The U.K. magazine PC Pro this week published a blog post explaining why the Kindle edition doesn’t include photos. The problem is that Amazon charges publishers a variable fee based on how much 3G wireless bandwidth it takes to deliver an issue, so the bigger the file size, the more the publisher pays to deliver [...]
publishers
What Neil Gaiman likes about the Kindle, and why you should care
Hopefully you don’t need a Famous Author to validate your purchasing decisions, so I’m not posting about Neil Gaiman’s opinions on the Kindle just to make you feel better/worse about your new ereader. Instead, I thought it might provide some useful things to think about when you shop for your next device, or when you [...]
When publishers won’t sell, piracy emerges
“I think what leads to rampant piracy is not meeting emergent demands.” – Brian O’Leary That is the most concise statement I’ve read so far about an issue that constantly bothers me, which is that content companies create their own piracy problems. They do it by not moving fast enough, or by not waking [...]
Amazon and Seth Godin partner up to create new worldwide publishing imprint
I’ve long had some precognition that I might be psychic, but now it’s confirmed; just a week after I posted a more or less random item about Seth Godin freebies, Amazon has announced that they’re partnering with him to launch a new imprint he’s calling The Domino Project. Godin says he’s got three titles already [...]
New website lets you tell publishers why you didn't buy that ebook
One of the more heated discussions about ebook reviews these days is whether it’s appropriate to leave one-star reviews on sites like Amazon if what you’re really reviewing is the price. Although it’s easy to see why people unconcerned with pricing would be annoyed, there’s still no good, public alternative where you can voice your [...]
Andrew Wylie cancels exclusive deal with Amazon, re-partners with Random House
Hey, remember when these books were all released to Amazon directly by the literary agency instead of through the print publisher? No? You don’t care? Yeah, it’s a bit insidery, but the reason it was interesting to consumers is it meant that twenty classics of American literature that had never been in ebook format were [...]
How a publisher can get me to buy more books
I’ve spent too many days this summer visiting this page on Amazon’s Kindle store, waiting for the price of the latest book from Charles Stross to drop to $9.99 (as of the date of this post, it’s $11.99). Clearly, it’s not going to happen until the publisher feels it’s notched as many $12 purchases as [...]
New source of reviews for Smashwords books
Smashwords is a terrific resource for low cost ebooks to read on your Kindle. Unfortunately, since anyone can publish there, it’s no better than Amazon at protecting you from badly written nonsense, and digging through its collection for the good stuff can become tiresome. What we need are more independent reviewers who will find the [...]
Why your book reviews are important
Have you read an indie or self-published book from the Kindle store recently? You should review it! Other Kindle readers will thank you, you’ll be famous (at least to that author), and you’ll be doing the entire Kindle community a huge public service. In my daily trawling through Amazon’s Kindle store, I’m constantly coming across [...]
Penguin and Amazon settle pricing dispute, put books back up for sale on Kindle store
Although the terms haven’t been disclosed, Penguin’s CEO announced yesterday that his company and Amazon have reached an agreement on ebook pricing on the Kindle Store, and that the 150 or so books they’ve kept off the store for the past two months will soon be made available again. Since pretty much nobody buys a [...]
Amazon to split free ebooks into separate list on Kindle Store
Last week, Amazon announced that it will soon pull all the $0 Kindle ebooks from its regular bestselling list, and group them all together in a separate free ebooks list. A big publisher said this was a great move that would benefit consumers. Maybe, but not in the way the big publisher wants you to [...]
Two of the best explanations of the Amazon/Macmillan book battle
The feud between Amazon and Macmillan (and now Hachette) over how to sell ebooks is a complicated mess. Two of the best analyses I’ve found come from published writers who hold an obvious interest in what Amazon and publishing houses end up doing.