Yesterday I was a little unfair to Easons for the pronouncements of the company’s spokesperson and the tone of the article on its ebook strategy which suggested the company was about to embark on a  mission to build a rival platform to B&N and Amazon, something that would surely have been a valiant, if doomed, effort. When I thought about it for the rest of the day though it got me thinking about just how much ebooks are changing the profile of book publishing and bookselling and how quickly that is happening. For instance I am almost certain of two things...

From the press release by the Book Industry Study Group: ...The Global eBook Monitor finds that men are slightly more likely to have engaged with the digital book market than women. The 18-24 age group leads in use, just a little ahead of those aged 25-34. However, that may change shortly. 'Although current e-book use tends to decrease with age, those most likely to come into the market in the next six months are somewhat older than current buyers,' said Ms. Henry. 'That's the pattern we're seeing in both the U.S. and the U.K.' The Global eBook Monitor (GeM)...

From the press release: Worldreader (worldreader.org), the non-profit transforming reading in developing countries by distributing digital books to children with limited access to literature, kicked off a campaign today with support from renowned soccer team FC Barcelona (Barça), asking people to help send 1 million e-books to students in sub-Saharan Africa. Using new technology and digital platforms, a $5.00 donation to Worldreader provides students in Africa with access to books that educate and inspire, so they can improve their lives.  Donations can be made through millionbooks.worldreader.org. Having already put more than 100,000 e-books into the hands of 1,000 students in Africa, Worldreader is...

Got the following email from Paolo Amoroso: Italian engineering Professor JuanCarlos De Martin @demartin has found that the Italian Constitution downloadable from the official government site is effectively crippled with DRM. It's a PDF document that prevents content copying (not even for accessibility) and search engine indexing. Some details are available in this blog post:   http://ildebugger.com/2012/05/23/la-costituzione-drm-governo/   machine translation via Google Translate http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=it&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Fildebugger.com%2F2012%2F05%2F23%2Fla-costituzione-drm-governo%2F&act=url   This is especially ironical considering that Michael Hart started Project Gutenberg by sharing the US Declaration of Independence.   This was pointed out to me by Giovanni Salvatori @borsista.   Regards,     Paolo Amoroso ...

From the press release:  A slew of best-selling electronic books helped boost profits at Britain's Bloomsbury Publishing (BLPU.L) as the book industry continues its shift to digital, and the firm said it would look to academic titles for a larger part of future growth. Bloomsbury, the publisher of the "Harry Potter" series by author JK Rowling, also said it was counting on a new Rowling three-book box set tied into the Potter series, and a non-fiction account of spies in World War II to support sales in the coming year. Pretax profit at the publisher rose 13.6 percent to 4.8 million pounds ($7.6...

Yesterday I wrote a post that was generally favourable to the deal between Amazon and Waterstones: If I was to think of one single reason for the move being a good though I would say it is this, it allows Waterstones to stand still and observe for a little longer. The value of inaction is often underestimated and right now when the ebook retail and distribution space is changing rapidly and requires such a huge investment, this move brings revenue, options but most crucially of all, time to just see what happens while rebuilding the core bookselling business. I still think the above holds true. One major issue...

From the press release: CourseSmart®, the world's largest provider of eTextbooks and digital course materials, today announced its continued international growth with the launch of an eCommerce platform in the UK and Europe. The platform provides students access to eTextbooks and digital course materials anytime, anywhere from any web-enabled device. Students in the UK and Europe will also now enjoy guaranteed, up-front savings of up to 40% when compared to a new print textbook.    "The world of textbooks is changing. Through the proliferation of tablets, handheld devices, laptops and computers, the academic world is moving online and engaging with students like never before. We are...

From Shelf Awareness: Waterstones, the last major independent bookstore chain in the U.K., will begin selling Amazon Kindles and e-books in its nearly 300 stores this fall, the companies announced today. Although Kindles are sold in a variety of bricks-and-mortar retailers, this is the first time that the e-readers are available in traditional bookstores. The deal is all the more striking because there were long-running rumors that Barnes & Noble was seeking to make a deal with Waterstones to sell its Nook in the company's stores and because James Daunt, who was appointed managing director of Waterstones last July, has been highly...

From the Orbis website: Spanning one-ninth of the earth's circumference across three continents, the Roman Empire ruled a quarter of humanity through complex networks of political power, military domination and economic exchange. These extensive connections were sustained by premodern transportation and communication technologies that relied on energy generated by human and animal bodies, winds, and currents. Conventional maps that represent this world as it appears from space signally fail to capture the severe environmental constraints that governed the flows of people, goods and information. Cost, rather than distance, is the principal determinant of connectivity. For the first time, ORBIS allows us to express...

From the press release: CreateSpace, an Amazon.com company, today announced that authors and publishers around the world can now use its independent publishing platform to distribute their books in Europe for free on Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.de, Amazon.fr, Amazon.es and Amazon.it. By using CreateSpace to distribute directly to Amazon, authors and publishers ensure that their titles are always in stock for customers to purchase. Books will be available for same-day shipping, and are also eligible for free shipping and Amazon Prime. CreateSpace authors and publishers will earn industry-leading royalties on each sale while continuing to own the rights and have creative control over...

Popular Soda, one of our favorite sites with ebook news, tips and reviews, have put together an interesting overview of ebook antitrust lawsuits against big publishers for an alleged ebook price-fixing scheme. Click on the image to enlarge and check the original post for the list of sources. Via Popular Soda. Read an ebook. Get one from Kindle Store, Barnes & Noble or Kobo. (Via Ebook Friendly » Tips & More.)...

The Financial Times reports (note: free registration or visiting via a Google News link required) that Plastic Logic is shutting down its US offices in Mountain View, California, and laying off a number of other workers in Germany, the UK, and Russia as exits the e-reader-making business to concentrate on making screens for other companies’ devices.  Plastic Logic entered the e-reader scene with its widely-announced Que large-screen e-ink reader. However, it abandoned the planned device after the iPad came in and changed the market to where it was no longer tenable to launch. Next, Plastic Logic received funding...