A few days ago I mentioned that independent book publisher Author Solutions had announced an e-book distribution deal with Scribd. Today it comes out they have announced a similar deal with Barnes & Noble for the Nook. As with the Scribd deal, AS e-books will be set at a default price of $9.99, but authors may choose to set their own prices instead.

Erin Cox at Publishing Perspectives notes with some amusement that, shortly after Nintendo announced a classic e-books cartridge, Random House has now announced it will be making video games. The Wall Street Journal article is fairly sparse on details, but notes that this is an effort to find a new revenue stream due to economic pressure from publishing cutbacks and the likelihood that the increasing popularity of e-books will cause lower revenues.

Also on Publishing Perspectives, Edward Nawotka posts an editorial wondering whether the e-book age means an end to the serendipity of finding a good book through browsing bookstores and junk shops.

A couple of stories from the UK:

TechDirt’s Mike Masnick notes that UK consumer rights group Consumer Focus has issued a report saying copyright law is “outdated” and so confusing that millions of people are breaking laws without even realizing it. (Meanwhile, in America, an appeals court just struck down an “innocent infringement” defense—that it was possible to fileshare music without realizing it was wrong—in a music filesharing case.)

Unfortunately, the Digital Economy Bill (which I mentioned earlier today) seems to be going in exactly the wrong direction.

Catherine Neilan at TheBookseller.com reports that UK libraries are especially vulnerable to local council budget cuts, with an estimated 25,000 jobs endangered by the recession.

3 COMMENTS

  1. Author Solutions is NOT an indie publisher. An indie publisher is a small traditional publisher complete with editors who buy books for their quality and who handle all the costs of publishing a book and shares the profit via royalties with the authors.

    Author Solutions is a conglomerate high-end vanity press and to say otherwise is an insult to all the great indie publishers out there.

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