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...

TechCrunch broke the story earlier today that Google has just snapped up a tiny firm called Ebook Technologies that has produced, among other ebook-related tools, software for managing the distribution of ebooks. The description of the company’s products are a little on the vague corporate-speak side, but it sounds a little like they build the software for a type of ebook distribution system/portal. Given that some of the tech that Google acquires never sees the light of day, none of this is set in stone. Far from it. But it does hint at an expanded ebookstore ecosystem. If I had to guess, I’d...

I’ve been following J. A. Konrath for a while, and have enjoyed him railing against traditional publishing in a much more vocal and high-profile way that I ever have. Naturally, many haven’t enjoyed his work as much – and I would think that would include almost all of traditional (read “paper”) publishing itself. He’s long been the tall poppy to attack when people want to prove that self-publishing  - or, more accurately, author publishing in his case – is an adberation that will soon die out. Whether these barbs have their genesis among traditional publishers...

Just got off the phone with Mark Tanner, who is Google’s ebooks rep in Australia. He’s ensconced down in Sydney in the Googleplex (Aust version) in Pyrmont. Interesting guy. He’s the man charged with getting the Google Ebookstore successfully launched here and publishers and retail partners signed up. He emailed me the other day and was nice enough to do a quick interview. Even though I’ve had a play with the GE site (see how here), chances are that the question foremost on my mind was the same as the one on yours: “When?” Unfortunately Mark has to follow the company line. “We’ve...

Every now and again, missives like this one entitled “How the rise of e-readers takes the fun out of giving books” from the Canadian Globe and Mail by Leah McLaren pop up and bounce around the web. They make me chuckle. Their common theme is that, essentially, you can’t wrap ebooks and stick them under your Christmas tree. They are only one step away from those “but what about the smell of books” rants bemoaning the changing of technology. Don’t get me know – if people don’t like ebooks, and enjoy dead trees with words on them, that’s their right. But call a spade...

The ebook-related interwebs are buzzing with news that Mark Coker and his Smashwords ebook-publishing site is adopting the anti-competitive, price-fixing “agency model” favoured by publishing monoliths everywhere. He wrote a long and detailed missive on the Smashwords blog the other day, justifying the move, and if we didn’t know any better, after reading it you’d say his explanation makes sense. But of course he can justify the move. In practice, when buying directly from individual amateur authors, it won’t make much difference. They set their own prices then and now, and would see "discounting" rarely, and on tiny turnover it wouldn't...

A day or so after those in the US finished celebrating Thanksgiving, I had reason to thank my lucky stars for pirates. In particular, the ebook pirate who ripped off my book and posted it on a well-known non-legitimate download site. I’d name the site, but I don’t think that’s the done thing. People can use Google any way they like. I’m a journalist who became an author in 2006 when my book Baby Steps: a Bloke’s-Eye View of IVF was published by a major Australia publisher. It went out in paperback and, as an afterthought – as it was back then...

Colour me excited. In recent months, a few things have happened in our sunburnt country that have left it teetering on the brink of the ebook mainstream. And they said it would never happen in our backwards, sundrenched, animals-made-from-bits-of-other-animals land. So look out North America, Britain and others … Here are five reasons why we’re about to enter the ebook big-time. (Please suppress any laughter – we’re painfully aware you’ve been enjoying these conditions for years). 1. Amazon just dropped the “Whispernet tax” for Aussies Early this week, some eagle-eyed readers here noticed that books they had on their Kindle wishlists got $A2...

Little more than a day since the launch of paid Aussie titles in Apple’s local iBookstore, Borders has hit back with price cuts across their ebook range. Due to the “old publishing” paradigm of geographical restriction, Borders in Australia can’t formally guarantee to beat Amazon’s price on ebooks, as they do (incl. postage) with paper books. However, a quick check of Borders.com.au reveals that they are selling most books cheaper than Amazon. Parent company REDgroup Retail is the first to sign all of Australia’s major publishers to ebook deals, as well as many of the small indie publishers missing from the iBookstore. In...

Yesterday’s announcement of the first Australian paid content released into Apple’s iBookstore has been met with a mixed response locally. In a market only boasting one major player – REDgroup Retail, with their Angus & Robinson and Borders/Kobo offering – the more the merrier, right? Maybe. Some are worried about Apple propensity to adopt the “agency model” of ebook pricing. Some are underwhelmed by Apple’s initial range, which is said to be 40,000 titles, 10,000 of which are self-published Smashwords books. And others have expressed disappointment at the prices, which seem to be commonly $A12 or above. (Keep in mind the...

Upbeat outlook Despite all the RED(group) ink, the firm’s communications manager Malcolm Neil said the company was “relatively happy with the result in a tough market”. “We took $30m in writedowns, and a large part of that was CD and DVD inventory,” he said. REDgroup's balance sheet also suffered under the weight of a $24m interest payment on borrowing. They also announced a refinancing deal, as Bookseller + Publisher is reporting... Backed by its long-term bank BOS International and new financier Fortress Investment Group that will ‘refinance REDgroup's senior debt to December 2012' and redeem its NZX listed Retail Notes (valued at NZ$35...