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Apr 07 2011
A little over 6 weeks ago the Big 6 publisher HarperCollins announced that it would no longer allow library eBooks to be checked out indefinitely. Today it looks like HC might have changed its mind.
Mar 15 2011
The American Library Association yesterday took a position for the first time in response to HarperCollins' new library ebook licensing restrictions, saying "As libraries cope with stagnant or decreased budgets, the recent decision by publisher HarperCollins to restrict the lending of e-books to a limited number of circulations per copy threatens libraries' ability to provide their users with access to information."
There is validity to both sides of the argument - from the publishers' point of view, if they were to sell a print book to a library that book would eventually wear out and need to be replaced, but an ebook could potentially be lent forever thus undermining book sales. From the library's point of view, they argue that Harper Collins' limit of 26 usages is too low and that putting a restriction on usage will limit the adoption of ebooks into libraries. For more on this topic see the New York Times article linked below.
Feb 27 2011
In the first significant revision to lending terms for ebook circulation, HarperCollins has announced that new titles licensed from library ebook vendors will be able to circulate only 26 times before the license expires.... meanwhile, two of the big six publishers in the USA, Macmillan and Simon & Schuster, still do not allow ebooks to be circulated in libraries.
Update March 1: Harper Collins explains its position.
Apr 05 2010
HarperStudio, the unusual imprint founded two years ago by Bob Miller, is being shut down and its books and staff will land at other HarperCollins imprints. In its brief life, HarperStudio published mainly nonfiction, offered low advances with profit-sharing and tried to sell titles on a nonreturnable basis.
Mar 18 2010
Rumors swirled today that Amazon could revoke the buy buttons for books by Simon & Schuster, HarperCollins, Penguin, or Hachette if the major publishers can't strike an eBook deal with the online bookseller.
Jan 28 2010
Publishers are looking on Apple's iPad as a chance to reset the downward spiral in e-book prices. Yesterday, when Steve Jobs announced the new iPad he also confirmed that five of the six largest publishers have signed on to provide e-book content for the new tablet. Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins Publishers, Macmillan, Penguin and Simon & Schuster are all on board, while a spokesman for Random House, the world's largest publisher of books for consumers, said the company would "look forward to our continuing conversations" with Apple.
Apple and publishers have agreed a business model that gives them more power over the price that customers pay for e-books - control that had been effectively lost with Amazon's Kindle. With Apple, the maximum price of an e-book will be tethered to the print price of the book so that most general fiction and nonfiction titles will be $12.99 to $14.99 with Apple taking 30% and the publishers taking 70%.
In the short term it is likely that authors and publishers will earn less from book sales on the iPad because Amazon subsidizes the low $9.99 price point on the Kindle by paying publishers a higher wholesale price equivalent to what booksellers typically pay for print editions. The worry for all publishers, though, has been that once the $9.99 price point had been firmly established in consumer's minds and Amazon had achieved dominance in the market place, that they would stop subsidizing the $9.99 price point and demand lower digital wholesale prices, which would make it difficult for publishers to make a profit on anything other than the bestselling books.
Jul 08 2008
The Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance (SIBA) has announced the winners of the 2008 SIBA Book Award, celebrating the best of southern literature, as chosen by the people who would know. . .independent booksellers throughout the South.
Apr 08 2008
This year's Pulitzer Prize winners include
These are not books, lumps of lifeless paper, but minds alive on the shelves
Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!
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