Something Is Rotten In The State Of E-Book Publishing

The publishing industry has a problem. The old guard haven't innovated. And neither their business models nor their products embrace the digital books revolution. Take the ongoing and complicated spat between Apple and the Justice Department over the agency pricing model and alleged collusion which ended up with consumers being forced to spend more than they needed to. The battle may expand internationally, in fact. Apple tried to expand its 30% revenue share model, which has done very well in the billion-dollar app economy, into books. It also pushed publishers to agree to a very different way of selling their products: Instead of buying books traditionally, at a pre-agreed wholesale price and then pricing them as Apple saw fit in the iBookstore, it would let the publishers set their own price and extract its usual fixed share of the income ... as long as the publishers wouldn't sell ebooks elsewhere.It was a bold move, and one that could and did shake up the industry a bit. Amazon, the publishers contend, had established a monopoly on ebooks, and was selling their wares at overly discounted prices. With Apple's model they could choose to price ebooks lower than physical books cost (appeasing consumers who expect to pay less for a non-physical product), and yet extract more money due to the cost-savings of e-publishing.The DOJ disagreed, and says Apple's deal meant consumers ended up spending much more than they needed to, hence its action against Apple and a laundry... Continue reading at 'Fast Company'

[ Fast Company | 2012-04-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
News tagged with: #rich media #tablet screens #kit eaton #fast company

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Inquirer/Daily News Publisher Bob Hall Keeps His Job

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[ Editor & Publisher | 2013-11-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Google's Book-Scanning Is Fair Use, Judge Rules in Landmark Copyright Case

Google's massive book-scanning project that makes complete copies of books without the authors' permission is perfectly legal under U.S. copyright law, a federal judge ruled today, deciding an 8-year-old legal battle.     Continue reading at Wired

[ Wired | 2013-11-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Can Latin America’s Music Biz Still Teach Publishing Something?

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[ Publishing Perspectives | 2013-11-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
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[ Editor & Publisher | 2013-11-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Google Books case: digitizing 'snippets' of text is ruled 'fair use'

US Circuit Judge Denny Chin says Google Books falls under fair use, while the Authors Guild calls it copyright infringement. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor

[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2013-11-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
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[ Publishing Perspectives | 2013-11-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Mike Tyson memoir set to give book's rivals the bum's rush

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[ The Guardian | 2013-11-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
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[ The Bookseller | 2013-11-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Judge rules against authors in Google Books copyright infringement case

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[ Engadget | 2013-11-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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[ Wired | 2013-11-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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[ The Bookseller | 2013-11-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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[ Publishers Weekly | 2013-11-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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[ Wired | 2013-11-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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[ PC World | 2013-11-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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[ Publishers Weekly | 2013-11-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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[ Publishers Weekly | 2013-11-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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[ The Bookseller | 2013-11-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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