The hot story the past few days is that spam ebooks are taking over the marketplace. Here are a few points you should consider while reading such articles and blog posts.
business
Unbridled has 25 books for 25 cents each. The catch? It’s through Google Ebooks.
There’s a great sale going on right now from Unbridled Books. Unfortunately you’ll have to go through Google, a company that hasn’t worked out the kinks when it comes to ebook purchases. (Update: the sale has ended, but the user experience is still relevant, especially if you plan on buying Google Ebooks in the future.)
Rumor: Amazon to offer EPUB format on Kindle “soon”
Citing off-the-record statements by four different publishers, the blog Good E-Reader today announced that Amazon will soon offer EPUB format books on the Kindle platform: Four publishers in the last week have confirmed that Amazon has indeed told them they now have an option to submit eBooks to be listed in the Amazon store in [...]
Author says publishers underreporting ebook sales by a factor of ten
Kristine Kathryn Rusch says the ebook sales figures from her publisher are off by 90% or more — and that it’s a problem authors need to fix now.
Borders employees amuse Internet with snarky sign humor
Buzzfeed has a fun/sad page of 13 different signs recently found in Borders stores across the U.S. Some of them convey the sort of opinions you imagine bookstore employees are usually forced to keep private, which is always fun to read. A couple are brilliant, like the “No Restrooms” one that was going around last [...]
How long before Amazon extends “Special Offers” to existing Kindle owners?
Unless the new ad-supported Kindle is rocking some sort of actual hardware widget that creates magical screensaver ads, the main difference between it and existing “normal” Kindles is probably at the operating system level. And if that’s the case, then it’s possible that Amazon could roll out the same functionality to existing users on an [...]
Dear Hachette, you’re doing it wrong
Hachette disables all highlighting in Kindle books, tells authors that piracy is to blame for low royalties, and brags about it to the press. Wtf?
Amazon repurposes screensavers as billboards, introduces ad-sponsored Kindle for $114
Amazon just widened the gap between its cheapest Kindle and the competition, with a new ad-supported Wi-Fi model for $114.
Patent lawyer explains rejected Google Books settlement for the rest of us
If you’re in publishing, you probably can already hit all the main points of the Google Book Search settlement story without crib notes, but it can still seem like a complicated mess to outsiders. The website Practical eCommerce asked an attorney who specializes in intellectual property law to explain what’s going on, and I think [...]
24symbols to launch ebook subscription service in June
A Spanish company called 24symbols is beta-testing a new all-you-can-read ebook service set to launch in June, with both free and paid levels. Will readers and publishers buy into it?
Miss Spider’s publisher explains how he’s wanted to create ebook apps since 1972
With all the blog chatter about myopic and hamstrung publishers, it’s easy to forget about the innovators like Nicholas Callaway…
Expect more educational Kindle apps soon, hints developer
AppleInsider wrote today that the developer for an iOS periodic table app was invited by Amazon to port it over to the Kindle platform: [The developer] contacted AppleInsider to note that Amazon had invited him via email to bring the app to Kindle, noting that the company was especially interested in educational apps. As AppleInsider [...]