Google has filed its motion to dismiss in the Google Book Settlement.  The motion is based on a legal term known as standing.  Not everyone can sue anyone else.  You must have “standing” and Google is arguing that only the individual authors and artists have standing, not groups such as the Authors Guild.

In a copyright case, standing comes from ownership. Only the “legal or beneficial owner” of the exclusive right the defendant has allegedly infringed has standing to sue. Since the Authors Guild doesn’t own the copyrights in its members’ books, it can’t sue in its own behalf.

*****

Hal Roberts posts that SOPA advocates are using his research incorrectly.  His research on DNS filtering does not support SOPA and he tries to set the record straight.

Opponents of SOPA have argued that the DNS filtering, even though it will have a number of harmful effects on the technical and political structure of the Internet, will not be effective in preventing users from accessing the blocked sites. Mr. Castro cites our research as evidence that SOPA’s mandate to filter DNS will be effective. …. His presumption that people will work as hard or harder to access political content than they do to access entertainment content deeply misunderstands how and why most people use the Internet. Far more users in open societies use the Internet for entertainment than for political purposes; it is unreasonable to assume different behaviors in closed societies.

But facts aren’t driving SOPA.  Emotion is.

*****

October sales results are out and it shows a decline in ebook sales from August to October. According to Publishers’ Marketplace, the ebook sales for August were $80.3 million and ebook sales in October were $72.8 million.  Still, that is enough for an 82% increase over last October ebook sales and every other segment of publishing declined in sales in October including mass market which is down a whopping 33.7%.

*****

Lenticular clouds have appeared in West Yorkshire.  Amazing gallery to be seen here.

Deals

These are Amazon Big Deals and other than the Miriam Minger titles, the deals expire today. The lowered prices may not be reflected at other sites but the links are provided as a courtesy.

• Twin Passions by Miriam Minger * $0.99 * Amazon | nook | Sony | Kobo
• Defiant Impostor by Miriam Minger * $0.99 * Amazon | nook | Sony | Kobo
• Wild Angel by Miriam Minger * $0.99 * Amazon | nook | Sony | Kobo
• Secrets of Midnight by Miriam Minger * $0.99 * Amazon | nook | Sony | Kobo
• Captive Rose by Miriam Minger * $0.99 * Amazon | nook | Sony | Kobo
• Making Waves by Tawna Fenske * $0.99 * Amazon | nook | Sony | Kobo
• Utterly Charming by Kristine Grayson * $0.99 * Amazon | nook | Sony | Kobo
• Broken Wing by Judith James * $0.99 * Amazon | nook | Sony | Kobo
• The Firefly Dance by Sarah Addison,  Allen Phyllis Schieber, Kathryn Magendie, and Augusta Trobaugh * $0.99 * Amazon | nook | Sony | Kobo
• A Blue So Dark by Holly Schindler * $0.99 * Amazon | nook | Sony | Kobo
• Almost Home by Barbara Freethy * $1.99 * Amazon | nook | Sony | Kobo
• Seventh Heaven by Alice Hoffman * $1.99 * Amazon | nook | Sony | Kobo
• Mrs. Kimble by Jennifer Haigh * $1.99 * Amazon | nook | Sony | Kobo
• A Seduction at Christmas by Cathy Maxwell * $1.99 * Amazon | nook | Sony | Kobo
• Treading Water by Marie Force * $1.99 * Amazon | nook | Sony | Kobo
• A Christmas Countess by Adrienne Basso * $1.99 * Amazon | nook | Sony | Kobo
• SEALed with a Kiss by Mary Margret Daughtridge * $1.99 * Amazon | nook | Sony | Kobo
• The Vow by Juliana Garnet * $1.99 * Amazon | nook | Sony | Kobo
• Lessons in French by Laura Kinsale * $1.99 * Amazon | nook | Sony | Kobo
• Desire Untamed by Pamela Palmer * $1.99 * Amazon | nook | Sony | Kobo
• Tangled by Carolyn Mackler * $1.99 * Amazon | nook | Sony | Kobo
• Real Mermaids Don’t Wear Toe Rings by Helene Boudreau * $1.99 * Amazon | nook | Sony | Kobo
• Tyler (The Secret Life of Cowboys) by C.H. Admirand * $1.99 * Amazon | nook | Sony | Kobo
• Liar Society by Lisa Roecker Laura Roecker * $1.79 * Amazon | nook | Sony | Kobo
• Blue Angel by Logan Belle * $1.99 * Amazon | nook | Sony | Kobo
• Broken by Megan Hart * $2.99 * Amazon | nook | Sony | Kobo
• The Vampire Diaries: Stefan’s Diaries #1: Origins  by L.J. Smith * $2.99 * Amazon | nook | Sony | Kobo
• The Vampire Diaries: Stefan’s Diaries #2: Bloodlust by L.J. Smith * $2.99 * Amazon | nook | Sony | Kobo
• Stolen Moments by B.J. Daniels * $2.99 * Amazon | nook | Sony | Kobo
• Royal’s Child by Sharon Sala * $2.99 * Amazon | nook | Sony | Kobo
• The Mistaken Widow by Cheryl St. John * $2.99 * Amazon | nook | Sony | Kobo

Related posts:

1. Wednesday Midday Links: The “Other” eBook Sales
2. Wednesday Midday Links: Book Sales Plummet, eBook Sales Flat
3. Tuesday Midday Links: lost ebook sales site gains momentum

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.

*****

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.

*****

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).

*****

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.

*****

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).

*****

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.

*****

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.

*****

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.

*****

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

“As of now,” Simon said coldly, “the Incident never occurred. And I will personally destroy anyone, anyone at all, who says it did. Do I make myself clear, gentlemen?”

The twins gaped open-mouthed at him and then exchanged bemused glances with each other.

“You cannot make the great blot on her reputation simply vanish, sir,” Charles finally ventured carefully.

“Watch me,” said Simon.

Allromance.com is the sponsor of this bookchat.   You can buy the book here and during the bookchat, allromance.com will be sponsoring giveaways of digital books galore.

The chat will be Tuesday 28 December at 9:00 pm EST-10:30 pm EST. Unlike previous chats, the author won’t be joining us (woe!) but we will be partying the entire time, with giveaways, discussion, polls (have you seen the polls?), old skool cover madness, and general discussions, like what title could possibly top “Earl of Blade?” Maybe “Duke of Sharp Badassery.”

****

This is really ominous. In 2011, new state tax structures could require a duplicate tax on digital books: state tax where you live and state tax where the digital book resides until it is downloaded.   The increased sales tax could be as much as 21%!!!!   I would stop buying digital books. I would probably buy paper books and make my own digital book from the paper copy.   This is really distressing.   Maybe someone will point out in the comments that this is totally false (or is that just wishful thinking?).

Those 10 million Kindle owners are NOT going to be happy.

****

Simon & Schuster enjoyed   a better year in 2010.   Digital gains were up but sales still lagged because of the “soft” brick and mortar retail sales.   International sales were growing as well (another reason to end the geographical restrictions).

In 2010, S&S children's publishing group "is booming and their results this year are the strongest in their history," Reidy said led by gains in teen, fantasy and middle grade categories. Highlights in the adult group included higher sales for authors such as James Lee Burke, Kresley Cole, Vince Flynn, Jodi Picoult and Jennifer Weiner. The international group is thriving "as never before" she added with its U.K. division in particular having a solid year with sales up by more than 18% in a market Reidy said has declined by 3%.

*****

Apparently authors do not like to get a rejection letter that doesn’t have any explanation but if you want an explanation, you might get one that you don’t like.   Here are some examples of famous authors’ rejections.

6. Mary Higgins Clark

Back in 1966, the young romance author was trying to sell a story she called "Journey Back to Love." It didn't go well, however; her submission to Redbook came back with a rejection from the editors, stating "We found the heroine as boring as her husband had." Ouch! The piece was eventually run as a two-part serial in an English magazine, and Mary Higgins Clark currently boasts forty-two bestselling novels.

I’ve got to remember that line…

Related posts:

1. Thursday Midday Links: Thinking of Buying a Dorchester Book?
2. Thursday Midday Links: Is Google Book Settlement Dead?
3. CLICK HERE TO JOIN THE CHAT Butterfly Swords Book Chat with Jeannie Lin

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.

****

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.

****

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.

****

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

I also follow Teresa Medeiros on Twitter and she ended up writing a book about two people who fall in love on Twitter and I found the whole book unbearably twee. I will be posting a review on it at the end of the month when the book releases, but suffice to say that this is one book that was probably far better in concept.

Instead of doing the book trailer, Mallery has created these online magazines that feature articles about her characters. The first one was a wedding magazine that had a pictoral layout of the wedding of former champion cyclist and Fool’s Gold city planner. The most recent one is about Fool’s Gold, the city. It’s a Holiday magazine and part of the advertisements feature bloggers and other websites (we did not pay to advertise, it’s kind of an Easter egg of sorts).

The view stats for the magazine indicate that other people are enjoying the magazine as well. The Holiday magazine has been viewed 82,069 times.

Compare those stats with the book trailer done by Circle of Seven for Christina Dodd, a bestselling author like Mallery. The book trailer has 6,339 views and was uploaded over a year ago.

One thing I don’t like about the Mallery promotion is that there is no good way to embed the magazine. It’s really best viewed at the hosting site.

Another example of an author promotion that I really liked was the audiobook widget for the upcoming Susan Elizabeth Phillips. I generally disfavor widgets because they don’t really offer anything useful and seem more advertisement and less a benefit for me as a reader or blogger, but I liked this audio widget because you can play the audio sample right from the widget itself. no click throughs or anything. (As an aside, I enjoyed this book quite a bit and we have a couple of reviews, both positive, but with very different thoughts from Jennie and Robin to be published next month).

Twitter sells books according to some publishers. The publicity director for Algonquin shares his ideas as to why Twitter is becoming an effective medium for them:

The trick to their success may lie in the community building which is so crucial to Twitter. Taeckens explains his three point plan for engagement: “First, be pro-active about interacting with other people; you have to engage in conversations, not merely post as if you’re reporting to a captive public. Second, display your sense of personality; use wit, humor, creativity, and have fun. Third, post and comment on topics you know and care about–not just literature and publishing, but all topics in the cultural dialogue.”

I’m a big tweeter and one thing that I really dislike and that I am seeing more of is what I like to call “the circle jerk of promotion”. This happens when a group of author friends retweet or repost one of the group’s new release so all you have in your entire feed is a bunch of authors retweeting the same thing about Author A’s book being out. It becomes total white noise. If you want to tweet about the release, can’t you come up with something new and innovate to say about your friend’s book?

I could write all day about the horrible websites out there and it seems like Karen Marie Moning’s relaunched website breaks all the rules. First, it is run on flash. Flash, as you may have read, cannot be viewed on any iThing. So that is like 80 million devices that can’t view whatever it is the author spent so much money to have on her site. Plus, it takes time to load and people with slower internet connections are likely clicking away. Further, many people visit during work hours and can’t even see or enjoy the fancy shmancy thing. Beyond the flash is the audio that starts up when the site loads, with a voice over by some guy (who I have since found out is her husband?) I think he is supposed to sound seductive, but the extra breathing at the end of his words and the indecision as to whether he should be singing or simply narrating the text made it sound funny. The background track was annoying. I eventually turned it off so I don’t know the whole soliloquy given by the narrator (and isn’t this whole series about a chick and not a guy anyway?). Then I thought, maybe this site is just for her fans because after all she is celebrating the release of the fifth and final book in her series. Maybe it’s not to bring in new fans at all.

Another thing that I am ambivalent about is a members only section of an Author website. I’ve heard that some readers (generally the fans) enjoy it but new readers don’t. Susan Mallery, who I referenced above, has a members only section and while I like her magazine and her twitter feed, I am not signing up for a members only section.

Thoughts? Likes/dislikes?

*****

Borders has a really ugly, high priced something on its site that is designed just to display recipes.

*****

Nate over at the digital reader points to the results of a new survey regarding publishers and ebooks. Over 62% of publishers don’t know what the ROI on ebooks are yet. I think the downfall of pricing right now is that as the ebook industry grows rapidly so does ebook revenue because new entrants are buying books. The question is how much greater could growth be. Ebooks are currently viewed as additive sales versus replacement sales even though sales of books like mass markets are declining by double digits.

******

All About Romance has published its top 100 list which is voted on by the readers of AAR. Number one is Lord of Scoundrels by Loretta Chase. Big names and historicals seem to dominate the list.

******

The Roses of Prose are looking for another blogger to join our group of four authors. If you’re a published author – traditional, e-published, or self-published, and would like to blog with them, check out the guidelines on their site http://www.rosesofprose.blogspot.com/.

*****

Related posts:

1. Wednesday Midday Links: Dear Author Community Bundle
2. Wednesday Midday Links: JA Konrath Posts a Must Read Article and Dear Author Has Neat News
3. Wednesday Midday Links: Authors Releasing Backlist Titles in Digital

****

John Scalzi sides with the ethicist as to whether it is okay to download a digital copy of a book you already own.

But the point to make here is that these days, people are deciding that when they buy a book or a movie or a piece of music, they're buying the content, not the format. As a writer I don't have a philosophical problem with this, since I write content, not format, even if publishers want that content to fit a particular format. And as a consumer, I think there's a certain point at which you get to say "you know what, I've  paid for this already, and I'm done paying any more for it." Both of these are why I say that if you've paid me once for a book I've written and what you've enjoyed, we're good. Pay me again if you like; I won't complain. But once is enough.

Nathan Bransford does not.

It may seem like it’s a trivial distinction to make when the resulting file from scanning yourself vs. pirating a book is potentially almost the same, but that’s where the line between ethical/legal and unethical/illegal is drawn for a reason. In the first version, you’re adding the value yourself through your own effort (just as taking notes in your own margins adds a form of value). By downloading a file illegally you’re misappropriating that added value from the only people (the publisher and author and e-booksellers) who are legally and ethically entitled to profit from it. That’s why we have copyright law. That’s where we’ve chosen to draw the line.

I see a couple of flaws in both arguments. First, if content is what readers are buying, why are audiobooks separate?    Does the aural component add something new? Further, what about used book purchases and subsequent downloads? There is no remission to the author there, yet you still legally own a copy of the book. Bransford argues that the opportunity cost of converting print into digital (v CD into MP3) makes it unethical because creating your own digital file somehow adds value.

****

Association of American Publishers’ stats are released for 2009 and sales fell by 1.8%.   Adult hardcovers had a growth of 6.9% ($2.6 billion) but children and YA fell 5% ($1.7 billion).   I see dozens of sales for YA books right now, many for big amounts.   I wonder if these will prove to be a mistake.   Adult trade paperbacks fell 5.2% ($2.2 billion)

Mass market decreased 4% ($1 billion) and book clubs/mail order fell 2% ($588 million).   Ebooks reached $313 million which represents nearly 4% of adult trade sales.   Audiobooks struggled with a drop of 12.9% ($192).

****

An intrepid reader at Mobile Read noted that HarperCollins is selling its books for 20% off. Further, the retail price of the books is a dollar less.    But this morning, a notice went up that the site is under maintenance and you can’t buy.   I love the idea of the publishers selling direct at a discount but I can’t help but wonder if this violates some kind of pricing deal with the retailers.   Note to HarperCollins: those prices were right for me. I would buy at those prices.

****

A reader sent me i09′s assessment of the how the Google Books Settlement will affect readers.   io9 believes that there will be both a retraction of content (authors refusing to allow Google to display their work) and an expansion (as orphaned works get displayed because the rights’ owner can’t be found).

More importantly, I think we could see a renaissance in contemporary pulp fiction. We can once again have access to weird, unusual stories that are both awesome and not sustainable under publishing’s current blockbuster model. Writers of small and midlist SF books could start making money on their writing again. This is a good thing for authors and readers who love imaginative fiction.

****

Publishers’ Marketplace brings up two key issues for this Apple pricing model five of the top six major publishers are trying to cram down our throats.   First is the tax issue (tax link).   Wherever the publisher or retailer has a significant business presence, they have to collect tax.   The publishers and retailers are confused about who has the responsibility to collect and report taxes.   Sounds like it will be a huge headache and one that no one has figured out how to handle. I confess to not understanding the entirety of the issue. Maybe reader DS will help us out?

Second (paid link), iBookstore is allowing all kinds of content into the store via aggregators like Ingram, Smashwords, LibreDigital.   Each one charges a different commission.   Smashwords takes about half of the 30% commission and LibreDigital about 20%.   Ingram won’t say.   The publishers who aren’t doing Agency pricing are having a difficult time enforcing the hybrid scheme.   For example, Sourcebooks has priced some books at the iBooks store at $6.99 and because it doesn’t have an agency agreement with other retailers like BN or Amazon, those two are discounting.   For authors who want to skip the aggregators, you can go directly with Tunecore who will submit your epub to iBooks for a flat fee, no subsequent royalty share.

Right now, though, the iBook store sucks so hard that unless a reader knows exactly what to look for, its fairly useless.   One person (Liza Daly of Threepress and Ibis Reader) called it an airport bookstore and it is such an apt description.

Yesterday I looked and there were no April releases in the romance section which only displays two subcategories: Contemporary and Historical and only about 27 titles in each category.

****

Penguin has signed a co branding deal with a major Indian publisher, Shobhaa De. Unfortunately, the books will “comprise of celebrity memoirs, guides and biographies -’ with a focus on lifestyle, business, cinema and commercial fiction.”

****

Karen Scott highlighted an interview with two Mills & Boon Authors. Penny Jordan has sold 85 million copies her books worldwide and has never spotted a reader with one of them.

****

Related posts:

1. Thursday Midday Links: Apple’s iBookstore Pricing Is $9.99 too
2. Thursday Midday Links: Defamation Accusations Strike Again
3. Thursday Midday Links: More on Amazon and Macmillan

****

More authors are getting into the casual gaming platform.   Orchid Games released Heartwild Solitaire Classic and recruited a few authors to write short stories that players are allowed to read after winning a game of solitaire.   The game and the stories are free.   Sherry Thomas has allowed us to host her free story here.   Right click to save the RTF on your computer or click the link to read the story in a browser.

****

Courtney Milan has a great idea on how to resolve the business between RWA and Harlequin over Harlequin’s partnership with Author Solutions.   It reads like a win win to me.   Milan’s solution involves requiring all the Harlequin lines to be separate publishers and requiring Harlequin not refer any authors solicited from the conference to Dell Arte Press.

****

October was a good month for book sales.   Nearly every category saw a positive increase.   The increase in adult hardcover is probably attributable to Dan Brown’s The Lost Symbol.

• Adult paperback increased 37.5% to $130.4 million.
• Children’s/YA hardcover fell 0.5% to $87.9 million.
• Children’s/YA paperback increased 20.2% to $52.7 million.
• Adult hardcover rose 6.3% to $259.9 million.
• Adult mass market was down 1.8% to $61.2 million.
• Audiobooks dropped 1.8% to $19.7 million.
• Ebooks were up 254% to $18.5 miillon.

****

Carolyn Reidy, CEO of Simon & Schuster blames a soft market on the dismal S&S sales year:

Reidy noted that the bookselling marketplace "has been truly lackluster, and year-on-year sales at most of our major customers have declined significantly. Books from many of our continuing authors, as well as our higher-margin backlist, are selling at levels well below their peak." And although S&S had solid gains in its conservative and teen markets and strong performances in the U.K. and Canada, "the lower sales volume attributable to the soft marketplace was impossible for us to overcome."

I have a feeling the year end balance sheet at Simon & Schuster is grim.

Related posts:

1. Tuesday Midday Links: Harlequin Horizon’s, A self publishing venture
2. Book Sales Are on the Rise
3. Friday Midday Links: MWA Breaks Up With Harlequin

Through this strategic alliance; all sales, marketing, publishing, distribution, and book-selling services will be fulfilled by ASI; but Harlequin Horizons will exist as a division of Harlequin Enterprises Limited. Harlequin will monitor sales of books published through the self-publisher for possible pickup by its traditional imprints.

My guess is that if an author is selling well by herself, then Harlequin will see that and offer to bring it to a larger audience. It’s like a reader run slush pile. Some authors are dismayed by this, feeling it will hurt the publisher brand.    I’m not so sure that they are wrong about this.    From a reader point of view, since I buy primarily by line and author, I’m not certain if it affects   me.   Thoughts?

****

A Canadian high school is the first to go all digital.   Each student will be provided a Sony Reader with all the textbooks preloaded.   The students will be using the Sony Reader Touch edition which has a 6″ touchscreen and the ability for a student to write on the device.   Indigo books is estimating that 10% of book purchasers in 2010 will be in digital format.   It’s possible. Currently the number is 5% and the sales of digital books has increased 170% over last year.   Crain’s New York reported (paid link) that through September 2009, Simon & Schuster digital sales on the Kindle alone were over $22 million. Last year at the same time, Kindle sales for S&S had only generated $2.9 million.

****

The Kindle is available in Canada!

Related posts:

1. Tuesday Midday Review Links: Kindle is everywhere but Canada (WTF?)
2. Tuesday Midday Links
3. Tuesday Midday Links: Amazon’s Charm Offensive

St. Martin’s Press and Simon & Schuster are notorious for selling its ebooks at a super premium price.   Simon & Schuster lists several of the backlist titles at $9.99 ebook price even though these books are currently available in a mass market price.   St. Martin’s Press lists ebooks as high as $14.00 for books that have a comparable print version in mass market.

It frustrates me to no end that St. Martin’s Press and Simon & Schuster place what I like to call an ebook tax on its digital copies.   I would love to access Ellora’s Cave books outside of Ellora’s Cave. I find the checkout process to be unwieldy and frustrating. Oftentimes the site will not load or the login process takes several attempts or the book won’t download and so forth.   But to charge twice as much at a third party site is not only frustrating but seems short sighted.

The core readership of Ellora’s Cave is not likely to switch their buying habits to accessing books via a third party site, knowing that the prices at Ellora’s Cave are cheaper.   Readers who do buy via   a third party but learn later that they paid twice as much will become very frustrated.   But will the ire be directed at the publisher (Ellora’s Cave) or the individual author?

Digital publishers are heavily publisher branded.   I think readers associate heavily with the publisher identity rather than individual authors when it comes to digital publishing.   When you look at the covers of Ellora’s Cave books, Samhain, Loose-Id, and Liquid Silver, to name a few, the publisher brand is carried on the front cover itself.   I sometimes think that EC and the digital publishers that came after them were inspired by the Harlequin category lines and its heavy publisher branding.

Interestingly, over at Barnes and Noble, readers are upset with the ebook prices at BN, arguing that the BN prices are too high in comparison with Amazon.

For most readers, though, the face of a book is the author. If the reader doesn’t like the title or the cover or the price, the reader often blames the author.   If there are typos and grammatical errors that occur in the post author stage because some copyeditor gets his hands on the manuscript last, the author gets blamed.    So, in the case of ebook pricing, does the reader blame the author, the publisher or the retailer?

Related posts:

1. The eBook Tax: Some Publishers Want Hardcover Prices to Be Ebook Pricing Standard
2. Do Exclusive Publisher Portals Make Sense?
3. The Best Features of an E-book Retailer

Orbit’s $1.00 title is Hidden Empire by Kevin J. Anderson

The following are Forever $1.99 titles from Grand Central.   Grand Central makes these deals available to all etailers who carry the Forever ebooks but not all etailers take advantage of them. I know, WTF.   The following are links to the Sony store as that is one place I know that is currently carrying the promotion.

• One Scream Away by Brady, Kate (I’ll be picking this one up)
• Border Moonlight by   Scott, Amanda
• Knight of Desire by Mallory, Margaret
• Seducing a Scottish Bride by Welfonder, Sue-Ellen
• Love Is in the Heir by Caskie, Kathryn

Then there are the free deals for the Kindle and Kindle App users:

• Mary Jo Putney’s Loving a Lost Lord (a return to straight historicals)
• Dee Tenorio’s Kiss Me Again
• Lara Adrian’s Kiss of Midnight (first in the Breed series) (and it is also available for free on the Sony thanks, ChristineFlynn, for the tip)

Related posts:

1. Grand Central Promotional Ebooks
2. Would you pay more for DRM free digital media? iTunes Now Offering Its Entire Catalog DRM Free by End of Q1, 2009
3. 1 GB SD Card for FREE