Online Sales

To better connect publishers with their audience (and give them a shot at acquiring new readers), Link.me has been forging partnerships with the top book publishers to launch trials, deals, promotions, and more through QR codes. In October, Link.me signed with its newest client, McGraw-Hill, and as an example of the kind of work they’re doing, one of the publishing company’s recent publications, “The Zappos Experience” embedded QR codes in over 15 individual chapters. The goal was, of course, to bring The Zappos Experience “to life."

A survey released in mid-November by ChangeWave asked consumers their preferences when it came to tablet computers for the holidays.

Beyond short-term earnings, Amazon's lending library is just the latest innovation to raise big questions about the whole publishing ecosystem. In an environment where books are increasingly digital, what’s the most effective way to create value for readers, for authors and for intermediaries? And -- the biggest question -- which intermediaries will survive the transition?

MyTabletBooks.com, a division of Four Colour Print Group, announces  the first eBookstore dedicated to delivering premium quality illustrated eBooks to consumers. While simple fiction and non-fiction books have proven their commercial viability on black and white e-readers like Amazon's Kindle, the market for full-color, heavily designed and illustrated books is still largely untested. MyTabletBooks.com was created specifically as the preferred website where buyers shop for illustrated eBooks, knowing they can depend on the quality of the product.

One thing that seems true, at least for the moment, is that Amazon has little ability to move physical copies of its own books. Internet companies generally hate things that do not scale, which might eventually temper Amazon’s enthusiasm for acquiring, editing and publicizing books. In the meantime, though, it is publishing about a book a day.

The freedom and the depth of information that tablet and smartphone technology offers is not disputed. But for publishers and other content creators, the same technology that has simplified the way we capture and share information presents yet another daunting challenge when it comes to content licensing: Adapt or else!

In order for book publishers to make the same amount on books in the iBooks store, it seemed evident that they would have to charge more for the books sold there. But they didn’t. How did this happen?

The answer is revealed in the recent biography of Jobs by Walter Isaacson. Buried in a section about the launch of the iPad is a juicy tidbit about how Jobs made an end run around Amazon to the publishers and basically forced Amazon to adopt a new policy in ebook pricing.

Despite industry organizations’ fears that Amazon’s acquisition of UK online bookseller The Book Depository will create a de facto monopoly, the Office of Fair Trading is approving the merger. In the OFT’s view, The Book Depository is so small that Amazon is not buying a real competitor.

Hachette Book Group has struck a licensing agreement with Round Table Companies that will give Round Table access to HBG’s proprietary digital content management system for the purpose of developing an iPad app.

US online giant Amazon will start a Japanese-language ebook business as early as this year, the Nikkei business daily and Jiji press said Thursday. The company, which already has a strong retail presence in Japan, is in the final stages of talks with major Japanese publishers, the Nikkei said.