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‘eBook’ Stories

Class action suit alleges that Apple and multiple publishers conspired to fix prices in eBook industry

Shane McGlaun, Aug 10th 2011 Discuss [5]

Back when the original iPad was getting ready to hit market, you might recall that Amazon had worked out a deal for digital version of books that were also on print that gave the reader of the digital version a discount that was very nice. I think most will agree when you are buying a digital version of a book with a fraction of the expense that it takes to print and bind a real book the price should be cheaper. Read The Full Story

iRiver Story HD is first eReader with Google eBooks integrated

Shane McGlaun, Jul 11th 2011 Discuss [2]

We have talked a lot about iRiver around here; the company has all sorts of gadgets and electronics. The last product from iRiver I mentioned was the cool P8 PMP last week that was heading to Russia first. Google has announced that iRiver will have the first eReader that has official Google eBooks integration onboard. The eReader is called the iRiver Story HD and will launch on July 17. Read The Full Story

J.K. Rowling to publish Harry Potter series digitally via her own website

Shane McGlaun, Jun 23rd 2011 Discuss [0]

The Harry Potter book series has made J.K. Rowling one of the most popular authors in the world and made her boatloads of money at the same time. Apparently, when Rowling first negotiated the publishing right to her book series she was able to finagle the ability to keep the rights to the digital publication. Rowling is now set to change how major authors publish digital books by not selling the digital books on an existing platform or via her print publisher. Read The Full Story

Kindle ebook sales exceed print sales in US

Chris Davies, May 19th 2011 Discuss [2]

Amazon has announced that Kindle ebook sales now outnumber physical paperback and hardback sales, the digital platform overtaking print in just four years. Since April 1, Amazon says, it has sold 105 Kindle ebooks for every 100 print books on its US site. That’s not just limited to cases where both formats are available, either; it takes into account print titles where no Kindle equivalent is on offer (though free Kindle ebooks aren’t counted).

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Amazon confirms Kindle with Special Offers shipping now

Chris Davies, Apr 27th 2011 Discuss [1]

Amazon has begun shipping the ad-supported Kindle it announced earlier this month, around a week earlier than expected. The Kindle with Special Offers gives users the opportunity to save $25 off the price of a third-gen WiFi-only Kindle, in return for agreeing to view adverts on the homescreen and sponsored screensavers. Read The Full Story

Amazon Library Lending for Kindle eBooks coming later in 2011

Chris Davies, Apr 20th 2011 Discuss [0]

Unofficial ebook libraries, where users share digital books between themselves, have flourished in a murky legal halfway house so far, but Amazon is looking to make the whole thing official - albeit on its own terms. Later this year will see the launch of Library Lending for Kindle Books, offering Kindle-format ebooks from 11,000 libraries across the US. Read The Full Story

Amazon Pulls the Plug on Lendle Lending Service

Samia Perkins, Mar 22nd 2011 Discuss [0]

Once Amazon decided to let Kindle users lend out books, it was only a matter of time until services sprung up to open up lending to the wider world. Lendle was one of those services, but now Amazon has pulled the plug on them. Today, Lendle's website states: "Amazon has revoked Lendle’s API access. Unfortunately, Lendle is unavailable indefinitely. We will do everything we can to restore service soon." Read The Full Story

HarperCollins limits downloads on public library eBooks

Shane McGlaun, Mar 16th 2011 Discuss [2]

I will never understand why the publishing world thinks that allowing digital content and downloads will hurt their business anymore than allowing rentals of physical content does. In some libraries you can check out eBooks just as you do physical books. This makes sense for the library because it can have more copies that of a book without needing more space. It's better for the reader too because they can get what they want when they want it on their eReader. Read The Full Story

Featured

Re-Inventing the Book in the Digital Age

Ben Bajarin, Mar 14th 2011 Discuss [4]

For a while now we, at Creative Strategies, have been involved in projects within the digital reader ecosystem. We have been talking and working with both publishers and hardware OEM’s who either have a presence or want a presence in this market. E-Readers and Tablet sales combined could be between 60-70 million in 2011*.

Regardless of where we are now in the adoption cycle of e-readers and tablets one thing is now clear: the shift from analog to digital in books is happening rapidly.

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Random House ebooks make early iBookstore debut

Chris Davies, Mar 2nd 2011 Discuss [0]

Ebooks from publisher Random House have begun to show up in Apple's iBookstore, ahead of what's likely to be a name-check at the iPad 2 event in just a few hours time. The publisher had announced a switch to so-called Agency Pricing - in which publishers not retailers set the consumer prices for each electronic title, and then provide the retailers with a commission for the sale - earlier in the week. Read The Full Story

B&N NOOKcolor took retailer’s top spot; almost 1m ebooks sold on Dec 25 [Updated]

Chris Davies, Dec 30th 2010 Discuss [2]

Barnes & Noble has announced that its NOOK range has become the retailer's biggest selling line in the company's history, with the NOOKcolor taking the number one spot as the best-selling gift of the holidays. Meanwhile, almost one million B&N ebooks were purchased on Christmas Day, despite widespread reports of server issues plaguing the service for the holiday weekend. Updated with B&N statement on the server outages after the cut Read The Full Story

Kindle ebook loans now available

Chris Davies, Dec 30th 2010 Discuss [4]

Amazon has turned on Kindle ebook loans in the US, meaning readers can now share certain titles with their friends for a limited period. Announced back in October 2010, the functionality allows ebooks to be loaned to a single person for up to 14 days, though during that period the original owner will not be able to access it themselves. Read The Full Story