U.S. ebook sales up in 2012, but rate of growth is slowing
May 16 2013: In 2012, trade book sales (i.e. non academic book sales) rose 6.9%, to $15.049 billion, and e-book sales continued to grow, although the rate of growth slowed.
After several years of triple-digit growth, e-book sales grew 43% in 2012, representing 457 million e-books compared to 557...
U.S. paints Apple as 'ringmaster' in its lawsuit on e-book price-fixing
May 15 2013: In their filings ahead of the June 3 trial date, the Justice Department and Apple present very different outlines of events that led to the adoption of the agency model for e-books in 2010 by five of the six major U.S. publishers (who have all already settled with the Justice Department)....
Amazon workers in Germany strike for hourly pay of US$13.84
May 14 2013: The German union Verdi has called a strike today at two Amazon facilities in Germany--in Leipzig and Bad Hersfeld--that is expected to last from 6 a.m. until "the end of the late shift." In Leipzig, the union is calling for starting pay of 10.66 euros ($13.84) an hour, compared with 9.30 euros...
May 14 2013: The Web site Insider Monkey posted a story Monday, quoting a "highly placed source inside Microsoft" saying that the company has no plans to buy Barnes & Noble’s Nook Media group. Last week, citing documents it said it had seen, TechCrunch reported that Microsoft was prepared to offer $1 billion...
May 09 2013: Microsoft is reportedly offering to pay $1 billion to buy the digital assets of Nook Media LLC, the digital book and college book joint venture with Barnes & Noble and other investors, according to internal documents Techcrunch...
May 07 2013: The US Senate have passed the Marketplace Fairness Act, requiring "remote" retailers with out-of-state sales of at least $1 million to collect applicable state and local sales tax on all purchases. The bill now goes to the House of Representatives, where it faces stronger opposition.
"This...
David Poindexter, Founder of MacAdam/Cage, dies aged 59
May 01 2013: Founder of MacAdam/Cage Publishing David Poindexter, 59, died April 29 of cancer, just three months after he was diagnosed. Poindexter founded the independent publishing house in 1998, publishing authors including Audrey Niffenegger, Susan Vreeland, and Ann...
Hachette eBooks (inc Little Brown & Grand Central) to be available in libraries soon
May 01 2013: Following a pilot project, Hachette has announced that it will make its full catalogue available to libraries to lend in e-book form. The program will begin next week, with titles available through vendors OverDrive, 3M, and Baker & Taylor. In a statement, ALA officials hailed the move as a sign...
"Man Without a Face" author Masha Gessen to write book on Tsarnaev brothers
May 01 2013: The first major book on the Tsarnaev brothers, the suspects in the Boston Marathon bombings, will be published by Riverhead Books and written by the Russian-American journalist Masha Gessen, the author of "The Man Without a Face," a biography of Vladimir Putin. Ms. Gessen is well qualified to...
Authors sue Author Solutions saying it's a "vanity press" that presents itself as an independent publisher
May 01 2013: Three authors have filed suit against self-publishing service provider Author Solutions, and its parent company Penguin, airing a laundry list of complaints and alleging the company is not a publisher so much as a "vanity press." The complaint reads: "Defendants have marketed themselves as an...
Amazon employees in Germany set to strike for ~$14 hourly rate
Apr 30 2013: Workers in two Amazon facilities in Germany--in Leipzig and Bad Hersfeld--have voted to authorize a strike that could begin within three weeks.
Amazon, which employs about 9,000 people in Germany, has refused to negotiate on a collective bargaining agreement with the union. According to...
Jocasta Innes, interior designer, writer and inventive cook, dies aged 78
Apr 30 2013: Jocasta Innes, an interior designer whose bestsellers included The Pauper's Cookbook and Paint Magic (a volume that was seemingly on all our British friend's shelves in the 1980s, and is still on ours today), died April 20. She was...
Stranger than fiction, blending tragedy and farce, How to Create the Perfect Wife is an engrossing tale of the radicalism, and deep contradictions, at the heart of the Enlightenment.
Z, the novel about the life of Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald is at points charming and; like another reviewer, I kept thinking of the movie, "Midnight...
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Although heavy on the scientific details, which slowed down the story for me (OK, I admit, I was one of those liberal arts majors who skipped out on...
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Loved this book. Magical, quirky, enchanting I could go on. All books do not have to be literary fiction, sometimes it is just so comforting to read...
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U.S. ebook sales up in 2012, but rate of growth is slowing(May 16 2013) In 2012, trade book sales (i.e. non academic book sales) rose 6.9%, to $15.049 billion, and e-book sales continued to grow, although the rate of growth...
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