The Daily Square

Todays links of interest: Sony plans a Kindle rival with wireless downloadsThe much-anticipated wireless device from Sony is announced. Many cool features, $399 price point. That’s gonna be a tough one. We must kill press freedom to save itIn the Los Angeles Times, Tim Rutten posited that the only way to save journalism is to suspend anti-trust rules so newspapers can collude on online pricing. Which, you know, is really about protecting the newspaper business model than it is about saving journalism. King Kaufman responds. Winfrey tweet says new book pick coming next monthMore publishing madness: new Oprah pick comes […]

Todays links of interest: Publishing in 2025, Part OneSome visions of the future from the 5th Estate. Barnes Noble shutters how-to site QuamutIn the little-noticed news from Barnes Noble this week, Quamut has been closed. All kinds of interesting. Google Settlement Under Attack for Making Treasure out of TrashThought-provoking post from Richard Curtis — love his Little Red Hen analogy.

Todays links of interest: Sales Drop 5% at Barnes NobleBricks and mortar stores continue to face challenges, online sales up a bit, and the bright spot that is the ebook store is a highlight of the quarter. Whatever that means.

Todays links of interest: Happy Friday Book LoversBook porn. That is all. Amazon Sets Kindle Price of ‘Lost Symbol’To the surprise of only publishing insiders, the price is $9.99. Presumably the industry speculation referenced in this PW piece was limited to those living in a dream world (or those betting on Amazon pulling an upset and setting the price *lower*).

Todays links of interest: Reader’s Digest Files for BankruptcyBecause when an executive says bankruptcy isn’t an option, it means bankruptcy is totally an option. Guild Responds to Second WME Letter on Google SettlementThe William Morris Agency is certainly turning up the heat against the Authors’ Guild. Interesting. Sun of Sam EclipseHas Sam Zell decided to walk away from Tribune?

Todays links of interest: The MillionsSuper-general link to The Millions because the new design is just all kinds of awesome!

Todays links of interest: Prediction: Amazon to Sell 10 Million Kindle E-Book ReadersPeter Kafka asks What happened to Amazon’s save the newspapers plan. Good question. We’d forgotten that was on the schedule.

Todays links of interest: Friday Videos Have Something to Say to CNETCount us as embarrassed to be caught reading CNET!

Todays links of interest: Kindle Averts Battle Over Dan Brown’s The Lost SymbolOr, Random House decides they want to sell every possible copy they can of the book. Best part: final paragraph. New Stephen King will have list price of $35. Granted it’s a long book, but seriously? In this economy? Firebrand Literary Closes Doors8/13/2009: Firebrand Literary has announced that it’s going out of business. They are in the process of shutting down. The Rise of Libraries in an ‘e’ world of Books?Fran Toolan of Firebrand Technologies takes a look at the implications of Sony’s recent partnership with Overdrive.

Todays links of interest: The book industry is gonna get Napstered if it forces Amazon to raise e-book prices=Note the phrasing Jack Shafer uses in this article: the customers will rebel. It’s an interesting way of looking at it. What happens when an industry tries to force behaviors that its customers don’t want to adopt? Mystery Writers Backs Writer Beware ProgramThis is great news for the members of the Mystery Writers of America. 5 Reasons Every Book Editor Should Be on TwitterGreat post from HarperStudio with bonus (painful!) video. Win. Win.