Apple

Wednesday Midday Links: Libraries search for better deals to provide digital lending to customers

Wednesday Midday Links: Libraries search for better deals to provide digital lending to customers

Califa Lands $325,000 in Funding for Ebook Ownership Project; Deal Close With Smashwords — The Digital Shift – “The San Mateo-based Califa Group, which is the largest library network in California, has made major strides in its project to create an ebook ownership model along the same lines as the Douglas County Libraries in Colorado.(…)

Explanation of the Settlement between DOJ Hachette, Harper Collins and Simon & Schuster and What Happens Next

Explanation of the Settlement between DOJ Hachette, Harper Collins and Simon & Schuster and What Happens Next

The DOJ filed suit against five publishers (Penguin, Macmillan, Hachette, HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster) on April 11, 2012.  The DOJ then immediately filed a notice of settlement and a request for approval of the settlement.  A judge assigned to this case will then either approve the settlement and order the parties back to the negotiating(…)

Tuesday News and Deals: Apple iPhone Sales May Fall; Booksellers Start Lobbying Congress to Keep Agency

Tuesday News and Deals: Apple iPhone Sales May Fall; Booksellers Start Lobbying Congress to Keep Agency

News Amazon’s $1 million secret – Amazon.com – Salon.com – “Amazon is picking up its literary largess during an especially charged season in the company’s relationships with the rest of the book world. For the first time, the “Big Six” publishers — HarperCollins, Random House, Hachette, Simon & Schuster, Penguin and Macmillan — have refused(…)

Friday Midday Links: Vintage’s 50 Shades Disclaimer; Apple Not Interested in Settlement with DOJ

Friday Midday Links: Vintage’s 50 Shades Disclaimer; Apple Not Interested in Settlement with DOJ

ABA CEO Update on Google eBooks and Association’s Meeting With DOJ | Bookselling This Week – This is a two for one link.  First, Google has totally abandoned indie booksellers. Remember that not two years ago, Google was going to save indie booksellers bacon by allowing them to be affiliates of the Google bookstore. Now(…)

Monday News: Visa Responds to the Erotica Book Banning, Apple Says Kindle No Competitor

Monday News: Visa Responds to the Erotica Book Banning, Apple Says Kindle No Competitor

News Visa responds to erotica authors and say that it isn’t imposing any kinds of restrictions on fiction: Relevant to this situation, the sale of a limited category of extreme imagery depicting rape, bestiality and child pornography is or is very likely to be unlawful in many places and would be prohibited on the Visa(…)

Friday News: What Google’s New “Privacy” Policy Means for You

Friday News: What Google’s New “Privacy” Policy Means for You

Google has changed some of its policies regarding how it is collecting data from users. A couple of good links on the subject include the WSJ write up and the EFF write up at the USA Today. WSJ: In sum, Google is tracking every move you make and connecting it together. If you watch a(…)

Wednesday Deals and News: Apple Has Blowout Quarter & Social Media Out of Control

Wednesday Deals and News: Apple Has Blowout Quarter & Social Media Out of Control

News I think it is hard to say whether Apple can make inroads on textbooks, but schools are already looking for funds to increase iPad and laptop distribution throughout classes.  This infographic suggests that learning can be enhanced by technology but there are other studies that indicate the opposite.  Apple’s success does not depend on(…)

Friday News & Deals: Apple Tries to Take Over Educational Publishing & Grand Central Launches a Romance Imprint

Friday News & Deals: Apple Tries to Take Over Educational Publishing & Grand Central Launches a Romance Imprint

Apple made it’s education announcement yesterday introducing iBooks 2 which allows you to view books made with iBooks Author. iBooks Author has been described as “Garage Band” for books.  Essentially it is a purportedly easy to use tool to create interactive books rich with multimedia such as audio, video, and animations that will be well(…)

Catalog Support for IOS5 for the iPhone, iTouch, and iPad

Catalog Support for IOS5 for the iPhone, iTouch, and iPad

For those who are upgrading to iOS5 or getting the new iPhone 4S, you may have noticed that Stanza is dead.  The app crashes and is completely unuseable.  But do not worry, folks, because there are three fairly decent alternatives. 1.  eBook Search.  Free but ad supported. $.99 to remove ads. This app is merely(…)

Thursday Midday Links: Steve Jobs Passed Away

Thursday Midday Links: Steve Jobs Passed Away

I don’t have any beautiful eulogy to give Jobs and it’s not that I don’t believe that he deserves a beautiful eulogy. He does.  He transformed our collective lives. But I have neither the connection nor the knowledge from which to give voice to a remembrance.  I’ve read several and these are few I thought(…)

Tuesday Midday Links: PubIt! Review Day for Self Pubbed Authors

Tuesday Midday Links: PubIt! Review Day for Self Pubbed Authors

PubIt! asked Dear Author to participate in their review day event on Facebook. PubIt! posted blog summaries on its wall and invited self published authors to make short pitches. Our blog summary was that we wanted unusual historicals and erotic romances and were looking to review books between 50,000 and 80,000 words. Of course, there(…)

Monday Midday Links: Apple Flexes Its App Store Muscle

Monday Midday Links: Apple Flexes Its App Store Muscle

Apple instituted a new rule that was to go into effect last month which disallowed Apps to have a direct link to the retailers purchasing site unless the retailer offered the same products for sale inside the App and allowed Apple to get 30%.  Under Agency pricing, of course, this meant that Kindle, BN, Kobo(…)

Thursday Midday Links: Loveswept Is Coming Back

Thursday Midday Links: Loveswept Is Coming Back

Romance at Random, a community site devoted to romance books and romance readers, has launched. With the launch comes some pretty exciting news. Romance at Random is run by former Borders buyer, Sue Grimshaw. We are pleased to announce the 2011 Loveswept publishing program – a digital-exclusive imprint, comprised of original, newly written e-books, as(…)

Wednesday Midday Links:  Apple’s In App policy claims first victim

Wednesday Midday Links: Apple’s In App policy claims first victim

HarperCollins CEO doesn’t believe that consumer desire for lower ebook prices can be made up by lowered costs of production.  She also believes that online purchases are driven solely by price: “The signs are that consumers expect e-books to be priced considerably lower than physical books. There’s no easier way to drive an e-book up(…)

Tuesday Midday Links:  Self publishing stock rises and so does traditional publishing

Tuesday Midday Links: Self publishing stock rises and so does traditional publishing

Yesterday was a study in opposites.   Barry Eisler, a hardcover author of the John Rain series, broke the news that he had turned down a $500,000 offer for two books from St. Martin’s Press and is going to self publish his next Rain book.   Eisler is good friends with Joe Konrath and has been increasingly(…)