eBook
Pricing Storm Brewing
Years
after adoption, if not whole-hearted acceptance, of “agency model”
eBook pricing, along comes the Department of Justice (DOJ) to
investigate how the model was crafted
to thwart poor little Amazon's loss-leader pricing. A
Wharton analysis of the pros and cons of the “agency (platform)
model”analyzes what works, for whom, and why.
DRM
and the Anti-Trust Lawsuit
Did
publisher's insistence on digital-rights-management technology (which
locked customers into specific eBook formats and vendors) cause
the DOJ action? Tell it to J.K. Rowling who embeds DRM on all
Harry Potter eBooks.
Barnes
& Noble has spun off it's Nook business as a subsidiary and sold
Microsoft a 17% interest in the new
entity (named NewCo) for $300 million, effectively valuing the
new subsidiary higher than the parent company. Ahhh, the price of
relevance.
Kindle
Fire's Unbelievable Rise
The
Kindle Fire's dominance of android based tablets increased from
roughly 30%
to 55% from Dec. 2011 through Feb. 2012. What? Give a Fire for
Valentine's Day?
Author
Loves Amazon, Hates Publishers
What
a different perspective authors have of this industry. Barry
Eisler maintains that Amazon is a heroic savior of the industry,
unfairly
attacked by the big 6 "monopolistic" publishers. The
last valid statistic I found was from 2008
when there were 63,000 publishers in the US that sold $14.2
billion annually. That number has surely grown with the popularity of
the eBook. Monopoly? Really?
In
an earlier interview Eisler boasted that publishing for him is “a
business, not an ideology”.
More
eBook Users than Buyers
The
spread between the number of adults who have read an eBook as opposed
to adults who have purchased an eBook is growing. Adults who've read
an eBook increased
from 11% to 17% from 2010 to 2011, but eBook buyers only
increased from 9% to 11%.
Mohawk
Paper Co. Growing
Four
years ago we noted that premium paper manufacturer Strathmore had
been purchased by Mohawk (Paper). Since then, Mohawk has continued
making fine papers and has found markets
as far away as China. They've added 38 employees this year.
Books-A-Million
to go Private?
Books-A
Million (BAMM)
majority stockholder (53%) has announced that he is preparing an
offer to
purchase the balance of shares not under the control of his
(Clyde B. Anderson) family. Is there hope for bricks and mortar?
What
Angry Birds Can Teach Publishers, Printers
Rovio
Entertainment, Ltd entered
the publishing business to cash in on it's best-selling app,
Angry Birds. Digital
vs. ink and paper? They say it doesn't matter, content is king.
Let's
Play Walden Pond
The
National Education Foundation has awarded the University of Southern
California $40,000 to develop a
Henry David Thoreau video game.(?)
Invisible
Watermarks, Content, and Advertising
Somehow
this process uses printed
“invisible watermarks” to furnish additional digital content in
any printed material to your smartphone. Here's a demo.
Publisher's
Survey
If
you have a few minutes, take the 2012
Infotrends Publishing Survey. Your participation will get you a
copy of the published report.
Celebrity
Mom Authors
What
is it about celebrity motherhood that compels some women to write
whether or not they actually can? This
list of the 50 most notable of the group is the only time I've
seen both Pam Anderson and Barbara Walters in the same list.
Final
Thought
The
best of a book is not the thought which it contains, but the thought
which it suggests; just as the charm of music dwells not in the tones
but in the echoes of our hearts. Oliver
Wendell Holmes
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