Nook: Cost Cutting Coming (Digital Book World) New Service Offers Watermark DRM to Indie eBookstores (The Digital Reader) The Publishing Industry Has a Problem; ePub is not the Solution (TOC) 'Trusted Friend' is Top Book Discovery Tool (Galley Cat) Kindle Daily Deals: The Collected by Brett Battles (and 3 others)  ...

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...

Netherlands: Government Report Says Dutch Libraries Can't Lend Ebooks (Info Docket) Avoiding Ebook Casualties: The Importance of Quality Assurance (Digital Book World) Bug in Kindle Update for iOS Deletes Users' Entire Library (TechCrunch) Why B&N Should Abandon Hardware (Tools of Change) The Trouble With Finding Books Online - And a Few Solutions (Forbes) Kindle Daily Deals: Guilt By Degrees by Marcia Clark (and 3 others)...

Lots of rumors were flying last night about a split of Barnes & Noble. It's now been confirmed through an SEC filing that Len Riggio, current CEO of B&N, wants to buy the retail stores and BN.com. Nook Media and the college bookstores will remain a separate entity under current corporate leadership; Riggio doesn't want 'em. I can't imagine that this will end well. Many of the college bookstores are also retail stores (like the one at my son's college, Virginia Commonwealth University). Will there be separate retail terms for each entity? If so, that would be horribly inefficient. And how will...

Digital products like e-books are licensed—not sold—to a buyer, so they can’t be legally resold, shared, or loaned. (See my article on e-books and the first sale doctrine for more information.) A group called the Owners' Rights Initiative wants to change that. The ORI believes that the owner of a digital book should be allowed to sell it used.  Members of this group include some library trade groups, used resellers of paper books, and eBay. Some readers consider this a good thing, because they can get cash back on books they've read, in the very same way many readers do with paper books. But...

CHART: How Much Money Amazon Is Making From The Kindle (Business Insider) Barnes & Noble Warns of Lower Revenue (New York Times) Four Amazing Mini Libraries That Will Inspire You to Read (GOOD) Bowker & Vook Partner to Expand Self-Publishing Services (MediaBistro) Why eBook Retailers Are Embracing Self-Published Authors (Huffington Post)...

Five Slightly Unexpected Tips For Self-Published Authors to Find Success (DBW) The Crazy Plan to Save Barnes & Noble (DBW) "Used Ebooks" Hurts My Brain (Book Riot) Little, Brown's NOVL Approach to Reaching Readers Online (Publisher's Weekly) Is "Discoverability" Even A Problem? (Brett Sandusky) Kindle Daily Deals: The Informationist by Taylor Stevens (and 3 others)...

Blind Date with a Free eBook (Galleycat) Students Still Not Taking to E-Textbooks, New Data Show (Digital Book World) Barnes & Noble's Big Problem — and a Solution (Digital Book World) Why Traditional Publishing Is Really In A 'Golden Age': (NPR) The Most Borrowed Library Books and Authors in UK 2011-2012 (Info Docket) Kindle Daily Deals: Merle's Door by Ted Kerasote (and 3 others)...

Myth: The e-book market will be won on hardware (The Digital Reader) Kobo Glo & Cybook Odyssey Reading Tests (Good e-Reader) The Real Cost of e-books for Libraries (Digital Book World) Can Barnes & Noble be Saved? (Rich Adin) Kindle Daily Deals: We Die Alone: A WWII Epic of Escape and Endurance by David Howarth (and 3 others)...

Barnes & Noble yesterday announced that it just released a new Nook for Windows 8 app, which "enables customers to sign in and shop using their Microsoft account, dramatically simplifying the reading and shopping experience," according to a release. Jamie Iannone, president of digital products at Nook Media LLC, says that "Nook is already the highest rated reading and digital bookstore app on Windows 8," although somewhat confusingly, in the same release, he also says this: "As part of our strategic partnership with Microsoft, we are thrilled that Nook is the first digital bookstore to support Microsoft account for sign in Windows...

Joanna's Morning Links post today included a link to a Mike Shatzkin article about the future of Barnes & Noble. I found this statement particularly telling: "It is a virtual certainty that if a book has three different prices: print in the store, print online, and ebook, the printed book in the store will cost the most. This is not a formula to assure bookstore survival." If Amazon.com has taught us nothing else, it has taught us that books should be inexpensive. I know that authors and publishers wish Amazon had not taught us the lesson, but it's been well and truly taught. Publishers,...

Digital Book World posted an excellent article today about the Barnes & Noble elephant in the room at DBW 2013. The big takeaway from this article was this statistic: "According to the most recent Codex survey, online selling accounts for 61 percent of book sales, but only 7 percent of discovery." That's huge. I'm one of those 61 percent. Sure, I buy all my books online, but I find new books and authors by browsing my local Barnes & Noble. And what happens if that local Barnes & Noble goes away? It's not looking good for them as a business right now. Well,...