Just as Engadget was hitting publish on its first posts, I was putting a freshly minted English degree to use working at an indie bookshop in Los Angeles. In seemingly unrelated news, Amazon had just reported its first profitable year after switching from selling books to selling “everything” four years before. (It still sold a lot of books.) Our bookstore did a good job keeping shelves stocked with a balance of the more worthy popular hits and smaller, better fare. But we couldn’t have every book a customer might want, so we offered to order any in-print title. If a distributor had it, it’d take about a week to get in, longer if we had to go through the publisher. That seemed fine for most customers. But sometimes “about a week” was too long. A few people came right out and said, “Nah, I’ll order it on Amazon.” In 2005, Amazon launched Prime, the membership program that, for $79 a year, gave customers unlimited two-day shipping on most orders. At launch, CEO Jeff Bezos called it “‘all-you-can-eat’ express shipping.” No one knew at the time how hungry the world was for Amazon’s brand of convenience. And now, nearly two decades later, we’ve seen the shifts that accommodate that buffet — in labor, retail and the entire customer experience. Prime wasn’t an overnight success. It’s estimated that six years after launch, just four million households paid for the service. But 10 years later, in 2021, Bezos claimed it had accrued 200 million members worldwide. Outside of that... Continue reading at 'Engadget'
[ Engadget | 2024-03-08 14:15:57 UTC ]
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Get some of the most popular hardcovers and paperbacks of the past two years on sale for 50% off today! Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2024-05-15 15:04:14 UTC ]
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The Southern California Independent Bookstore Bestsellers list for Sunday, May 19, 2024, including hardcover and paperback fiction and nonfiction. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2024-05-15 13:00:09 UTC ]
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This year’s Digiday Media Awards winners celebrate new technologies and the power of partnerships throughout their digital media campaigns. Themes across 2024’s winners include leaning into a surge in short-form video content as consumption for the format increases, implementing more interactive... Continue reading at Digiday
[ Digiday | 2024-05-14 18:30:00 UTC ]
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Cysts in both wrists made reading a literal pain. But Lamicall’s Tablet Holder takes that pain away by holding up my Kindle for me. Continue reading at Wired
[ Wired | 2024-05-12 13:00:00 UTC ]
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Emily Henry, Toni Morrison, J.R.R. Tolkien, Dr. Seuss and more books on sale for 50% off today! Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2024-05-10 18:01:00 UTC ]
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The inaugural Amazon Book Sale will run May 15–20 and feature deep discounts on thousands of books, including 50% off print bestsellers. The e-retailer is touting the event as "The Book Sale of Your Dreams." Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-05-09 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Audiobooks are fast becoming ‘a major route to market for consumers of books’, the trade body saysThe number of UK audiobook downloads increased by 17% between 2022 and 2023, according to new data from the Publishers Association (PA).Revenue from audiobooks rose 24% across the same period to... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2024-05-07 15:28:43 UTC ]
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The winners and nominated finalists of the 2024 Pulitzer Prizes were announced today by administrator Marjorie Miller via remote video stream. The winners each take home $15,000 dollars and serious bragging rights, not to mention a ticket into a very illustrious club. The full list of winners... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2024-05-06 19:40:29 UTC ]
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Amazon’s entry-level 16GB Kindle is on sale for $80, which is a discount of 20 percent. This is the latest iteration of the standard ereader, dating back to 2022. Amazon doesn’t do too many Kindle hardware updates, so we don’t know if this sale precludes a forthcoming refresh. The sale covers... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2024-05-06 17:12:07 UTC ]
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Driven by its cloud computing unit, sales and earnings at Amazon posted big first-quarter gains this year. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-05-01 04:00:00 UTC ]
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The selection of Moore's memoir as Book of the Year was one of a dozen award winners at the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association's 50th anniversary celebration, which took place in Chicago this week. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-05-01 04:00:00 UTC ]
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The American Booksellers Association has filed a motion with the Federal Trade Commission seeking to fix a hole in the FTC’s antitrust complaint against Amazon that many in the industry agree needs correcting: that it did not specifically include what Amazon’s practices have done to book... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-04-29 04:00:00 UTC ]
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When is enough enough? Ryan Chapman on wants, needs, money, and time. | Lit Hub Memoir “Resets are necessary throughout a writing life.” Julia Alvarez on falling in love with writing again. | Lit Hub Craft What does Lord Byron have in common with Che Guevara? “A revolutionary who loves poetry... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2024-04-19 10:30:28 UTC ]
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This year’s top honor goes to a 128-year-old store that is beloved by its community, plays host to vibrant literary events for authors large and small, and serves as an anchor business for the Village of La Jolla, Calif. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-04-19 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Among the week's headlines: a new report reinforces the value of school libraries; PEN America finds school book bans still surging; and an epic battle over the public library in Superman's hometown of Metropolis (...Illinois). Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-04-19 04:00:00 UTC ]
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This year’s winner was nominated for the award an impressive eight times and praised for her encyclopedic knowledge, intelligence, curiosity, and diligence. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-04-19 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Children of the Sun burst onto the indie scene like a muzzle flash on a dark night. Publisher Devolver Digital dropped the game’s first trailer on February 1, showcasing frenzied sniper shots and a radioactive art style. A Steam demo highlighting its initial seven stages went live that same day... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2024-04-18 19:45:11 UTC ]
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#major publishing
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This week, TIME magazine published its annual list of the 100 Most Influential People of the year. Usually, when this list comes out, I complain (to the universe, I guess) that there aren’t enough novelists (“enough” meaning “more than one”) on it. Last year, though, there were four, which was a... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2024-04-18 17:45:48 UTC ]
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The Penguin Random House district sales manager, who handles indie bookstores from Pennsylvania through North Carolina, is celebrated for her personal touch. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-04-18 04:00:00 UTC ]
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