'Price gouging from Covid': student ebooks costing up to 500% more than in print

Call for inquiry into academic publishers as locked-down students unable to access study material onlineCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageLibrarians at UK universities say students’ reading lists for this term are being torn up because of publishers’ “eye-watering” increases to ebook prices, and some students are now reading what is available or affordable, rather than what their tutors think is best for their course.With thousands of students studying in their bedrooms at home because of the pandemic, providing access to textbooks and research books online has become crucial. However, librarians say academic publishers are failing to offer electronic versions of many books, seen as critical to degree courses during the pandemic. And, they say, universities frequently cannot afford to buy the ebooks available, for which they can be charged more than five times as much as the printed version, often running into hundreds of pounds a copy, sometimes for one user at a time. Related: 'Your coursemates are just computer icons': universities call for mental health cash Continue reading... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'

[ The Guardian | 2021-01-29 12:00:00 UTC ]
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Hachette to bring French out of copyright titles into print

Written By: Barbara Casassus Publication Date: Tue, 22/03/2011 - 16:45 Hachette Livre and the French National Library (BnF) have signed a print-on-demand agreement for the publisher to sell through bookshops out-of-copyright works from the BnF’s online library Gallica. An initial 15,000 titles... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-03-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Hachette Livre US ebook sales nearly 25% of total

Written By: Barbara Casassus Publication Date: Mon, 21/03/2011 - 11:26 E-book sales by Hachette Livre in the United States are in line with the national average, according to the group's chairman and c.e.o. Arnaud Nourry. He told the Buzz Média service of the French daily Le Figaro that ebooks... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-03-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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No breakthrough over author ebook rights in France ahead of fair

Written By: Barbara Casassus Publication Date: Thu, 17/03/2011 - 06:39 French authors have urged culture minister Frédéric Mitterrand to intecede in order to break the deadlock in their negotiations with publishers over electronic rights. For the second year running, the Permanent Council of... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-03-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Orange offers 23k ebooks for sale via Android app

Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Thu, 17/03/2011 - 06:47 Orange has launched an ebook app for Android, with a "one-click buy" system which directly bills a user's Orange account. But the app will not be available on Apple's iPhone or iPad devices at the same time because of the... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-03-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Library bodies warn publishers off 'retrenchment' over ebook lending

Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Thu, 17/03/2011 - 09:23 The Society of Chief Librarians and the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council have signed a joint position on ebook lending in libraries, saying the Publisher Association's baseline position has "limited practical use"... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-03-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Publishers Debate Pricing, Marketing Models For Apps

Simplifying (and clarifying) the purchasing process—regardless of newsstand--and finding new ways to effectively market among the crush of new apps being launched is critical for publishers to succeed, according to speakers at MPA’s Digital E-Reading conference today. Continue reading at Folio Magazine

[ Folio Magazine | 2011-03-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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French government says publishers should collaborate over ebook negotiations

Written By: Barbara Casassus Publication Date: Tue, 15/03/2011 - 09:23 French culture minister Frédéric Mitterrand has urged French publishers to speak with one voice in forthcoming negotiations with Amazon over supplying their ebooks for the Kindle. read more Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-03-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Bloomsbury predicts 2011 to be "year of the ebook"

Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Mon, 28/02/2011 - 09:20 Bloomsbury is anticipating 2011 to be the "year of the ebook", as it reported ebook sales were just under 10% of trade print sales in its latest results. For the 12 months ending 31st December 2010, sales were up 4.01%... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-02-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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B&N Looks for the Right Print, Digital Balance

Barnes & Noble's third-quarter results for the period ended January 29 shows the dilemma faced by companies making the transition from print to digital. In the case of B&N, while its fastest growth is tied to the sale of ebooks and Nook digital readers, its most profitable business... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2011-02-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Android Market ebooks goes live; music and movies to follow?

By Tim Conneally, Betanews The Android Market has never had any specific ban on carrying and selling straight up text documents, and users could search through the market and find apps that were, in effect, standalone ebooks. Now, however, there is a section dedicated specifically to ebooks... Continue reading at Betanews

[ Betanews | 2011-02-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Google introduces ebooks to Android market

Written By: Bookseller Staff Publication Date: Fri, 25/02/2011 - 08:20 Google has introduced ebooks to the web version of its Android Market of apps. By buying an app on the webstore, a user can then push it onto any Android-enabled device. PC Mag reports the book capacity was added yesterday... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-02-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Makro unveils UK's cheapest ebook reader

Written By: Graeme Neill Publication Date: Thu, 24/02/2011 - 09:35 The price of ebook readers has been slashed again with wholesaler Makro advertising the Binatone ReadMe Classic for around £35. read more Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-02-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Fifty UK libraries sign up to Overdrive ebook app

Written By: Lisa Campbell Publication Date: Wed, 16/02/2011 - 15:42 read more Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-02-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Apple App Store subscription plan gouges publishers, eats their young

By Joe Wilcox, Betanews Somebody call the cops -- eh, antitrust authorities. Apple's subscription plan is here, and it's as bad for many, if not most, publishers as rumored. The first of several key sentences from Apple's press announcement: "Publishers may no longer provide links in their apps... Continue reading at Betanews

[ Betanews | 2011-02-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
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UK bestsellers help Hachette prove resilient as ebooks rise in the US

Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Thu, 10/02/2011 - 10:08 Bestsellers from Hachette UK helped limit the decline in sales at parent Lagardere Publishing, according to results filed by the French group, which is continuing to suffer from a year-on-year drop in sales of Stephenie... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-02-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Asda unveils UK's cheapest ebook reader

Written By: Lisa Campbell Publication Date: Mon, 07/02/2011 - 16:12 ASDA has launched the UK’s cheapest e-reader at £52. The View Quest Mediabox 5in Media Tablet went on sale today through its Asda Direct website. The Asda site does not sell ebooks with the supermarket chain instead... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-02-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Non-agency authors are Amazon UK’s bestselling ebooks

Written By: Lisa Campbell Amazon.co.uk has reiterated its opposition to agency pricing as it revealed its top-selling ebook authors are not governed by the model. Last week Amazon.com announced ebooks had begun to outsell paperbacks in the US for the first time, with 115 ebooks bought for every... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-02-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Apple confirms rule change over ebook apps

Written By: Philip Jones Apple has confirmed that it wants a cut of Amazon's Kindle sales made via its iPad and iPhone apps. The giant hardware company has said that it will no longer allow apps to sell content via a separate browser link, unless customers are also given the option of... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-02-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
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iPhone app store, Amazon Kindle: Why ebook sellers should stop playing by Apple's rules.

Over the last few months the tech industry has been inching toward ebook nirvana. For one thing, gadget makers keep improving e-readers while slashing prices. (I'm going to renew my bet that Amazon will begin selling the Kindle for less than $100 by the end of the year.) The bigger story,... Continue reading at Slate

[ Slate | 2011-02-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
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OFT launches investigation into agency pricing

Written By: Charlotte Williams The Office of Fair Trading has announced an enquiry into the ebook agency model, following what it described as a "significant number of complaints". The OFT said the investigation is "into whether arrangements that certain publishers have put in place with some... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-02-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
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