publishers

A monopoly believes it is permanent

A monopoly believes it is a permanent fixture in its industry. An Internet e-commerce company worries obsessively that it can be destroyed at any time if it doesn’t stay fast and smart. The contrast between Amazon and big publishing could not be more stark.

— Passive Guy

The biggest threat to local bookstores? Crazy booksellers and their fanboys

The biggest threat to local bookstores? Crazy booksellers and their fanboys

Last week, Amazon tried to train consumers to openly treat local retail stores as showrooms for Amazon merchandise. It was a ballsy but ethically shaky move; I believe customers who participated helped Amazon steal resources and sales from competitors for very little compensation. It was, at the very least, retail dirty pool. But then—even though [...]

1,000+ classic sci-fi and fantasy works to be epublished in September

1,000+ classic sci-fi and fantasy works to be epublished in September

Early last month, publisher Gollancz announced that it was going to publish a new third edition of the “Encyclopedia of Science Fiction” online, and make it free for anyone to access. An executive for Gollancz told FutureBook that it had profit-minded reasons for doing this, but wouldn’t explain them at the time. Here’s why: Gollancz [...]

Erotica publisher Ellora’s Cave plans to launch its own ereader device

Erotica publisher Ellora’s Cave plans to launch its own ereader device

I recently interviewed Susan Edwards, the COO of Ellora’s Cave, about news that the publisher is about to launch its own ereader device. Dubbed the ECave C71, the ereader is a Chinese-made LCD model that will be branded by the publisher and sold directly to customers. Like the genres of romance, sci-fi and fantasy, erotica [...]

Unbridled has 25 books for 25 cents each. The catch? It’s through Google Ebooks.

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.)

Dear Hachette, you’re doing it wrong

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?

HarperCollins tries to justify its new library policy

Josh Marwell, the president of sales at HarperCollins, today published an open letter to librarians and library patrons in an attempt to explain the publisher’s new self-destructing ebook license. He writes that ebooks are such a fast-growing sector of the marketplace that he wants to avoid losing backlist titles to libraries forever, since unlike a [...]

How your next ebook loan might sap your library’s book budget

For all their good qualities, and there are almost two, publishers sometimes have really bad traits as well, and one of the worst is a hatred of public libraries. Last week, HarperCollins revealed the extent of this hate when it announced a new ebook lending policy: after 26 check-outs, the ebook’s license expires, and the [...]

One way ebook retailers might be able to get around Apple’s 30% tax

Remember Stanza? It was among the first and brightest ebook apps when the iPhone App Store started to really take off, which is why Amazon bought the developer in April ’09. Stanza’s good reviews and press coverage were well-deserved; it handles DRM-free ePub books quite well, it provides in-app access to a number of different [...]

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