HarperCollins

BEAVERTON, OR--(Marketwired - Sep 15, 2014) - Digimarc Corporation (NASDAQ: DMRC) today introduced Digimarc® Guardian Watermarking for Publishing. The anti-piracy solution embeds unique, imperceptible and traceable digital watermarks into e-books, enabling distributors and publishers to track where their content is appearing online and identify the sources of leakage and unauthorized distribution.

HarperCollins Publishers today announced a Holiday Express Shipping program for independent bookstores in the United States for all HarperCollins and HarperCollins Christian Publishing titles beginning November 3, 2014 and running through January 16, 2015.

HarperCollins Publishers will begin selling English language eBook titles in China through a partnership with  with JD.com and China National Publications Import and Export (Group) Corporation (CNPIEC). This is the first time that the publisher has sold eBooks to consumers in China through a local retailer.

At launch, about 800 HarperCollins backlist eBooks will be available through JD.com. This includes: The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho and Divergent by Veronica Roth.

Authors who have e-books sold through the HarperCollins website will receive a higher net royalty than if they were sold through another site, the publisher has confirmed.

HarperCollins unveiled its new site last week, which features a direct-to-consumer function, allowing visitors to the site to download e-books to read through a free HarperCollins app. The publisher also plans to make print books available for sale later in the year. At the moment, people looking for print books are given links to other retailers, including Amazon, Waterstones and W H Smith.

HarperCollins UK has relaunched its website with readers able to buy e-books directly from the publisher.

People using the site can download digital versions of HarperCollins titles to read on the free HarperCollins reader app. Prices for titles range from 99p for Mark Sennen's thriller Bad Blood, to £8.99 for Robin Hobb's latest fantasy saga, Fool's Assassin.

At the moment, physical books are unavailable to buy through the site, with readers instead given links to purchase through another retailer, with purchase buttons for Amazon, Waterstones and W H Smith.

The battle between Amazon and the French publisher Hachette is not just a spat about the price of books. Their row over ebook prices, which led to the online retailer freezing out pre-orders of Hachette books and has provoked angry words from authors such as Donna Tartt and Phillip Pullman, could determine the next chapter of the publishing industry.

Even before the latest dispute, publishers were thinking about how to reinvent themselves, from developing their own digital content to trying to build a direct relationship with readers

Today, Humble Bundle teamed up with HarperCollins Publishers to launch the Humble Bookperk Bundle on https://www.humblebundle.com/books . Customers can pay what they want for a collection of digital literary works from bestselling authors, like Neil Gaiman and James Rollins, while helping support select charities.

Just about every author on the planet has joined the Amazon/Hachette war by adding their name to a NY Times author-paid ad calling for a ceasefire between these two entrenched huge corporations accustomed to getting their way. Unfortunately, unlike with the sale of pots and pans, a large number of authors are stranded on their own isolated mountaintops as these two huge armies duke it out. The authors are the innocent civilians, and I would argue in many cases, not particularly well informed.

Swoon Reads, a young-adult imprint that is part of Macmillan Publishing, is upending the traditional discovery process by using crowdsourcing to select all its titles. By bringing a reality-television-style talent competition to its digital slush pile, the publisher is hoping to find potential best sellers that reflect not editors' tastes but the collective wisdom and whims of the crowd.

"The fans and the readers are more in touch with what can sell," said Jean Feiwel, senior vice president of the Macmillan Children's Publishing Group and publisher of Swoon Reads

HarperCollins Publishers today announced the HarperCollins Promotional Fund (HCPF), which will provide an additional fund of marketing dollars for Independent Retailers in the company's fiscal year 2015, which began on July 1, 2014. Qualifying accounts that promote HarperCollins titles throughout the year will have access to additional funds to support marketing efforts. The program is designed to simplify the co-op process and promote creative merchandizing of HarperCollins authors.