You notice that Amazon seems to be treating Barnes & Noble as its research lab lately? B&N launches a touch-sensitive reader, so does Amazon. B&N comes out with an Android tablet, so does Amazon. Now, if a rumor reported by Reuters can be believed, it seems Amazon is eyeing the front-lit Nook GlowLight as its next xerox target. On the positive side, a reader with a light built in would mean no more clipping on external lights to read in the dark. However, it would use up battery power faster. Right now, this is only a rumor,...

“I love the manuscript, but…” It seems those words, expressed in a publisher rejection notice, tend to herald one writer after another’s ventures into self-publishing. In this case, Jessica Park, guest-blogging on Elizabeth Spann Craig’s “Mystery Writing is Murder” blog, explains why she took her young-adult novel Flat-Out Love to Amazon self-publishing, where it has sold over 75,000 copies and received 372 reviews averaging 4.6 stars. Park had previously published a five-book murder mystery series through a traditional publisher. The problems with Flat-Out Love, Park was told by the publishers who rejected it, were that the 18-year-old college...

What is the future of publishing? Or even, of publishers? Here are a couple of articles that offer some interesting perspectives. For starters, the Vancouver Sun has an interesting piece that looks at the shifts brought about by Amazon’s Kindle and e-reader strategy, summarizing the issues facing the publishing industry at the moment. Amazon’s loss-leader strategy vs. agency pricing come in for discussion, as well as the possible effects of the DoJ antitrust lawsuit. It does seem to favor the publishing-industry side of things just a bit, though: While the lawsuit sounds like good news...

Are agents still necessary in the new e-publishing world? I’m running across a number of people who don’t seem to think so. For example, self-publishing writer Stephen Leather opined in a recent interview with The Bookseller Magazine: I think agents will be the hardest hit by the eBook revolution. There is almost no negotiation with Amazon over royalty rates so if you are dealing with them it’s pointless to pay an agent fifteen per cent. It used to be agents who acted as the gatekeepers – more trendy jargon – and they pretty much decided who...

So says Andrys Basten in A Kindle World Blog.  Here's the beginning: Amazon makes it possible but doesn't make it ultra-easy The two most popular ePub readers for Android are not made available for the Kindle Fire, as Amazon concentrates on its own books but, as with about 3 million free books available these days for reading on the Kindle and which Amazon points us to on their own pages (re Project Gutenberg, Internet Archive, etc., all explained at this blog's Free Kindle Books guide), Amazon doesn't limit your ability to download non-Amazon books (despite the myths propagated by those who...

Although E-Ink previously stated it isn’t ramping up color e-ink display production, the rumors of impending color e-ink Kindles simply will not die. Our sister blog Gadgetell reports on a story from rumor-monger Digitimes that claims Amazon is “likely” to launch a capacitive-touch-screened color e-ink Kindle in the second half of this year. Personally, I can’t see it. I don’t think that color e-ink is mature enough for Amazon to want to step up just yet. Bezos has historically been reluctant to move to any new technology before its time, and over the last couple of years has seemed...

paidContent has talked to Charlie Redmayne, the CEO of Pottermore, about the deal Amazon announced to add the Harry Potter titles to the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library, the program that lets Prime-subscribing Kindle owners check out one e-book per month for free. Redmayne admits that the deal may cannibalize some sales, but he believes it will drive even greater sales as readers check out the first book and decide they want to read them all right away. And Amazon is paying “a large amount of money” for the right to lend the e-books, which will also help make...

From ReadWriteWeb.  More in the article. Paulo Santos (who is short AMZN) has a great post on Seeking Alpha about the nasty secret hidden in Amazon's otherwise-strong Q1 earnings. The reason Amazon's razor-thin margins look just the teensiest bit better is that sales of the break-even Kindle have fallen off a cliff. Is e-ink doomed? We sure hope not. Amazon never, ever talks about how many Kindles it sells. That's what lots of tech companies do when their devices aren't selling. So Santos did the sensible thing and looked for clues lower down the supply chain. Sure enough, E Ink Holdings, the world's biggest e-ink display...

Remember when Target started selling the Kindle, almost exactly two years ago? It appears that the bloom is off the rose. The Verge reports that Target is going to “[phase] out Kindles and all Amazon- and Kindle-branded products in the spring of 2012.” However, Target will continue to offer other e-readers, including Barnes & Noble’s Nook. Other blogs such as Engadget are speculating on the causes. Might it be because Target is going to open mini-Apple stores, and Apple asked Target to phase out goods from its closest competitor? But Best Buy has its own mini-Apple stores and it...

On sale for today only, a certified refurbished Kindle Fire is on Amazon for $139. Limit of 5 per customer. Not much more to say than that.  I'm quite happy with my unit....

Saw this review on Chip Chick and immediately ordered one from Amazon for $52..  It's just the thing I'll need for my second cross-country motorcycle trip this year (hopefully).  Looks extrememly useful in any event.  One nice thing she points out is that it will hold a Bluetooth keyboard and prop the iPad up in a landscape position.  It is getting to the point that I am reluctant to leave the house without my iPad!  4G makes it useful anywhere. Full details in the review. If James Bond had an iPad, there’s a good chance he’d be protecting it with Pelican’s...

Even though the Justice Department has kiboshed “most favored nation” deals in the arrangement with the three agency publishers who settled, those deals are only binding on those publishers. Amazon is still using it in its arrangements with smaller publishers, and will probably continue to do so until and unless the DoJ turns its gimlet eye on them. The New York Times and PaidContent, among others, are reporting on the case of Buzz Bissinger’s 12,000-word essay “After Friday Night Lights,” a sort of afterword to his book Friday Night Lights whose normal list price is $2.99. However, this...