On his blog “Get Published Now, David J. Vallieres looks at a Kickstarter-style crowdfunding project based around a small-press-published historical horror novel called The Express Diaries, with a goal of $5,500. The idea was to get paid to create a deluxe edition of the book before it even shipped, and also create some buzz so that their regular self-published edition would get a good sales boost at the outset. It seems to be working well: As of this minute they have raised a total of $7,195 for this project. By my count they have promised delivery...

Publishing Perspectives has an article discussing various new tools for electronic research. Though this isn’t directly connected to e-books, in a separate discussion seed post editor in chief Edward Nawotka draws a parallel between the problems of researchers sifting through reams of data to find what they need and readers confronted by a million zillion $2.99-or-less self-published e-books to find something worth reading. Unfortunately, those research tools in that main article won’t help. The internet and digital age promised us tools that would help us find the perfect books to read. But with the proliferation of...

Here’s an interesting post from the International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF), the people responsible for the EPUB format. Bill Rosenblatt of GiantSteps Media Technology Strategies lays out a proposal for a “lightweight DRM” standard for EPUB that would be more permissive than some of the “heavyweight” DRM systems currently in use. The idea is to prevent “oversharing” such as peer-to-peer while allowing users to make most of the sorts of uses they take for granted with physical books. As Rosenblatt explains, the idea is not to be uncrackable—he specifically admits that “we expect that a lightweight DRM (in reality, any DRM)...

Might an ad-supported Kindle Fire be in the offing? Ad Age reports that Amazon has been soliciting ads to appear on the Fire’s welcome screen, according to an executive at an agency Amazon pitched. The ad packages would start at $600,000 and include both Kindle Fire and Kindle with Special Offers ads, going up to $1 million for additional ad perks. The current Kindle Fire has no advertcising, but Amazon has been reported to have a new model of the tablet in the offing for July and may be looking to start the program then. An interesting note is...

CNet reports that Simon & Schuster, who has already settled its antitrust dispute with the Department of Justice, has joined HarperCollins and Hachette in settling the price-fixing class-action lawsuit by 29 states overseen by judge Denise Cote (who issued a ruling a couple of days ago denying the publishers’ and Apple’s motion to dismiss). The terms of the settlement have not yet been announced. This leaves the remaining defendants the same in both legal actions: hold-outs Macmillan, Penguin, and Apple. It seems doubtful any of them will be inclined to settle....

On the Columbia Journalism Review, Ryan Chittum has a rebuttal to a number of recent posts about e-book production costs and price, including the post by Mathew Ingram that I covered here. Though the article is replete with quotes and counter-arguments, but the central thrust seems to be that publishers ought to be able to charge what they want to—but they really should be wanting to charge less. At base, copyright holders have the right to ask what they want to get for their work (which is why they were so concerned about Amazon selling ebooks...

Galleycat reports that children’s author Jean C. George has passed away at the age of 92. George is best known for her books Julie of the Wolves and My Side of the Mountain, the latter of which was one of the mainstays of my childhood reading. I will forever regret never having the chance to meet Mrs. George and tell her how much her book meant to me. (But given how many others did have that chance, I’m sure she already knew.) More recently, George was in the news as a result of her decision to license the e-book...

Kobo has joined Amazon and Barnes & Noble on the Hogwarts Express. The Bookseller reports that Kobo has launched its own Harry Potter e-book store. As with the others, it redirects customers to Pottermore to make the actual purchase, then allows them to link their Kobo and Pottermore accounts so they can download the books directly into their Kobo readers or apps. A spokesperson for Kobo added: “Unique to Kobo, readers will also be able to track their progress in books with awards from Kobo Reading Life, and share their thoughts on exciting passages with Kobo...

We live in an age of miracles. When you look at the current state of technology, of medicine, of transportation, that’s true in general (even if few people realize it), but it’s particularly true when it comes to publishing. I’ve lately been working my way through Barry Malzberg’s Engines of the Night, a collection of essays about the state of science fiction publishing prior to 1980 (republished by Baen as the first part of Breakfast in the Ruins), and wow is it pessimistic. An oft-repeated theme is how many works of high-quality SF never saw print because the magazine...

I found a press release in my mailbox this morning about the launch of Eric Hellman’s crowd-funded Creative Commons republishing initiative for copyrighted works, Unglue.it (which we’ve mentioned a few times already here). The site has officially launched just now, with campaigns for the following five books: Michael Laser, 6-321 Joseph Nassise, Riverwatch Nancy Rawles, Love Like Gumbo Budding Reader, Cat and Rat Open Book Publishers, Oral Literature in Africa, by Ruth Finnegan. The...

Big publishers aren’t the only ones concerned about Amazon’s “predatory” e-book pricing practices. It’s also worrying the French. The Bookseller reports that outgoing French culture minister Frédéric Mitterrand has written to European Competition commissioner Joaquin Almnunia of his concern that ongoing antitrust investigations could lead to distributors such as Amazon taking unfair advantage. Allowing publishers to fix prices has proved to be the best way of preventing a single player from imposing its economic model in the United States and Europe, and has permitted them to reduce e-book prices to levels that “reconcile the legitimate interests...

The hits just keep on coming. On PaidContent, Laura Hazard Owen writes about a new filing in a class-action lawsuit against the agency pricing publishers that reveals some previously redacted evidence in the case shedding light on the agency pricing negotiations. This is the suit in which a number of states (now up to 31 including DC and Puerto Rico) seek monetary damages, in addition to the DoJ’s class action settlement. In one case, Macmillan CEO John Sargent asked Apple if they might consider relaxing their 30% take for new-release “hardcover” e-books to help ease the pain of their...