales, compared to $166.9 million in 2009.
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Reaching the e-Teen
As more titles become available and as device prices fall, a growing number of kids are jumping on the e-wagon. "I think [e-books] are the future for everyone," says Linda Braun, the immediate past president of the Young Adult Library Services Association. "They will take off because of ease of access and portability."
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The Week in Apps: February 18, 2011
This week, the three little pigs and five little monkeys go digital. There are also new apps for learning the 50 states, as well as a popular college guide.
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The Week in Children's Apps: February 17, 2011
This week, Britain's Nosy Crow debuts its first iPad app with an interactive version of the Three Little Pigs; Eileen Christelow's "Five Little Monkeys" are jumping... to the app format; and a new app helps kids learn about the 50 states.
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Perseus, NBC Release 'Roots' Enhanced E-Book
Coinciding with Black History Month, Perseus and NBC News have announced a new e-book for the iPad, Roots: The Enhanced Edition. The $15.99 e-book includes the complete original book and multimedia features such as video from the NBC News Archives, Haley family photos, recordings from the Haley Estate, and commentary from NBC News special correspondent Tom Brokaw.
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Hay House Partners with Vook for E-Books
Hay House, one of the leading publishers of self-help books, has contracted with digital publisher Vook to produce hundreds of enhanced e-books across multiple platforms, the first of which will be available this May. Hay House is the first publisher to utilize Vook’s MotherVook technology engine, through which Vook has already created 150 of its own titles and which is now being extended to other publishers.
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More Vendors, More Options In the Digital Comics Market
In the wake of last week’s launch of Diamond Digital, Diamond Comics Distributors new program to offer digital downloads through physical comics shops, digital comics vendors like ComiXology and iVerse Media have entered into the spotlight of digital comics distribution. While both vendors are among the frontrunners in offering digital comics, PWCW talked with a number of digital vendors also looking to compete in the digital comics distribution and retail marketplace.
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The Week in Apps: February 11, 2011
This week, there is a Facebook app based on the Princeton Review’s popular Best 373 Colleges, a literary guide to Melbourne, an app that collects reviews of children's books, and an e-bookstore app for kids.
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At Tools of Change, Former ABC Director Kristen McLean to Discuss New Venture, Bookigee
On February 15, McLean will make the first public presentation of her new company—Bookigee—at the Tools of Change Publishing Startup Showcase. Billed as an "innovative, visualizing discovery engine," Bookigee, McLean says, has set its sights on addressing a core issue for books and content in the digital age: discoverability.
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The Week in Children's Apps: February 10, 2011
This week, there is an app that collects reviews of children's books, and an e-bookstore app for kids.
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Diamond, iVerse Team Up to Sell Digital Comics Via Comics Shops
Diamond Comics Distributors is teaming with digital comics vendor iVerse to launch a digital program that will give physical comics shops the ability to offer exclusive digital delivery of a select group of comics.
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The 'Times' Shakes Its Lists
The New York Times will debut its new e-book bestsellers list as well as a new list that combines all print and e-book sales figures in its February 13 Sunday edition. The combined list, which borrows the idea used by USA Today, will presumably identify the hottest selling adult book of a particular week across all formats.
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The Week in Apps: February 4, 2011
This week, there is an app based on Jay-Z’s book Decoded that lets users listen to songs and get interactive lyrics with Jay-Z’s annotations; as well as two new cookbook-related apps, from Martha Stewart and vegan cooking queen Isa Chandra Moskowitz.
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Springer Starts Online Review Program
Springer has started its own online book review program, making 10,000 of its titles available for review on springer.com. The online book review copies includes all English-language e-books that have been published since 2006. According to Springer, the service is designed for journalists, editors and book reviewers who are granted temporary reading access.
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Authors Guild Marks 'The Great Blackout' with Series of Essays
To mark the one-year anniversary of what it calls "the Great Blackout"--when Amazon pulled the buy buttons from Macmillan's titles to protest the publisher's adoption of the agency model--the Authors Guild is doing a series of member alerts looking at "the state of e-books, authorship and publishing." -
Apple Tightens iOS App Purchasing Features
In the wake of its rejection of the Sony e-book app, Apple is clarifying its guidelines for app development, emphasizing that to be approved, apps that allow consumers to bypass the iTunes/App store retail channel must also offer consumers the option of in-app purchases through the Apple purchasing system. It remains unclear how this will affect e-book retailers like Amazon, B&N, Kobo and others with iOS apps, vendors whose apps bypass Apple for sales and send the consumer to their own web sites for purchases but currently do not offer in-app purchases through the Apple purchase system.
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Open Road to Publish Virginia Hamilton E-books
On February 15, Open Road Integrated Media will publish the first children’s titles in its “author branded program”: seven e-books by Newbery Medal and National Book Award winner Virginia Hamilton, who died in 2002. Among the e-books on the list are Newbery and NBA winner M.C. Higgins, the Great.
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Apple Rejects Sony Book App
Executives from Sony are scrambling to reqroup after Apple rejected the Sony iPhone/iPad book app, apparently because the software did not allow consumers to buy e-books through the iTunes/App store as well. While initial reports claimed that Apple was tightening the commercial restrictions it places on apps, subsequent reports suggest Apple is enforcing app-development rules that are already in place.
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Wiley Launches New Program of Open Access Journals
Wiley Open Access journals will be published under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited and is not used for commercial purposes. Publication will be supported by an author fee, payable on acceptance of their articles, although Wiley officials have not yet announced how much that fee would be, only that they will "introduce a range of new payment schemes," including institutional agreements.
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