Weekly Tech Round Up
Publishing News
Authors Guild, Ebooks, Google Book Settlement, Penguin, Simon & Schuster
Michael Perry, editor of Inkling Books, wrote an editorial on why he officially objected to the Google Book Settlement.
Meljean Brook, author of the Guardian series, wonders why Google couldn’t have asked for permission first before scanning and why Authors’ Guild is pursuing this settlement which requires authors to opt out.
Epublishers Weekly has a video presentation of the various ereaders.
$100-$200 tablet laptops might be hitting the market soon. These tablet laptops are said to be based on the Android (Google OS) platform.
PW reports that Mark Gompertz will be Simon & Schuster’s new executive vp of digital publishing given that ebook sales are “growing faster than anticipated.” Perhaps Gompertz will reduce the outrageously high pricing of the digital equivalents of the mass market books. At the editor panel in RT, Grand Central stated that it was having quite a bit of success with its low priced ebooks.
Penguin has inked a deal to sell ebooks in China and has announced that ebook sales are 7 times the level that they were a year ago. The sales are expected to be around 1% at the end of the year.
The Internet Archive moved to interve in the Google/Authors Guild settlement but the motion was rejected. A motion to intervene is asking the court for permission to become part of the lawsuit or legal dispute between Google and Authors Guild.
