Adobe

In October last year “social reading” iPad app Readmill announced support for Adobe DRM-protected ePub and PDF formats, and integrated into the Kobo book store, among others. Prior to these moves Readmill had been locked into a complex method of users needing to get books and documents into the ePub format for them to be able to use the app and make annotations, bookmarks and share content. It’s now taking its formerly iPad-only reading expirience to the iPhone, with the app going live in the iTunes store today.

A new partnership from txtr and ReaderLink will let retail chains and outlets like Target, Walmart, Costco and Stop & Shop sell ebooks through their websites. txtr says the partnership could provide an alternative to Amazon and Barnes & Noble.
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In an attempt to compete with Amazon and Barnes & Noble, Berlin-based ebook company txtr and U.S. print book distributor ReaderLink have partnered to sell ebooks through new outlets: grocery stores, mass merchants, warehouse clubs, drugstores and department stores.

The legend of Woody Guthrie as folk singer is firmly etched in America’s collective consciousness. Compositions like “Deportee,” “Pastures of Plenty” and “Pretty Boy Floyd” have become national treasures akin to Benjamin Franklin’s “Poor Richard’s Almanack” and Mark Twain’s “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.” But Guthrie, who would have been 100 years old on July 14, was also a brilliant and distinctive prose stylist, whose writing is distinguished by a homespun authenticity, deep-seated purpose and remarkable ear for dialect.

John Scalzi won't have to field any tough questions about how digital rights management software (DRM) works at tonight's book signing. The author—out on tour promoting his newest science fiction novel, "Redshirts: A Novel with Three Codas"—says those difficult discussions popped up regularly when he engaged with his tech-savvy fan base in the past. But he doesn't expect any of that negative discourse at tonight's Boston-area signing event—or at any of the other scheduled stops on his current campaign to promote the New York Times bestseller.

Book Business: What are some of the key challenges you are facing today as you try to grow your distribution business?
Larry Bennett: The printed book business is shrinking (numbers from a variety of sources indicate that ebooks represent approximately 20 percent of the trade market). As it shrinks, there is growing pressure on publishers, authors, wholesalers, distributors, sales reps and retailers to maintain margins. In order to do this, we need to continuously improve in many areas, including operational efficiencies to minimize cost, effectiveness in the sell-in of our better titles, aggressive pursuit of non-traditional markets and expanded services.

By now, it’s no surprise that tablets and mobile devices are revolutionizing the way we consume and interact with media. Although print is not expected to disappear anytime soon (63 percent of book publishers see no end­ in sight for producing printed books as part of their mix), book publishers are ramping up production of e­books with a focus on improving the overall user experience to accommodate the transitioning consumer. While more than half of the book publishers we surveyed decide how to produce a book on a per-publication basis, 30 percent are consistently producing both an e­book and printed book for each new publication.

Publishers wanting to convert their library of books to ebooks may find it problematic, after a test run by the Flemish Innovation Center for Graphic Communication (VIGC) found tools for converting PDFs to EPUB files scored an average of 30% – with the lowest-performing tool scoring just 10%.

At the end of April, Tor Books, the world's largest science fiction publisher, and its UK sister company, Tor UK, announced that they would be eliminating digital rights management (DRM) from all of their ebooks by the summer. It was a seismic event in the history of the publishing industry. It's the beginning of the end for DRM. That's good news, whether you're a publisher, a writer, a dedicated reader, or someone who picks up a book every year or two.

Easypress Technologies and Gardners Books have jointly signed an eBook distribution agreement which will offer Easypress’ publisher clients global eBook distribution through Gardners  extensive network of online eBook Retailers across the UK, Europe and the USA (in association with Baker Taylor).

Easypress Technologies, in a major innovation and evolution of its EasyEPUB eBook conversion platform, Easypress Technologies has launched an exciting addition ‘fixed-layout’ eBook conversion of its online software platform.  As well as potentially saving publishers thousands of dollars in fixed layout eBook creation, the latest technology will convert Adobe InDesign files using the company’s in the “Cloud” EasyEPUB conversion software in under a minute. Leading digital publishing solutions provider, Easypress has developed and launched the innovative new product in recognition that many publishers have content which is unsuitable for reflowable eBooks due to the content-rich format of individual print book layouts. The ‘fixed-layout’ eBook EPUB format will prove especially appealing for the conversion of certain publications including children’s books, art books and educational books; all of which currently offer highly illustrated and image rich content required to engage with the reader.