Online Sales
August 31, 2015 at 2:43 pm
Google Play has been criticized as a sort of vast and unruly garden compared with Apple’s impeccably mowed lawns. In Forbes recently, Erik Kain called Google Play “an ugly, poorly organized store filled with myriad knockoffs, dubious ‘games’ and other apps.” That sounds a bit harsh to the Haggler, a Google Play regular who has…
August 31, 2015 at 10:05 am
Amazon just introduced Amazon Underground, a platform where paid apps are free. It’s a model that will be disruptive for ebooks too.
August 28, 2015 at 2:18 pm
When Amazon launched Kindle Unlimited last year, they built its catalog on indie and self published titles, with only a handful of titles from larger publishers. This did not include the Big Five trade publishers, who signed deals with other access-based ebook services but continued to boycott KU. Simon & Schuster broke the year-long this…
August 28, 2015 at 1:37 pm
Back in April Penguin Random House announced the relaunch of its website. The move was made in part to further consolidate Penguin and Random House operations, but it was also a significant strategic shift toward marketing titles directly to readers. “We believe that we can serve our authors even better by building strong relationships with…
August 26, 2015 at 1:45 pm
Kinokuniya, the largest bookstore chain in Japan, has announced that it will snap up 90% of initial print run of Haruki Murakami’s latest title to sell at brick-and-mortar stores and make sure that customers who want to purchase the book will have to go to an actual physical bookstore. It is a move largely seen as…
August 21, 2015 at 2:52 pm
Authors United has finally followed through on the promise they made last fall. The WSJ reported yesterday that AU has formally requested that the US Dept of Justice investigate Amazon for antitrust violations: A group of prominent authors says Amazon.com Inc. has “unprecedented power” over the book publishing market and wants the U.S. Department of Justice…
August 20, 2015 at 5:32 pm
NEW YORK, August 19—Simon & Schuster and Hotels.com® are joining together to promote the joy of reading and make life on the road or on vacation that much more pleasant for travelers. Beginning today, Hotels.com customers who book a minimum two-night stay in selected U.S. destinations through the U.S. site will have the opportunity to…
August 19, 2015 at 5:52 pm
The high cost of tuition gets a lot of attention, but any college student can attest that buying textbooks is no small expense. Print textbook prices have soared 82 percent in the last decade alone, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Yet students like Connelly are saving money through online marketplaces for used, new, rental or electronic…
August 18, 2015 at 4:22 pm
Even as the company tests delivery by drone and ways to restock toilet paper at the push of a bathroom button, it is conducting a little-known experiment in how far it can push white-collar workers, redrawing the boundaries of what is acceptable. The company, founded and still run by Jeff Bezos, rejects many of the…
August 13, 2015 at 5:08 pm
The Girl on the Train is the bullet train of books. But what catapulted the book into New York Times bestseller status so quickly? What made it the kind of debut book sales story the industry sees only every few years? With the book passing the epic 3 million copies sold milestone, we thought it…
