Anyone who has been taking advantage of Amazon's liberal return policy regarding e-books could soon be in for a shock. That's because following discussions with the Authors Guild, Amazon has agreed to block automatic returns on digital books that are more than 10 percent read. Currently, the problem for authors on Amazon is that customers can return e-books online anytime within seven days of purchase no matter how much content has been consumed. That means if you can you read a book in less than a week, you can simply return it when you're done for free, resulting in a loss of profits for the author. However, under the new policy which is scheduled to go into effect sometime before the end of the year, Amazon will begin blocking automatic returns on e-books that are more than 10 read, which will then need to be reviewed by a representative to ensure that the return is genuine. The Authors Guild says the goal is to create a deterrent for people who abuse Amazon's current policy and to prevent people from treating Amazon's e-book marketplace as an ersatz library. Issues with Amazon's e-book return policy date back more than a decade, but had recently come under fire again after lifehacks about the company's guidelines began circulating online. And according to NPR, in some cases, abuse of the company's return policy even resulted in some authors having negative earnings balances, which typically happened when customers returned an e-book after the creator had been paid out... Continue reading at 'Engadget'
[ Engadget | 2022-09-23 19:10:20 UTC ]
Shrinking publisher market share in digital books has given the “illusion” of an ebook plateau, but there is a “huge, untracked shadow industry” of self-published titles growing faster, The FutureBook Conference has heard. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-12-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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A coalition of authors groups and booksellers is urging the Supreme Court to reverse the verdict in Apple's ebook price-fixing case. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-12-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Alec Ross sees a future in which digital books can be delivered as unpiratable text messages and the big data revolution is democratized to smaller players. The post Data Encryption, Cryptography are Keys to the Future of the Book appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2015-11-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Softening sales for digital books have impacted the bottom lines at HarperCollins and Simon & Schuster, according to both companies' recent earnings reports. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-11-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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An appeals court rejected the claims of the Authors Guild that Google's massive book scanning project is copyright infringement. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-10-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Google's book scanning project constitutes fair use under U.S. copyright law, an appeals court confirmed Friday, ending a ten-year legal fight by the Authors Guild and other writers' groups to have it stopped. Google began working with libraries in 2004 to digitize their book collections,... Continue reading at PC World
[ PC World | 2015-10-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The U.S Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit has rejected the Authors Guild's appeal and affirmed that Google’s library book scanning project is protected by fair use. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-10-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Apple has announced that enhanced editions of all seven books in J K Rowling’s Harry Potter series are exclusively available on the iBooks store. Until now, the Harry Potter digital books have only been available through the Pottermore Shop. The digital books, which can be read on the iPhone,... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-10-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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A membership survey, contract initiative, and a dues hike are part of the organization's new program. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-09-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Authors Guild says median income for members has fallen 24% in five years, with piracy, Amazon and publishing economies contributing to slump in earningsThe earnings of more than half of American authors fell below the US federal poverty level last year, according to a survey from the Authors... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2015-09-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
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German publishers are speedily bidding goodbye to Adobe DRM (Digital Rights Management) on their ebooks. What started as a trickle earlier this year has now become an unstoppable torrent with Random House Germany the latest (and largest) of the major publishing groups to exit hard-DRM. Citing... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-08-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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This week, we polled readers on whether Millennials prefer print or digital books. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-07-31 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Charging VAT on digital books is “holding back the development of the ebook market in general, and especially in non-English and small-language markets”, the International Publishers Association’s (IPA) José Borghino has said. A global survey of VAT rates, conducted by the IPA and the... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-07-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Author protest group Authors United is asking authors to sign a letter to the US Justice Department, asking it "to examine Amazon's control of the book market." The letter has been drafted with the help of the Authors Guild. Meanwhile both the American Booksellers Association and the Association... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-07-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Citing a major uptick in Internet piracy, the Authors Guild has urged Congress to require ISPs to monitor and filter the Internet for pirated works. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-07-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The Authors Guild is asking bestselling authors to push back against the industry's reigning 25% ebook royalty rate "on behalf of all authors, as well as themselves.” Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-07-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The Authors Guild has outlined some of the "egregious terms" of current contract boilerplates it plans to address in its Fair Contract Initiative, first announced May 28 during BookExpo America. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-06-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The Authors Guild of America has launched a Fair Contract Initiative to “address the major inequities in many boilerplate contract terms today” and educate authors on what terms they can negotiate on. The initiative, announced on Friday (28th May) at BEA, aims to “restore balance to the... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-06-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
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At this year's BookExpo America, the Authors Guild is rolling out its Fair Contract Initiative, a series of commentaries it will publish in the coming months that take a "fresh look at the standard book publishing contract." Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-05-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Writers are contributing to the fall in their incomes by penning free pieces for large companies in the hope that it will raise their profile and lead to book sales, Roxana Robinson, president of The Authors Guild, has told The Bookseller. She also said that Amazon was devaluing books and writing. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-05-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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