Got the following email from Jason Davis of Bookbee.  Bears looking into: Bookbee has done a deal with US digital products startup Stampede.It to bring group buying or "daily deals" to ebooks. Bookbee will supply ebooks to the digital group buying company in an ongoing trial, with a view to establishing a permanent ebook "vertical" on the Stampede.It platform.Consumers of physical goods and services are loving group buying as fast-growing companies such as Groupon and LivingSocial (and their many clones) can attest. But why should they have all the fun - and discounts. What about ebook readers?One of the main reasons...

If you don’t know about Worldreader, here’s the short version: it’s a charitable project devoted to giving Kindles and ebooks to change the lives of disadvantaged kids in Africa. It’s a brilliant program and, considering they have sent almost 40,000 books to Ghana in the last 4 months, it’s making a big impact. The find out more about the project, donate time or money (or books) or just read some really heartwarming stories, check it out here, or the blog. There’s also plenty of that in this month’s newsletter: Exactly a year ago in the village of Anenyah,...

Most struggling authors trying to get published think that anyone with a publishing deal has got it made. I know I used to. While that can be true in rare cases, most often the life of an author – especially the type often tagged as “first-time” or “emerging” – is still a frustrating grind, just on another level. Occasionally we here stories about bidding wars on first novels – but only occasionally, with all the publishing going on around the globe. Here’s my story, about my story. Step 1: Realise that Publishers Just Aren’t that into You OK, you have...

The UK’s Guardian site is running a story with the title “Authors demand drive to raise readers’ awareness of book piracy’s cost“. It’s basically a lot of authors and publishers whining about ebook piracy. They are demanding “someone” do “something” about it and let readers know that it’s bad – maybe via a publicity drive. From the story: Crime writer David Hewson, author of the Italy-set Nic Costa novels, said a campaign along the lines of “People Who Love Books Don’t Steal Books” was urgently required – because readers who consider themselves his fans are downloading ...

The administrators sifting through the wreckage of the REDgroup red ink haven’t been shy in downsizing the bricks & mortar side of the business. The first major axings have just been announced and the old green brand of Angus & Robertson is bearing the brunt. To the tune of a whopping 37 stores – out of a total of 169 Angus & Robertson stores. Yes – that brand is struggling (at least in physical shopfronts), it would seem. Borders will also lose one store. The word is that all 38 stores will close “over the next three weeks”. Ouch. And there’s no guarantee...

Here we go. The first very large book chain is about to file their chapter 11 – bankruptcy to you and I – in the US. Borders was very late in the game to get onboard the ebook bandwagon, a long way behind Barnes & Noble, and their Nook (who aredoing quite nicely, thank you). Anyone else get the same feeling that you go 8-10 years ago when music monoliths were shrinking and merging uder a similar digital paradigm shift? The Wall Street Journal reports today that those in the know expect the bankruptcy filing from Borders any day. The report states: A bankruptcy filing...

Further from yesterday’s news, the argy-bargy continues with the Sony Reader iPhone app and Apple. After several posts, updates, claims and counterclaims, tech blogs *Mashable*, Engadget, TechCrunch and others are starting to agree on the nub of the issue. The story so far So, yesterday the news broke that Sony’s apps had been rejected by the Apple app store. The reason has evolved slightly, but the upshot seems to be hidden in the App Store fine print… Section 11.2 reads: Apps utilizing a system other than the In App Purchase API (IAP) to purchase content, functionality, or services in an app will be rejected. So, depending on how you read it...

Editor's Note: we covered the beginning of  this story on December 17 here. PB Regular readers will remember Simon Smithson and Will Entrekin and their crazy self-publishing ebook experiment. Their goal was to sell a whopping 1.1m copies of their ebook Sparks, at $0.99 in six weeks. Set tough goals much, fellas? So, it’s been six weeks. What’s the verdict, you ask? I’ll let Simon tell you himself. Guest post by Simon Smithson, co-author of Sparks (with Will Entrekin) Well… our great experiment is over. For now. We tilted at the windmill of Amazon’s Best-Seller Lists, and while we didn’t come unseated, the giants remain, looming proud and dark...

Melbourne’s indie bookstore chainReadings debuted its ebookstoretoday – offering 120 titles through the unfortunately named Small Press Underground Networking Community (SPUNC). As far as I can tell all 120 titles are Australian and published through s who’s-who of indie publishers, including larger indies Text Publishing, Spinifex and Wakefield Press. Obviously, the catalogue is going to have to expand for this to make any inroads intoRedGroup’s Kobo-powered ebookstore(s), but it’s a pretty good start. Whether you consider this the first indie ebook store in Australia is up for debate – it hinges on RedGroup, and your definition of “independent”. But back to the Readings...

This really needs to be seen full screen, but it is a neally neat guide to devices, apps and formats. It's on Jason Davis' Book Bee site. Tip of the hat to reader Howard....

I’ve been following J. A. Konrath for a while, and have enjoyed him railing against traditional publishing in a much more vocal and high-profile way that I ever have. Naturally, many haven’t enjoyed his work as much – and I would think that would include almost all of traditional (read “paper”) publishing itself. He’s long been the tall poppy to attack when people want to prove that self-publishing  - or, more accurately, author publishing in his case – is an adberation that will soon die out. Whether these barbs have their genesis among traditional publishers...

I’m a journalist, and a member of the journalists union, the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance (of which the Australian Journalists Association, the AJA, forms part). All members receive a monthly magazine with news and in-depth articles about the industry, but this year is special – it’s 100 years since a wily bunch of Aussie scribblers formed the AJA. So, a century into Australian journalism proper, the union has published a report of the state of the industry, and where it expects the future to lay. (SPOILER: online). The report is called Life in the Clickstream II (a similar report came out two years ago),...