Around the Bookish World: News-in-Review

Welcome to this week’s news post! We have more Pottermore ebook news, another racism over people of colour in new casting choice for The Hunger Games and new excerpts from the anticipated releases by Nalini Singh and Thea Harrison as well as books to look out for!

I reported a couple of weeks that Pottermore ebooks will be available in public libraries well, they have signed an agreement with Amazon’s lending library this week. So those who are members of Amazon Prime will be able to borrow the books which will also be available in French, Spanish, German and Italian as well as English language. At the moment, the Amazon lending library is not offered to those who are outside the US.

Talking about libraries and lending, the Douglas County Library in Colorado, is doing something different in its approach towards ebook lending, by purchasing the ebooks directly from the publishers, …

Around the Bookish World: Week-in-Review

Welcome to this week’s news post! After last week’s epic post – this week has been much quieter. This week we have news on Microsoft is joining forces with B&N, Pottermore selling millions of ebooks and more publishers following Tor and Forge’s footsteps in going DRM free.

We also have to apologise if anyone had problems in logging into the site earlier because our host was down for maintenance. Hopefully the gremlins have stopped playing mischief and the site should have no problems!

This week started off with the news that Microsoft is teaming up with Barnes and Noble over ebooks. It looks like that Barnes and Noble is going to spinn-off the Nook into a separate business with support from Microsoft in this new venture focusing on the college and text books stores. This will also allow support for a new Nook App for the new Windows 8 platform which …

Around the Bookish World: Week-in-Review

Welcome to this week’s post and it has certainly been a very very eventful one, and not all of it was good with the news about the issue of plagiarism and the popular blogger The Story Siren which has caused a major and epic fallout. However there was also good news, with the announcement by Tor/Forge ebooks will be DRM free this summer, more adaptations based on books and we also have the usual books to look out for!

The Story Siren was accused of plagiarism when fashion bloggers Beautifully Invisible and Grit and Glamour found their How To’s blog posts were lifted without any credit. They provided evidence although they never named The Story Siren as the plagiarist but her identity was easily tracked down in their post about the  incidents. I am not going to delve into great detail about the The Story Siren’s and plagiarism because blogs …

Around the Bookish World: Week-In-Review

Welcome to this week’s news post and we got more news on Amazon acquiring the backlist titles by Ian Flemming’s Bond books, Kobo stepping up their game and more book and author news!

Amazon announced they closed a deal to publish the backlist James Bond titles by Ian Flemming in the US. They reached an agreement to release ebook and print editions over a ten year period – the deal also includes his non-fiction books and writings. Vintage will also be issuing the James Bond books outside the US, and other territories in the English language – think this is pretty savvy especially with the new James Bond movie coming up.

 Kobo has stated that they are planning to invest more into a self publishing similar to the Pubit and Amazon’s self publishing schemes, they also plan to move into twelve more territories offering their ebooks and site into Europe. They also …

Around the Bookish World: News-Week-In-Review

Welcome to this week’s news post! And this week has certainly been eventful with major publishing and book news. From the Department of Justice in the US suing and settling with the Big 5 publishers and Apple about Agency pricing,  publishers pulling out of Amazon and J.K Rowling unveiling the details and publication dates for her first adult book.

Yesterday, my twitter feed exploded when news emerged that the Department of Justice will be suing  Macmillon, Hachette, Penguin, Simon and Schuster and HarperCollins over alleged collusion with Apple and price fixing with the Agency model. However it looks like that Hachette, Simon and Schuster and HarperCollins will settle with the DOJ  but Macmillon and Penguin along with Apple will be facing a lawsuit over alleged collusion over Agency pricing.

However this isn’t the end of the whole issue. 16 states in the US will also have their own lawsuits and it …

Around the Bookish World: News-Week-in-Review

Happy Easter and Passover to everyone who is celebrating or not but  enjoying the goodies or the time off! This week we have news of a potential settlement about the anti trust investigations with Agency pricing, as well as the usual tidbits author news and upcoming books!

Reports this week, suggests that there might be an agreement with the investigation into Anti-trust issues with Agency Pricing and the publishers and Apple. The Department of Justice has offered a cooling off period for 6 months which the publishers can arrange a proper Agency structure which entails them to add DRM, offer books and taxes and package them together and then offer to online sellers. However Penguin and Macmillon are the only two big publishers who are holding out, because they have argued that the current system is a true Agency Model.

The BookSeller is also reporting that the EU will also …

Around the Bookish World: News-In-Review

Welcome to this week’s news post and it has been pretty eventful We have news on Amazon and the Touch Kindle in Europe, RITA Finalists who have been announced, Pottermore ebooks and more books to movies tidbits.

Amazon has announced that the Kindle Touch will be available across the pond and the rest of Europe via  its sister sites in Germany, France and Spain as well as the UK. The Touch will also be available in a further 176 territories, and it is up for preorder for its release on the 27th April. Unlike the US models, there wont be an advert discounted version – but there will be a WiFi edition which is priced at £109 and the 3G which £169.

There is also further rumours that Amazon will be releasing three new tablets this year – according to this website – Amazon will be offering two 7 inch …

Around the Bookish World: News-In-Review

 Welcome to this week’s news edition! Not much has gone on this week but we have some great trailers from Game of Thrones and the upcoming adaptation of The Host which was written by Stephanie Meyers. There was also smoky going ons at St Martins Press, Book Blogger Con controversy and the usual upcoming covers to watch out for!

The big and very unlikely story coming out this week, is the news of a shipment of weed which was sent to the NY offices of St Martins, however it was incepted by the authorities after reports of a strange smell coming from the two packages. The packages  which had a street value of 70 thousand dollars, were addressed to a Karen Wright but no one of that name exists or is employed by St Martins.  When the news broke on Monday about this, I have to say that my twitter …

Around the Bookish News: Week-in-Review

Welcome to this week’s news post and oh what a week it has been – I think this issue is going to have some major comments and discussion over the news and updates I will post such as the fact that 50 Shades trilogy has been picked up by a major publisher, authors behaving badly again and again, and Paypal has decided to backdown from its stance on explicit books.

The first big news is the fact that E.L James’, Fifty Shades trilogy has been picked up by a major publisher in a seven figure deal.  Vintage books will be releasing new editions of the books in ebook formats and paperback (in a few more weeks). The Commonwealth rights have also been sold and there is now more talk of the movie deal, which seems to hint that it might be very close to coming to fruitition.  It is …

Around the Bookish News: Week-in-Review

Welcome to this week’s news post and we have a jam packed edition with major news about Agency pricing, book covers and some fantastic tidbits! So sit back and get a nice cuppa because one or two links will lead you to wanting one and enjoy!

The big news this week is that the Department of Justice in the US who has been investigating due to anti-trust issues is now threatening the Big five publishers, and Apple for collusion according to a report in The Wall Street Journal. It does not help that there was reports that Apple had approached Publishers previously and suggested that Agency pricing should be used to counteract Amazon’s dominance in the ebook market but it seems this may have given impetus for an investigation and it looks like that Agency Pricing is going to end especially since its going to be pretty costly with lawsuits …