Universal

Amazon.com Introduces eBooks Kindle en Español, a Kindle Store with the Largest Selection of Spanish-Language Bestsellers Available Anywhere in the U.S.
April 5, 2012

Amazon.com, Inc. today announced a new Spanish-language eBook store within the Amazon.com Kindle Store, “eBooks Kindle en Español” (www.amazon.com/tiendakindle ), along with additional features specially implemented for U.S. Spanish-speaking customers like extensive help pages, and phone and email customer support in Spanish.

U.S. customers can now shop for Spanish-language books in the new store on Amazon.com, or set any Kindle device to access a customized shopping experience designed for books in Spanish. eBooks Kindle en Español offers customers the most Spanish-language bestsellers, as measured by Nielsen, including “El Alquimista” by Paulo Coelho, “Cien años de soledad” by Gabriel García Márquez and “Juegos del Hambre” by Suzanne Collins.

Working the Floor: Digital Book World Hits Its Stride
January 30, 2012

Book Business' own Eugene G. Schwartz was on the scene at the third annual Digital Book World Conference. He filed this comprehensive report from the proceedings.

Attendees at the third annual Digital Book World Conference heard reports that while publishers are in fact healthy and thriving in the new digital age, a lot more work is needed to let go of the habits of the past and live in the new interactive, multi-platform and vertically patterned business world of the future.

The cohort of newly minted consultants in attendance—emerging out of downsizing and transformation—are witness to their price as well as their opportunities.

NBC News Launches Interactive E-Book Publishing Venture
January 24, 2012

First came the independent authors, then came the newspapers and magazines, and now broadcast television networks are looking to join the burgeoning e-book marketplace. NBC News plans to launch NBC Publishing, a venture dedicated to releasing interactive e-books for tablets and e-readers.

Publishers Weekly revealed details of the new venture citing an email exchange with NBC vice president Michael Fabiano. The initiative will be spearheaded by NBC News and will leverage NBC's existing content assets from shows like Dateline, NBC Nightly News, Today, Peacock Productions, and NBC's archives as well as network and film properties including Telemundo, NBC Sports, and Universal...

Allegedly fraudulent Universal DMCA takedown notice raises questions about DMCA, SOPA
December 11, 2011

This story might need to be taken with a grain of salt based on its sources, but it could have some serious implications if true. Megaupload, like Rapidshare, is a cyber-locker site where people can upload files of any kind for others to download. Many of those files are illicitly-copied commercial material, which naturally gives [...]

firstpost: Ten years later—How the iPod ate the music industry’s lunch
October 26, 2011

The first iPod was revealed quietly at a presentation by Steve Jobs on 23 October 2001 and was in stores a month later. The music industry reacted not by examining the successes of P2P and iTunes and working on their own digital music platform, but with DRM (digital rights management), restrictions that attempted to prevent the buyer from copying music.

Borders May Have a Bidder for About Half Its Remaining Stores
June 2, 2011

Is Borders saved? The Gores Group, a Los Angeles-based private equity firm that often invests in distressed companies and has hopes to build an entertainment conglomerate, has emerged as a possible bidder for 200 of the bookstore chain’s remaining 405 stores in a deal worth about $200 million, the WSJ reports. The talks “remain fluid and could fall apart.”

Distribution Goes Digital
August 1, 2007

“We are leading the pack by building a digital warehouse, which is the digital equivalent of our print warehouse,” commented Jane Friedman, president and CEO of HarperCollins Publishers, in the May issue of Book Business. This is the ultimate sign-off on the industry’s embrace of the future, and its take-back of content control from trailblazers such as Google, Amazon and Yahoo. For some years now, various technology vendors have enabled publishers to deliver electronically formatted versions of their titles for special purposes. These have included applications such as conversions to XML formats (e.g., Publishing Dimensions), proprietary e-book reader formats (Mobipocket), sight-impaired applications (National

Google Subpoenas Rivals on Book Scanning
October 13, 2006

Another chapter in the battle for book search dominance was written last week as Google issued additional subpoenas to other major book search players in a bid for information the company believes could be used in its future legal battles. According to published reports this week by Bloomberg, the Mountain View, Calif.-based company filed paper on Oct. 5 in U.S. District Court to seek information from Amazon.com, Microsoft and Yahoo about each of the rival book searches for future use in several lawsuits Google faces. The world’s largest online retailer (Amazon), largest software producer (Microsoft) and most-popular U.S. Web site (Yahoo) have all announced or

Tools for Easy Content Management and Repurposing
June 1, 2006

Content is still king in book publishing. The challenge to publishers today is to move, manage, exchange and manipulate that content in the most efficient and profitable ways. In the age of new media, publishers must be able to accept content from external sources, traffic it through all the pre-publishing phases and then be agile in the way they output it, so that it’s cost-effective but also meaningful to readers. As with any new technology, publishers should evaluate software solutions with these basic considerations in mind: Functionality: What solutions out there have the types of capabilities your company needs? Once the field has

ISBN Changes Could Cost Publishers
January 1, 2003

After 30 years, the ISBN might be getting a facelift. The updated International Standard Book Number being proposed by a standards organization will increase the number of titles computer systems can track. It could also require publishers to spend millions on software upgrades. The reason: The proposal expands the ISBN to 13 digits, breaking computer programs designed to use the original 10-digit standard. The update is being developed by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). The group has overseen the standard since 1972. The ISBN is used by publishers, distributors, and retailers to identify books in 160 countries. The new standard could