Barnes & Noble Inc.

Smashwords Increases Its E-book Distribution Through Agreement With Sony
October 2, 2009

Los Gatos, Calif.-based Smashwords, a publisher and distributor of multiformat e-books, has entered into an e-book distribution agreement with Sony Electronics. Smashwords offers a free e-book publishing platform to authors and publishers that gives them control over pricing, sampling and distribution of their works.

Minding the Store
September 1, 2009

If the Internet has taught traditional media anything, it’s that valuable content should be protected or it will quickly lose its worth. Letting music, news articles or whatever fall into the hands of those who do not value it has been toppling old media companies left and right, and is likely to continue. Take newspapers: Had their stories not been copied, pasted, snarked upon and uprooted far from their original sources (and the advertisers), there wouldn’t be nearly as many journalists in the unemployment line today.

Navigating the New Frontier
September 1, 2009

I was somewhat surprised to learn, through our annual reader survey, that almost 50 percent of Book Business readers do not currently offer e-books. And, of those who do publish e-books, most offer e-books of 30 percent or less of their titles.

Fast Stats
September 1, 2009

3 Number of titles Harlequin Teen will publish in 2009, beginning with the late-July release of “My Soul to Take,” by Rachel Vincent. The imprint—which launched in July and is aimed at readers 12 to 18 years old—plans to release 17 titles in 2010.
Source: The Wall Street Journal, July 21, 2009