Wednesday Midday News: New publishing models; Amazon adds Paramount to Prime; BN to publish government ebooks
Publishing NewsAmazon9 Comments
Say Books Online – digital publishing Say Books – “Say Books is a digital publishing services company in Auckland, New Zealand. We work with self-publishing authors who want to create and market ebooks, we offer digital publishing consultancy services to publishing companies, and we work with partners to create digital products and enhanced ebooks.”
Personal Note: One of the things Say Books created was a serialized ebook using the PressBooks platform. The PressBooks platform is a wordpress based publishing site that creates ebooks out of blog posts. I asked SayBooks about their product:
We were pleasantly surprised at the response to the subscription model, and even though the chapters are now all up and we are about to release the ebook, we are still getting subscribers every couple of days. … All but a handful of the subscribers ‘donated’ $5 or more (people who donate more than $5 get the ebook at the end too), and a significant number were for more than $5; (one person donated $0.01c!:)). The actual ebook will sell for $4.99. It is still early days and too early to make any judgements.about a long term business model. However, I am convinced that using the potential of the web as a discovery and delivery method for the content, not just for the product, is the way book publishing needs to go. We will continue to publish novels in this way, with an ebook available at the end too.
unglue.it – “unglue (v. t.) 4. For an author or publisher, to accept a fixed amount of money from the public for its unlimited use of an ebook.” Personal Note: A sort of patronage system. interesting.
Government Signs Deal With Barnes & Noble to Sell E-Books | Digital Book World – “Government Printing Office (GPO) has signed an agreement with Barnes & Noble to sell Federal eBooks. Titles are available in eBook format for Barnes & Noble’s Nook eReader. GPO works with Federal agencies to produce their publications, books, and reports in print and digital formats, including eBook formats. Approximately 30 eBook titles are available including popular titles like the Public Papers of the President-Barack Obama, Deep Water: The Gulf Oil Disaster And The Future Of Offshore Drilling (the BP Oil Spill Commission Report), the Financial Crisis Inquiry Report, and the newly released Basic Guide to Exporting from the Department of Commerce. GPO makes eBooks available in partnership with Google’s eBookstore, OverDrive, Ingram, Zinio, and other online vendors.” DBW
Amazon Beefs up Prime Offering | Digital Book World – “Amazon.com, Inc. today announced a licensing agreement with Paramount Pictures that brings hundreds of new hit movies to Prime Instant Video in the U.S. over the next three years. Prime Instant Video now offers customers more than 17,000 movies and TV episodes to enjoy …This deal will bring Prime Instant Video customers hundreds of new movies to enjoy on their Kindle Fire or any device connected to Amazon Instant Video, including titles such as Star Trek, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Top Gun, The Italian Job and The Truman Show, and we will remain committed to adding even more great movies and TV shows to Prime Instant Video in the future.”” DBW
- All the Pretty Girls by J.T. Ellison * $1.99 * A | BN | K | S (reviewed here. I enjoyed the first one but stopped reading after about the third book)
- 14 by J.T. Ellison * $1.99 * A | BN | K | S
- Judas Kiss by J.T. Ellison * $2.99 * A | BN | K | S
What Amazon NEEDS to “beef up” is their promise of 2-day delivery with Prime. I dropped mine after they slipped to 3-5 day delivery, which is exactly what I get with free SuperSaver shipping.
I’m getting 2 day delivery on everything not handled by the USPS. I happen to think that the USPS is an important government service but after a letter I sent first class with an insurance premium took 15 days to get to Chicago I’m giving up.
Sorry, that was a rant just waiting for the least excuse to happen..
@Isobel Carr: I’ve never had a problem getting my orders in 2 days from my Prime account. The stuff I’ve ordered through the marketplace always irritates me with how slow it is (comparatively), but I love Prime, and I haven’t even really used the instant video part of it yet.
Prime was great for a good long while, then it started slipping and just got worse and worse. I’m assuming it’s a USPS issue, not an Amazon issue, but it really is something Amazon should stay on top of IMO.
Maybe the Prime issue is a matter of location, location, location.
The last two books my daughter ordered on Amazon Prime were ordered on a Sunday afternoon and they were received in the mail Monday. We are in Atlanta.
I have not had any problem getting the two-day service and I order something, rarely books except for my daughter, every ten days or so. We are happy with our Prime and will keep it as long as it works this well.
@Isobel Carr: I didn’t realize it was an ongoing problem. I noticed that I was getting 3-5 day shipping towards the end of my free Student Prime and thought it was just Amazon.com slipping up.
We’ve always gotten our two-day deliveries on time and sometimes even a day early, though I haven’t checked lately to see how many of them are USPS vs. private carriers. We order a mix of books, clothes, and toys, and I’ve definitely become spoiled by the quick delivery compared to anywhere else we shop online.
Hm, Federal pubs are nearly always public domain. You don’t need GPO authorization to resell them.
Sharon Lee and Steve Miller did something similar to what Say Books is doing by writing two novels as serials and posting chapters on their website.
The idea was that they’d post a chapter each time a total donation of $300 was reached with no more than 1 chapter a week promised. They had several chapters ready going in and then expected things to develop at a rather leisurely pace. What they didn’t expect was their fans’ reaction because the donations poured in so fast that they had to produce a chapter a week immediately. :) That added a bit of stress to the process for the authors as we did troll the website on Mondays impatiently.
Anybody who donated at least $25 was promised a copy of the book if it was ever contracted and published. We ended up with signed HC copies of Fledgling and Saltation.
That ended up a bit of a loss for the authors, as they hadn’t expected the publisher (Baen) to put these books out in HC which had higher shipping costs, but they stuck by their word and everybody who updated their shipping address got their copies.