January 28, 2013
I own a Nook Simple Touch. Maybe it's because I root for underdogs or maybe it's because I chafe at platform lock-in and proprietary file formats, but I've been quite happy with life on the B&N ebook platform.
January 22, 2013
The Kernel’s 30-Hour Novel competition just got serious. Leading English-language publisher HarperCollins has agreed to publish the winner of #NaNoWriWee as part of its Authonomy initiative.
The 30-Hour Novel will take place this weekend. You have one more day to register as a participant before we select the lucky 50 Kernel readers who will be invited to participate at our offices in London.
January 21, 2013
We here at Publishing Business Today are fairly transfixed by today's confluence of the presidential inauguration and the observance of Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday. We get a little choked up about democracy and civil rights, so the whole thing has got us a little verklempt. In the spirit of the day, we direct you to the King Center's extensive bibliography on Dr. King, Civil Rights and Nonviolence.
January 21, 2013
Online book discovery doesn’t work very well. Random House is attempting to address that problem with a new Facebook app, BookScout, that gives users book recommendations from multiple publishers, not just Random House. Based on my extremely preliminary testing, the app’s recommendations leave something to be desired.
January 20, 2013
Reviews on Amazon are becoming attack weapons, intended to sink new books as soon as they are published.
In the biggest, most overt and most successful of these campaigns, a group of Michael Jackson fans used Facebook and Twitter to solicit negative reviews of a new biography of the singer. They bombarded Amazon with dozens of one-star takedowns, succeeded in getting several favorable notices erased and even took credit for Amazon’s briefly removing the book from sale.
January 16, 2013
The most trafficked ebook store in the world today is Amazon. Very soon, that might not be the case.
Illustrated ebook store and ebook production management start-up Inkling has found a way to make Google Search a storefront for its ebooks, where readers can discover, browse and buy. It’s called the Inkling Content Discovery Platform.
“Google is now able to index the full content of our titles,” said Inkling founder and CEO Matt MacInnis, adding that readers “can buy the individual content shown or the entire book.”
January 15, 2013
Inferno, Dan Brown's new book about Dante, is coming out on May 14, 2013 from Doubleday in the U.S., and Transworld Publishers in the UK (a division of Random House).
Brown announced that he was writing something new in May 2012. Though Brown had been cryptic about the topic of the book, he has now revealed more information.
The book will again feature The Da Vinci Code, Angels and Demons and The Lost Symbol's lead character Robert Langdon.
January 14, 2013
The biggest threat to selling digital intellectual property continues to be the looming threat of online piracy. RosettaBooks, the leading independent eBook publisher, has teamed with Digimarc Guardian(SM) in a case study on preventing piracy to be presented at the 2013 Digital Book World Convention + Expo.
January 10, 2013
Vintage Books and Aimer Media have released a Haruki Murakami diary app containing six new exclusive short stories by the Japanese author, as well as a selection of quotations from his 13 backlist titles and latest novel, 1Q84.
The app, for iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch, is priced £1.99. Other material and features include the cover artwork from the author's newly-designed backlist, the ability to add, organise and delete events quickly and easily, share favourite quotes via email and social media, and access to iBooks without leaving the app…
January 9, 2013
Leading up to the holiday season, Thunder Bay Press (an imprint of Baker & Taylor) thought they had a hit in "The Guitar & Amp Sourcebook," a pictorial guide to over a century of axes and amps and their place in the history of rock, folk, jazz, blues and country music.
