If you’ve ever worked in a bookstore, you’re probably intimate with the practice of pulping mass market paperbacks. Publishers reimburse booksellers for inventory they don’t sell, but paperbacks are so cheap to produce that it would cost more to return them than to throw them away. Instead, stores tear off the covers, mail those back as proof of unsold inventory, and throw the books in the trash. [More]
publishing
Apple And Audible Refuse To Sell Author's Audiobooks Without DRM Or Abusive Licensing Agreement
By 12.11.09
Cory Doctorow is self-publishing a book and documenting the process for Publishers Weekly. His latest column is about selling audiobook versions of his past works, and how both Apple and Audible have refused to budge on their anti-consumer policies when it comes to digital rights management (DRM) and end user license agreements (EULAs). Even though both companies get paid the same either way, and even though both Doctorow and his publisher, Random House, want to sell the content without these restrictions, Apple and Audible have said no. [More]
B&N Ebook Reader Lets You Loan A Book Just Once
By 10.23.09
One of the big selling points about the Nook, the new ebook reader introduced this week by Barnes & Noble, is that unlike Amazon they’ll let you virtually “loan” your ebook to a friend for up to 14 days (if the publisher allows it). What they don’t tell you–some smart readers over at MobileRead sussed it out–is that you can only do this one time per book. You’d better lend wisely–and your friend had better finish that book within 14 days.
Amazon Answers My Questions, Sort Of, About Kindle Licenses
By 8.27.09
Let’s get straight to the bad news: although Amazon did answer my questions, their answers included “we’re working on that,” “I don’t know,” and “I don’t know (but it’s the publishers’ fault).” To be fair to the “Kindle Specialist” I spoke with this morning, he has promised to talk to the Kindle marketing department—why marketing? these are DRM issues!—and get back to me with better answers. Until then, this is what the average consumer can expect from a Kindle ebook license.
Textbooks Publishers Using "Packets" To Fight Used Book Market
By 8.26.09
Students who prefer to shop for textbooks online are encountering a hitch in their efforts. University and College courses are increasingly using bundled versions of textbooks that come with their own ISBN number. School book stores sell the packets as a single item, because their contents don’t come itemized.
Academic Publisher Pays Professors For Shill Amazon Reviews
By 7.13.09
This story is a little old, but was just brought to our attention this weekend. Elsevier, which is sort of the Death Star of academic publishing, was caught offering $25 Amazon gift cards to professors who gave the book five-star reviews on Amazon.
Amazon Begins Selling Kindle Books With Text To Speech Disabled
By 5.13.09
As promised, Amazon has begun to implement the text to speech (TTS) flag that lets authors and their publishers turn off the “read it to me” feature of books on the Kindle. MobileRead members note that Toni Morrison’s A Mercy and Stephen King’s The Stand both have TTS disabled, and it seems to be on an author-by-author basis instead of by publisher or imprint.
Romance Novels Selling Like Hotcakes Because We're All Poor
By 4.15.09
Harlequin, the been-around-forever romance novel company, reported a 32% increase its 4th quarter from a year ago, says ABC News. In this video clip, they look at the company’s single minded focus on churning out 1200 new titles per year at $5 each, in pretty much every sub-genre you can invent. The best parts of the segment, however, are watching various celebrities—especially Martin Bashir, George Will, Seth Rogen and Paul Rudd—read samples. Their interpretations will make you feel “the purely caveman urge to pick her up and carry her to bed.”
Nearly 30% Of Books Sold For The Kindle Are Now Above $9.99
By 1.27.09
It’s been a little over a year since Amazon released the Kindle, and now publishers are finally getting the chance to set their own pricing on ebook editions. The result has been a slow creep in pricing on some titles—in some cases to levels above the price of a paper edition of the same book—for a digital edition that you can’t resell, give away to someone else, or read on any other device. Kindle owners have started to notice, and now some of them are complaining that Amazon overpromised the $9.99 bookstore concept to move Kindles.
Conde Nast Will Never Stop Emailing You. Never. Stop Asking.
By 4.10.08
Condé Nast marketing department, are you on crack? Have you put some trinket from “The Hills” in charge of your mail server? Justin has emailed you repeatedly to tell you to stop spamming him. His marketing preferences on your site show a vast field of “No” for every single title on your list. And yet he’s received 16 emails since his last request—almost three a month. You should know better—or, as Justin puts it, “This isn’t some Nigerian guy trying to make my penis larger or send me money, this is a company here, in the United States, that I know should be held accountable.”
The Fakery Behind Amazon's "Top 10 Reviewers"
By 1.24.08
Amazon reviews, especially the effusive ones, have always been suspect—you never know when a five-star review came from an employee, publicist, or marketing type. Slate describes the dishonest world of Amazon’s “Top 10 Reviewers,” where a small group of writers churn out purple-prosed blurbs and jacket-ready compliments at an astounding rate, sometimes for a fee. In turn, these reviewers are inundated with a sort of fame as well as free merchandise—mostly books in the past, but now electronics and other goods. Because good reviews sell more books, Amazon has no incentive to weed out the reviewers who have turned the system into a cottage industry. We suggest you disregard any review with a “Top 10 Reviewer” label on it.
By 1.17.08
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“The Astrologer” magazine shuttered in December 2007 due to “unforeseen circumstances.” Hmm. [Neatorama]
New Downloadable Movie Book Tests Yahoo/Adobe Ad System
By 1.7.08
Remember the announcement in November that Yahoo and Adobe were testing out a new ad system inside pdf documents? (No? It only got 1,200 hits.) Well, they are, and the big question then was how Yahoo and Adobe would determine what sorts of ads were placed in the documents, and how they’d appear. Now there’s a free (or rather, ad-supported) downloadable book—“200 documentaries you must see before you die”—that lets you test the new ad system out for yourself.
Harvard Bookstore: "We Own ISBN Numbers"
By 9.24.07
The Harvard Crimson ran a story last week about a student who was asked to leave the premises for writing down the prices of six textbooks at the Coop, Harvard’s bookstore of record. The bookstore’s president says that there’s no official policy against students writing down information, but “we discourage people who are taking down a lot of notes.” But what’s more surprising, he tells the Crimson that the textbooks’ ISBNs—which can be used to look up the same books online—are “the Coop’s intellectual property.”
The Revised Cover Of OJ Simpson's Memoir Is Not Subtle
By 9.17.07
All this talk about OJ Simpson being arrested and charged with a felony reminded us that his memoir went on sale Sep. 13. After the book and tv special were canceled following unprecedented consumer backlash, the rights to the manuscript were transferred to the Goldman family by a Florida bankruptcy court.
