Today’s links of interest:
- Random House Hires Ruth Reichl
Good move for Random House. - TOC Frankfurt Preview: “Customer Experience” is What Matters Most
While 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 royalties
Nearly missed this one. Appeals court sides with Yahoo (and, essentially, other music streaming services), indicating the formulae used to determine royalties was not proper. - Time Warner CEO not a fan of 99-cent TV rentals, either
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. - Reversal of Royalties: A Modest Proposal
Author Bob Mayer offers up an interesting idea, one we suspect most will dismiss. Don’t. Give it some thought, make it better. - Amazon Launches Facebook e-Commerce Store
This is bigger news than it seems. - Alyson Books Will Restructure as E-book Only House; Weise Leaves
Sad news with a positive angle. The hard part, as noted, is finding an experience digital publisher. - Booksellers Hear Details of the Much-Delayed Google Editions
More details emerge. Like, it’s likely to be six months before launch. Google Editions will be the ebook engine for ABA sites, but will also sell through Google and possibly other vendors. All interesting. - Macomber Moves to Random
After a long and prosperous career at Harlequin, Debbie Macomber moves to a new publisher. Wow. - Publishers’ Agency Model Punishes Mid-List Authors
Is it us, or is there a lot of confusion going on in this article? All sort of ideas being conflated, which obscures a potentially valid argument. - When is E-Royalty Not a Royalty? When 9th Circuit Court Says It Isn’t
Finally! We’ve been wondering when more people were going to mention this. - Frankfurt 2010: Will Frankfurt Soon Be an E-Book Fair?
Continuing the trend wherein all book events are now digital book events, the big focus at this year’s Frankfurt Book Fair is ebooks. Not comments from Brian Murray in particular. - Counterpoint to Close New York Office
Basically, the Soft Skull office is closing, and it looks like the editorial team is departing (though they are staying on in a freelance capacity to fulfill contracted obligations). - Coding Poetry for Digital Publication
The HTML is hard excuse was perfectly fine in 1995. In 2010 (nearly 2011!), it’s ridiculous. - New Attributor Study Tracks Demand for Pirated E-Books
Publishers Weekly essentially reprints a press release from a company looking to drum up money from publishers. Of course the study will show what they want it to show…and can someone please explain the “badge” thing? - Microsoft and Adobe Chiefs Meet to Discuss Apple
This one is for Kirk. - Is NPR Trying to Sell Michele Norris’ New Book?
Interesting examination of how Michele Norris’s book received much coverage on NPR. Yes, she plays for the home team, but did they go overboard? - The iBookstore six months after launch: One big failure
We don’t necessarily agree, but have found the iBookstore is a holy mess of shopping experience whereas Amazon really gets how to sell books. As for reading on the iPad? Chez BS is split 50/50, though the heavier reader prefers the Kindle device. - Second Biggest E-Book Sales Month Restores Confidence
And your monthly ebooks sales chart, courtesy of our friends at eReads. - Convergences, Real and Imagined: A Conclusion
Great thinking and pondering and analysis from Richard Nash. - Opportunity Virtually Knocks
Many good ideas here, but the seeming dismal of ebooks as a revenue stream/opportunity for traditional booksellers is shortsighted. - The Finkler Answer
Excellent thinking about global language rights and how the acquisition thereof (or not) impacts a title. - Penguin to launch a social network for bookworms
Just the other day, we were wondering what was going on with Spinebreakers. Glad to see it’s still being used and is growing. - James Patterson Joins the Kindle 1,000,000 Books Club
As we all try to tease out real numbers from the various sources, we finally have one reliable data point: authors who have exceeded one million Kindle units. Get enough of those… - ‘Adderall Diaries’ Blurs Books-Apps Line
Quite a bit about this NYT piece on Stephen Elliott’s “Adderall Diaries” app and the involvement of the great folk from Electric Literature is worth noting. Such as: 1) the fact that Graywolf Press let the author do this, and 2) that Electric Lit is diversifying its core business. - Lagardere Feels Full Impact of Meyer; HBG Digital Sales at 9%
Ah, the lack of Stephenie Meyer sales is being felt. - eBooks Ready To Climb Past $1 Billion
Forrester predicts big growth in the market over the next four or so years. - E-Books Bright Spot in Bleak September
Interesting numbers. Adult trade is down. Ebooks up. - Borders Announces New Web Site – Discounts More Than 100,000 Bestselling Books
Another new website from Borders. Is it me, or does this happen with alarming regularity? (and is it new or just redesigned?) - E-Book Growth Slows, Still Up 112% in October
Sparse information, meaning no reason given for slow growth. Other markets are slow as well. - E-books Entice as New Frontier for Ads
Not loving this idea, and wondering how the rule of author approval is going to work. For some authors, it would have to be on an ad-by-ad basis in order to prevent the wrong kinds of ads populating some books. - The Last Country House Party? E-Books and Publishing’s Phony War
Interesting piece from Peter Ginna of Bloomsbury. We’ve been wondering about the budgeting issue for some time. Consider: most of the books being released over the next year or so were acquired under very different budget scenarios. - Amazon Sold ‘Millions’ of Kindles in the Last 73 Days
Looks like this will be a huge year for ebook readers. Which will likely be followed by a huge jump in ebook sales. Hope everyone’s prepared. - Author Slams eBook Piracy, Son Outs Her As a Music Pirate
Yes, piracy costs money, but when you’re complaining about how it impacts you, don’t get caught with your pants down. - International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF) Announces New Executive Director
Bill McCoy takes over for the departing Michael Smith.