Tuesday News: B&N to launch in the UK in October; Penguin and Harlequin Australia launches digital first lines; The next generation wristwatch
Publishing Newsaudio-books / Barnes & Noble / Harlequin / Microsoft10 Comments
Barnes & Noble to launch in the UK in October – Barnes & Noble will launch http://nook.co.uk in Mid-October and will announce partnerships with “leading UK retailers” shortly. “The first products to be available when the company begins offering its products in the UK in mid-October include Barnes & Noble’s line of critically acclaimed E Ink® Readers, NOOK Simple Touch™ and NOOK Simple Touch with GlowLight™, the top-ranked eBook readers in the US.” I don’t understand why B&N isn’t trying to offer the tablets. The Nook Simple Touch demand is very low in the US and B&N’s high expectation of sales led to diminished results last year. B&N Press Release
Disruptions: The Next Wave for the Wristwatch – Do you want a wristwatch that does more than tell time? Electronics manufacturers are hoping you will. Companies like Sony are developing watches that allow you to control your cell phone. One of the most successful Kickstarter projects ever was for the Pebble, an Android based watch that could communicate with an Android device and allow you to read emails, check your calendar, and work as a remote control. I have an iPod Nano that I use for walking, running, and listening to audio books. I’m going to blog more about this device on Sunday. NY Times
How Microsoft Lost Its Mojo: Steve Ballmer and Corporate America’s Most Spectacular Decline – Kurt Eichenwald explores the “fall” of Microsoft from computing giant to after thought. Apple, under Steve Jobs, transformed the consumer technology industry with not just the iPhone but the iPad which created a market that had been heretofore shunned by consumers. Tablet adoption will now outpace home PC adoption in a few years. Microsoft still dominates in the business world but the iPad is slowly encroaching even that market. The summary is that big companies have a hard time adapting.Vanity Fair
“The story of Microsoft’s lost decade could serve as a business-school case study on the pitfalls of success. For what began as a lean competition machine led by young visionaries of unparalleled talent has mutated into something bloated and bureaucracy-laden, with an internal culture that unintentionally rewards managers who strangle innovative ideas that might threaten the established order of things.”
A Major Advance Toward a Birth Control Pill for Men – Jay Bradner of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Martin Matzuk Baylor College of Medicine has developed a molecule that can inhibit the production of sperm. This could lead to a male birth control bill. However, because it doesn’t prevent semen from ejaculating, sexual diseases could still be transmitted. I can just imagine the scenes now. “I’ve just been checked out via my military health services and I’m on the pill, baby. I’m safe.” Puhlease. Lindsay Abrams – The Atlantic
NEWS: Harlequin launches digital-first imprint with Australian focus – Harlequin Australia has a new worldwide, DRM free imprint called Harlequin Escape. The focus of the books will be on Australia (and I suspect New Zealand). There is no advance. The royalty rate is described as “high” but I haven’t pinned down any details. Edited to add: The first books will be released worldwide in October. Book Thingo
If it’s science fiction, fantasy, contemporary, historical, erotic, inspirational romance, urban fantasy, paranormal – or any mixture of the above, Harlequin Escape’s got it. We offer all levels of sensuality from the sweetest kisses to the hottest encounters. We offer different lengths, from short stories through novellas to full length novels. Our novels are standalone, loosely connected, or part of an ongoing series. More at HarlequinEscape.
Edited to add: I received a few answers from Harlequin Australia.
- Any debut titles that we should be watching for? Not as yet – we’re on the hunt for brilliant new voices right now!
- Do you have a release schedule? Not as yet – we hope to launch our debut titles by the end of the year
- Any pricing details? All of our titles will be priced competitively and informed by word count
- Availability? All titles will be DRM free and available globally from all major eRetailers
- Will the settings be primarily Australia and (I assume) New Zealand? Setting will not be limited to Australia and NZ, however we are dedicated to bringing Australian and New Zealand voices to readers globally.
- For the authors on my site, any word on the royalty? We’ll keep you posted!
Destiny Romance – Destiny Romance is a digital first imprint of Penguin Australia. There are no details on financial terms but authors can submit online. The books do not appear to be available worldwide. I tried to buy the Kelly Hunter title via Amazon and it wasn’t available to US readers. Hunter in the comments to Book Thingo’s post indicates that there should be worldwide release forthcoming. No details, however. The books also appear to have DRM according to BookThingo.Destiny Romance
What is Destiny Romance looking for? Destiny Romance is passionately interested in all kinds of romantic fiction, from sweet and tender through to saucy and sensual. We’re looking for all subgenres, including but not limited to: contemporary, historical, suspense, paranormal, fantasy, sci-fi and erotica. If you’ve come up with a new style of romance, then we’re interested in that too. We are accepting shorter length stories from 25,000 words right up to full-length novels of 100,000-plus. We will not consider manuscripts of less than 25,000 words, non-fiction work, children’s books or poetry. A strong voice, originality and intense emotions will help your manuscript stand out in the crowd. At this stage, we are particularly on the hunt for historical (Regency) romance, contemporary romance featuring high-powered men and women, medical romance, and erotic romance.
Apparently Soho Press is launching a YA line. You can see the debut trailer at The BookSmugglers. The press email I received yesterday promised something very neat if I posted the “exclusive” code. So here it is. Anything exciting happening? Dollar bills falling out of the screen?
So, dare we hope this is a sign Harlequin will go DRM free on their category lines soon as well?
@library addict: Exactly what I was thinking.
I can’t trust the bf to remember to take Lactaid pills when he eats dairy when he gets incredibly sick and in pain if he doesn’t taken them and I would have to trust him to remember to take *his* pill every day/week/month so that *I* don’t end up pregnant? Yeah, right. >.>
“Disruptions: The Next Wave for the Wristwatch”
I’m giggling because I actually had a similar wristwatch when I was a kid. It was designed to help me with coordination (it had an internal compass and a street navigator, a bit like TomTom, but in text), schedule reminders, localised train/bus timetables, alarm alerts and school timetable. All in accordance with a base station that fed specific information to all wearers. A chunky thing, too. Not that heavy, but it felt like there was a house sitting on my wrist. Ugly as well. It was black with grey trims and a blue strap. The scheme was abandoned roughly a year later after it found too expensive to maintain. Nice idea while it lasted, though.
@library addict:
We can hope (fingers crossed), but people hoped for the same thing when Carina launched and this sounds like something similar to Carina to me. Harlequin should have more info on the DRM vs non-DRM issue than any other publisher, and something has kept them from dropping it so far, I wonder what.
I confess admitting confusion about all these branches of digital first publishers for traditional publishers. Like how does Penguin Australia differ from Intermix? Or how does Harlequin Australia differ from Carina? Why would an Australian author want to publish with Harlequin Australia versus Carina?
I wanted to kick myself when I didn’t see the Pebble Kickstarter until it was finished. I may end up buying one. I’m not a watch fan though, I have some expensive ones and never wear them.
That soho teen thing has a countdown clock on it with 139 days (and 19 hours, etc). I’m really, really not going to be paying attention to it for that long. Maybe they think you ought to post it someplace prominent on the website so that we all see it every time we come here? And wait with bated breath for SOMETHING EXTRAORDINARY to happen?
Yah, no.
@Christine M.: Exactly my thought ^^.
A little insight into Harlequin Escape:
Harlequin Escape will be acquiring a broad range of editorial with a focus on local market author acquisition. In other words, Australia will be acquiring editorial that appeals to the Australian market. Australian authors who already write for Harlequin imprints including Carina Press will continue to do so.
It will be up to authors to decide where they want to submit, they will have a choice. If the author thinks his/ her story has global appeal they should submit to Carina. If they thinks the story is more appealing to the Australian market they should send to Harlequin Escape.
One thing I will note is that we do ask, as always with Harlequin’s various imprints, that an author not submit simultaneously across our imprints. If an author submits to Carina, they shouldn’t also send to Harlequin Escape at the same time. We always tell authors that if one imprint says no, that doesn’t mean it won’t work for another imprint, like Carina, so you can send to another if you hear no from the first.
Hopefully that clears up some of the questions. I’m sorry I’m not in a position to address some of the others, but I did want to respond to that one.
Angela James
Executive Editor, Carina Press