04:54 AM by AnemicOak in E-Book General | News

S&S Tries Geo-Targeting in New Marketing Outreach

In the latest effort to enhance book discovery, Simon & Schuster is partnering with mobile content delivery service Foli to offer customers complimentary access to a selection of full-text e-books in airports, museums and hotels around the country. Beginning May 15, David McCullough's The Wright Brothers will be a feature selection at the National Air & Space Museum and 50 venues around the country. Another 18 titles will be available though a select group of hotels and airport lounges.

The new service relies on Foli’s location-based wireless technology, which allows the the delivery of a single title, or group of titles, to a specific geographic location. In order to access the e-books in the program, customers can download the Foli app to their iOS or Android device and read a full-text version of any of the books.

The availability of the e-books will last for three days while they are being accessed at the targeted venue. The service also allows the consumer to buy the book outright at any time.

http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/b...erability.html

Not sure how successful it'll be, but it's interesting.

04:53 AM by jhowell in E-Book General | News

Received an email today stating that e-book lending now available from Hoopla Digital

Starting today, hoopla
– your all-in-one digital media library service –
is pleased to bring you its newest format additions:
eBooks & Comics!

For the love of reading
We’re especially proud that these new formats reflect what all hoopla library patrons want most in eBooks and Comics – the love of the digital page. The hoopla eBook focus is all about the love of reading; a centering on connecting people with favorite titles in the way they want, anywhere and anytime.

Action View
hoopla’s groundbreaking Action View, our built-in, enhanced viewing technology enables full-page and panel-by-panel viewing for immersive reading experience.

What are you waiting for? Experience, explore and enjoy your favorite movies, music … and now, eBooks and Comics … and more today.

Remember … update your hoopla app now (unless your device has an automatic updates).

06:00 AM by Alexander Turcic in Miscellaneous | Week in Review

Been so busy reading e-books that you haven't had time to keep up on the week's news? Here's some of what you've been missing:

E-Book General - News

• Ruth Rendell dies aged 85
• Author Earnings sheds light on ebook Agency redux
• EU plans to allow lower VAT rate on ebooks

04:25 AM by pdurrant in E-Book General | News

According to a report at Ink, Bits & Pixels, The EU Commission (having just spent the past four years suing France and Luxembourg for reducing the rate of VAT they charge on ebooks) plan to introduce changes to the VAT rules to allow countries to charge their lower rate of VAT on ebooks!

Unfortunately, it seems likely that it'll be some years before the rule changes actually get implemented.

04:19 AM by fjtorres in E-Book General | News

Author Earnings.com just dropped their quarterly "state of the US ebook market" report.

http://authorearnings.com/report/may...rnings-report/

As usual, the source has clear, very large charts and the raw data. Plus lots of analysis and insight.
Well worth the trip there.

Summary:

Publishers fought hard to take back control of ebook pricing from Amazon. This was a stated intent by Hachette to its investors in 2014, and it was touted as the end result of their lengthy negotiations. What has that control brought?

By our data, which matches industry reports, this control has brought higher prices to consumers, lower sales for publishers, and less earnings for their authors. It has also brought greater market share for self-published authors, which is why many were pulling for publishers to get their way during negotiations with Amazon.

If it seems unlikely that publishers would have fought so hard for such disastrous results, it might help to be reminded that it isn’t the first time. In the lawsuit against publishers for conspiring to raise ebook prices in 2009, it was shown that the agreement they fought to win with Apple resulted in a reduction of profits per ebook sold (pg 53). Lawyers were also successful in showing at trial that a move to agency pricing resulted in a sudden and drastic shift upward in ebook prices, harming consumers, but also harming publishers (pg 94).

One does not need to theorize on why publishers would make these decisions. One CEO of a Big 5 publisher wrote in a note to herself that higher prices would slow ebook adoption and casual purchasers, protecting retailers (pg 47). So speculation is not required. This was the same conclusion reached by the judge in the collusion case, whose reading of Big 5 CEO emails showed a willingness to erode Amazon’s market share at any cost, even to themselves.

Key numbers:

BPH prices up 17% over the last 15 months.
BPH unit market share over the last 3 months down 18% (interesting number--sounds like a tipping point was crossed).
BPH titles in ebook bestseller lists down 26%.
BPH reader spend ($-based market share) down 7% over the last 3 months. They now command less than half of gross ebook sales.

Interesting factoid:

Market share of other tradpubs (small/medium publisher, Amazon Publishing) has remained constant. The net shift has been BPH to Indies.

Ominous note:

Barnes & Noble’s Nook store’s well-covered collapse appears to be accelerating. It is now possible to hit the overall Top 50 Best Seller list on Nook.com with fewer than 100 sales per day from a standing start. It takes around 1,500 sales per day to hit the same benchmark on Amazon.com. We currently calculate B&N’s ebook market to be in the single digits, perhaps even the low single digits. No author should be happy with this development, as the more healthy markets that exist for our works, the better.

11:13 PM by alanHd in E-Book General | News

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-32564813

06:00 AM by Alexander Turcic in Miscellaneous | Week in Review

We know, you're busy. You'd like nothing more than to keep up with the witty kids at MobileRead live and in real-time but, it's tough. We understand. Here is our weekly round-up:

E-Book General - News

• Publisher behaving badly
• Free ebooks for poor low income kids

E-Book Readers - Alternative Devices

• NoteSlate is back! (Or is it?)

05:07 AM by fjtorres in E-Book General | News

From NBCNEWS:
http://www.nbcnews.com/tech/gadgets/...e-kids-n351101

President Barack Obama will go to a public library in one of Washington's poorest neighborhoods on Thursday to talk about a plan to give low-income children access to 10,000 e-books.

Working with publishers and libraries, the White House sees the modest plan as part of a strategy to address inner city problems by increasing educational opportunities for kids -- woes brought into focus with recent riots in nearby Baltimore.

Kids will need computers and devices to read the e-books.

No mention if it's 10,000 titles or total copies.
Given the "modest" adjective and the BPH involvement, it might be the latter.
Politicians are tricky that way.

Of course, kids with the necessary hardware already have access to a lot more than 10,000 titles.