By Siobhan O’Leary The launch of B&N’s e-book store has sparked renewed debate about e-book pricing in Germany. Head of Libreka Ronald Schild told buchreport that the price debate will really get started at the end of the year, when German publishers are expected to release far more bestsellers as e-books. German e-books are typically priced around the same as …
German Buch News: More on Amazon v. Orwell; Bookface.de
By Siobhan O’Leary The German trades are full of talk about the Amazon Orwell deletion. Among the most notable is the short opinion piece by Boersenblatt editor Holger Heimann which compared the deletion to a bookseller sneaking into someone apartment to reclaim books that have already been purchased. “Disaster is inevitable. A precedent has been set,” he wrote. Buchreport.de highlights …
Top US/UK Trade Talk: Searching for Superheroes; Earnings Reports
By Edward Nawotka The Wall Street Journal looked at the shifting focus of movie producers at this weekend’s Comic-Con. They are moving away from mainstream superheroes (who are all accounted for) and looking toward the fringes for new, unheard of talent. PW focused on earnings reports: Lagardere Publishing was up 11% in the first half of 2009, to just over …
Top US/UK Trade Talk: B&N E-reader to Use GSM; U of M’s 400,000 POD Titles
By Edward Nawotka Plastic Logic’s forthcoming e-reader for Barnes & Noble make headlines on both sides of the Atlantic for the revelation that it will incorporate both Wi-Fi and 3G GSM wireless ability, something that would allow it to roam globally. The Bookseller notes that although the company originated in Cambridge, England, it has not yet announced a UK partner. …
German Buch News: Are Printed Maps a Thing of the Past?
By Siobhan O’Leary German publishers may soon realize that the printed map is a thing of the past. According to Buchreport’s latest figures, sales of printed maps declined 21% in mid-2008 and have dropped another 4.6% since this time last year. With more readers turning to the Internet for travel information and more travelers carrying around navigation systems in their …
Top US/UK Trade Talk: B&N’s New Ebook Store, Copyright Earns $$$
By Edward Nawotka The big retailing news so far this month in the US has been the launch of Barnes & Noble’s ebook store, which will offer 700,000 titles for sale (a half million of those are public domain titles via Google). By comparison, Amazon offers approximately 300,000 titles, but does not break out public domain works. In conjunction with …
German Buch News: Call for Book Ratings, Mobile Manga
By Siobhan O’Leary As first reported in Der Spiegel, SPD (Social Democratic Party) politician Sebastian Edathy is calling for the formation of a voluntary rating system for the book trade, similar to what exists in the film industry, to identify writings that glorify Nazism or right-wing extremist titles and prevent them from being disseminated, reported Borsenblatt. BuchMarkt follows up on …
Top US/UK Trade Talk: Hachette UK up 3.7%; U. Chicago pubs E-books
By Edward Nawotka In the UK, the Bookseller revealed that Hachette was now leading all other publishers in sales in the UK, largely based on the immense interest in Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight novels. Its sales grew 3.7% and was the only one of the “Big Four” UK publishers — Hachette, Random House, Penguin and HarperCollins — not to have a …
German Buch News: Libreka Adds DRM, Bilandia Adds Video
By Siobhan O’Leary Libreka.de, the online book search database run by the Marketing- und Verlagsservice des Buchhandels, a subsidiary of the German Publishers and Booksellers Association, has begun offering DRM as an option for ebooks sold on the site. The site started selling ebooks nearly four months ago; but without DRM, writes the Buchreport, large publishers shied away. Since the …
Top US/UK Trade Talk: Frank McCourt’s Passing; Amazon’s Deletions
By Edward Nawotka Though it’s not strictly trade news, many have noted the passing of bestselling and Pulitzer Prize-winning Irish-American memoirist Frank McCourt, who died from cancer on Sunday afternoon. He was 78. Frank, may a properly pulled pint be waiting for you when you arrive at St. Peter’s Gate. Trade news on both side of the Atlantic has focuses …