From Reader Lana:

Your midday link about Amazon being evil really got me thinking. See, I live in Canada, you know that place just North of the USA. Really close by in fact. Now, it seems a few authors that I have been reading for years are deciding to only sell their books with Amazon from their backlist. I have asked some of these authors about perhaps listing with KOBO, as that is what is mainly supported up here in Canada. Most authors are more than willing to try this, but within the past few weeks, one author has said, no she wants Amazon Kindle exclusives only. In fact, she just released a new book there as well. This has made me decide that I will no longer be supporting this author at all. Am I alone in this? Are there authors that others have stopped supporting because they are sticking to exclusivity?

Have other readers stopped supporting an author? After all, if she goes exclusive, is she really supporting you the reader?

Kobo to become a publisher – Arts & Entertainment – CBC News – Kobo is offering self publishing services to authors akin to BN’s PubIt! and Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing. “Canadian-based e-book seller Kobo is following in Amazon’s footsteps and creating a publishing arm that will deal directly with authors, CBC News has learned. Kobo, whose major shareholder is Indigo Books, will roll out its program sometime next year, according to CEO Michael Serbinis.” I’ve heard that Kobo has been romancing agents so it will be interesting to see if there are some agent firms that begin to utilize (or maybe already are) Kobo’s service. CBC News

Thanks To E-Books, Publishers Find Flat Is The New Up | paidContent – Ebooks are profitable for publishers. More profitable than print books under the current agency pricing scheme. In three cases – Random House, Penguin, and Simon & Schuster – rising ebook profits have helped publishers maintain their profits, although not grow them. paidContent

MIT Develops Self-Sculpting Sand That Can Replicate Objects | TPM Idea Lab – Science fiction authors are going to have to try harder to keep one step ahead of actual science. “On Monday, MIT announced that researchers had successfully developed a prototype of the system out of robotic, magnetic cubes — “robot pebbles” — each one cubic centimeter, or 10 mm per side, that could successfully replicate 2D shapes. Shapes replicated so far include 2 x 2 cubes and 90-degree blocks. The team has also developed algorithms that reliably simulate what the system would be like when scaled down to “sand-sized particles” and it has the potential to be revolutionary, allowing someone to stick a solid object in the smart sand and watch it self-sculpt itself into an exact copy within several minutes.”  TPM Idea Lab

A Beautifully Illustrated Stop-Motion Animation of Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea – the old man and the sea from Marcel Schindler on Vimeo. Gorgeous stop motion animation of Old Man and the Sea. Gizmodo

the old man and the sea from Marcel Schindler on Vimeo.

Like the new look to the links Roundup?  I’m using this fantastic and free plugin called “Argo Links.”

Deals

Loretta Chase backlist titles on sale

• Isabella by Loretta Chase * $2.99 * A | BN | K | S
• English Witch by Loretta Chase * $2.99 * A | BN | K | S
• Lord of Scoundrels by Loretta Chase * $3.99 * A | BN | K | S
• Captives of the Night by Loretta Chase * $3.99 * A | BN | K | S
• The Last Hellion by Loretta Chase * $4.99 * A | BN | K | S
• Silk is for Seduction by Loretta Chase * $4.99 * A | BN | K | S
• Last Night’s Scandal by Loretta Chase * $4.99 * A | BN | K | S
• Not Quite a Lady by Loretta Chase * $4.99 * A | BN | K | S
• Scandal Wears Satin by Loretta Chase * $4.99 * A | BN | K | S
• Don’t Tempt Me by Loretta Chase * $4.99 * A | BN | K | S
• Your Scandalous Ways by Loretta Chase * $4.99 * A | BN | K | S

Related posts:

1. Friday Midday Links: Spike Jonze’s Stop Motion Love Story
2. Tuesday Midday Links: Self publishing stock rises and so does traditional publishing
3. Tuesday Midday Links: Harlequin Horizon’s, A self publishing venture

Amazon Fire Refurb for $139

Mark Coker has provided substantive information to the DOJ arguing that agency pricing does not lead to increased prices in books.

It’s also fallacy to believe that somehow the wholesale pricing model is the savior and enabler of low prices. Under the wholesale model, the publisher has always set the price at which they’ll sell the book to the bookstore, typically a 50% discount to the suggested list price. The $30 front list hardcover you purchase earns the publisher $15, or less. If the publisher decides they need to earn $18.00 on each copy sold, they’ll set the suggested list price to $36.00. If you agree that under normal circumstances, most retailers will not consistently sell all their books at below cost, then it’s reasonable to conclude that even under wholesale, publishers already control the minimum price all customers, on average, will pay.

It’s a good read and I don’t agree with everything Coker writes because the DOJ is looking at anti competitive behavior, not just agency pricing (if you recall the WSJ interview) and thus much of what Coker writes is inapplicable in that sense. Still, always good to read an opposing point of view.

The Bookseller reports that the volume of ebook purchases is not making up the decline in revenue generated by print book sales.  I’m not sure whether these numbers are limited to the UK but it is consistent with other ebook sales numbers I’ve heard. Apparently publishing thought that ebooks might increase the number of book buyers?  I’m not sure why they thought that.  Rather it is keeping the number of book buyers from fleeing to other sources of digital entertainment.  Low priced self published books are also affecting the lowered ebook revenue.

2012 brings big change to the numbers reported by the Association of American Publishers. In the past, the numbers reported by AAP were derived from 70-90 publishers but this year, the organization is reporting sales numbers from from 1149 publishers in January 2012.  Yay for better data.  The only loser in January 2012, out of both print and digital, was Mass Market Paperbacks which continue its downward slide.

Adult books

• Hardcover: $69.8M in January 2012; $57.4M in January 2011; +21.6% increase
• Trade Paperbacks: $105.1M in Jan 2012; $99.1M in Jan 2011; +6.1% increase
• Mass Market Paperbacks: $30.4M in Jan 2012; $39.3M in Jan 2011; -22.5% decrease
• eBooks: $99.5M in Jan 2012; $66.6M in Jan 2011; +49.4% increase
• Downloaded Audiobooks $8.4M in Jan 2012; $6.5M in Jan 2011; +29.4% increase

Children’s/Young Adult

• Hardcover: $57.4M in Jan 2012; $34.0M in Jan 2011; +68.9% increase
• Paperbacks: $38.0M in Jan 2012; $23.5M in Jan 2011; +61.9% increase
• eBooks: (new AAP category) $22.6M in Jan 2012; $3.9M in Jan 2011; +475.1% increase

Total Trade

• Total Overall: $503.5M in Jan 2012; $396.0M in Jan 2011; +27.1% increase
• Total Adult Trade: $323.0M in Jan 2012; $277.4M in Jan 2011; +16.4% increase
• Total Children/YA: $128.2M in Jan 2012; $71.0M in Jan 2011; +80.5% increase

Random House, a division of Bertelsmann AG, saw reduced revenues but part of the decline is attributable to currency exchanges.

At year-end, Random House had 5,343 employees (December 31, 2010: 5,264). The increasing availability of lower-priced e-reading devices and tablets contributed to the surging demand for Random House e-books, enabling the company to record triple-digit-percentage digital revenue growth and counterbalancing decreased sales of print books, especially in the English-speaking territories.  … Their year’s top title was “Inheritance,” the fourth and final volume in the eponymous series by Christopher Paolini. For its first eight weeks, the novel sold more than three million hardcover, e-book, and audiobook editions. In the United States, the world’s largest book market, Random House placed 228 titles on the “New York Times” bestseller lists, including 32 at #1. George R. R. Martin’s five-volume fantasy series “A Song of Ice and Fire” sold over eight million copies in North America in 2011.

…

During the reporting period, Random House acquired the US digital media agency Smashing Ideas and established new English, German, and Spanish print and e-book imprints.

Deals

Romance

• Beautiful Dreamer with Bonus Material by Elizabeth Lowell * $1.99 * A | BN | K | S
• Desert Rain with Bonus Material by Elizabeth Lowell * $1.99 * A | BN | K | S
• Eden Burning with Bonus Material by Elizabeth Lowell * $1.99 * A | BN | K | S
• Lover in the Rough with Bonus Material by Elizabeth Lowell * $1.99 * A | BN | K | S

Open Road Media

• Blindfold by Dian Hoh * $2.99 * A | BN | K | S
• Book of Horrors? by Dian Hoh * $2.99 * A | BN | K | S
• Funhouse by Dian Hoh * $2.99 * A | BN | K | S
• Kidnapped? by Dian Hoh * $2.99 * A | BN | K | S
• Prom Date by Dian Hoh * $2.99 * A | BN | K | S
• Remembering the Titanic by Dian Hoh * $2.99 * A | BN | K | S
• Sorority Sister? by Dian Hoh * $2.99 * A | BN | K | S
• The Accident by Dian Hoh * $2.99 * A | BN | K | S
• The Fever by Dian Hoh * $2.99 * A | BN | K | S
• The Initiation by Dian Hoh * $2.99 * A | BN | K | S
• The Invitation by Dian Hoh * $2.99 * A | BN | K | S
• The Night Walker? by Dian Hoh * $2.99 * A | BN | K | S
• The Whisperer? by Dian Hoh * $2.99 * A | BN | K | S

• Finnegan’s Week by Joseph Wambaugh * $2.99 * A | BN | K | S
• Floaters by Joseph Wambaugh * $2.99 * A | BN | K | S
• Fugitive Nights by Joseph Wambaugh * $2.99 * A | BN | K | S
• Lines and Shadows by Joseph Wambaugh * $2.99 * A | BN | K | S
• The Black Marble by Joseph Wambaugh * $2.99 * A | BN | K | S
• The Blooding by Joseph Wambaugh * $2.99 * A | BN | K | S
• The Delta Star by Joseph Wambaugh * $2.99 * A | BN | K | S
• The Glitter Dome by Joseph Wambaugh * $2.99 * A | BN | K | S
• The Golden Orange by Joseph Wambaugh * $2.99 * A | BN | K | S

YA

• Memento Nora by Angela Smibert * $0.99 * A | BN | K | S
• Soccerland by Beth Choat * $0.99 * A | BN | K | S
• Rebound by Bob Krech * $0.99 * A | BN | K | S
• My Name Is Not Easy by Debby Dahl Edwardson * $0.99 * A | BN | K | S
• Mindblind by Jennifer Roy * $0.99 * A | BN | K | S
• Sizzle by Lee McClain * $0.99 * A | BN | K | S
• Shelter From The Wind by Marion Dane Bauer * $0.99 * A | BN | K | S
• Spotting for Nellie by Pamela Lowell * $0.99 * A | BN | K | S
• Kathleen, Please Come Home by Scott Odell * $0.99 * A | BN | K | S
• Cloaked In Red by Vivian Vande Velde * $0.99 * A | BN | K | S
• Blackbriar by William Sleator * $0.99 * A | BN | K | S

Macmillan Deals

• Evermore by Alyson Noel * $2.99 * A | BN | K | S
• Ladies Coupe by Anita Nair * $2.99 * A | BN | K | S
• Dry by Augusten Burroughs * $4.99 * A | BN | K | S
• Emma’s Secret by Barbara Taylor Bradford * $2.99 * A | BN | K | S
• Born at Midnight by C. C. Hunter * $2.99 * A | BN | K | S
• Deadly Appraisal by Jane Claland * $2.99 * A | BN | K | S
• A Matter Of Honor by Jeffrey Archer * $2.99 * A | BN | K | S
• First Among Equals by Jeffrey Archer * $2.99 * A | BN | K | S
• Prodigal Daughter by Jeffrey Archer * $2.99 * A | BN | K | S
• Patient Zero by Jonathan Maberry * $2.99 * A | BN | K | S
• A Fountain Filled with Blood by Julia Spencer-Fleming * $2.99 * A | BN | K | S
• In the Bleak Midwinter by Julia Spencer-Fleming * $2.99 * A | BN | K | S
• Out of the Deep I Cry by Julia Spencer-Fleming * $2.99 * A | BN | K | S
• Look Again by Lisa Scottoline * $4.99 * A | BN | K | S
• Still Life by Louise Penny * $2.99 * A | BN | K | S
• Shades of Milk and Honey by Mary Kowal * $2.99 * A | BN | K | S
• Rebel Prince, The by Meynard, Yves * $2.99 * A | BN | K | S
• Marked by PC Cast * $2.99 * A | BN | K | S
• Dead Simple by Peter James * $2.99 * A | BN | K | S
• Mixed Blood by Roger Smith * $4.99 * A | BN | K | S
• Prayers for Sale by Sandra Dallas * $2.99 * A | BN | K | S
• The Borgia Betrayal by Sara Poole * $2.99 * A | BN | K | S
• Poison by Sara Poole * $2.99 * A | BN | K | S

Related posts:

1. Kindle eBook Sales 12% of Amazon Book Revenue for Titles in E-Form
2. Thursday Midday Links: Random House hires Sue Grimshaw, former romance buyer for Borders
3. Increased Book Sales at Hastings Chain Result of Used Book Sales

I have a lot of news today so I will try to be short. Pithy.

Harry Potter digital books will be sourced through Overdrive and available for lending for five years. At that time, the libraries will need to repurchase the digital copies. Source: Library Journal

Google decided to kick out affiliates that weren’t making any money. That included me, but I didn’t care because I don’t think I made one Google sale but then again, I don’t recall putting up an actual Google affiliate link. Does anyone actually use it? I guess some indie bookstores did and they got kicked out and were steamed. Google reversed itself yesterday. Source: PW

Elsevier is a major research publisher, possibly the largest scholarly publisher. It supported the Research Works Act which would reduce public access to scholarly works even if the works were, in part, publicly funded Many noted scholars did not like this and began to boycott, stating that they would refuse to publish with an Elsevier arm. Under pressure, Elsevier reversed its position, pulled its support from the RWA, and now, like magic, the bill is no longer under consideration having been pulled by its sponsors. Source: Alexander Howard’s Google+ Post.

This Publisher’s Marketplace article may shed some light on Amazon’s shenanigans. Perseus Books Group and National Book Network (NBN) have agreed to pay a 3% coop fee which essentially goes towards promoting their books on the internet shelf. There is also an increased fee for ebook conversion if a publishing house can’t manage to create its own digital book files. (Hint, move to an XML workflow)

Digital books make up a fifth of sales for Penguin and 12 percent globally for Pearson. Source: Paid Content Pearson made $3 billion from digital revenue last year, which, according to 2010 comparison, means that it accounts for nearly a third of all revenue.

Following the pattern set earlier this month by Simon & Schuster, Penguin Group reported a slight decline in total revenue for 2011, but an increase in earnings. On a reported basis, sales fell 1%, to £1.04 billion, but adjusted operating profit rose 5%, to £111 million. The increase was led by Penguin Group USA which had increases in sales, profits and operating margins.

Source: PW

Print sales down, ebook sales up. I should just copy and paste this every month. According to the AAP statistics, for December ebook sales were up 72.1% and mass market sales were down 40.9%, trade paperback sales down 11.9% and hardcovers down 11.8%. Part of the mass market decline could be reflected in the increase in children/YA titles up 12.3%. Anyone who has visited the bookstore or grocery store of late can see YA titles taking up shelf space that used to be dominated by mass market romance titles. Source: MediaBistro

I’m not sure if this is good for international readers or not. (I’m going with not) Kristin Nelson reports that she isn’t selling as many rights to UK market. Instead the UK booksellers are buying US stock and reselling it. Sometimes that means that authors are creating digital editions and self publishing it abroad, but it also means reduced access to books for international readers. Gah, so frustrating.

Goodreads put together a post on how publishers and authors can get their books in front of readers. One of the ways is to get a book on a list. I’ve definitely used lists in the past.

Samhain is no longer using Paypal to pay authors. I was told that it is because of the increased transactional cost to use a third party payment processor instead of just cutting direct checks. This is not related to any Paypal crackdown but an internal business decision. Authors who live abroad are upset about this because of the bank fees that are incurred by cashing a US check in a bank overseas. In some cases, if the royalty check is small, the bank fees could eat the entire amount. Some authors are looking into opening U.S. bank accounts or other alternatives to accepting a US check and having to cash it out overseas. Any suggestions?

Deals

Refurbished Kindle Fires for $169

This is a self published book and I have no idea if it is any good but through a series of emails and misunderstandings based upon my ineptitude, I felt like I should post the deal:

• The Memory of You by Laurie Kellogg * $0.99 * A | BN | K | S

Elizabeth Lowell’s Only Series

• Winter Fire by Elizabeth Lowell * $1.99 * A | BN | K | S
• Only His by Elizabeth Lowell * $1.99 * A | BN | K | S
• Only Mine by Elizabeth Lowell * $1.99 * A | BN | K | S
• Only You by Elizabeth Lowell * $1.99 * A | BN | K | S
• Autumn Lover by Elizabeth Lowell * $1.99 * A | BN | K | S

Hachette * Forever/Orbit

• Dark Deceptions by Dee Davis * $1.99 * A | BN | K | S
• Shadow Play by Erin Kellison * $1.99 * A | BN | K | S
• Going Cowboy Crazy by Katie Lane * $1.99 * A | BN | K | S
• A Madness of Angels: Or The Resurrection of Matthew Swift by Kate Griffin * $2.99 * A | BN | K | S
• Working for the Devil by Lilith Saintcrow * $2.99 * A | BN | K | S

Kensington (most are older debut titles)

Preorder specials:

• Shadow Play by Erin Kellison * $1.99 * A | BN | K | S
• The Duchess of Love by Sally MacKenzie * $1.99 * A | BN | K | S

• The Highlander’s Bride by Michele Sinclair * $1.99 * A | BN | K | S
• Tangled Hearts by Phoebe Conn * $1.99 * A | BN | K | S
• The Duchess of Love by Sally MacKenzie * $1.99 * A | BN | K | S
• Every Night I’m Yours by Christie Kelley * $2.39 * A | BN | K | S
• His Captive by Diana Cosby * $2.39 * A | BN | K | S
• To Tempt A Scotsman by Victoria Dahl * $2.39 * A | BN | K | S
• Nothing But Scandal by Allegra Gray * $2.42 * A | BN | K | S
• What a Scoundrel Wants by Carrie Lofty * $2.42 * A | BN | K | S
• Mistress of Pleasure by Delilah Marvelle * $2.42 * A | BN | K | S
• Spy Candy by Gina Robinson * $2.42 * A | BN | K | S
• One Real Cowboy by Janette Kenny * $2.42 * A | BN | K | S
• Secrets of a Duchess by Kaitlin O’Riley * $2.42 * A | BN | K | S
• The Conqueror by Kris Kennedy * $2.42 * A | BN | K | S
• Falling in Love by Pauline Trent * $2.42 * A | BN | K | S
• Too Hot for a Spy by Pearl Wolf * $2.42 * A | BN | K | S
• My Wicked Pirate by Rona Sharon * $2.42 * A | BN | K | S
• Midnight Eyes by Sarah Brophy * $2.42 * A | BN | K | S
• Renegade by Sarah Parr * $2.42 * A | BN | K | S
• Risk Everything by Sophia Johnson * $2.42 * A | BN | K | S
• Passionate by Anthea Lawson * $2.51 * A | BN | K | S
• Project Daddy by Kate Perry * $2.51 * A | BN | K | S
• A Knight’s Vow by Lindsay Townsend * $2.51 * A | BN | K | S
• Lost in You by Alix Rickloff * $2.55 * A | BN | K | S
• Lord Sin by Kalen Hughes * $2.55 * A | BN | K | S
• Mastering the Marquess by Vanessa Kelly * $2.55 * A | BN | K | S
• Ghost of a Chance by Flo Fitzpatrick * $2.58 * A | BN | K | S
• Somebody Wonderful by Kate Rothwell * $2.58 * A | BN | K | S
• Realm of Shadows by Shannon Drake * $2.58 * A | BN | K | S
• Dark Whispers by Samantha Garver * $2.69 * A | BN | K | S
• His Conquest by Diana Cosby * $2.87 * A | BN | K | S
• The Highlander by Heather Grothaus * $2.87 * A | BN | K | S
• Highland Dragon by Kimberly Killion * $2.87 * A | BN | K | S
• One Week as Lovers by Victoria Dahl * $2.87 * A | BN | K | S
• A Rake’s Guide to Pleasure by Victoria Dahl * $2.87 * A | BN | K | S
• Every Move She Makes by Beverly Barton * $2.99 * A | BN | K | S
• As Good as Dead by Beverly Barton * $2.99 * A | BN | K | S
• The Fifth Victim by Beverly Barton * $2.99 * A | BN | K | S
• Sinful Surrender by Beverly Kendall * $2.99 * A | BN | K | S
• What a Gentleman Wants by Caroline Linden * $2.99 * A | BN | K | S
• Lipstick and Leather by Cheyenne McCray * $2.99 * A | BN | K | S
• Silk and Spurs by Cheyenne McCray * $2.99 * A | BN | K | S
• Every Time We Kiss by Christie Kelley * $2.99 * A | BN | K | S
• Lord of the Isles by Debbie Mazzuca * $2.99 * A | BN | K | S
• The Guest List by Fern Michaels * $2.99 * A | BN | K | S
• Beauty and the Beast by Hannah Howell * $2.99 * A | BN | K | S
• Highland Captive by Hannah Howell * $2.99 * A | BN | K | S
• Lord Scandal by Kalen Hughes * $2.99 * A | BN | K | S
• Truth or Dare by Lori Foster * $2.99 * A | BN | K | S
• To Wed a Highlander by Michele Sinclair * $2.99 * A | BN | K | S

Related posts:

1. Harry Potter DVD to come with digital media version
2. Tuesday Midday Links: News and Deals
3. Friday News and Deals: Penguin Pulls Entire Digital Catalog From Libraries

HarperCollins is making a core set of backlist titles available for print on demand through espresso machines.  I’m not sure why every digitized book can’t be accessed through an in store POD system but I’m glad that more print titles are being made available to readers who want print.

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I know that there are a ton of Downtown Abbey fans amongst romance readers.  Publishers are taking notice as well and suggesting a number of titles that might appeal to the Downtown Abbey crowd.

So they are rushing to print books that take readers back to Edwardian and wartime England: stories about the grandeur of British estates (“Lady Almina and the Real Downton Abbey: The Lost Legacy of Highclere Castle” by the Countess of Carnarvon); the recollections of a lady’s maid (“Rose: My Life in Service to Lady Astor” by Rosina Harrison); and World War I (“A Bitter Truth” by Charles Todd), the bloody backdrop to the show’s second season, which had its premiere in the United States last Sunday on PBS, drawing 4.2 million viewers.

None of these appear to be romances.  Do romance readers have any suggestions?

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PW has a roundup of the bestsellers of 2011.  From the lede it appears that PW only tracks paper sales. If Bestseller = sales (and it doesn’t always) Random House had the best year with 104 hardcover bestsellers compared to runner up Penguin who had 86.  Random House’s books spent the most time on the bestseller list at 480 weeks almost doubling Penguin’s presence of 241 weeks.  The list notes that the Big 6 still account for the majority of print books sold:

 The top six—Random House, Penguin, Hachette, Simon & Schuster, HarperCollins, and Macmillan—accounted for 89.8% of the hardcover slots and 81.3% of the paperback slots. Adding the additional four players featured on the table (p. 19) ups the total to 92.8% for hardcover and a whopping 96.9% for paperback.

It’s a great little article with charts and tables. I recommend you read it.  I’m not sure what it tells us about the state of publishing or where it is going from here but it is a data point.

Deals

The following are a few Harlequin deals I found on Amazon.  If you don’t find what you like in the list below, you might head over to Harlequin and use the $4 coupon SPEND4E11 or get 25% off one book at Kobo Books using code c1auto25.  Kobo also has a 30% off sale on selected titles using coupon code jan12us30.

Free

• Dangerous Angels with Bonus Materials by Francesca Lia Block * $0.00 * A | BN | K | S * This has 188 reviews, average 4.5 stars*

Deals

• Spontaneous by Brenda Jackson * $0.86 * A | BN | K | S
• The Lone Wolfe by Kate Hewitt * $0.99 * A | BN | K | S
• A Spanish Awakening by Kim Lawrence * $1.24 * A | BN | K | S
• A Lone Star Love Affair by Sara Orwig * $1.24 * A | BN | K | S
• Flashback by Gayle Wilson * $1.24 * A | BN | K | S
• Seducing the Accomplice by Jennifer Morey * $1.24 * A | BN | K | S
• Cold Case Reunion by Kimberly Van Meter * $1.24 * A | BN | K | S
• Five-Alarm Encounter by Karen Anders * $1.24 * A | BN | K | S
• Riches to Rags Bride by Myrna Mackenzie * $1.24 * A | BN | K | S
• What’s a Housekeeper to Do by Jennie Adams * $1.24 * A | BN | K | S
• High Octane by Lisa Renee Jones * $1.24 * A | BN | K | S
• The Husband Lesson by Jeanie London * $1.24 * A | BN | K | S
• Picture of Innocence by Jacqueline Baird * $1.25 * A | BN | K | S
• The Proposal by Brenda Jackson * $1.27 * A | BN | K | S
• The Stolen Bride by Abby Green * $1.36 * A | BN | K | S
• Waterford Point by Alana Matthews * $1.4 * A | BN | K | S
• With a Little Help by Valerie Parv * $1.42 * A | BN | K | S
• Best Man for the Job by Meredith Fletcher * $1.46 * A | BN | K | S

Related posts:

1. Thursday News: BN Is Selling Off Assets, Trad Regency Book Deals
2. Thursday Midday News and Deals: Prices Up Says DWJ; Prices Down Says Data
3. Monday Midday News Roundup: Dorchester Sells Frontlist and Backlist Titles

I understand that this thing is done to prevent Kindle (and thus Amazon) from having a competitive advantage but it does feel like the Big 6 hates libraries, at least the digital versions of them.

Update from Overdrive:

Last week Penguin sent notice to OverDrive that it is reviewing terms for library lending of their eBooks.   In the interim, OverDrive was instructed to suspend availability of new Penguin eBook titles from our library catalog and disable “Get for Kindle”  functionality for all Penguin eBooks.   We apologize for this abrupt change in terms from this supplier.  We are actively working with Penguin on this issue and are hopeful Penguin will agree to restore access to their new titles and Kindle availability as soon as possible.

Update from Penguin (no more new titles):

 However, due to new concerns about the security of our digital editions, we find it necessary to delay the availability of our new titles in the digital format while we resolve these concerns with our business partners. Penguin’s aim is to always connect writers and readers, and with that goal in mind, we remain committed to working closely with our business partners and the library community to forge a distribution model that is secure and viable. In the meantime, we want to assure you that physical editions of our new titles will continue to be available in libraries everywhere.

Seriously? Penguin thinks that library copies are the source of piracy? That can’t be the real reason.

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Digital library offerings are very expensive. The Salt Lake Library pays $12,000 a year to Overdrive and then a fee per title to the publisher.

Digital copies of new titles purchased from Overdrive tend to be on average about $8 more than a print edition and can jump as high as $75.99 for popular titles.

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 Simon Armitage, a British poet and novelists, speaking at a conference in India is proclaiming that digital books and the piracy he believes rises because of digital books, will lead to authors not being able to make any money.

Making books available in digital form puts them at risk of being pirated over the internet, according to Simon Armitage.

Once this happens, he said, authors could find their works being shared for free in a similar fashion to the way music was being distributed online ten years ago.

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The reduction of physical bookstores is not just an American problem according to reports from China.   Because of the low prices offered by internet stores, physical bookstores have not been able to compete:

Meanwhile, in Beijing, the famous ’Forestsong’ bookshop, has closed its doors after 16 years. According to the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce, almost half of the country’s street book stores have gone out of businesses in the last ten years.

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Black Friday deals update:

A couple of places like Radio Shack and Staples are selling the devices at retail but offering a $10-$20 gift certificate to the stores along with the purchase of the device.  Target is offering a $30 Target Gift Card with purchase of a Nook or Nook Color (not Tablet) until Thursday.  There are a few gift card free deals:

• Nook Touch WiFi $79 (regular price $99) – Best Buy
• Apple iPad 2 16GB with Wi-Fi $454.99 (regular price $499) – Best Buy
• Kindle Keyboard w SO & 3G $85 (regular price $139)  - Target
• Blackberry Playbook $199 (regular price $299) – Office Depot, Staples, and Best Buy

Wal-mart and Target also have iTunes gift card sales.  Wal-mart is buy a $100 GC for $80 and Target’s is buy $25 GC for $20.

Amazon will also be offering 5 albums a day for $4.99. I bought Watch the Throne and Torches by Foster the People this morning.  Don’t forget that if you own a Kindle Fire, you need to check for your free app daily.  Today’s free app is the Full Version of Documents to Go, a $14.99 value.

Related posts:

1. Monday Midday News: Unhappy Author Goes Viral
2. Overdrive Takes E-Vangelism on the Road
3. Monday Midday Links: Cobblestone Press Making the Wrong Kind of News

• Engadget - Not a good comparison device on the market.
• Gizmodo - Should have had a home button.
• Pogue at the Times – Cheap and serviceable.

I’ll have my device and the nook tablet (hopefully) this week and I’ll review the devices this weekend.  It might take more than one post given that I’ll have two devices and I want to compare them to the iPad as well. Don’t forget to check out our Vox review.

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According to Publishers Marketplace (reg req’d), Kobo has launched the Kobo Touch with Offers:

Within the next two to three weeks, Kobo will match Amazon’s ad-bearing ereaders with their own “Kobo Touch with Offers” with “valuable offers and sponsored screens in discreet places outside of the reading experience.” The ad-driven model will sell for just under $100, a $40 discount over the ad-free model.

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I perused the flyers at BFads.net for ereader deals on Black Friday.  A couple of places like Radio Shack and Staples are selling the devices at retail but offering a $10-$20 gift certificate to the stores along with the purchase of the device.  There are two actual deals:

• Nook Touch WiFi $79 (regular price $99) – Best Buy
• Kindle Keyboard w SO & 3G $85 (regular price $139)  - Target

Wal-mart and Target also have iTunes gift card sales.  Wal-mart is buy a $100 GC for $80 and Target’s is buy $25 GC for $20.

Related posts:

1. New Kindles: Basic Kindle, Kindle Touch, and Kindle Fire
2. Monday Midday News Roundup: UK eBook Price War
3. Friday Midday News Roundup

There are some popular titles like Hunger Games and Fast Food Nation.  What’s Amazon’s goal here? To bulk up Prime Memberships and sell Kindle devices.

According to this September 2011 article at Practical eCommerce, Prime members spend a lot more at Amazon than any other customer.

• In 2009, Amazon had 2 million Prime members. In 2011, Prime has 5 million members out of a total 121 million Amazon customers. Although that represents only four percent of all customers, Prime is growing at over 20 percent year-over-year;
• Once they join Prime, Amazon’s customers’ gross merchandise volume grows from $400 a year to $900 a year in their first year of membership;
• For each one million Prime members, Amazon’s revenues increase by 1.5 percent;
• Prime members spend 130 percent more than regular Amazon customers;
• 92 percent of Prime members surveyed by Piper Jaffray plan to renew their membership.

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Harlequin had a good third quarter but the forex adversely affected them:

In the quarter, reported revenue fell to C$115.7 million from C$117.5, although sales would have been up C$600,000 excluding the impact of foreign exchange. Parent company Torstar said digital sales at Harlequin rose C$7.5 million in the quarter as the publisher continues to adapted to the growing demand for e-books while profits were helped by lower book returns. In the third quarter, excluding foreign exchange, North America division sales were up C$1.2 million and overseas down C$0.6 million.  Harlequin operating earnings were up C$2.0 million in the third quarter excluding the impact of foreign exchange, with North America up C$3.0 million and overseas down C$1.0 million.

Digital revenues were 15.8% in the third quarter.  I was actually surprised by the 18.5%. Many other publishers are seeing 20% of their revenues from digital and Harlequin has been at the forefront of pushing digital sales.  I would have expected to see Harlequin have higher digital numbers.  It does appear, however, that the digital sales are growing at a faster rate than the decline in paper books which might signal that Harlequin is expanding its audience through digital.  I’m unsure about this but that is what I gleaned from the reports by PW and Publishers Marketplace.

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Pearson, the parent of Penguin, has announced a 6% increase in overall sales.

Pearson increased sales by 6% and operating profit by 13% in the first nine months of 2011. Our businesses once again produced strong competitive performances in generally weak market conditions, benefiting from premium content and services, digital innovation and presence in developing economies.

Specific to Penguin, the press release states:

At Penguin, sales were level with 2010. With strong publishing and the continued rise of eBook sales – which more than doubled in the first nine months of the year – Penguin offset the industry-wide decline in physical retail markets. Publishing highlights in the third quarter included the trade paperback of Kathryn Stockett’s The Help in the US and, in the UK, Jamie Oliver, Marian Keyes and Dawn French. The fourth quarter is an important selling season in consumer publishing and Penguin has a strong publishing line-up of bestselling authors including Tom Clancy, Patricia Cornwell, Sue Grafton, Daniel Yergin and Steven Pinker in the US; and Jamie Oliver, Lee Evans, Rob Brydon and Jeff Kinney in the UK.

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According to PublishersMarketplace, Harpers’ revenue and profits were up for the first quarter, although no specific numbers were provided.

Instead they now say that for the fiscal year so far print books “sold through bricks and mortar retail” accounted for 77% of worldwide sales and 71% in the US.

 

Related posts:

1. Thursday Midday Links: Amazon Bows to Pressure & Bluefire Brings Digital Lending to iThings
2. Wednesday Midday Links: Amazon partners with Overdrive to allow library lending for Kindles
3. Thursday Midday Links: New eReaders to debut from BN and Amazon

Reading through Schreiber’s papers, Nathan says it becomes obvious that the writer knew that Mason’s story was not entirely true. Memories of a traumatic tonsillectomy, for instance, morphed into a lurid story of abuse. And Schreiber seemed eager to pump up or even create drama where none existed. But if Schreiber had doubts, she suppressed them.

“She already had a contract and she already had a deadline,” Nathan says. “She was in the middle of writing the book. So she had the dilemma all journalists have nightmares about — what if my thesis turns out to be wrong as I do my research but it’s too late?”

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Mashable has a very good article on what to do if your ereader is lost or stolen.  It gives the telephone numbers of the customer service for Kindle, nook, and Sony.  Until you call and report your ereader is stolen, you can be responsible for those charges.  You can also deauthorize your devices. On Kindle, you can deauthorize the device from the Manage Your Kindle page and from Sony, you can turn off the “buy now” feature.

Only with the nook can sideloaded content be protected, although I am not certain how that occurs.

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Lynn D gave me the heads up about this Supreme Court of Canada ruling on linking to libelous material.

N owns and operates a website in British Columbia containing commentary about various issues, including free speech and the Internet.  One of the articles he posted on it contained shallow and deep hyperlinks to other websites, which in turn contained information about C.  C sued N on the basis that two of the hyperlinks he created connected to defamatory material, and that by using those hyperlinks, N was publishing the defamatory information.

The Court found that hyperlinking is not republication of libelous material:

  As previously noted, when a hyperlinker creates a link, he or she gains no control over the content linked to.  If a plaintiff wishes to prevent further publications of the defamatory content, his or her most effective remedy lies with the person who actually created and controls the content.  Making reference to the existence and/or location of content by hyperlink or otherwise, without more, is not publication of that content.

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Amazon is sued by an actress for publication of her age on Internet Movie Database.  She claims that the only way they could have discovered her age is by scouring public records using information from her credit card.  Source: INFOdocket.

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Simon & Schuster and two others (Hachette and Random House) are going to be providing actual sales data to their authors.  S&S calls it their Author Portal and will provide authors the last six weeks of book sales, divided by format and by type of retailer.

The sales information that authors can see includes the last six weeks of book sales from a variety of sources, divided by format. There are separate screens for e-book sales, hardcover sales, paperbacks and audiobooks. Those figures come from a number of different kinds of booksellers.

The data come from different sales channels, including mass market stores, national acocunts and warehouse clubs. These data are aggregated: Authors won’t be able to see how many of their books sold at, say, Target versus Barnes & Noble, but they will be able to review those numbers overall.

Electricbook said on Twitter:

Thanking publishers for sharing live sales data with authors is like thanking the football stadium for showing the score.

Related posts:

1. Thursday Midday Links: Pubs Use POD for Backlist Titles
2. Thursday Midday Links: Mass market paperback sales decline 41.5% in February
3. Thursday Midday Links: Authors & Morals

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NYTimes has an article about Amazon’s new publishing ventures. Some interesting tidbits:

• It purportedly paid $800,000 for Penny Marshall’s biography
• It saw a review of a self pubbed book in Publishers Weekly for which the author paid $100 and liked the concept of the book.  Amazon will be publishing it next month.
• Kiana Davenport’s hated publisher is Penguin.

We strongly believe that this marketplace will provide and protect the rights of consumers as they were provided for under US copyright act and the first sale doctrine.  Just because things have gone digital doesn’t mean that people have given up their hard fought for rights, each individual has the right to sell their legally purchased digital goods. The ReDigi marketplace is NOT about file sharing, it is a method offacilitating the legal transfer of music between two parties.  The ReDigi approach is novel, it verifies that the track was properly acquired, manages items selected for sale within the sellers music libraries to prevent multiple copies (protecting the seller from copyright infringement), and facilitates an even greater level of copyright protection than the previous CD market.

DC Comics has sold more than 5 million comics in the first six weeks of its line-wide relaunch, the publisher trumpeted this morning, saying the company “is experiencing its best comic books sales in more than 20 years.”

That figure includes more than 250,000 copies of Justice League #1, whose debut on Aug. 31 kicked off the New 52. According to DC, Action Comics #1 and Batman #1 — the top-selling comics in the direct market in September— have each moved more than 200,000 copies, while the first issues ofDetective Comics, The Flash, Green Lantern and Superman have all sold more than 150,000.

Related posts:

1. Monday Midday Links: The Macmillan Amazon Fight Post Mortem Continues
2. Monday Midday Links: USA Today Gets a Romance Blog and Amazon Exclusives Brings Out BN’s “Scorched Earth” Policy
3. Thursday Midday Posts: DRM Efficacy Questioned by Game Theory, Amazon Launches New Imprint, Kobo + WH Smith

There is no word on whom the acquiring editor is.

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Kobo is making serious international moves. It has announced partnerships with FNAC, the number 1 book retailers in France, and with W.H. Smith. Through both partnerships, the book sellers will obtain access to Kobo’s digital catalog as well as its devices. This means books bought at WH Smith enjoy the same cloud storage and synchronization in Kobo’s App platforms and devices.

In addition to its global store, Kobo already offers stores in the US, Canada, Germany (localised), UK, Australia, New Zealand and Hong Kong. The Kobo store offers a selection of over 2.5 million eBooks, newspapers and magazines with bestselling titles, the hottest new releases, thrillers, romance and over a million free books.

Kobo’s European stores offer customers a rich assortment of local content, merchandised to the tastes and preferences of readers across Europe, Kobo has partnered with European publishers to offer a wide range of titles. With this launch, FNAC will deliver a large content catalogue, making it the largest eBookstore in France – the new store will feature the latest releases and bestsellers from popular French authors.

and from the WH Smith site:

From 12th October 2011, all the eBooks you buy through WHSmith.co.uk will be provided by our partner, Kobo. These eBooks will all work with your eReader just like those you’ve previously bought from us.

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Amanda Hocking’s Hollowland will be published as a graphic novel series.

In Hollowland, Nineteen-year-old Remy King is on a mission to get across the wasteland left of America, and nothing will stand in her way – not violent marauders, a spoiled rock star, or an army of flesh-eating zombies.

Charlaine Harris is collaborating an original graphic novel series for ACE, based on her Sookie Stackhouse series.

Cemetery Girl-a collaboration between Harris, author Christopher Golden, and illustrator Don Kramer-is a planned trilogy set to debut in 2013… Cemetery Girl will mark the first foray into original graphic novels for Harris, whose bestselling Sookie Stackhouse books are the basis for HBO’s hit series True Blood. Harris recently announced that the Sookie Stackhouse series will conclude with the publication of the thirteenth book in May 2013.

….

With elements of fantasy and paranormal mystery, Cemetery Girl will tell the story of a teenage girl with amnesia who has grown up living alone in a cemetery. As the series unfolds, the truth of who the girl is and how she came to be there will be gradually revealed both to the reader and to the character herself.

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Three economists from Rice and Duke Universities have used game theory research to challenge the efficacy of DRM.

Via Ars Technica.

Thus, removing DRM represents a good deal for consumers in all segments of the market: “In particular, traditional consumers of CDs benefit from a lower price; consumers of legal downloads get higher utility with a DRM-free version even though the price of the legal version may increase; and, interestingly, consumers who obtain pirated versions benefit because it is easier to steal music when there is no DRM.”

….

“Attributing abnormally high piracy levels to DRM is consistent with the analysis in our paper,” the marketing experts conclude.

Ars breaks down the game theory hypothesis and it’s fairly interesting read.

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According to Nielsen Book, print book sales declined 5.7% in the US.

For those looking to head to the bar and drown their sorrows, Nowell had at least some positive thoughts: no downturn lasts forever, “value” was going to be an increased priority for consumers, and the rapidly aging population should present publishers with opportunities to sell to “those book-loving baby boomers who finally have the time to read.” Let’s hope they don’t forget where they put their glasses.

I suspect the aging baby boomer population will flock toward digital because every book can be in large print with digital books.

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James Patterson has one. So does James Frey. Dennis Lehane is the latest author to get his own imprint. HarperCollins has implemented “Dennis Lehane Books” which will “issue ‘a select’ number of literary fiction works each year that have ‘a dark urban edge.’”

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I’m fascinated with the Indian market for books. I think that given its status as the largest English reading population, it’s influence on books could be enormous. According to this writer, the current state of Indian fiction represents something from the Helen Fielding imprint, if there was one.

To read much of the recent fiction, you would think that the whole population, all 1.2 billion of them, have nothing else to do but worry about arranged marriages, whether they could have a romance with the man their family had chosen for them, and whether it was possible to eat rice crispies without chili powder.

The author would like to write about grittier topics such as the impoverished and barely literate:

So here’s my main contention about the stories published about India in the last few years. Where are the stories of the under class? Why are all the novels focused on the well to do, or the middle class? Where are the tales of these working kids?  The stories of servant boys, and domestic maids, the homeless children? In a country where so many serve as domestic help, where is the Indian version of The Help? In India, much more than anywhere else I have traveled to, the lives of the privileged and the underprivileged blend with and underline each other until it’s impossible to tell them apart. So why is it, that the fiction of today, the maid’s story is silenced, while the mistress’ tale gets all the attention? Is it our fault, as readers? That we are only able to crave the light, frothy tales of marriage and caste wars? In the thousands of books written by Indian authors that are getting published now, only the White Tiger reaches into the complexities of India. Why is that?

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Sarah Wendell was on the Gayle King show Monday and Ms. King was apparently pretty dismissive of romance as a genre but Wendell held her own according to all reports. Ms. King thought only lonely women read romance and KMont responds that women can be lonely and have cats and still not be pathetic because they read romance. Everyone feels lonely and some lucky people also have cats.

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From the inbox:

CALL FOR BOOKS FOR MILITARY IN AFGHANISTAN

Art Mills, award winner author of The Empty Lot Next Door, is stationed in Kabul, Afghanistan and requesting print books for himself and his fellow troop members. He tells me most of the books are old and worn-out, indicating people read them and hand them to others.

I sent him a box of 12 books and he wrote me:

I placed the books on a book shelf and people rushed right to them. It’s nice to know people back home still care after ten years. Thanks!!!!

Yes, we do care! Please donate a copy of your book (or ARC) so Art can put it on their barren shelves. If you send more than one copy it will be donated to another troop through Books for Soldiers.

And, it’s okay to enclose a letter of thanks, or if you have a child have her or him draw a picture or write a letter. It is a lonely world in Afghanistan and if we can bring a smile or tear to our soldiers it will be a reminder to them that we do care.

Please send your donation to:

Reader Views
Books for Soldiers
3267 Bee Cave Road, Ste 107-380
Austin, TX 78746

We use candy for packing so if you’d like to donate a bag of candy as well, that would be terrific. The candy should be something that is wrapped individually, e.g. tootsie rolls, mints. (Not chocolate – it melts while sitting on the tarmac.)

Thanks! I know your book will be well received!

Irene

PS – if you have any military/war themed books, either your own or those you have read, please send them as well. Surprisingly those themes are well received.

Related posts:

1. Wednesday Midday Links: Kobo Launches in Germany
2. Wednesday Midday Links: Amazon’s long game
3. Thursday Midday Links: More on Amazon and Macmillan

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Sad about the ending of the series “Hermione Granger”?  A poster laments the end of the series and looks at its strength and weaknesses:

And there we have it: The defining hero of our age is a girl who saves the day with her egalitarianism, love of learning, hard work, and refusal to give way to peer pressure. It’s hard to think of the Hermione Granger series as anything other than flawless. And yet — as fans constantly point out — there is a very big flaw in the series. You know who I’m talking about; it’s He Who Must Not Be Named, but we spell it H-A-R-R-Y.

The character of Harry Potter is an obnoxious error in the Hermione Granger universe, made more obnoxious by his constant presence. It’s tempting to just write Harry off as a love interest who didn’t quite work out; the popular-yet-brooding jock is hardly an unfamiliar type. And, given that Hermione is constantly having to rescue Harry, he does come across as a sort of male damsel-in-distress.

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Paper book sales are down, of course.  In the May AAP report, ebooks are now the #2 format for trade books (we here at Dear Author read trade fiction rather than university press works or religious texts, etc).

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Is this something that may be coming for ebook covers? Many of the print first publishing houses are still designing covers with print in mind. Print and digital art is quite different. The new digital movie poster for The Hunger Games is designed for digital viewers in mind. (Sound will start at the link)

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Teleread points us to Piotr Kowalczyk’s use of Phoster, an iThing App, that could help self published authors create covers. As I look at self published books, I think the major difference between even the semi professional ones and the publisher driven covers is that the publisher driven covers have a lot of depth to them. Maybe that comes from actual photoshoots or maybe it is some other photoshop magic.  Speaking of needing photoshop magic, maybe the shorts should have been dodged out here?

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From reader Jaye is this wonderful article about the undergarments of women in the 1860s:

It took an hour for Ms. Gist to squeeze into a dozen layers that a lady would have worn in the 1860s—stockings, garters, bloomers, chemise, corset, crinoline or hoop skirt, petticoats, a shirtwaist or blouse, skirt, vest and bolero jacket. By the end, workshop attendees were skeptical that seductions ever occurred, with so many sartorial barriers.

“How did they ever have hanky panky?” asked novelist Annie Solomon.

With great effort, it turns out.

Related posts:

1. Friday Midday Links: Is the Advance Model Going the Way of the DoDo Bird?
2. Friday Midday Links: Let the Battle for BN Begin
3. Friday Midday Links: To Heaven and Back Again, the Ebook Saga

Clearly a great new Dad’s day gift.

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Australian finance minister announced that he believed all but speciality and niche bookstores would fall within the next five years to online shoppers.  I suspect some of this might be the huge import prices Australians have to pay for their books.  Territorial restrictions were often put in place to help foster local publishing houses.  If there are no local bookstores for those local publishing houses, territorial restrictions become increasingly pointless.

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According to a summary at PW, U.S. Census Bureau shows an uptick in retail brick and mortar book sales of 0.2% year to date.  This includes, however, the sales at the closing Borders’ stores.

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Two lesbian non fiction writers have been outed as men.  Straight men, no less.

On Sunday, a writer named Tom MacMaster confessed that he had fabricated the online persona of openly gay Syrian blogger Amina Abdallah Araf al Omari.

Via Galley Cat

and

Paula Brooks, editor of the lesbian news site “Lez Get Real.”

“Paula Brooks,” editor of Lez Get Real since its founding in 2008, is actually Bill Graber, 58, a retired Ohio military man and construction worker who said he had adopted his wife’s identity online. Graber said she was unaware he had been using her name on his site.

Via WashPo

We’ve addressed this issue, obliquely, as it relates to women masquerading as men in the gay and lesbian romance genre.  Some don’t care.  I think masquerading as something that you are not to gain authenticity is problematic.

Related posts:

1. Wednesday Midday Links: Apple’s In App policy claims first victim
2. Tuesday Midday Links Roundup: Boston Prep School Eliminates Its Library
3. Thursday Midday Links: Author Promo, Beyond the Book Trailer

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I feel a little awkward about transitioning into books after this but this post is about news and books. BEA starts today and Richard Curtis of eReads leaked a seismic announcement last night that is setting BEA aflame. Larry Kirshbaum, a former CEO of Time-Warner Book Group (now known as Hachette) is going to run Amazon’s New York publishing office beginning July 5, 2011. Kirshbaum left Time-Warner and formed his own agenting firm which he has run for several years. Now, he is back on the publisher side of things. Amazon NYC plans to publish everything from literary fiction to commercial fiction to non fiction. More hires to come.

This has serious ramifications. My first thought is who else is Amazon NYC going to poach and how will they change the publishing culture? Will there be advances? How fast will they get a book to market? What kind of focus will be on the print side?

Joe Konrath, self publishing guru and Amazon fan, has blogged about his recent troubles getting his soon to be published print book with Amazon’s mystery imprint into brick and mortar retailers. Indie booksellers, who believe that Amazon is in large part responsible for their demise, are threatening to boycott him. Further, it is unlikely that Amazon’s competitors like Walmart, Borders, and Barnes and Noble are going to carry his books.

Larry Kirshbaum, if he intends for Amazon to have a print presence, will have to address these issues.

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It’s nearing a new release period and thus we’ve got some resources to help craft your TBR list. There is the coming soon catalog from Dear Author. As well as the open thread for authors (where authors post their new releases) and for readers.

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S. Victor Whitmill is a tattoo artist. He designed the tribal tattoo that is on Mike Tyson and replicated in the movie The Hangover Part II. Mr. Whitmall is claiming that the tattoo is subject to copyright and has sued Warner Brothers to enjoin them from using the tattoo without his permission.

If a tattoo clearly violates copyright — say, exactly reproduces a Keith Haring drawing or an Annie Leibovitz photograph without permission — could a court order it removed?

The case gets more serious, according to Christopher A. Harkins, an expert on copyright and patents who has written the definitive law review article on the subject, when someone tries to profit from the copying — by, for instance, selling photographs of the infringing tattoos.

Obviously this has all sorts of implications, the least of which is whether it will impact the use of tattoos on romance book covers.

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Eric Hellman blogged about Hachette’s views about its future business.

Massive companies, Amazon, Apple, Google, and in fact last year was a tipping point for our company, because 50% of our net revenues were made through outlets that were not invested in us. Companies like Walmart and Costco and all the others you can think of, not directly invested in our business. And I think that was a big moment and it means you’re having to deal with people who think about books in a way totally different from the way Barnes and Nobles regards books.

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Kobo has a brand new eink reader. It’s basically like the Sony Reader: touchscreen and Pearl eInk with a much faster processor. The best part? It’s only $129.99.

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This was a fascinating! report. According to data compiled by Dan Lubart of eBook MarketView, romance readers have shifted their purchases away from Agency priced books and toward lower priced books. Even Harlequin, who is not an Agency publisher, is seeing a reduction in market share of their higher end books.

Interestingly Angela James at Tools of Change told the TOC crowd that Carina Press had reduced the top of end pricing for their books from $6.99 to $5.99 because no one (or few) were buying the $6.99 priced books.

I’m not sure what to make of this data. Are romance readers on the front of a trend here? They were one of the first group of readers to really embrace digital books and digital first publishing or is this a genre specific phenomenon? In other words, romance readers are voracious readers and consume multiple books a week. In the digital world, there is no used market or resale market nor can they easily trade or share books. Thus, to feed their habit, romance readers are turning to lower priced goods. This behavior is not likely to be replicated in other genres.

Update: On Twitter, I saw that 66% of the power ebook buyers are women and they buy primarily romance with a household income of $77,000 or above.

Related posts:

1. Monday Midday Links: How the King James Bible Has Shaped Our Language
2. Monday Midday Links: Digital is killing print and everyone wants a piece of that pie
3. Monday Midday Links: Best Social Media Story Yet

Links:

• Publishers Lunch
• Mashable
• Wall Street Journal
• MSN Money

Mike Cane posits that this is because BN is about to make an international move. Waterstones has been bought by a Russian billionaire.  Gary Price has a fuller listing of Liberty Media’s assets.

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If agents are going to circumvent publishers, then Random House’s direct deal with author Tom Sharpe should have come as no surprise.  Futurebook announces that RH has signed a deal with Tom Sharpe.

The news that we report today that Random House has approached the author Tom Sharpe direct and concluded a deal for his backlist e-book rights without recourse to his agent (Sonia Land chief executive of Sheil Land) shows that publishers will not go quietly into the night, and simply let the author brands they have built discard them.

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Quarterly results show digital is up and paper is down in terms of sales.

While adult hardcover and mass market paperback did better, posting gains in March, all the print segments had declines for the first quarter with the nine mass market houses that report results showing a 23.4% sales decline, and the 14 children’s paperback publishers had a 24.1% decline in the quarter. E-book sales easily outdistanced mass market paperback sales in the first quarter with mass market sales falling to $123.3 million compared to e-books’ $233.1 million in sales.

In March, the mass market sales were actually up 1.2% (which is, I think, the first increase in mass market sales in months).

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This is consistent with Amazon’s report that it now sells 105 Kindle books for every 100 paper books sold, regardless of format (trade, mass market and hardcover).  From the press release:

Recent milestones for Kindle include:

• Since April 1, for every 100 print books Amazon.com has sold, it has sold 105 Kindle books. This includes sales of hardcover and paperback books by Amazon where there is no Kindle edition. Free Kindle books are excluded and if included would make the number even higher.
• So far in 2011, the tremendous growth of Kindle book sales, combined with the continued growth in Amazon’s print book sales, have resulted in the fastest year-over-year growth rate for Amazon’s U.S. books business, in both units and dollars, in over 10 years. This includes books in all formats, print and digital. Free books are excluded in the calculation of growth rates.
• In the five weeks since its introduction, Kindle with Special Offers for only $114 is already the bestselling member of the Kindle family in the U.S.
• Amazon sold more than 3x as many Kindle books so far in 2011 as it did during the same period in 2010.
• Less than one year after introducing the UK Kindle Store, Amazon.co.uk is now selling more Kindle books than hardcover books, even as hardcover sales continue to grow. Since April 1, Amazon.co.uk customers are purchasing Kindle books over hardcover books at a rate of more than 2 to 1.

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Bowker says that print production was slightly decreased in fiction category.

Fiction remained the top production category, representing 15 percent of the total, but it declined 3 percent from 2009 (48,738 versus 47,392).

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Someone is coming out with a digital reader that will sport a Mirasol screen.

The good news, however, is that the company’s 5.7-inch, low-power display actually will see the light of day by the end of 2011, with at least one “converged e-reader” slated to bring a 3x battery life improvement to a mobile reader format.

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Backlist eBooks is having a sale.

BACKLIST EBOOKS is comprised of print-published authors who have re-released our out-of-print backlist titles as reasonably priced ebooks.

Our authors include NYT and USA Today bestsellers, as well as those who have won major literary awards–including the Hugo, Nebula, RITA, Romantic Times and more.

The sale books include titles from Marsha Canham (a favorite of Jayne’s) and PB Ryan (a favorite of Janine).  In fact, the first in the PB Ryan series, Still Life with Murder, is totally free.

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CDC has a page on Zombie preparedness.  Even if you aren’t ready, the CDC is.

If zombies did start roaming the streets, CDC would conduct an investigation much like any other disease outbreak. CDC would provide technical assistance to cities, states, or international partners dealing with a zombie infestation. This assistance might include consultation, lab testing and analysis, patient management and care, tracking of contacts, and infection control (including isolation and quarantine). It’s likely that an investigation of this scenario would seek to accomplish several goals: determine the cause of the illness, the source of the infection/virus/toxin, learn how it is transmitted and how readily it is spread, how to break the cycle of transmission and thus prevent further cases, and how patients can best be treated.

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Finally, it is hard to believe that this is a photograph but it is.

Related posts:

1. Monday Midday Links: UK Retailers and Publishers Begin Pricing Battle
2. Friday Midday Links: Courtney Milan’s Win Win for RWA
3. Friday Midday Links: NY Times brings forth its ebook bestseller list

“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 the charts than by massive price reductions,” she said. Whereas in a bricks and mortar environment other factors, like the look and feel of books and recommendations from booksellers, can influence choice, most of these factors are stripped away in an online environment, Barnsley argued. “So, not surprisingly, brand and price become the deciding factors.”

More stats and breakdown here.

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iFlow Reader is the first ebook app to shut its virtual doors due to Apple’s impending restrictions on in app purchasing.  The review, the new Apple rules require any app that allows out of app purchases to allow in app purchases. The problem is that for every in app purchase Apple wants 30%.  Now consider Agency pricing wherein the retailer only gets 30% and you can see the problem. Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Kobo will either get a special exemption like Time magazine got or they will have to take some action.

1. They could provide just web based reading.
2. Remove themselves from the App store
3. Sue Apple for antitrust violations
4. Remove the buy link in the app.  (This I am not sure of because why wouldn’t iFlow have just done that? )

More here about Apple’s change in policy and how this may affect readers who use a non iBooks app on their iThing devices.  Apple is expected to have over 400 million iDevices out in the wild by 2012.

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A Wall Street Journal interview (registration requ’d) with Penguin CEO John Makinson revealed that Agency pricing was adopted to obtain customer information. As the retailer of record, Agency publishers are entitled to some amount of customer information.  Makinson also acknowledged that the proliferation of self published works at the 2.99 price point meant that Penguin would have to compete while still maintaining the value of its high profile authors:

Mr. Makinson: This is a new market that can’t exist economically in print. You can’t manufacture, ship and store a book at those prices. But we as publishers probably need to participate.

We’ll look at new content that maybe we can popularize in different ways. We’ll also look at our backlist. Maybe there are customers for westerns at $1.99. What we need to be really careful of is ensuring that this new market doesn’t compromise the sales of Clive Cussler, Tom Clancy, Patricia Cornwell and Ken Follett.

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Washington Post interviews Bella Andre who will make $116K in the first quarter this year self publishing.  The danger of self publishing is that it is time consuming (where are the book service companies?) and the market is getting very crowded.  It’s crowded for authors using publishers too.  Self publishing, in my opinion, is for the entrepreneurs of writing.  Done right, an author is likely to make more money self publishing in a digitally dominant world, but doing it right is tough.

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Dr. Vivanco writes a fun piece about evaluating books dependent upon how we read them.

The position of the reader, she argues, is an indication of the reader’s attitude towards what is being read. A different posture is adopted for the reading of serious, valuable texts because these are texts which, supposedly, call for a different type of reading:

Related posts:

1. Wednesday Midday Links: Amazon Ups the Ante
2. Friday Midday Links: Steve Jobs Claims Publishers to Punish Amazon
3. Wednesday Midday Links: Classic nook for $79

The announcement made this morning was foreshadowed last night when it implemented an ordering freeze and Ingram, its lifeline to the publishers, stopped shipping books. Publishers are on the hook for hundreds of millions of dollars led by Penguin Group (USA) which is owned $41.1 million, followed by Hachette at $36.9 million, Simon & Schuster at $33.8 million, Random House at $33.5 million, and HarperCollins at $25.8 million. Neither major book distributor, Ingram or Baker & Taylor were among the leading creditors, and only one book distributor, National Book Network, which is out $2 million.

All these publisher debts are unsecured which means that they will have lower priority with the bankruptcy court. Unsecured debt is debt that is not secured by an asset. In our lives, credit card debt is unsecured whereas a mortgage is secured (secured by the home). Ordinarily, a chapter 11 will result in a debtor being paid cents on the dollar owed. In the long term, the contraction of Borders will translate into smaller print runs (the number of books printed in one order in advance to the retail sale).

Another bankruptcy that will adversely affect the bottom line is the bankruptcy of Fenn in Canada. Fenn was Canada's largest book distributor. It’s largest unsecured creditor is Macmillan to whom Fenn owes $10 million and Harper Collins is owed $3.3 million.

There is no mention as to what will happen to Kobo. Maybe one of Borders’ most valuable assets is its minority share in Kobo. Borders has a 20% investment. My guess is that the plan for restructuring will include the Kobo business at its center. EBooks are on the rise while retail store book sales are declining. According to preliminary US Census Bureau data, bookstore retail sales fell 1.4% whereas general retailer sales rose 6.6%.

Based on Barnes & Noble’s success with the nook (as opposed to book retail sales), a book retailer without a digital plan probably doesn’t survive on a national scale.

Other investors in Kobo include Indigo; Instant Fame, a subsidiary of Cheung Kong (Holdings) Ltd. of Hong Kong; and REDgroup Retail of Australia. Kobo also announced it had raised $16 million CAD (about $15.1 U.S.) in financing from its investors. Indigo will retain approximately 58% ownership of Kobo. Source: News Release

Kobo put out a release to assure customers that their ebooks are safe and that it is unaffected by the Borders’ bankruptcy:

Will I lose access to ebooks I have purchased at Borders.com?
Your ebook library is perfectly safe. The Borders ebook experience is powered by Kobo, an entirely separate company from Borders. Kobo is financially secure and will continue to maintain your ebook library no matter what happens.

and

Nothing. Kobo is an independent, financially secure company that provides a Global eReading Service. Today will be another day filled with books being downloaded every second by Kobo users in over 100 countries.

The list of 200 stores to be closed have not yet been announced. Wall Street Journal has posted a sortable list of the 200 store closings. I’m curious which of our readers shop at Borders and may be affected by the closures.

Related posts:

1. Book distribution company (AMS) files for bankruptcy. Losses huge.
2. Author’s Rights When a Publisher Files Bankruptcy
3. Publishers Trying to Force Anderson News Into Bankruptcy

Sample prizes include books by Nalini Singh, Linnea Sinclair, Marcella Burnard, Kim Knox, Jess Granger, Nathalie Gray, and KS Augustin.

Best of all, entering is easy: Just leave a comment at any of the participating blogs that has prizes you're eligible for. The deadline to enter is midnight at EST on Sunday, December 26.

Visit The Galaxy Express for complete details.

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Amazon is refunding the defective Kindle 3 non light leather covers.   Contact kindle-response@amazon.com.

Remember the pedophile book that got pulled from Amazon?   The author has been brought up on obscenity charges and extradited from Colorado to Florida to face prosecution.   The Polk County sheriff’s department got the author to send an undercover officer a copy of the book through the mail. The author was charged with distribution of obscenity.   I’m not an expert on obscenity law or child pornography but I thought that the Supreme Court had determined that artist renderings of such acts were not obscenity but I do know that a manga collector in Iowa was charged with “possessing ‘obscene visual representations of the sexual abuse of children and mailing obscene material.’”   The collector pled guilty so there was no legal challenge to the statute.   Unless the author of the pedophile book gets some pro bono defense, my guess is that he will plead guilty and be imprisoned as well.   Thanks to everyone who mentioned the article to me.

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Avon Romance website has a new look.   It’s a cleaner design although with a few more css bells and whistles.   They are NOT selling ebooks from their site but rather highlighting some new ebook ventures like the original fiction shorts (this month it is Eloisa James) and ebook bundles of two of its more popular authors.

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Last night I was bemoaning that I was paralyzed by the size of my to be read pile and that my next instinct was to go to buy something new.   Apparently it is not an unfamiliar sentiment.   Someone tweeted me this link to an article in The New Yorker.   The essayist, Meredith Blake, suggests that the promise of an unread book is almost better than the satisfaction of the read book:

An unread book is an intoxicating, romantic thing, and the act of reading is, in one sense, destructive: all that possibility is reined in, made finite. Certainly we all have ideas about books we haven't read before we read them. That's why we pick them up in the first place. These preconceived ideas can be useful, too: part of the performance of being well-read is the ability to know what a certain writer or novel represents, even if you haven't actually read them (yet).

Related posts:

1. Tuesday Midday Links: Dear Author’s New Design
2. Tuesday Midday Links: Bad Sex Award given to an author maligning the nipple
3. Tuesday Midday Links: Harlequin Horizon’s, A self publishing venture

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Heather Osborn, formerly an editor with Tor, has been announced as the new Editorial Director for Samhain.   Heather will begin at Samhain on November 1, 2010.   Congratulations Heather!   and Samhain!

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Sarah Wendell is the romance columnist for the newly launched Kirkus reviews. What a great gig for Sarah and what a great boon for romance readers. Both Publishers’ Weekly (Rose Fox, if you are wondering) and now Kirkus have two readers and lovers of the genre writing about the genre for the benefit of industry and library folks.

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August Book Sales according to the American Association of Publishers. Book sales are up 6.9% year to date.

• Hardcover Children's/YA: down 8.0 percent, $77.8 million sales. YTD sales down 14.6 percent.
• Children's/YA Paperback: down 15.1 percent, $58.9 million sales. YTD sales dow 7.6 percent.
• Adult Hardcover: down 24.4 percent, $83.8 million. YTD sales up 5.2 percent.
• Adult Paperback: down 18.3 percent, $124.9 million sales. YTD up 4.1 percent.
• Adult Mass Market: down 21.9 percent, $54.9 million sales. YTD down 14.3.
• Downloaded Audio Books: Up 4.6 percent, $6.3 million sales. YTD up 28.8 percent.
• Physical Audio Book: Down 23.4 percent, $9.9 million sales. YTD down 6.0 percent.
• Year To Date E-Book Sales Comprise 9.0% of Trade Book Sales

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Craig Morgan Teicher blogs about the poor state of ebooks, particularly those that are outside the norm of narrative fiction. He pointed out that Allen Ginsberg’s Collected Poems looks especially bad. JOshua Tallent, ebook coding expert, replied that hand coding is going to be the only way that ebooks will look as good as their paper counterparts. Teicher concludes that perhaps Blio will solve these problems. Unfortunately unless Blio will just show a graphical representation of the physical copy (thus no reflow, search, bookmarking, etc) the books on Blio must be coded similarly.

Ebooks priced as high as paper books but without the same quality? Yes, that is a problem.

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Apparently an unnamed publisher is paying bloggers and others $20 per blog post according to RRR Jessica. Jessica is one of those bloggers who will be writing for the publisher site that is going live in November. In the comments at Jessica’s site, there is some discussion about the ethical nature of bloggers/readers becoming paid to promote a publisher website. Jessica is an ethicist and it is interesting to read her point of view, particularly as Jessica has, in the past, been uncomfortable with some aspects of the ARC to blogger transaction.

Given that it is at the publisher’s own site I don’t think this is a problem (although under the FTC rules, there probably needs to be some disclosure). And just in case you were wondering, I am not writing blog posts for pay for any publisher.

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Harlequin/Mills & Boon is looking for new young writers and is promoting its efforts with a weeklong “So You Think You Can Write” event. Mills & Boon is still giving away 11 free digital books which you can download at http://www.everyonesreading.com/.   Silhouette is being axed or, at least, folded into the Harlequin brand.

In an effort to strengthen the Harlequin brand, all Silhouette lines will remain intact but will now be known by the new names of Harlequin Desire, Harlequin Romantic Suspense and Harlequin Special Edition.

And in other Harlequin related news, Carina Press will be offering some of its romantic suspense and mystery titles in print through the Harlequin Direct to Customer (DTC) program. According to the Carina Press blog:

Reader Service, as it known to customers, sends a monthly shipment of 3-4 books to readers who have signed up for the service. As a result certain Carina Press titles will be printed by the DTC team and included in a monthly 2011 shipment. Those titles are:

February 2011: In Plain View by J. Wachowski (edited by Melissa Johnson)
April 2011: Presumed Dead by Shirley Wells (edited by Deborah Nemeth)
July 2011: Fatal Affair by Marie Force (edited by Jessica Schulte)

This will begin in February 2011.

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All About Romance is hosting its top 100 romance poll. You can enter your list here. Thanks to Cindy at Nocturnal Wonderings as I noticed this at her blog.

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In another example of the need for intellectual property reform, HyperMac will cease making external batteries for Apple products due to legal threats from Apple over the use of the cord attachment. Yes, the cord attachment. Stock up now, if you like the HyperMac external battery sources. Via Engadget.

Related posts:

1. Monday Midday Links: Covers, book sales, and nook price drop
2. Monday Midday Links Roundup: ABA Wants DOJ to Investigate Discount Pricing
3. August Bookstore Sales Are Up

1) What will you consider romance (ie. differentiating between UF / Paranormal, etc)

For the titles where it’s not obvious, I’ll decide case by case based on the input of the book’s publisher and my fellow editors.

2) Will you be doing category review?

I’m open to submissions of romance novels of any kind, though of course we can’t review everything. I would especially love to see more submissions from independent presses (though no self-published books, please) and more titles featuring people who aren’t straight white well-off Anglophones. I feel very strongly that the romance section should reflect the diversity of romances and romance readers. When in doubt, any publisher who wants to know whether or how to submit romance titles for review consideration is welcome to look through our submission guidelines [http://publishersweekly.com/pw/corp/submissionguidelines.html] and then email me if they still have questions.

3) Will you be having editorial features besides reviews in the romance section?

Yes, we’ll continue to feature noteworthy romance titles in our Pick of the Week and signature reviews, and noteworthy romance authors in profiles and Q&As. Romance publishers should feel free to send me pitches for any of those (no guarantees, of course).

4) Will there be these distinct sections for all genres?

In addition to our main fiction section, there’s already a mystery reviews section (edited by Peter Cannon) and an SF/fantasy/horror reviews section (edited by yours truly), and those will continue to run as they have.

5) Will this still be oriented to the trade or do you want to reach consumers who might subscribe to RT?

PW is still absolutely a trade publication, though of course anyone who wants to subscribe is welcome to!

I think this is fantastic of Publishers’ Weekly and I can’t wait to see the new and revamped magazine.

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Profits are up at most publishing houses. What a difference a year makes, right? Because of bestsellers like Stieg Larsson’s series and Sarah Palin’s book, Random House and HarperCollins both saw increases in sales and revenue. Simon & Schuster, which lacks a big powerhouse hit, saw a better return given that it decreased its operating costs. Penguin has had the most success because of consistent hits like The Help by Kathryn Stockett and Charlaine Harris. Ebooks accounted for 8% of adult trade titles by the end of June.

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HarperCollins is rebranding its Science Fiction/Fantasy imprint to reflect a worldwide imprint comprised of EOS and the UK/Australia/New Zealand line called Voyager. The new global imprint will be called HarperCollins Voyager. I hope that this means that HC Voyager will be buying world digital rights and releasing digital copies simultaneously in e-format.

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In a disturbing update on digital media ownership, the 9th Circuit has appeared to rule that digital downloads via the iTunes store are merely licensed and not sold. This would mean that you aren’t truly in ownership of the songs and other digital media purchased through the iTunes store and at other vendors with similar contractual language.

But in reviewing a decision in a suit brought against Universal Music Group by producers affiliated with rapper Eminem, a three judge panel of the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals held that iTunes downloads (even the DRM-free variety) are encumbered by enough restrictions that they can't be considered sales at all.

If I don’t own my digital products, then I either expect the price to drop dramatically or I will have to go back to buying paper books and converting them, by hand, into digital copies.

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If you have a little time and interest in critical examination of romance, I would urge you to take a read (or two) at the discussion prompted by a blog post of Katharine Beutner. Beutner is a graduate student and author of the critically acclaimed Alcestis. According to her blog post, Beutner has taught a course on romance book narratives largely based on the traditional regency romance (I believe that is what is to be gleaned from the comments).

Beutner presents a traditional romance narrative structure based upon Janice Radway’s conclusions of what an ideal romance is beginning with the building block of “the heroine’s social identity is destroyed.” The comments contain a dizzying number of articulate replies from individuals like our own Robin (aka Janet), Jessica of ReadReactReview.com, Carolyn Jewel, Eric Selinger and Laura Vivanco from Teach Me Tonight, and author Jeannie Lin.

Two things struck me as I read this. First, the having academics who love and study romance is going to do a lot for increasing the respect given to the genre. Second, the open exchange of ideas and information that took place in that thread was remarkable. I give Beutner a lot of credit for being open minded and taking criticism of her off the cuff blog post with graciousness.

I hope if you have a moment, you’ll take the time to read it.
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Related posts:

1. Midday Links of Love: 50% off Ebooks at EHarlequin Today
2. Wednesday Midday Links: Simon & Schuster Let’s Go Half of its Sales Staff
3. Ebook Sales Up 59% in 2007

Sony has always manufactured a beautiful feeling product and I don’t doubt that these feel great.   At $179, though, I think the Kindle is a much better deal particularly because the $139 one comes with the same screen (although no touch) and wifi connectivity.   Even the nook at $149 comes with wifi and a small touchscreen.

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Borders has cut the prices of the Kobo and Aluretek readers.   The Kobo is now $129 and the Aluretek is $99.   The Kobo at $129 is too high because it lacks any kind of connectivity, has content issues (not enough content compared to BN and Kindle), and has much lower refresh.

Borders is also going to sell Build a Bear accessories in its children’s section.   BN has a large assortment of toys and stuffed animals as well.

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After several quarters of struggle, Random House has seemingly turned its ship around with the help of sales by Stieg Larsson.   Digital is also growing.

"In the past half year we have really embraced digital transition throughout our companies, replacing anxieties about the format with forward thinking and with well-executed action," Dohle said with Random on track to generate e-book sales of over $100 million (which will roughly be about 5% of worldwide sales). The majority of sales have come in the U.S., but the U.K. and Germany have also seen good gains. E-book publishing operations will soon start in Latin America and Spain.

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Michelle sent me this link to an Amazon discussion regarding the bleeding of paranormal romance into urban fantasy.   What I think is interesting is how proprietary readers are of their favorite genres and how much they dislike any “mislabeling.”   I am the same way for romance.   Some of these readers really dislike romance (which is perfectly fine) but I thought reading the thought processes of other readers was interesting.

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Sarah Rees Brennan, author of the highly recommended Demon Lexicon books, talks about why she doesn’t write negative reviews.   For various reasons from not wanting to unintentionally hurt someone’s feelings to understanding that her viewpoint might not be totally objective, Brennan talks about the books she loves but understands and appreciates those that write the negative reviews. Reviews, she concludes are primarily for readers.   (I agree!).

Related posts:

1. Tuesday Midday Links: Harlequin Horizon’s, A self publishing venture
2. Tuesday Midday Links: Publishers still thinking not thinking about readers
3. Monday Midday Links: Sony Drops eBook Reader Prices