From the press release:  A slew of best-selling electronic books helped boost profits at Britain's Bloomsbury Publishing (BLPU.L) as the book industry continues its shift to digital, and the firm said it would look to academic titles for a larger part of future growth. Bloomsbury, the publisher of the "Harry Potter" series by author JK Rowling, also said it was counting on a new Rowling three-book box set tied into the Potter series, and a non-fiction account of spies in World War II to support sales in the coming year. Pretax profit at the publisher rose 13.6 percent to 4.8 million pounds ($7.6...

Yesterday I wrote a post that was generally favourable to the deal between Amazon and Waterstones: If I was to think of one single reason for the move being a good though I would say it is this, it allows Waterstones to stand still and observe for a little longer. The value of inaction is often underestimated and right now when the ebook retail and distribution space is changing rapidly and requires such a huge investment, this move brings revenue, options but most crucially of all, time to just see what happens while rebuilding the core bookselling business. I still think the above holds true. One major issue...

Duke University Libraries: eBook Strategy and Advocacy Model: "Published August 2011 and Prepared by Duke University Libraries E-Book Strategy Committee. E-Book Advocacy Model Duke University Libraries E-Book Advocacy Model E-book Advocacy Statements PDF Version of Materials (10 pages) Statements Cover the Necessary Functionalities of eBooks To Support Research: Conceptualization and Discovery Reading Theory Formation Documenting and Synthesizing Collaboration Publishing and Disseminating (Via LJ INFOdocket.)...

paidContent's annual conference will be held in New York on May 23.  I'll be there covering the event for you. There will be a number of speakers in the ebook/epublishing arena including: James McQuivey, VP, Principal Analyst, Forrester Research Bob Sauerberg, President, Conde Nast Nick Bogaty, Director of Business Development, Digital Publishing Group, Adobe Systems Liz Schimel, EVP and Chief Digital Officer, Meredith National Media Group Jonathan Shar, GM, Digital Newsstand and Emerging Content, Barnes & Noble Jim Bankoff, Chairman, CEO, Vox Media John Paton, CEO, Digital First Media Charlie Redmayne, CEO, Pottermore...

Originally published on Ebook Friendly. Check all cartoons....

From the press release: A new New York Times bestseller has captivated BooksOnBoard audiences on both sides of the Atlantic this week: Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel. Historical fiction is one of those genres that doesnt often make its presence known on our top ten lists, remarked Nathan Johnson, BooksOnBoards Director of Operations. But when it does, its really turning heads. Mantels work is the perfect example. There is no shortage of fictional accounts of the wives of Henry VIII, and particularly the life and trial of Anne Boleyn. However, what Mantel offers in Bringing Up the Bodies, the sequel...

From paidContent: Hachette, which has not made new e-books available to libraries since 2010, is reconsidering the idea. In a pilot program starting this spring (which is…now?), the publisher is working with two e-book distributors to bring a “selection of HBG’s recent bestselling e-books to 7 million library patrons.” Hachette would not confirm which distributors or libraries it is working with — whether it is partnering with leading digital distributor OverDrive and/or with an OverDrive competitor like 3M Cloud Library or Baker & Taylor’s Axis 360. “These pilot programs will help us learn more about library patrons’ interests, usage, and expectations,” Hachette said...

I think unglue.it is a great idea, but after seeing their first selections I must admit that I'm a bit skeptical about their success.  The thing that will make unglue.it work is selecting books that readers want to read and that are unavailable in any form.  Let's take a look at their initial selections: Riverwatch, by Joseph Nassis: this book is available from Amazon in hardback for $19.95 and in Kindle format for $3.99.  Why on earth would I pledge money to get an unglued copy when I can buy it for only $4? 6-321, by Michael Laser: again, this is available...

New Features EPUB Input: When setting the cover for a book that identifies its cover image, but not the html wrapper around the cover, try to detect and remove that wrapper automatically. When deleting books of a specific format, show the number of books with each format available Linux install: No longer create MAN pages as all utilities have more comprehensive command line --help anyway Add a tweak Preferences->Tweaks to control the default choice of format for the Tweak Book feature Conversion: Allow setting negative page margins. A negative page margin means that calibre will not specify any page margin in the output document (for...

From Paper Magazine: In the era of e-books, what will happen to the indie bookstore? Will the algorithms at virtual big-boxes decide what we read? And if so, will important, life-changing books go undiscovered? This was a future that Emily Gould and Ruth Curry could not bear to live with.  Gould and Curry are the sorts of friends who are perpetually raving about novels, exchanging them, borrowing them back. And now, they are sharing them through what may be the world's first independent online store devoted to the e-book, Emily Books. "It's crazy that no one else is doing this," says Gould.  Rather than sell every title under...

From a tweet by @bookofjoe:   Shakespeare Readdle Free This app is designed for both iPhone and iPad Shakespeare™ is a free app with the complete works of Shakespeare (41 plays, 154 sonnets and 6 poems, including doubtful works) and a searchable concordance to find the exact word or phrase you’re looking for (with “relaxed” searching to find words close to your search term).Even though it’s free, Shakespeare for the iPad/iPhone/iPod is packed with these impressive features:• CUSTOMIZE YOUR READING EXPERIENCE by choosing from a variety of color combinations, change the font family and size, and jump around to different scenes.• QUALITY TEXTS are a top...

A couple of days ago we posted a link to a new interview with the Founder and CEO of GlueJar (provider of Unglue.it), Eric Hellman. Now, a blog post from lets all of us know that the Unglue.it site/database will formally launch in two days (Thursday, May 17, 2012) at Noon EDT but you can take a look around right now. For those unfamiliar with GlueJar/Unglue.it here’s the bottom line direct from Eric Hellman’s Blog Post: If you’ve not been paying attention, Unglue.it is an effort to crowd-fund creative commons ebooks. If you can find a way to cover the fixed costs, you...