Around the Bookish World: Week-in-Review

Welcome to this week’s news post! With the news of Microsoft entering the tablet market and more book news and publishing development!

The biggest news this week was the announcement by Microsoft who launched their own tablet device called the Surface, which will be released with the upcoming Windows 8 OS. The Surface also comes with an attached light keyboard and stand and the specs are pretty impressive and it looks like its entry is going to make a splash in the crowded tablet and ultrabook market. For more information although details pretty sketchy in terms of price  click here.

Penguin has allowed their e-books for online digital library downloads for a pilot scheme in New York. It is only for two city branches and each ebook is licensed for only one year which will then have to be renewed for the following year. I really hope they expand this scheme because …

Around the Bookish World: Week-in-review

Welcome to this week’s news post! We have news and updates from the world of publishing such as the news of fantasy author, Terry Goodkind self published book, Kobo’s Vox opening up to Google Play and shenanigans with name fakery.

It is no secret that self published books on the Kindle, Smashwords and other digital platforms, have brought some major successes however there have been some drawbacks like spammy scraped ebooks which Amazon have recently made some headway into clearing that up.  Nonetheless, this week, the curious case of a Nora A. Roberts who claims to be the best selling self published author on the Nook, but wait up this isn’t the popular mega-selling Nora Roberts behind the Chesapeake Bay Saga and the In Death series. This is an author who has added an initial to ride on the coattails of Nora Roberts so people may get confuse and mistakenly buy …

Around the Bookish World: Week-In-Review

Welcome to this week’s news post and it has been pretty eventful, with the sad passing of Ray Bradbury, more publishing news as well as new covers/books to watch out for!

The major news this week in the world of publishing was the sad passing of Sci Fi author Ray Bradbury, the author behind Fahrenheit 451 and other classics died earlier this week at the age of 91. Neil Gaiman has written a wonderful article on the life of the prolific and influential author. This year has been pretty bad with the passing of some great authors.

And in a way the news that Harper Collins is preparing to publish quite a few of his backlist books in ebook format over the coming months will be fitting. Although Bradbury was against publishing his books in e-book format but did allow some short stories and his classic Fahrenheit 541 to be allowed to be published, …

Around the Bookish World: Week-In-Review

Welcome to this week’s news post, and we have more news on the DOJ and publishers over agency pricing, Stephen King’s new book and more wtfery about authors behaving badly again.

The remaining two publishers, Penguin and Macmillan are facing a lawsuit with the Department of Justice in the US over alleged collusion about Agency pricing, have submitted more information about their defence. Both Penguin and Macmillan have stated that their meetings with other publishers were part of social gatherings and had nothing to do with collusion. Apple will also be facing a lawsuit with the DOJ – Random House is the only publisher who isn’t facing an investigation and a lawsuit since they never initially joined the other Big 5 publishers when they adopted Agency pricing.

Because of the ruling that this was deemed  unlawful, it looks like remaining 3 publishers who did settle with the DOJ, Simon and Schuster, Hachette …

Around the Bookish World: Week-in-Review

Welcome to this week’s news post! This week have news of  a new tablet coming from Google, more wtfery on plagiarism and a book being published via tweets on twitter as well more tidbits from upcoming books!

As I reported a few weeks ago, it looks like the competition for tablets is really heating up with rumoured devices coming out from Amazon and Apple which will be more affordable and having a 7 inch screen.  Well it looks like Google is entering the fray with its own 7 inch model  which is slated for release this July, although it hasn’t been fully confirmed. The specs are also rumoured to be close to either the Kindle Fire or the Ipad 3 and with a price range for $200 to $250 with the android Ice-cream platform. If any of you have held out to get one or is thinking of getting a …

Around the Bookish World: News-In-Review

Welcome to this week’s news post! It’s been pretty eventful with a ruling from the  US judge who has decreed that Agency pricing is unlawful in the US, more rumours of new Kindles and Apple tablets and the sad passing of Monica Jackson who died earlier this week.

Well, things seem to be hotting up with the Anti-trust lawsuit against the Big five publishers. The judge ruling over the suit, has stated that the DOJ does have a case about the allegations of collusion and price-fixing and that a trial will go ahead. In addition to this another 17  states will be suing also, although it looks like that Simon and Schuster will be settling with  them along with Hachette and Harper Collins who have settled previously. Jane from Dear Author has summarised and explain the new developments with this fantastic  post and it is pretty amazing because it looks …

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 …