book prices

May 30 2013

Thursday News: Facebook responds to social media campaign to remove hate speech directed toward women; Daily Deals work to increase book sales; Kobo reports increase in sales

Visual trigger warning. Some Facebook ads pulled over offensive content – A few women’s groups, The Everyday Sexism Project and Women, Action and the Media, began a campaign to get Facebook to start pulling some of the offensive content on its site posted by users. These action groups wanted pictures showing women battered with “jokes”(…)

By • Publishing News • 11 • Tags: , ,

May 13 2013

Monday News: Mark Coker of Smashwords suggests that $3.99 is the new black; Copyright reform for consumers introduced to Congress; Gender hypocrisy exists outside romance

Smashwords: New Smashwords Survey Helps Authors Sell More eBooks – Mark Coker shares some Smashwords data with the public. How much of this can be extrapolated to overall sales is unknown. Some interesting points include that the #1 bestselling book outsells the #500 by 37 times in total revenue; longer books sell better; and $2.99(…)

By • Publishing News • 3 • Tags: , , , , ,

Feb 11 2013

Monday News: Macmillan settles price fixing suit; Eink revenues are up; Another wonderful love story;

A Message from John Sargent – On Friday, DOJ filed papers indicating that the last publisher, Macmillan, had agreed to settle the price fixing suit. John Sargent had said in his previous letter to “Authors, Illustrators and Agents” (no readers in Sargent’s equation)  that he wasn’t going to settle because he felt that Macmillan did(…)

By • Uncategorized • 17 • Tags: , , , ,

The hidden costs of the $0.99 ebook

Oct 30 2012

The hidden costs of the $0.99 ebook

There has been a lot of debate about whether self-publishing is killing the book industry, whether bad books are driving out good books, and whether self-published books are diminishing respect for books overall. I can see why these issues generate so much heat and controversy, especially among authors and industry watchers. But I think these(…)

By • Letters of Opinion • 125 • Tags: , ,

Monday News: Parodies, Women ruining the prestige of YA, The Starbucks analogy, and KDP Success

Aug 20 2012

Monday News: Parodies, Women ruining the prestige of YA, The Starbucks analogy, and KDP Success

A prestige-free zone – Last week, I posted an article by Meghan Hewit at Atlantic about how YA literature has become dominated by women. Salon attempts to argue that the reason YA literature is not seeing the JD Salinger’s of old is because YA has lost its prestige. It’s being ghettoized by the vagina, you(…)

By • Publishing News • 13 • Tags: , , , , ,

Monday Morning News: Timeline of the pricefixing lawsuit, Digital readers being spied on, and

Jul 2 2012

Monday Morning News: Timeline of the pricefixing lawsuit, Digital readers being spied on, and

I’m changing things up a little.  More and more people apparently read the news roundup that I post every day and therefore I’ve decided to post the news posts first thing in the morning.  That’s when most people read the news and thus Dear Author can be a consistent morning routine for individuals who come(…)

By • Uncategorized • 28 • Tags: , , , , ,

Mar 11 2012

What Kind of Competition Has Retail Price Maintenance for Digital Books Fostered?

Last week, news came out that the Justice Department was readying a petition to sue five of the largest publishing houses in North America along with Apple for colluding together to maintain artificially high prices for digital books. This was initially instituted in January 2010 after Macmillan pulled its entire digital catalog from Amazon unless(…)

By • Ebooks • 33 • Tags: , ,

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

Jan 25 2012

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(…)

By • Book Deals • 55 • Tags: , , ,

Thursday News: BN Is Selling Off Assets, Trad Regency Book Deals

Jan 5 2012

Thursday News: BN Is Selling Off Assets, Trad Regency Book Deals

I’m not certain what this means, but it is possible that the privately held BN is trying to leverage its different components into another sale.  First, it is actively seeking to sell Sterling, it’s print publishing arm.  Today’s press release also touts some great Nook numbers and the announcement that it will explore the benefits(…)

By • Book Deals, Publishing News • 33 • Tags: , , , ,

The Entitled Reader

Dec 27 2011

The Entitled Reader

Although I’m not exactly a devoted reader of John Scalzi’s Whatever blog, a Twitter retweet last week drew my attention to a recent post, in which he announces that readers protesting ebook prices on his “Big Idea” posts will have their comment deleted:   Why? Primarily because here at the tail end of 2011, I(…)

By • Letters of Opinion • 267 • Tags: , ,

Digital First Publishers: High Price Points and Limited Availability

Dec 18 2011

Digital First Publishers: High Price Points and Limited Availability

Intro Readers dislike Agency pricing a lot complaining that the 7.99 price point for a digital book that has limited sharing options and no resale. I don’t hear a lot of complaints about the digital first publishers and their high prices.  I’m not sure if it is because of the following: Limited audience Speciality publishing(…)

By • Ebooks • 98 • Tags: ,

Thursday Midday News and Deals: Prices Up Says DWJ; Prices Down Says Data

Dec 15 2011

Thursday Midday News and Deals: Prices Up Says DWJ; Prices Down Says Data

Draw a Stickman (or a dragon as the tot did). http://www.drawastickman.com/ Don’t forget to come back. ***** Curiously the Wall Street Journal warns readers of ebooks that ebook prices are going up and in some cases are actually higher than the print versions. As the ebook data from e-Book Market View shows: Isolated cases and(…)

By • Book Deals, Publishing News • 30 • Tags: ,

Nov 24 2011

Thursday Midday Links: Netflix Bleeds Customers

Happy Thanksgiving folks! After Netflix jacked up its prices and tried to diminish services, it bled customers like a patient with an aortic vein severed. Netflix profits have completely disappeared. According to Business Insider: Yes, that’s the latest news that Netflix tucked into the prospectus for the stock portion of its stock and convertible bond(…)

By • Publishing News • 5 • Tags: , ,

How Good Does a Book Have to Be At 99 cents?

Aug 21 2011

How Good Does a Book Have to Be At 99 cents?

The 99 cent book is becoming a mainstay of the publishing landscape.  Pioneered by self published authors, the 99 cent price may be reshaping customer expectations.  John Locke, the eighth author to achieve Kindle Millionaire status, once famously told the Wall Street Journal in an interview that at $.99, the other authors have to be(…)

By • Ebooks • 76 • Tags: ,

Wednesday Midday Links: Maya Banks Trailer & Agency Publishers Sued

Aug 10 2011

Wednesday Midday Links: Maya Banks Trailer & Agency Publishers Sued

First up is this trailer of Maya Banks’ Highlander series. Men in Kilts. It’s must watch YouTube. (It is also part of the auction that Maya Banks won in support of our blogger friend, Fatin, when she lost her husband in a senseless shooting. Tessa Dare put it together and it features, amongst other things,(…)

By • Publishing News • 26 • Tags: , , , ,

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