Can a one-size-fits-all, low-price, consumer-dominated sales model support a diverse, innovative, challenging literary output?It is either an existential threat to intellectual freedom or a rustbelt media industry meeting its comeuppance at the hands of disruptive technology. The battle between the multibillion-dollar publisher Hachette (and now the Scandinavian publisher Bonnier) and the even more multibillion-dollar Amazon is usually discussed in high-minded tones, particularly by publishers and their authors. But at heart, it is merely another collision between producers and consumers that has a particular significance only if you ascribe a value to books as cultural artefacts. It is perfectly possible, instead of Hachette and Amazon, and the 900 writers who took out a two-page ad in the New York Times to protest, to substitute supermarkets, dairy farmers and the price of milk.Although books account for only 7% of the sales of the Everything store, Amazon sells a lot of them. In particular it has 60% of the ebook market. It believes a flat-rate sales price for new books and bestsellers delivers higher sales and bigger profits. Hachette disagrees. Amazon is forcing the issue by disadvantaging Hachette books (no buy button, no discounts and so on). Continue reading... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2014-08-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
Viking Press took out a two-page ad in 'PW' in 1939 to keep sales rolling for John Steinbeck’s 'The Grapes of Wrath'. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2022-06-17 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Apple is holding its first virtual event of the year on March 8th, and to be honest, I’ve heard rumors about this date for weeks. And don’t get me started on the leaky product selection expected to debut tomorrow at 1 PM ET / 10 AM PT / 6 PM GMT.EngadgetThe first major announcement is likely to... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2022-03-07 12:28:10 UTC ]
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Over half a decade later, a new Kickstarter campaign has finally eclipsed Pebble's crowdfunding record on the website. Fantasy and sci-fi author Brandon Sanderson set up a campaign to raise $1 million within 30 days to fund four secret books he intends to release every quarter next year. It... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2022-03-04 12:57:00 UTC ]
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Third-party sellers selling "new condition" books will be able to bid for Amazon's buy button in the UK from January 2021, the retail giant has confirmed. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-08-26 16:41:34 UTC ]
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Self-published authors share what they wish they’d known from the beginning. If you haven’t written a book yet, you probably know someone who has—particularly if you’re an entrepreneur. A recent industry report found ISBN registrations for self-published titles have grown more than 375% since... Continue reading at Fast Company
[ Fast Company | 2017-07-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Philip Jones analyses Amazon's new ebook offer, what led to it and what it could mean for the future of the ebook market. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2017-01-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Amazon’s dominance in the UK ebook market is so huge that other competitors are left "fighting for scraps” tech entrepreneurs have said. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2016-09-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Sainsbury’s is pulling out of the ebook market and closing its digital entertainment offer. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2016-09-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Facebook says scroll speed counts, and it turns out millennials are quicker with their thumbs than Gen X. They'll register an ad 2.5 times faster. Twitter, meanwhile, is adding a buy button. It’ll show up in sponsored tweets and anywhere there’s a link to the product. So far, five companies... Continue reading at Digiday
[ Digiday | 2015-10-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
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It is a measure of how strange the ebook market is that in death Oyster may create more ripples in the digital market than it ever achieved while it lived. It will be missed by publishers more than by writers, and its passing will be pored over by pundits eager to have their say about the... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-09-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
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A timely inquiry today, something for small publishers to consider. As my colleague Philip Jones wrote here at The FutureBook last week, the ebook market "that once was booming is now maturing. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-08-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Charging VAT on digital books is “holding back the development of the ebook market in general, and especially in non-English and small-language markets”, the International Publishers Association’s (IPA) José Borghino has said. A global survey of VAT rates, conducted by the IPA and the... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-07-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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An appeals court upheld a lower-court ruling that Apple violated antitrust laws to upset Amazon's control of the ebook market. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2015-07-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Amazon's position in the market is damaging progress in the book trade, according to the president of the Booksellers Association, Tim Walker. Speaking on a panel about publishing and technology at the Nielsen BookInsights conference yesterday (25th March), Walker said that Amazon's dominance... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-03-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The indie SF publisher Wonderment plans 20 ebook titles exploring a universe of characters enduring world-shattering eventsWriting can be hard – not hard like mining diamonds in Zimbabwe or making cheap clothes for westerners in Bangladesh, of course, but anyone in the 21st-century knowledge... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2015-03-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Google is looking to experiment with a "buy now" button that would allow browsers to shop directly through the search engine, without having to visit a retailer's own website. According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, the search giant is seeking to compete directly with Amazon, which... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2014-12-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The US judges hearing Apple's appeal against its price-fixing conviction have asked questions about the role of Amazon in the ebook market, giving hope for the appeal, it has been reported. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2014-12-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Tim Coates has blamed uncertainty over the ebook market for the collapse of his ebook site Bilbary. The ebookseller went into liquidation in April, with a final creditors’ meeting to be held in December. Coates is now working on The Freckle Project, a new ebook venture aiming to bridge the gap... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2014-10-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Can a one-size-fits-all, low-price, consumer-dominated sales model support a diverse, innovative, challenging literary output?It is either an existential threat to intellectual freedom or a rustbelt media industry meeting its comeuppance at the hands of disruptive technology. The battle between... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2014-08-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The two-page ad that ran in the Aug. 10 issue of the New York Times, which more than 900 authors signed calling for readers to email Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos to air their displeasure at the company’s tactics in its terms dispute with Hachette Book Group, unleashed some of the harshest language yet... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-08-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
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