Scribd, HarperCollins deal casts long digital shadow

Whether publishers want it or not, the Netflix model is coming to the book business.The San Francisco startup Scribd, best known as a site for posting PDFs of documents, announced Tuesday it is launching a multi-platform digital book subscription service that will provide access to a wide range of titles for $9 a month. Users can read ebooks on iOS and Android devices, as well as on Web browsers, and keep as many as 20 titles available for reading offline.Unlike other Netflix-like services that have launched recently, including Manhattan-based Oyster, Scribd is starting with thousands of titles from HarperCollins, or the majority of the publisher's backlist up until July 2012. Getting the cooperation of the so-called Big Five New York publishing houses has been the holy grail of subscription-service startups, and having even one of them represents a significant advance.More than 30 smaller publishers are also working with Scribd, including Sourcebooks, Workman and Kensington.Scribd, founded in 2007, also starts out with a high profile and an enormous user-base: It claims 80 million active readers monthly, and says that the subscription service—which soft-launched in January—has been growing by 60% every month. The company declined to provide subscriber numbers."There's never been an access model rolled out with this level of support and scale," said Trip Adler, Scribd's 29-year-old CEO and co-founder.Publishers have typically shied away from subscription services on the... Continue reading at 'Crains New York'

[ Crains New York | 2013-10-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Scribd launches subscription ebook service for Android, iOS and web

Many of us associate Scribd with embedded documents on websites, but the company has been quietly building an ebook platform -- first by selling content and later by soft-launching a subscription service. The company is now making its strategy clear by formally launching the ebook service and... Continue reading at Engadget

[ Engadget | 2013-10-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Scribd Challenges Amazon and Apple With 'Netflix for Books'

Spotify did it for music. Netflix did it for movies. And now, Trip Adler and Scribd are doing it for books. The 29-year-old entrepreneur and his six-year-old San Francisco startup just unveiled an online subscription service that gives you unlimited access to a large library of digital books for... Continue reading at Wired

[ Wired | 2013-10-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Major deal with Cornerstone for Bray's Mormon story

Cornerstone has signed a six-figure deal for a début novel about a Mormon family in... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2013-09-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Troy Young Is Reinventing Hearst Digital With a Wrecking Ball

Unlike his buttoned-up peers in the executive suite at Hearst, Troy Young doesn't keep an office, nor does he wear designer suits to work. Rumors have even spread that he insisted on a contract provision saying he didn't need to wear a necktie. He says there's nothing about ties in the contract... Continue reading at Advertising Age

[ Advertising Age | 2013-09-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Will the Digital Era Produce as Influential a Book Critic?

Marcel Reich-Ranicki was a living embodiment of so much of 20th century German intellectual life. Will the internet era ever produce as influential a critic? Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives

[ Publishing Perspectives | 2013-09-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Can Charlie Redmayne Lead HarperCollins UK to Victory?

Ex-army man Charlie Redmayne may have left Pottermore to take the helm at HarperCollins UK, but he's not taking sides in the war between print and digital. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives

[ Publishing Perspectives | 2013-09-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Nonfiction long-list announced for book awards

A pair of best-selling works by staff writers for The New Yorker, Lawrence Wright's "Going Clear" and George Packer's "The Unwinding," were among 10 books chosen for the nonfiction long-list of the National Book Awards.Besides Mr. Wright's investigation of Scientology and Packer's bleak account... Continue reading at Crains New York

[ Crains New York | 2013-09-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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YouTube Executive Heads to Digital Distributor OverDrive

Lee Milstein, who had been heading up YouTube's efforts to link up with news organizations, has left to become chief strategy officer at OverDrive, a company that distributes digital books to libraries. Cleveland-based OverDrive, which handles the Kindle Lending Library program for Amazon, plans... Continue reading at AllThingsD

[ AllThingsD | 2013-09-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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First long-list of finalists for book awards

Kate DiCamillo and David Levithan were among the 10 authors who made the first-ever long-list of finalists for the National Book Awards, part of a new nominating process that prize organizers hope will lead to increased attention and sales.Ms. DiCamillo and Mr. Levithan were nominees in the... Continue reading at Crains New York

[ Crains New York | 2013-09-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Audiosocket’s Easy Listening Solution for Digital Music Rights

Music licensing on YouTube was thrust into the spotlight last month after the National Music Publishers Association filed a lawsuit against YouTube content network FullScreen over copyright infringement. As Brandon Martinez, co-founder/CEO of the digital music-focused INDMUSIC put it so... Continue reading at AdWeek

[ AdWeek | 2013-09-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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National Book Award releases long-list for Young People's Literature

The National Book Awards launched its first long-list with the 10 books in the running for the 2013 award for Young People's Literature on Monday.The National Book Awards launched its first long-list with the 10 books in the running for the 2013 award for Young People's Literature on Monday. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2013-09-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Spring deals for Granta and Portobello

Granta and Portobello have signed up two new books for publication in spring 2015. Portobello... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2013-09-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Behind Time Inc. Purchase of American Express Publishing Lies a Long History

After a two-decade-long relationship between the magazine giant Time Inc. and American Express, Time Inc. plans to close quickly on its purchase of American Express’s publishing division. “This 20-year courtship is finally bei ... Continue reading at Editor & Publisher

[ Editor & Publisher | 2013-09-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Human Kinetics, IMF in China Deal

Human Kinetics and the International Monetary Fund have signed a deal to make their content available in China. The agreement is a result of Publishing Technology’s local alliance with CNPIEC, the China National Publications Import and Export (Group) Corporation, and its new CNP eReading platform. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2013-09-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Blackwell's to open digital development office

Blackwell’s is setting up a new digital development office with nine new members of staff.... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2013-09-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Court bars Apple from making industry-wide ebook deals

The federal judge presiding over the U.S. electronic books case against Apple has barred the company from striking deals that would ensure that it could undercut prices of other retailers in the ebook market.(macworld.com) Continue reading at PC World

[ PC World | 2013-09-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Digital Dominates Event Attendance Marketing

Arguably, the most important change in the event management business over the past decade has been the shift to digital attendance marketing. Continue reading at Folio Magazine

[ Folio Magazine | 2013-09-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Judge bars Apple from price-fixing deals with ebook publisher

Apple says it will appeal against a court ruling that bans the company from entering into deals with publishers that could allow ebook prices to be fixed or inflated. The case was raised by the Department of Justice and judge Denise Cote's decision is very much in line with what they were... Continue reading at Betanews

[ Betanews | 2013-09-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Boston Marathon bombing survivor has a book deal

A man who lost both legs in the Boston Marathon bombings but managed to help identify the perpetrators is working on a memoir.Jeff Bauman has a deal with Grand Central Publishing for "Stronger," scheduled to come out in April, one year after the attacks that killed three and injured many others.... Continue reading at Crains New York

[ Crains New York | 2013-09-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Johnson and Hunnam cast for Fifty Shades

Dakota Johnson is to star as Anastasia Steele, heroine of the Fifty Shades trilogy, with Charlie... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2013-09-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
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