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, 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... Continue reading at Crains New York

[ Crains New York | 2013-10-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Will Amazon and Washington Post Work Together? Who Knows?!

While the media industry reels from the news that Jeff Bezos purchasing the Washington Post, it's still anyone's guess as to what the Amazon founder plans to do with the paper. An even more intriguing question is, will Amazon and the Post even mingle? Or steer clear of each other? Bezos, it's... Continue reading at AdWeek

[ AdWeek | 2013-08-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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George Zimmerman juror dropped by literary agent, won't write book

On Monday it was announced that one juror who had found George Zimmerman not guilty had landed literary agent, Sharlene Martin. By 10 p.m., Martin announced she was dropping Juror B37 as a client.Maybe a book by a juror in the Trayvon Martin murder trial isn't such a good idea after all. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2013-07-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Why Did They Let Her on the Zimmerman Jury?

Less than two days after a Florida jury found George Zimmerman not guilty in the death of Trayvon Martin, juror B37, one of the six members of the anonymous panel, signed with a literary agent to shop her book about the trial. Continue reading at Slate

[ Slate | 2013-07-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Would Someone Take Advantage of America’s Most Beloved Author?

Author Harper Lee, now 87-years-old, is suing the son-in-law of her former literary agent after he "duped" her into signing over rights to her beloved classic "To Kill a Mockingbird." Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives

[ Publishing Perspectives | 2013-05-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Pippa Middleton dropped by her literary agent. Why?

Pippa Middleton and David Goodwin have parted ways. Pippa Middleton's first book was a flop. But you haven't seen the last of Pippa Middleton and her writing. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor

[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2013-03-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Publishing Executive Survey Shows Industry Settling into Digital

Forrester Research and DBW presented the findings of their Executive Publishing Survey on ebooks, devices and digital publishing predictions for 2013. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives

[ Publishing Perspectives | 2013-01-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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33Across Acquires Publishing Data Gold Mine Tynt

Facebook may be the biggest social network on the planet, but social ad targeting firm 33Across says it now has the distinction of managing the world’s largest social and interest graph. The company was set to announce today that it has acquired San Francisco-based publishing sharing tool Tynt,... Continue reading at AdWeek

[ AdWeek | 2012-01-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Canongate "went to war" over Assange memoir - Michel

Written By: Philip Jones Publication Date: Thu, 29/09/2011 - 15:18 Julian Assange's literary agent and PFD m.d. Caroline Michel accused publisher Canongate of going "to war" with her client and "feeding the media myth" in releasing information to the Independent newspaper ahead of publication... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-09-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Publishers need to "stand firm" against digital giants

Written By: Graeme Neill Publication Date: Mon, 08/08/2011 - 16:08 Literary agent Andrew Wylie has said publishers need to "stand firm" in the face of digital companies like Amazon and Apple or risk being locked into an insupportable business model that is unable to reward writers. In an... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-08-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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E-Book Sales Pass Print on Amazon

While the Rapture isn’t scheduled to occur until Saturday, according to members of certain religious fringe groups, it looks like doomsday has come early for publishers of print books. Amazon announced Thursday that sales of ebooks on the site have finally surpassed combined sales of hardcovers... Continue reading at AdWeek

[ AdWeek | 2011-05-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Media Dealmakers Summit: "The Web Is Dead"

New York--There was a question during the morning session today at the Media Dealmakers Summit that crystallized what a lot of people are thinking about the future. "Are tablets and e-readers the future of media?" For George F. Colony, CEO of Forrester Research, the answer was simple: "Yes.... Continue reading at Folio Magazine

[ Folio Magazine | 2011-02-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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