Amazon.com

Amazon Buys 26% in Tatas’ Publishing House Westland
February 12, 2016 at 2:41 pm

Global ecommerce giant Amazon has bought a 26% stake in Westland — a publishing house under Tata Group's Trent — to support the company's expansion globally and enter new business formats. Westland is one of the largest and fastest-growing publishing houses in India, having brought out books of bestselling authors such as Amish, Ashwin Sanghi,…

On Amazon Stores And Publishers Accepting Standardization; Two Unrelated Commentaries
February 11, 2016 at 12:08 pm

When the “Amazon-opening-400-stores” rumor landed a week ago, many people were gobsmacked. It took me a minute to get past that, which also required getting past my firm conviction when they opened the Seattle store last year that it was an information-gathering exercise, not the opening move of a bigger retail play. But, when you…

Amazon Books Is Snatching the ‘Low-Hanging Fruit’ Bookstore Owners Need
January 26, 2016 at 2:23 pm

The real reason that independent bookstore owners and fans are throwing so much shadow at the Amazon Bookstore in Seattle becomes clear, thanks to this article from the Guardian: they’re scared. The Guardian piece interviews owners and staff at bookshops both near and a few miles away from the Amazon bookstore, and said interviewees are…

Amazon’s Other Physical Retail Test: A Mini Bookstore for Kindle Ebooks
January 26, 2016 at 2:14 pm

It only takes up a couple square feet, a small fraction of the size of Amazon’s first real bookstore in Seattle, but the company has been quietly making another foray into physical retail — offering individual ebook gift cards for sale under a pilot program at Bartell Drugs in Washington state. The pilot was launched…

Press Release: Amazon Opens New Pickup Location at ASUC Student Union on the UC Berkeley Campus
January 15, 2016 at 2:43 pm

SEATTLE—January 14, 2016—Amazon today announced the grand opening of Amazon@ASUC Student Union, a staffed pickup location situated in the Martin Luther King Jr. building in Lower Sproul on the UC Berkeley campus. Amazon@ASUC Student Union offers the UC Berkeley campus community a convenient location to pick up and return Amazon orders, from everyday essentials to…

DOJ Asks Supreme Court to Turn Away Apple
December 30, 2015 at 2:32 pm

The Department of Justice is asking the Supreme Court to refuse to hear Apple's appeal of a ruling that it conspired with publishers to raise the price of ebooks. The antitrust ruling against Apple—issued in 2013 by U.S. District Court Judge Denise Cote and affirmed this year by the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals—was "supported…

Daily Ebook Deals Gain Traction
December 29, 2015 at 12:53 pm

Every day, the company BookBub.com sends out more than 7 million emails pointing consumers to ebooks that cost as little as 99 cents each and free titles as well. A host of big and independent publishers list titles there, including New York-based Kensington Publishing Corp. The idea is to entice readers with a bargain, so…

How Can Barnes & Noble Avoid Borders’ Fate?
December 21, 2015 at 1:48 pm

In the wake of declining sales and increasing debt, Barnes & Noble is struggling to deliver growth, increase foot traffic in its stores, sell more digital goods and otherwise race against the clock to find a winning formula before it suffers the same fate as former chief rival Borders. Facing stiff competition from Barnes &…

Education Publisher Ditches Amazon, Sales Soar
December 16, 2015 at 2:29 pm

For the six-month period ended Aug. 31, 2015, revenue at Educational Development Corp., which sells children’s books under the Kane Miller and Usborne imprints, jumped to $22.2 million, up 59% compared to the same period in 2014, and net income soared by over 300%, to $969,000. Sparked by those figures, EDC’s stock price rose from…

Whatever Happened to Innovation in the Publishing Industry?
December 14, 2015 at 12:58 pm

Remember the excitement surrounding the launch of Amazon’s Kindle eight years ago? It was a clunky device, even by 2007 standards, but it was revolutionary. One of the original Kindle’s breakthrough features was the ability to download books via cellular network. The e-Ink display and extremely long battery life also led to its popularity despite…