Book Distribution

Academic librarians have long decried the prices commercial publishers charge for access to serial publications, particularly electronic journals in the sciences. With journal packages taking up increasingly large chunks of library budgets, the prospect of publishers' ramping up prices on another digital format has spooked some librarians. "I think the fear here is that we got burned by locking into journal contracts that we should have never locked ourselves into," says Bryn I. Geffert, librarian of Amherst College. "Once burned, twice cautious."

By now we're all aware of the battle raging between Amazon.com (AMZN) and Hachette over the pricing of eBooks. While the consumer is certainly the loser as the two big corporations go head to head, there's likely a winner from the battle royale as well-Barnes & Noble (BKS).

Associated Press

Maxim's John Tinker and Kevin Rippey explain why Amazon.com's standoff with Hachette Books is good news for Barnes & Noble:

The book world is once again in a state of high dudgeon over the "thuggish" behavior of Amazon, which has begun slow-walking customer orders for books published by Hachette (James Patterson, Malcolm Gladwell, a.k.a. J.K. Rowling) in an effort to win more favorable terms in its next contract with the publisher. In a series of breathless commentaries, Amazon has been likened to Vladimir Putin, Tony Soprano and Darth Vader, and accused of pursuing a "scorched-earth capitalism" designed to drive all publishers and competing booksellers out of business

The very public fight between Amazon and Hachette illustrates why it's never a good idea to become too reliant on one distribution channel. A bevy of startups are vying to establish a real alternative in the form of a subscription ebook service, with two of them, Oyster and Scribd, enjoying the most funding and press attention.

But in some important ways, it's the lesser known Entitle Books that leading the race. A tiny operation based in Wilmington, N.C., Entitle was the first to give its customers access to the full catalogs of two of the five biggest publishers,

Independent booksellers in America are weighing into the dispute between Amazon and Hachette with a series of banners telling potential customers "Thanks, Amazon, the indies will take it from here", while comedian and Hachette author Stephen Colbert is urging his viewers to plaster their books with "I didn't buy it on Amazon" stickers.

The disagreement between the retail giant and the publisher, which is believed to be over terms, has been played out in public since early last month, and has seen Amazon.com delay delivery on more than 5,000 Hachette titles, according to the publisher

Stephen Colbert addressed Amazon's battle with publisher Hachette - his own book publisher - on the Colbert Report last night. "I'm not just mad at Amazon," Colbert said. "I'm Mad Prime."

Stephen Colbert's books are published by Hachette, and his guest last night was another Hachette author, "my fellow Amazon victim," Sherman Alexie. In two segments addressing Amazon's battle with Hachette - in which it's taken away preorders on Hachette titles and is shipping them with delays - Colbert asked viewers to boycott Amazon and started taking preorders for Hachette

At a luncheon today at Book Expo America, the publishing trade fair that opened yesterday at the Javits Center, the American Booksellers Association honored James Patterson as its Indie Champion Award Winner. The one-man best-seller factory might have been an unlikely candidate for the honor a couple of years ago, but this year Patterson pledged to give $1 million to independent bookstores nationwide. And lately he's become increasingly exercised about the biggest topic at the convention: the dispute between Amazon and Hachette (the conglomerate that happens to publish Patterson

Wednesday's BookExpo panel on the future of bricks-and-mortar retailing couldn't have been scheduled at a more auspicious time for indies: the day after the American Booksellers Association announced a resurgence in the number of independent bookstores.

For the first time since 2005, there are more than 2,000 independent outlets in the U.S. Although ABA CEO Oren Teicher reiterated that statistic at the panel, the line that brought the largest applause

Target wants to help host your book club - online. As the retailer works to build a more competitive e-commerce experience, it's partnering with a startup e-book subscription service called Librify to give customers an online platform for buying, sharing, and discussing their favorite books.

E- and print book distribution service BookBaby has a reputation for working primarily with self-published authors. The company touts the motto, "Make the little guy look big," which BookBaby chief marketing officer Steven Spatz says the company achieves through promotional tools that connect authors with book review sites and PR firms, ecommerce services, and a large-scale distribution.