Amazon

Blog post about Amazon hiding nonfiction books

Excerpt: The problem with Amazon’s market share isn’t just commercial, it is political. It is a legitimate topic of public concern. If Hachette chooses not to publish a book, even for political reasons, there are four other mammoth publishers and hundreds if not thousands of others that can bring it to the public. If Amazon chooses to bury a title, half the book buyers will not see it when they’re shopping for books. In my opinion, that’s not good for our democracy. I think this is a much more important question than how the pie is divided among author, publisher, and retailer.

Krugman cites a fact that fit what I posited as a theory

Side note: If you are worried about Amazon censoring books be aware they are censoring monster erotica. Link to “On the Media” radio piece about this: http://www.onthemedia.org/story/amazons-war-bigfoot-erotica/

October 21, 2014 by Amazon Books

Amazon strikes deal with Simon & Schuster on e-book prices

Online book retailer Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O) said on Monday it has signed a multi-year deal with Simon & Schuster Inc, the second Big-Five book publisher, on the future price of e-books.

Amazon, which had been in talks with Simon & Schuster since July over pricing, confirmed the deal first reported by the Business Insider news blog that the two had reached an agreement.

http://in.reuters.com/article/2014/10/21/us-amazon-com-deals-idINKCN0I92A520141021

October 21, 2014 by Amazon Books EBooks Internet

Voyage, a High-End Amazon Kindle That Beats Hardcovers

NYT Bits Blog

Excerpt: Compared with previous Kindles, text on the Kindle Voyage appears both sharper and in starker relief against the background. Graphics, like charts and graphs, look just as clear as they do in any black-and-white book.

The effect is beguiling. If you look at the new Kindle for any stretch of time, you don’t just forget that you’re reading an e-book; you forget that you’re using any kind of electronic device at all.

Amazon says the Voyage offers a better approximation of print than has ever been available on an e-reader, but for me, it’s far better than that. It offers the visual clarity of printed text with the flexibility of an electronic device.

Full article: Voyage, a High-End Amazon Kindle That Beats Hardcovers

October 20, 2014 by Amazon EBooks

Are Amazon exclusives the next big challenge for everybody else in publishing?

Somebody smarter (or more patient about wading through data) than I am could probably figure out how far along this bifurcation is already, but Amazon is doing its very best to build a body of content that is desirable and available from nobody else but them.

This is something you can do when you’re in the neighborhood of 70 percent of ebook sales and already more than half the total sales for many works of fiction, which is where the self-publishing world is strongest. It is not an opportunity that is really available to any other retailer. Apple has given it a try for more complex ebooks for which they provide ebook-building tools and, presumably, offer the most productive distribution environment for complex content. But they’re playing on much less fertile ground and they don’t have anything like the audience share necessary to drive this strategy very far.

It is hard, if not impossible, to imagine that any other ebook ecosystem could offer benefits that would make it worth skipping Amazon.

Are Amazon exclusives the next big challenge for everybody else in publishing?

September 25, 2014 by Amazon EBooks Publishing

There Is One New Book On Amazon Every Five Minutes

Tech Crunch has some sobering news for the indie author while also highlighting the incredible allure of Amazon,.

“In an interesting post, writer Claude Nougat estimated the total number of books on Amazon – about 3.4 million at last count (a number that could include apps as well) and then figured out how many books were added in a day. Nougat noticed that the number rose by 12 books in an hour, which suggests that one new book is added every five minutes. And, most likely, it’s probably an indie book.

Let’s let that sink in.

What does that mean for the indie publisher? If you’re perpetually optimistic, very little. If you’re even a little bit pessimistic, however, you might want to rethink your career.”

August 22, 2014 by Amazon Books EBooks

Why the Public Library Beats Amazon—for Now

As E-Book Subscription Services Grow Their Catalogs, the Age-Old Institution Trumps All
http://online.wsj.com/articles/why-the-public-library-beats-amazonfor-now-1407863714
All of the big five publishers sell their e-book collections for loans, usually on the same day they’re available for consumers to purchase. They haven’t always been so friendly with libraries, and still charge them a lot for e-books. Some library e-books are only allowed a set number of loans before “expiring.”

Publishers have come to see libraries not only as a source of income, but also as a marketing vehicle. Since the Internet has killed off so many bookstores, libraries have become de facto showrooms for discovering books.

August 13, 2014 by Amazon EBooks Internet Librarians Libraries Public Libraries

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