The Daily Square

Today’s links of interest: Random House Hires Ruth ReichlGood move for Random House. TOC Frankfurt Preview: “Customer Experience” is What Matters MostWhile we put about missing this year’s Tools of Change Frankfurt, this article about a session focusing on customer experience tells us this year’s event will be awesome! Federal appeals court tosses out method for calculating music streaming royaltiesNearly missed this one. Appeals court sides with Yahoo (and, essentially, other music streaming services), indicating the formulae used to determine royalties was not proper.

Today’s links of interest: Borders Group Reports Second Quarter 2010 ResultsMore worrisome numbers from Borders. Here’s hoping the teddy bears do the trick.

Today’s links of interest: Borders Reduces E-reader to $99And there you have it. An ereader below $100. Oh, wow, the world is still turning. Random House’s Strong Half-Year Results Driven By ‘Dragon Tattoo’ SalesStieg Larsson, who will not likely be producing more books, drives huge dollars to Random House. His ebook sales are phenomenal. Which leads to the question: does the lack of an iBookstore agreement hurt RH in any way? A Moment of JenFrom Jennifer Weiner: Instead of asking which books and which authors deserve the Times’ coverage, maybe we should think about what kind of book review section

Today’s links of interest: Barnes Noble to Shutter Lincoln Center StoreThis is big news. Store closing due to increased rent costs. You’d think landlords would have a bit more foresight, but one supposes losing a major renter is the cost of taking a stand. In other thoughts, how long will the space remain empty? Borders to Sell Build-A-Bear Items as Readers Switch to E-BooksYou know when you can’t tell if something is a genius idea or insane? This is one of those moments. Why Is Amazon So Secretive About Its Best Selling Kindle Numbers?Why, one wonders, does this matter? Since

Today’s links of interest: “If it were my money, there’s no way I’d put up with this cr*p”, says young readerIs this really how you want the next generation of readers thinking about ebooks? Especially when the competition for reading is so intense? Lots of Little Improvements Make the Kindle 3 The Best E-Ink E-readerAs the holiday shopping season approaches (noooo!), debating on the mother’s gift. Trying to resist urge to be selfish…give her K2, give us K3. Oh, the moral dilemmas we face. Publishing Revenue Down at LagardereNot bad, considering it’s the post Stephenie Meyer world.

Today’s links of interest: Random House’s Backlist E-Book Deal With Literary Agent Andrew Wylie Leaves Much UnansweredTrying not to make it all Wylie, all the time, but much analysis and conjecture. Sarah Weinman does a nice job of the former. One unanswered (but asked) question: what did Random House pay to acquire these rights? No, we won’t get an answer. Women Are Not Marshmallow Peeps, And Other Reasons There’s No ‘Chick Lit’Nice piece on pundits’ tendency to dismiss legitimate critiques of the Jonathan Franzen coverage by belittling those make the commentary. While not exclusively a male approach, it’s often men

Today’s links of interest: RH and Wylie Come to Terms; Random ‘Wins’Always worry about headlines that include wins. In this case, one wonders how much it cost Random House to win (presumably higher royalties than they’d been willing to give, possibly some sort of cash consideration). And one wonders how this impacts those who previously purchased the books. Will they be allowed to keep them? Will there be a transfer of publisher, making it invisible to the consumer. And, of course, one wonders which books were impacted by this deal. Nook Drives 21% Increase in Revenue for Barnes NobleBarnes and

Today’s links of interest: Post-Medium PublishingInteresting thoughts about the value of content versus format, and how publishing isn’t doing much for the former. Seattle libraries to shut down for a weekWhile the library is able to keep certain digital services (ebooks and access to databases) open during the budget-induced shutdown, so many other core services will be off limits to citizens. Kindle — xkcd CartoonYou know you can’t resist… Borders Chief Financial Officer Mark Bierley QuitsAt what point do we turn away from Borders news because we can’t take the pain anymore?

Today’s links of interest: E-reading: Revolution in the making or fading fad?This article makes no sense. The headline implies one thing, the body of the article another, the entire premise yet another. Sigh. June e-Book Sales Up 119%For those keeping track. Jonathan Franzen Stars in Special Rumpus BookclubWhile this *seems* like an awesome idea, it’s really alienating for all those who a) don’t have time to shop their local indie (i.e., people with jobs, kids, or other commitments), b) people who don’t have local bookstores available, and c) library users. Heck, even digi-book readers are largely left out, since the

Today’s links of interest: The 1% Windfall: Why Publishers Need to Implement “Dynamic Pricing”While we don’t doubt the need for more dynamic pricing in the world of publishing, we doubt experts who misstate how Amazon was selling books. Yes, they were selling *some* ebooks at a loss, but not all ebooks. It seems this distinction makes a huge difference. Books and Books Arrives and Sides Are TakenDoes this have to be ugly? No. Is it ugly? Yes. Dents in my Desk: Ellen Hopkins Disinvited to Teen Lit FestSometimes, there are no words. Publishers Behaving Badly–AgainMacmillan is sending letters to authors