In case you hadn’t noticed, the trial of Apple on serving as the ringleader for the agency pricing trust has just closed out its first week, with an expected two more to go. Fortune has a decent recap of the issues at stake, as well as some cogent analysis of why this case could very well go to the Supreme Court. It appears the case may not be quite as cut-and-dried as Judge Cote’s pre-trial remarks suggested. Another Fortune piece suggests she may be beginning to see some things Apple’s way. It appears the ruling is going to...

German book press has picked up on the news that Barnes & Noble is still pressing on with its launch plans in Germany. According to the original article, “Barnes & Noble still wants to expand to Germany this year,” this follows on the establishment of Barnes & Noble GmbH in Berlin and a statement by the U.S. book giant’s CEO that the company would be debuting in international markets from June 10th. June has come with no sign of B&N, the article points out, but company staffers are still heralding expansion into 10 international markets within the next six months. The report singles...

There’s nothing like a bad idea for going viral, and it seems the British Booksellers Association (BA) took a sere and yellowed leaf out of the French government’s book in calling for government curbs on Amazon, as reported in The Guardian. Tim Godfray, the Association’s CEO, was quoted in the article as saying that UK booksellers identify Amazon as “the main threat to their business.” But aside from demonizing Amazon, Godfray seems just as barren of ideas as the French on how to revitalize bookstores. [caption id="attachment_86329" align="alignright" width="164"] Tim Godfray[/caption] Previous gestures by the BA include support for  Independent Booksellers Week...

The French state has launched its latest battle against change and reality with an attack on Amazon, with Aurélie Filippetti, the Minister for Culture and Communication in the embattled government of President Francois Hollande, castigating the U.S. giant for “dumping” in France. And tellingly, she had to use the Anglicism for the practice, despite endless initiatives from her own department and elsewhere to stamp out Franglais in France. Labeling Amazon the “destroyer” of bookshops, Filippetti claimed that the company abuses its position to artificially lower book prices to create a situation of quasi-monopoly, only to raise them again once competition is extinguished. The positive...

It's been a busy month for me—school is winding down, so I had class plays, field trips, report cards and other wrap-ups to do. I haven't read much, but I have been stockpiling for the summer, when I'll have some time off. I seem to be in a series mood these days... 1. Blake Crouch | I picked up a few Blake Crouch books on sale. I found him through Konrath, and liked the first one I read. I had a chance to snatch up some others, and did so. 2. Diane Duane | I bought Diane Duane's Wizards series awhile ago but haven't...

The New York Times ran a great story over the weekend about the phenomenon of the 'daily deal.' Both Nook and Amazon have one—a single book (or a handful of books) promoted at a special discount just for the day. The article points out that many customers are accustomed to such sales from other retail sites they visit. Dominique Raccah, the CEO of Sourcebooks, calls it the 'Groupon of books.' And its purpose is not, as some authors would tell you, to bring about the devaluing of the book. Its purpose is to help combat the discoverability problem authors also complain...

Leading UK independent literary publishing house—and e-book producer—Salt Publishing has decided, “after thirteen years and over 400 poetry collections, many by debut authors,” to stop publishing poetry by individual poets and concentrate on anthologies in the future. “Salt concentrates its future poetry efforts on the best of British” was how the headline on the Salt Publishing blog put it. The Guardian coverage quoted Salt director Chris Hamilton-Emery as saying: “"We've seen our sales [of single-author collections] decline by over a quarter in the past year, and our sales have halved in the past five years ... It's simply not viable to continue doing...

We briefly mentioned The Reading Room back in April as an alternative to Goodreads. It’s closely resembles Goodreads, a popular social reading site bought by Amazon last month. The company is changing how it does some things. The Reading Room will now offer print brooks for sale, starting June 1, along with e-books that were already available on its site. “By combining the power of social networking with carefully curated content, recommendations and featured selections, and the ability to buy eBooks and soon print titles in the U.S. (followed later by other parts of the world), readers can now discover books much in...

10 Steps to Creating a Book Based on Your Blog (Media Shift) I recently self-published an e-book based on my blog, and I want to share what I learned. This post focuses on the editorial process; in subsequent posts, I’ll share tips on coming up with a design for your e-book cover, choosing a publishing platform (I went with Kindle, for now) and marketing your e-book. --- Clayton Christensen Takes Closer Look at How Online Learning will Disrupt K-12 Education (GigaOM) A new study from disruptive economics guru Clayton Christensen’s think tank gives more clarity into how online learning could shape the future of education. --- Digital Tools for Crime Writers...

Just in case you've been living under a rock, yesterday Amazon announced Kindle Worlds, otherwise know as authorized, paid fan fiction (sort of). In response to one of my comments on that post, our own Joanna Cabot linked me to John Scalzi's initial thoughts on the move. I have tons of respect for Scalzi, and I agreed with much of what he said, especially with his opinions of the contract terms (which kind of suck). I didn't agree with quite everything, though. In response to a comment, Scalzi expressed a reasonable concern for how the move will affect fandom communities, and to...

13 Lessons from Killing Our College Daily Newspaper and Going Digital (Media Shift) In the seven months since that party, the Revolution has worked in most of the ways we can measure. But we also see flaws yet to be fixed and lessons yet to be learned from our college peers. Here’s more on the results, the lessons and the future of the Revolution. --- Kobo Suspends Google Affiliate and Switches to Rakuten Linkshare (Good e-Reader) Affiliate programs are very popular with booksellers, indie bookstores, authors and online websites. Kobo has been running theirs for a number of years and allows people to earn a...

Fan fiction is an interesting genre. You start with characters that already exist from movies or television shows and create new stories around them. Admittedly, I read my share of fan fiction. Sometimes a show’s run ends too early, or a video game pulls me in so deeply, that I want to read more about the characters (this happened to me with Mass Effect, for instance). Amazon announced Kindle Worlds today, the first commercial platform for writers to create fan fiction and earn royalties. Amazon says it has secured licenses for Gossip Girls, Pretty Little Liars and Vampire Diaries. According to Amazon, it...