Barnes & Noble

Readers Wanted

I received this in my inbox the other day: I work for a market research firm called New View Research and we’ve recently been pulled in to do an assignment for Barnes & Noble on romance novels. We are searching for people who love to read books in the romantic genre to participate in an(…)

Tuesday Midday Links:  A Reader Poll and eBook Rumors

Tuesday Midday Links: A Reader Poll and eBook Rumors

EBook device rumor alert: Amazon is holder a press conference tomorrow that many are saying will be used to announce the Kindle Fire, a 7″ tablet.  This device seems marketed more toward video and audio consumption.  Amazon announced yesterday that Fox has signed up for video streaming and this content is free to Prime members(…)

How Agency Pricing Helped Barnes and Noble Gain a Foothold in eBooks

How Agency Pricing Helped Barnes and Noble Gain a Foothold in eBooks

On June 21, 2011, BN happily announced $7 billion in sales due, in part, to a 50% increase in sales at BN.com.  The WSJ’s lead in the July 20, 2011, article is “Meet Barnes & Noble Inc., software company.” The original nook was announced in October 2009 and released in November of 2009.  At that time, it(…)

Thursday Midday Links: eBooks 20% of the Market?

Thursday Midday Links: eBooks 20% of the Market?

Barnes & Noble reports that the majority of its ebook sales are agency priced books (which feeds nicely into my Sunday article about how the biggest winner of agency pricing was BN).   BN announced its quarterly results two days ago.  Total sales are up 2% to $1.4billion, driven by large increases at bn.com as(…)

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(…)

GUEST REVIEW: Bettie Sharpe on the Nook Touch

GUEST REVIEW: Bettie Sharpe on the Nook Touch

The New Nook Simple Touch Reader: Awesome for Reading and Buying Books. Everything else? Meh. When I told my husband why I needed—needed!—the new Barnes and Noble Nook Simple Touch Reader to replace my 2.5 year old Sony PRS 700, I tried to impress with tech specs. I mentioned the 6.5” super crisp Pearl E-Ink(…)

Nook Color: Tips, Tricks and Hints

Below are some of the questions I’m commonly asked by users about the Nook Color along with their answers.   How do I take a screenshot? Hold down the n (Home) button and then hold the volume down button for a very short time.  A little camera icon will appear in the bottom status bar(…)

Friday Midday Links: Let the Battle for BN Begin

Liberty Media, owner of QVC, Starz, Pro Flowers, and a few other internet companies, has made a bid for Barnes and Noble at $17 per share which is a little over $1 Billion. Publishers Lunch intimates that this is the beginning of a bidding war for BN. I suspect we’ll see the company sold before(…)

Thursday Midday Links:  Facebook tried to launch a whisper campaign against Google

Thursday Midday Links: Facebook tried to launch a whisper campaign against Google

Facebook employed a major PR and lobbying firm Burson-Marsteller to launch a whisper campaign against Google. The Daily Beast broke the story and it is a compelling and almost unbelievable story. Burson-Masteller, for political junkies is the company owned by pollster Mark Penn, a chief strategist for Hillary Clinton’s run for presidency. Confronted with evidence,(…)

Nook Color: The 1.2 Update

On Monday Barnes & Noble released a much anticipated update for the Nook Color.  This adds some more tablet like features to the “Readers Tablet” and I’m sure will be well received by many. So what does this update add? The NOOK Color Ver1.2.0 update contains new features and enhancements, including: Access to shop a(…)

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(…)

Is Pubit! Stripping Samples of Erotic Romances?

Is Pubit! Stripping Samples of Erotic Romances?

An author who is using PubIt** has reported that books with erotic romance in them are being stripped of their samples. Sampling is an important selling tool. Another author reported that her sales have dropped nearly 10 fold without the sample. On the PubIt! site, here is what it says about Samples: Samples: Barnes &(…)

Wednesday Midday Links: How are Apple’s recent demands going to affect me?

Wednesday Midday Links: How are Apple’s recent demands going to affect me?

I was talking with Robin yesterday and she expressed some concern about what was going on with Apple, what it meant to her as a Kindle user, and whether her content was safe. Essentially she wanted to know what she should be doing now, if anything, to protect herself. First, what is the problem? The(…)