Amazon’s new Kindle MatchBook scheme doesn’t look like setting the publishing world on fire although it may well inflame bookshop owners. The somewhat confusing deal offers customers who buy, or have already bought (since 1995!), a new print book from Amazon.com the option to buy the Kindle version of that book for $2.99 or less. Read more...
If you’ve got that feeling of being alone in the woods then may your goya be with you
A great infographic, courtesy of Visual.ly and originally from blog.maptia.com, looks at untranslatable words from other cultures. I particularly like the first one in the list, waldeinsamkeit, German for the feeling of being alone in the woods, which is a great title for a novel. Perhaps the best word for writers though is goya, nothing … Read more...
Amazon flips out with better book browsing in new Paperwhite
Amazon is aiming to improve book browsing in its new version of the Kindle Paperwhite with a Page Flip function and is also building Goodreads into the device. Kindle Page Flip allows readers to skim page by page, scan by chapter or skip to the end of your book without losing your place. Amazon gives … Read more...
Self-published novels make up a third of best-seller list
One-third of the books in the New York Times top 21 ebook fiction best sellers this week (Sep 8) are self-published, with boxed-set collections of books by different authors setting a high-selling trend. In second place, behind The Husband’s Secret, by Liane Moriarty (Amy Einhorn/Putnam), is Wicked Firsts, a boxed set of six romances themed … Read more...
Kobo picks Pocket to integrate save-for-later service into new range
Kobo is the first company to integrate Pocket, the leading save-for-later service, in its new range of ebook readers and tablets. Pocket was set up in 2007 by Nate Weiner. It lets users save web content to read later on a variety of devices. Read more...
Classic Pearl bucks the trend to hit top spot
A 1940s classic novel about a Chinese family in pre-communist China has soared to the top of the Kindle best sellers. Pavilion of Women by Nobel Laureate Pearl S Buck was published for the Kindle format just over a year ago but has taken the No 1 place this week ahead of big sellers such … Read more...
The 10 best Elmore Leonard novels
For any author to write enough good books to make a selection of their best 10 is a fantastic achievement. Elmore Leonard wrote over 40 books and they were all somewhere between good and great. Read more...
Using the Nikon Coolpix A for macro photography
The Nikon Coolpix A is one of the new category of compact cameras with a big sensor to match the picture quality of DSLRs. It’s a very stylish camera, not as sleek as its rival the Ricoh GR V, as it has a slightly more boxy shape and the lens mount protrudes further, but it’s nevertheless a lovely camera and perfectly pocketable. Read more...
Backlist to the future
Traditional publishers are starting to wake up to the ebook potential of their backlists and this week sees Simon & Schuster republishing Martin Cruz Smith’s 1980s’ best seller Gorky Park plus other books in the Arkady Renko series. Gorky Park made a big impact in 1981 with its Moscow setting and idiosyncratic investigator and it … Read more...
Supernatural sales as ebooks beat hardbacks
Orion Publishing has seen a title’s ebook beat hardcover sales for the first time with Ben Aaronovitch’s supernatural crime novel Broken Homes. The book is the latest in the popular PC Peter Grant series of supernatural London-based crime novels. The title sold 8,064 ebooks in the week of publication compared with 5,194 hardbacks, according to … Read more...
