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...
Cinderella turns down offer to go to the ball with Amazon Publishing
A self-published author has turned down an offer from Amazon Publishing to take over her latest best-selling book and has revealed the advance offered was less than she made from the book’s first month of sales. Me, Cinderella? by Aubrey Rose was self-published in June for the Kindle and Nook formats and has sold very … Read more...
Amazon imprints pick up grit-lit and romcom self-published successes
Amazon Publishing has signed up two successful self-published British authors covering the suspense thriller and romantic comedy genres. The Thomas & Mercer thriller and mystery imprint has reached an agented deal with author Mel Sharratt which includes republishing her Kindle best seller Taunting the Dead. The book was self-published by Sherratt in 2011 and hit … Read more...
Plus points as Midnight mystery tops the best sellers
A plus-size paralegal has knocked J K Rowling off the top of the Kindle best sellers’ list (for a short while at least). The new book in Sue Ann Jaffarian’s Odelia Grey Mysteries series has rocketed to No 1 place three weeks before the official publication date. Hide & Snoop, which is priced fairly highly … Read more...
Wimbledon winner is back with some aces
It’s great to see Nigel Williams’ very funny Wimbledon Trilogy being republished in print and ebook form. The Wimbledon Poisoner, They Came From SW19 and East of Wimbledon were originally published in the early 1990s by Faber & Faber but are being republished by Corsair, which is a fiction imprint of Constable and Robinson. Corsair … Read more...
Self-published is now one of the Big Five
The latest power publishing report from Digital Book World shows that self-publishing is now a major commercial force in the world of ebooks. Self-published ranks fourth in DBW’s list of publishers in its Ebook Best-Seller List in the second quarter of this year, which is the second consecutive quarter that self-pub has been placed fourth. Read more...
Hear, hear! Why authors are turning to audiobooks
Audiobooks are proving to be popular with authors looking to add channels to build streams of income on their work and now best-selling thriller writer David Hewson, who wrote the novelisations of Danish TV series The Killing, is to publish his new book The Flood as an audiobook exclusive. Hewson is a very well established … Read more...
Kindles power big sales boost but Amazon still makes a loss
Kindles and digital content led a sharp rise in sales by Amazon in the second quarter of this year but costs of expansion and changes in exchange rates were major factors in bringing about a £7m loss. Net sales rose by 22% to $15.7 billion from $12.83 billion in the second quarter of 2012. Amazon … Read more...
Walking Dead breathe new life into graphic novel sales
Graphic novel sales are up by 10% in the first half of this year as The Walking Dead series takes a huge bite with over a million copies sold in the past 18 months. Figures from Nielsen show the books by Robert Kirkman occupying four of the top five places in the graphic novel best-selling … Read more...
Penguin’s Book Country opens new bookstore and offers 100% royalty
Penguin’s Book Country is relaunching with an online bookstore and self-publishing deals, including a 100% royalty offer, that could position it as a rival to Smashwords. Book Country was set up two years ago for genre authors writing romance, SF/fantasy or mystery/thrillers to post their work and offer feedback but it’s adding a bookstore this … Read more...
Ebooks take a leading role for businesses
Ebooks and blogs can help businesses connect with customers, build brand loyalty and drive sales. “Ebooks are an evolution of the old white paper but they’re more user-friendly and not weighed down with lots of data,” says Rachel Christianson, director of fulfillment at social media marketing company HipLogiq. Christianson works with customers on content and … Read more...
