Did you miss out on last month’s Barnes & Noble deal bundling every purchased Nook HD+ tablet with a free Nook Simple Touch e-reader? Well, I wouldn’t sweat it too much, seeing as Walmart is now offering the same Nook HD+ as part of an equally as lucrative promotional offer. Every 9-incher purchased via the retailer’s website gets you a free $70 eGift Card that you can then use at Walmart.com, Samsclub.com or in Walmart and Sam’s Club brick and mortar stores. The gift card doesn’t have an expiration date and it can be used towards the purchase of any product, but of...

Canada's Digital Divide Likely to Widen Due to Access and Adoption Failures (Michael Geist) Coursera Begins to Make Money (Inside Higher Ed) Can Indie Bookstores be Saved? (Digital Book World) B&N Upgrades Pubit! to Nook Press (Publisher's Weekly) Kindle Daily Deals: Sucker's Portfolio by Kurt Vonnegut (and 3 others)...

Contrary to a comment on a previous post, I do not have an axe to grind with Barnes & Noble. As I've said before, I want them to succeed because competition is good in the book space, especially the e-book space. Therefore, I want to point out a good Barnes & Noble idea. Apparently every March for the last nine years, they have run a "Tournament of Books." I saw a press release about it today and went to check it out. Lots of companies run bracket-style competitions this time of year, often with a user voting element involved. B&N does theirs...

Book retailer Barnes & Noble has reportedly reduced the amount of titles it stocks by Simon & Schuster authors and lowered the number of S&S books on display as it continues to be embroiled in a debate with the publisher. Neither the chain nor Simon & Schuster would specify exactly what is being negotiated, but sources cited  by The New York Times told the newspaper that Barnes & Noble wanted more funds for displaying S&S titles in coveted spots in the store and to pay lower costs for the books themselves. The bookstore chain also wants more money for events promoting Simon...

Barnes & Noble/Simon & Schuster Dispute Said to Hurt Sales (NY Times) Citizen Journalism at Work: Unemployed British Man Becomes Syrian Weapons Expert (Paid Content) FAA Evaluating Use of eBooks on Airplanes (Good e-Reader) Thanks, Google Keep! Evernote Sees Uptick in Downloads, Usage (GigaOM) Kindle Daily Deals: The Middlesteins by Jami Attenberg (and 3 others) ...

You're probably wondering why I didn't trumpet "Deal Alert" in my headline on this "great" deal, which by the way, runs from March 24 to the end of the month. Because it's a terrible idea and the wrong approach to their problem. Yes, B&N: We know you purchased too much inventory over the holidays. Your sales weren't what you hoped for, and now you have warehouses full of Nooks, gathering dust. So you're giving them away. This move reeks of desperation. It telegraphs lack of confidence in your current business model. (Not that you haven't telegraphed it enough over the past few...

By Christina Jones Barnes & Noble just launched a Nook Free Fridays program for its customers. If you own a Nook tablet, you can download an otherwise paid app for free every Friday. The first free app B&N offered, for instance, was OfficeSuite Professional 7, a $15 value. If you’re a Nook user, this is a really cool opportunity. “We are thrilled to offer NOOK customers a variety of exciting apps from top developers for free every week,” said Claudia Romanini, VP of Nook Apps, in a release. “NOOK Free Fridays is the perfect way to highlight our vast offering of exciting content,...

Walmart Passed on Barnes & Noble Before, Maybe it Should Look Again (Yahoo Finance) Hydra is Appropriately Named (Digital Book World) Disney's Hyperion Will Reportedly Sell Off Most Titles, Focus on TV-Related Books (Paid Content) How Much Time and Effort Should Publishers be Spending on Startups? (Mike Shatzkin) Kindle Daily Deals: Illuminations by Mart Sharratt (and 3 others)...

*This article originally appeared on the website of Book Business, a TeleRead sister publication. While predicting doom for Nook, as Book Business columnist Michael Weinstein put it, has become the favored pastime of the book and tech press of late, it’s hard not to read the news of B&N Chairman Leonard S. Riggio’s bid to purchase the chain’s retail stores and take them private—leaving the company’s foundering Nook Media division to fend for itself—as the beginning of the end for the little e-reader that could. (Or maybe it’s the end of the end for the little e-reader that couldn’t quite.) It’s not without a little sadness...

Will eBook adoption Flatten out at 30%  of the Market? (Dear Author) Ann Patchett on books' future: "I think we'll be just fine." (Palm Beach Post) Three e-reading tools I wish existed (Paid Content) German Book Retailers Team Up Against Amazon with New eReader (Reuters) The Three Most Important Lessons We Can Learn From B&N's Nook Setback (Eoin Purcell) Kindle Daily Deals: The Fifth Knight by E.M. Powell...

Engadget recently reported on a Nook Bluetooth speaker making its way through the FCC. Considering all the rumors and other news about Barnes & Noble lately, it’s nice to see that the Nook line isn’t being ignored. However, we’ll have to see about pricing. Bluetooth speakers are common. For B&N to sell these in any quantity, there’d better be either an awesome feature or a super price. There is a blank listing on the B&N site, with no pricing or availability information yet.  ...

We've known the numbers were coming, and Barnes & Noble released its third quarter earnings today. A few items of interest: Third quarter consolidated revenues were $2.2 billion, a decrease of 8.8% as compared to the prior year. Third quarter consolidated earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) were $55 million, as compared to $150 million a year ago. Third quarter consolidated net losses were $6.1 million, as compared to net earnings of $52 million a year ago. Those are some pretty impressive numbers. Losses of $6.1 million compared to net earnings of $52 million a year earlier. B&N did attribute much of...