“Stop Hitting Yourself!”

After months of wielding the stick, Amazon is trying the carrot—or at least pretending to—in its feud with Hachette over ebook pricing. Early this week, it sent a letter to “a few authors and agents” with a sugarcoated proposal to “take authors out of the middle” of the dispute. So long as negotiations continued, why not have both Amazon and Hachette forgo their revenue and profit from ebook sales, and give 100 percent of the proceeds to the authors until an agreement is reached? Continue reading at 'Slate'

[ Slate | 2014-07-11 00:00:00 UTC ]

Other news stories related to: "“Stop Hitting Yourself!”"

Is Dawn Finally Breaking For E-books in Spanish? Spanish Books Spring 2014

In recent months, the double-digit sales growth of ebooks in English has begun to plateau, but since the Spanish-language book market tends to be around three to five years behind the English-language market, ebook sales of Spanish books in the U.S. are just beginning to gain traction. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-04-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Canadian E-Book Consent Agreements Suspended

A strong protest from Kobo convinced Canada’s Competition Tribunal to suspend an agreement announced last month between four multinational publishers and Canada’s Competition Bureau regarding ebook pricing. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-03-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Job Moves: March 17, 2014

At Highlights, Jack W. Perry has been named v-p, print and ebook sales, effective March 31 Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-03-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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“Self-Published Authors = 50% of the EBook Market by 2020″

Mark Coker, founder of Smashwords, has made the prediction that self-published books will account for 50% of ebook sales by 2020. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives

[ Publishing Perspectives | 2014-03-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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In appeal, Apple says ebook ruling will harm consumers

Apple had no knowledge that publishers were engaged in a conspiracy in December 2009 or at any other point, the company said in its appeal against a district court ruling which found Apple and five major U.S. publishers had conspired to fix ebook prices.The district court’s findings show that... Continue reading at PC World

[ PC World | 2014-02-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Getting Kindles into Indie Bookstores Isn’t Going to Be Easy

Amazon is offering independent bookstores Kindles to sell and a commission on ebook sales, but most have rejected the proposal as bad business and "a lie." Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives

[ Publishing Perspectives | 2013-11-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Signs of Stability

New data from Bowker Market Research provides more evidence of the slowdown in the growth of ebook sales in 2013, although the format still managed to capture more market share. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2013-09-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Ether for Authors: Is the Dust-Up Over Kobo’s Devices Fair?

In Publishing Perspectives' Ether for Authors, Porter Anderson looks at controversy over Kobo's new push, at ebook pricing, Frankfurt Academy's CONTEC, and more. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives

[ Publishing Perspectives | 2013-09-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
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A Profitable Six Months

Although the growth of ebook sales has slowed in the first six months of 2013, there were still enough gains to largely mitigate the decline in print sales. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2013-08-30 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Apple ebooks judge to limit antitrust remedies

The federal judge who last month found Apple Inc. liable for fixing ebook prices said she plans to limit the remedies sought by the U.S. to ensure they "rest as lightly as possible" on the way the company does business.U.S. District Judge Denise Cote in Manhattan Tuesday said she intends to... Continue reading at Crains New York

[ Crains New York | 2013-08-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Ebook Sales Are Flattening Out: Are Tablets to Blame?

With reports showing ebook sales growth is in serious decline, Nicholas Carr examines possible reasons why and wonders if tablets aren't to blame. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives

[ Publishing Perspectives | 2013-08-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Pegasus Builds on Record 2012

Coming off of a record 2012, when sales rose 125% to just under $3 million, Pegasus Books publisher Claiborne Hancock hopes to keep the momentum going in 2013 with new hires, more titles, and more ebook sales. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2013-08-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Apple Loses E-Book Price Lawsuit, Faces Damages

A judge has just ruled that Apple is guilty of conspiring to raise ebook prices. The federal antitrust suit against Apple over ebook pricing has come to a conclusion: The judge has decided that Apple conspired with five major book publishers to artificially push prices up. Apple denied the... Continue reading at Fast Company

[ Fast Company | 2013-07-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Survey Shows Amazon Leads Japan in Ebook Sales, Apple Already Second

A new survey in Japan shows that Amazon's Kindle is leading the market for ebook sales, with Apple (launched in March) second, followed by Kinokuniya's Kinoppy, Sony's Reader Store and Kobo. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives

[ Publishing Perspectives | 2013-06-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Bowker: self-published ebooks 12% of sales

Self-published titles make up 12% of all ebook sales, according to new findings from Bowker... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2013-06-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Argentine import laws stifling digital sales

The Argentine government’s economic protectionism is thwarting the growth of ebook sales,... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2013-05-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Apple iBookstore Leads Brazil’s Ebook Market in 2013

In 2012, Brazil became the latest battleground for the big international ebooksellers. Ebook sales have since skyrocketed, with Apple in the early lead ahead of Amazon. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives

[ Publishing Perspectives | 2013-04-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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AAP reports ebooks now account for over 22 percent of US publishers' revenue

It's well off the triple year-over-year growth that ebooks saw a few years ago, but the latest report from the Association of American Publishers shows that ebooks did inch up even further in 2012 to account for a sizeable chunk of overall book sales. According to its figures, ebooks now... Continue reading at Engadget

[ Engadget | 2013-04-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Going Their Own Way

Eben Alexander’s Proof of Heaven and the latest Wimpy Kid title were the only books to sell over 300,000 print units in the first three months of 2013, according to Nielsen BookScan, but neither is in Amazon’s top 20 bestselling Kindle titles of the year, showing the disparity between print and... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2013-04-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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