From The Bookseller: Pan Macmillan has launched a new imprint to bring backlist titles to readers as digital editions or print on demand titles. ...The publisher said the imprint will establish exclusive publishing partnerships with agents, literary estates and other rights holders. It said digital pricing across all formats will be "competitive". ...

From The Bookseller: Pottermore has responded to retailers' frustrations over being unable to sell the Harry Potter e-books, saying the idea was to "ensure ease of availability across all reading devices". Retailers hit out at J K Rowling's decision to sell the Harry Potter e-books directly through her Pottermore website, which will launch in October. A Pottermore spokesperson said: "Pottermore is designed to encourage the reading and re-reading of the Harry Potter books in all formats and editions, both print and digital, to both existing and new generations of readers. We think this will have a positive effect on those selling physical...

From the press release: To continually support the needs of researchers throughout the world, ebrary®, a leading provider of e-books and research technology, today announced it has added more than 16,000 titles in all academic subject areas to Academic Complete™.  The industry’s largest and most affordable e-book subscription database now includes a growing selection of more than 70,000 e-books from over 500 trusted publishers.  With unlimited access and the unique ability for libraries to upload and integrate their own digital content from local computers with DASH!™ (Data Sharing, Fast), Academic Complete provides a cost-effective and comprehensive foundation for any digital library. Recently...

From the press release: Free maps for readers of electronic books are now available on new eBookMaps.com website. The website, which presents itself in many languages, lets users download eBooks with maps in both popular formats, ie mobi (for Kindle reader from Amazon) and epub (for most other readers). eBookMaps website offers free downloadable e-books with maps of major cities of the whole world. Currently there are more than 200 eBooks, each in two formats - epub and mobi, among which are not lacking those of big US cities, cities of Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia and South America. All the maps are optimized...

I did an e-purge this weekend, deleting some 50-odd titles from my bloated Kindle, and what I have learned from the experience is this: on the blessing side, the e-universe makes getting your book into a reader's hand easier than ever. But the downside? The reader knows that there's always something else around the corner. If you don't win them over, and fast, they'll bail on you and your book forever, and in less time than you might think.When I started this little spring cleaning, I had 800 books to choose from, right on my Kindle, before I even went...

Small promotional films or ‘shorts’ have proven to be highly useful tools for the modern indie writer/self-publisher in that they reach the ever-growing YouTube audience with brief, image-laden sound bytes of what you sell, what it’s about, where to find it and (usually) for how much. The best part of this aspect of eBook marketing is that one can conceptualize, write, compile, format and publish one’s own video ads, spending nothing but your time. The process sounds like it would demand quite a bit of said time and energy (it does) but the result is worth the effort. Take a...

Introduction Over the past few years I’ve been asked numerous times about my position on DRM (Digital Rights Management). Mainly I’ve been asked this by authors looking to start selling their works as ebooks. I’ve been sending the same email with more added each time in response to this and I’m tired of it. Here are my thoughts on DRM and how it is perceived by different parties. Since this relates to ebooks I’m going to focus on the publishing industry but I’m not going to ignore lessons learned by other industries. I’m not a fan of DRM and I never recommend it to...

Important news comes from BookofJoe: From refinery29: "If you've kept around old issues of The New York Times because you kind of get off on the smell, don't worry, you're not (that) weird. A fellow newspaper addict — the late designer-artist Tobias Wong — created The Times Of New York candle, a concept that's equal parts a tribute to the Grey Lady and a commentary on the fate of printed media. The scent is, in a word, newsy, with hints of guaiacwood, cedar, musk and spice, with 'a powdery note and velvet nuance,' meant to mimic the aroma of black ink on...

From the press release: Kobo, a global leader in eReading with more than 3.7 million readers worldwide, announced today the launch of new and engaging features for popular social program Reading Life – on the free Kobo eReading app for iOS. Available for iPad, iPhone and iPod touch, the new 4.5 version is all about friends – users can now connect with their friends on Facebook to see what books they are reading, compare number of books read in Reading Life™ stats, view awards earned and much more. The latest release includes the full friends feature set, allowing...

From Publishers Weekly: As a result, sales of adult hardcover fell by 22.7% in April from the 19 companies that report to AAP, while trade paperback sales at 21 houses fell 25.4%. Sales of mass market paperback, for which Borders is an important outlet, plunged 41.6% for the 11 reporting houses. Sales in the children’s/YA segment rose 1.5% in April from 18 houses, but children’s/YA paperback sales declined 7.2%. E-book sales had another strong month, with sales up 157.5%, to $72.8 million from 22 reporting companies. The increase, however, was not enough to offset declines in the print sector and as a...

From Ebook Magazine: Library users in the UK will soon be able to enjoy digital versions of their favourite magazines thanks to a partnership between audiobook distributer Recorded Books and digital mag retailer Zinio. The two companies will make available a ‘Zinio for Libraries’ service which gives patrons access to magazines via their library card. The service will also be available in the United States, Canada and Australia. Zinio already sells digital and interactive magazines via its website for reading on PCs and laptops and via apps for the iPad and Android devices. The company also powers branded single-title iPad apps for magazine...

The Nook Touch, the newest reading device from Barnes & Noble, is a touchscreen device and sells for $139. The newest device from Kobo is the $129 Kobo eReader Touch, which also sports touchscreen technology. The big question is: How do the Nook Touch and Kobo Touch stack up against the Sonys and the Kindle 3? As is always the case with technology, each has its pluses and minuses, and which plus or minus weighs more heavily depends on the individual user. The video reviews have already begun. First up is a comparison of the Nook Touch to the Sony 350 (and essentially the Sony 650 and 950, too): Second, is...