The name is Zon. Ama Zon. In 2010, the Fleming estate chose not to renew its publishing contract with Penguin for the James Bond novels, and proceeded to release them electronically in the UK via Amazon, Waterstones, and other e-book retailers. In March of this year, Random imprint Vintage Books acquired the world publishing rights for ten years to the 14 Fleming Bond novels and two nonfiction titles, but not the US or Canadian rights. It wasn’t clear who would be the North American publisher. But now we know: the books are back with Amazon again, but this...

Salon Magazine has an extremely lengthy story looking at Amazon, and bringing up a couple of points I hadn’t heard about before. In main, the article looks at Amazon’s habit of making quiet but substantial grants to various small independent publishing organizations, totaling about $1 million per year. Is it done to support indie publishing, or silence Amazon’s most strident critics? The Salon piece is more even-handed than the last article I covered on this theme. But the really interesting part is actually buried in the second section of the article, which mentions something I hadn’t heard elsewhere: Salon claims that...

The Wall Street Journal has some further news on the putative e-book pricing settlement in the US Justice Department and European Commission joint anti-trust investigation of the “Agency Five” publishers plus Apple. Anonymous sources have told the Journal that three publishers are inclined to settle and two others (plus Apple) are holding out. HarperCollins, Hachette, and Simon & Schuster reportedly favor settling, while Penguin and Macmillan (plus Apple) do not. (Random House, who waited a year to implement agency pricing, was not part of the investigation.) "The companies involved know very well under which conditions we...

The other day, I mentioned a survey showing that the growth of e-books has reduced the overall value of the book publishing market in the UK, and wondered what the figures might look like for the US. While the figures don’t measure precisely the same thing, Laura Hazard Owen reports on PaidContent that some figures released in publishing conglomerates Bertelsmann (Random House) and Pearson (Penguin) show that, thanks to the broad adoption of e-books, publishing revenues are lower but profits are higher. In other words, publishers are making a better profit even though they’re taking less money in, because...

We previously mentioned Penguin’s decision to stop making new e-book titles available to libraries in the USA and the UK. The Digital Shift reports that decision extends to downloadable digital audiobooks as well. A message from Overdrive yesterday explains this applies to audiobook titles released after 11/14/2011. In an apparently unrelated move, Amazon-owned BrillianceAudio will also stop offering downloadable audiobook titles. It’s not clear exactly why Penguin is doing this. The reason the company gave for its e-book restrictions was “concerns about the security of the copyright of its authors.” It has not given any explanation for this audiobook restriction. As...

Following up an earlier story about Penguin withholding library e-books in the UK as well as the US, The Bookseller reports that the Publishers Association supports Penguin’s decision to withdraw its e-books. PA c.e.o. Richard Mollet said: "Today's announcement [by Penguin UK] underlines what the Publishers Association has been saying for some time about the risks around e-lending. Whilst publishers are and always have been fully supportive of libraries, it also has to be recognised that in this still developing area, it is right to be concerned about the security of digital files in the...

Yesterday, Simon & Schuster's parent company CBS announced that while the publisher made less money last quarter than the one before, ebook sales accounted for a greater percentage: Publishing revenues for the second quarter of 2011 decreased 3% to $183 million from $189 million for the same prior-year period, as strong growth in the sale of more profitable digital content was offset by lower print book sales. Digital content revenues for the second quarter of 2011 more than doubled last year's second quarter digital sales and represented 15% of Publishing's total revenues. This is in line with what Pearson reported about...

PaidContent has a report on Penguin’s e-book sales by way of an earnings disclosure report from 7its parent company Pearson. The report mentions that Penguin’s global e-book sales increased by 128% over the last year, and now make up 14% of Penguin’s total revenue. This growth rate is actually slower than the 160.1% annual growth reported by the American Association of Publishers for consumer e-books from January through May. Penguin has been doing a number of things to promote e-books in recent months, such as releasing an e-books app based on its “Penguin Classics” line, and helping independent bookstores...

Shelf Awareness notes that Penguin Group (USA) has been printing up in-store displays to remind shoppers that the store sells ebooks as well, then distributing them to independent bookstores: "So far, 40 have been created, and by the time the publisher is finished, some 200 stores will receive a custom easel." It's too bad Google's ebook buying experience is so convoluted—the last time I tried it, I had to create a store account, link my Google account, provide a credit card (even though I've got one stored already with Google), and click buttons and checkboxes on multiple screens. But at...

TechCrunch and the Bookseller have a report on Book Country, a new social-media spinoff project from Penguin, aimed at providing writers and fans of original genre fiction (romance, thrillers, fantasy, and SF) a place to post, discuss, and get reviews of their work. Would-be reviewees are required to read and review at least three other works before they can start getting reviews of their own. The Bookseller calls it a slushpile. TechCrunch is a bit more kind, suggesting it’s a way that people can get discovered. Either way, it seems to be Penguin’s first attempt to co-opt the self-publishing...

Today, I picked up Diane Duane’s novel Omnitopia Dawn from my public library, after placing a hold via the web. It’s a hardcover print book, which is much less useful to me than an e-book. I could read an e-book at work, between calls, on my day job (at least, if it were a DRM-free e-book), thanks to Ibis Reader. I’ll have to read a print book at home, on my own free time that I could be using for something else (such as writing here). If the e-book had been reasonably priced, I would have bought it instead—even...

The UK bookseller Waterstone’s has started selling Hachette e-books again, The Bookseller reports. Waterstone’s had previously stopped selling them two months ago over uncertainty surrounding UK publishers’ switch to agency pricing terms. Waterstone’s is now on agency terms with HarperCollins and Hachette, but has yet to reach them with Penguin. Waterstones has stopped offering points on its membership card program for any e-book purchases, given that this would conflict with publishers’ agency control. W H Smith started selling Penguin and Hachette books on agency pricing last week, and Amazon has been selling them already. However, some prices are still...