If you don’t know about Worldreader, here’s the short version: it’s a charitable project devoted to giving Kindles and ebooks to change the lives of disadvantaged kids in Africa. It’s a brilliant program and, considering they have sent almost 40,000 books to Ghana in the last 4 months, it’s making a big impact. The find out more about the project, donate time or money (or books) or just read some really heartwarming stories, check it out here, or the blog. There’s also plenty of that in this month’s newsletter: Exactly a year ago in the village of Anenyah,...

If you’re from the ebooks-promote-piracy school of nonsense, remember that piracy existed way before ebooks, and is alive and well in the world of paper publishing too. In response to my post about being thankful for piracy, Australian author and Bookbee reader Sue Woolfe yesterday told of discovered a pirated copy of her debut novel during a 1994 writing residency in the US, (new ed, pictured) even though she wasn’t published there: A copy of my first novel, Painted Woman turned up in the catalogue of one, perhaps many US libraries, a profitable market! I found this...

Most struggling authors trying to get published think that anyone with a publishing deal has got it made. I know I used to. While that can be true in rare cases, most often the life of an author – especially the type often tagged as “first-time” or “emerging” – is still a frustrating grind, just on another level. Occasionally we here stories about bidding wars on first novels – but only occasionally, with all the publishing going on around the globe. Here’s my story, about my story. Step 1: Realise that Publishers Just Aren’t that into You OK, you have...

The UK’s Guardian site is running a story with the title “Authors demand drive to raise readers’ awareness of book piracy’s cost“. It’s basically a lot of authors and publishers whining about ebook piracy. They are demanding “someone” do “something” about it and let readers know that it’s bad – maybe via a publicity drive. From the story: Crime writer David Hewson, author of the Italy-set Nic Costa novels, said a campaign along the lines of “People Who Love Books Don’t Steal Books” was urgently required – because readers who consider themselves his fans are downloading ...

Sigh. I suppose it was naïve of me to think that customers (little guy) could force a large company (big bully) to act fairly – in this case regarding their policy of anti-competitive ebook pricing. Yesterday I wrote that they were breaking the ACCC law that governs “Resale Price Maintenance”. I said I’d tell the ACCC and I did. To their credit, an ACCC rep got back to me today explaining the loophole (see below). Alas, large companies must have lawyers to think up ways to tiptoe around minor issues like, say, illegal pricing laws. In this...

With multinational companies chipping away at the edges of honesty, it’s easy to forget the simple things sometimes. Make no mistake – anti-competitive (aka “Agency”) pricing is illegal in Australia. Darryl Adams recently pointed this out on his blog Oz-e-Books – and it’s a timely reminder. In the face of large companies sending press releases “announcing” changes to their business practices to reinforce their “rights to set prices” across all retailers, sometimes we forget to question that. Do they have that right? Do book publishers have the right to dictate the retail price of their products, when sold...

The administrators sifting through the wreckage of the REDgroup red ink haven’t been shy in downsizing the bricks & mortar side of the business. The first major axings have just been announced and the old green brand of Angus & Robertson is bearing the brunt. To the tune of a whopping 37 stores – out of a total of 169 Angus & Robertson stores. Yes – that brand is struggling (at least in physical shopfronts), it would seem. Borders will also lose one store. The word is that all 38 stores will close “over the next three weeks”. Ouch. And there’s no guarantee...

I caught up with Malcolm Neil, publisher relations manager (Australasia) for Kobo, yesterday. Interestingly, he didn’t seem overly fazed by REDgroup retail’s situation in Aus and NZ, and the questionmark over the associated Borders, Angus & Robertson and Whitcoulls brands. In case you are new to the situation, Kobo supplies the ebook software “engine” that runs the store sites operating under the three brands. So is that all about to fall over? Nope. Move along, nothing to see here, says Neil. Seriously, it seems the only part of the whole ebook-selling process in Australasia that can be attributed...

Oh man – and here I was saying that Borders US and Borders AU weren’t linked. Financially, they’re not – the US firm sold off the AU operation years ago, so maybe it’s a co-incidence, since its parent company REDgroup Retail has been in financial difficulties for years. In any case, it just got to be an even bigger news story, and another kick in the guts for pbooks. As the The Sydney Morning Herald reports: REDgroup Retail, owners of Angus & Robertson and Borders stores in Australia, and Whitcoulls stores in New Zealand, has been placed into voluntary administration by its private equity...

Here we go. The first very large book chain is about to file their chapter 11 – bankruptcy to you and I – in the US. Borders was very late in the game to get onboard the ebook bandwagon, a long way behind Barnes & Noble, and their Nook (who aredoing quite nicely, thank you). Anyone else get the same feeling that you go 8-10 years ago when music monoliths were shrinking and merging uder a similar digital paradigm shift? The Wall Street Journal reports today that those in the know expect the bankruptcy filing from Borders any day. The report states: A bankruptcy filing...

Further from yesterday’s news, the argy-bargy continues with the Sony Reader iPhone app and Apple. After several posts, updates, claims and counterclaims, tech blogs *Mashable*, Engadget, TechCrunch and others are starting to agree on the nub of the issue. The story so far So, yesterday the news broke that Sony’s apps had been rejected by the Apple app store. The reason has evolved slightly, but the upshot seems to be hidden in the App Store fine print… Section 11.2 reads: Apps utilizing a system other than the In App Purchase API (IAP) to purchase content, functionality, or services in an app will be rejected. So, depending on how you read it...

Editor's Note: we covered the beginning of  this story on December 17 here. PB Regular readers will remember Simon Smithson and Will Entrekin and their crazy self-publishing ebook experiment. Their goal was to sell a whopping 1.1m copies of their ebook Sparks, at $0.99 in six weeks. Set tough goals much, fellas? So, it’s been six weeks. What’s the verdict, you ask? I’ll let Simon tell you himself. Guest post by Simon Smithson, co-author of Sparks (with Will Entrekin) Well… our great experiment is over. For now. We tilted at the windmill of Amazon’s Best-Seller Lists, and while we didn’t come unseated, the giants remain, looming proud and dark...