The Seybold Report

Amazon.com Releases New Kindle DX with 50% Increased Display Contrast and Lower Price

Amazon.com has announced the latest Kindle DX at a price of $379, $110 lower than the cost of the original DX. The new DX features a 50% improvement in screen contrast, a new graphite enclosure, and free 3G wireless. The new DX is available on preorder from the Amazon.com store. more

Amazon Announces 70% Kindle Royalty Option for Publishers and Authors

Amazon has announced a new royalty option under which authors and publishers can choose to receive 70% of the list price of electronic copy of their books sold for use on the Kindle, Kindle DX, or one of the Kindle apps for various computer and mobile platforms. more

Ingram to Add 500,000 Titles to F+W Media's eStores

Ingram Content Group Inc. will provide approximately 500,000 additional book titles to F+W Media Inc.'s 21 e-stores under an online commerce collaboration agreement the two companies have reached. The agreement will provide publishers working with Ingram access to an additional sales channel. more

The Association of American Publishers Reports Broad Growth in Book Sales in March and e-Book Sales Jump 184.8%

The Association of American Publishers reports a 16.6% increase in books sales for March 2010 to $458.2 million, with an overall increase of 8% for the first three months of the year. Increases occurred across all categories, with e-books showing a spectacular 184.8% jump for the month to $28.5 million. more

North Plains Releases TeleScope Publishing Platform Update

North Plains Systems Inc. has introduced the latest version of its modular e-book TeleScope Publishing Platform (TPP). TPP manages the full book publishing lifecycle for publishers, from editing, typesetting, and multi-format e-book creation. The new version provides easier book design, automated image management, e-pub preview, and Microsoft Word manuscript importation. more

DNAML Announces Software to Auto-Convert PDFs to Secure e-Books and e-Magazines

DNAML Pty Ltd. has announced ePage Wiz Secure, an application that automatically converts PDFs of books, magazines, and business documents to a standard e-publishing format secured using standard digital rights management technology. DNAML is targeting authors, publishers, and businesses with the system, which is designed for use in creating e-books, e-magazine, e-catalogs, textbooks, and corporate documents. more

Barnes & Noble Opens Online e-Bookstore for Hewlett-Packard PC Users

Barnes & Noble and Hewlett-Packard have opened a special e-book, magazine, and newspaper store online for  customers at hp.bn.com. The HP B&N e-bookstore contains more than 1 million digital titles. HP customers can browse, search for specific titles and authors, and sample parts of any e-book for free. more

Coutts Opens e-Book Library to New York Universities

In a creative risk-sharing agreement, Coutts Information Services Ltd., an Ingram Content Group company, has agreed with ConnectNY, a consortium of academic libraries within New York state, to allow patrons of those libraries full free access to the entire Coutts e-book library. Under the agreement, ConnectNY will purchase books library patrons use. This patron-driven book acquisition model reduces the risk that the consortium will buy books that never circulate, a major problem for libraries according to Bart Harloe, University Librarian at St. Lawrence University and Administrative Coordinator for ConnectNY. Harloe estimates nearly 40% of books libraries purchase never leave library shelves. more

Electronic Publishing Macmillan Subsidiary to Show e-Book Publishing Tools at London Book Fair

MPS, a division of Macmillan, has announced ContentStore, a set of next-generation e-publishing tools for book publishers designed to convert, host, market, and distribute content at minimum cost while giving the publisher maximum control. MPS has additional e-publishing tools under development and will provide consultations on all aspects of e-book publishing strategy as well as demonstrations of tools and technologies, including ContentStore, at booth X630 at the London Book Fair April 19-21. more

Ingram to Provide Book Publishing Gateway to Apple iBookstore

Ingram Content Group Inc. has announced book publishers will be able to submit e-books to the new Apple iBookstore using CoreSource, Ingram's solution for storage, management, and distribution of digital content. Publisher will be able to convert digital books into ePub, Apple's digital book format, and submit the converted files to the iBookstore. more

iPad Release Set for April 3rd, 2010

Apple has scheduled release in North America, Western Europe, and Japan of the iPad WIFI models for April 3rd, with release of the WiFI plus 3G cellular models later in April. United States customers will be able to pre-order iPads from the Apple online store and retail stores starting on March 12rd. more

PRC Universities Select Ingram Content Group

The Inter-regional e-Book Consortium, involving the City University of Hong Kong, Peking University, and the China Academic Humanities and Social Sciences Library has selected Ingram Content Group to provide the content and technical support for the Book Library Consortium Model. The consortium will provide shared access to more than 4,000 English language academic e-book titles to 15 university libraries in Mainland China and Hong Kong. The titles will come from Ingram's MyiLibrary platform, which draws from more than 100 prominent academic international publishers. more

Department of Defense Plans Downloadable Audiobooks via MyiLibrary

The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) is planning to offer downloadable audio books to military service members, their dependents, and National Guard members through MyiLibrary through an agreement with Ingram Content Group Inc. The books will be made available through DoD Morale, Welfare & Recreation branch library Web sites serving the various United States military branches. more

Apple Announces the iPad

Apple announced its much heralded, and widely rumored, new iPad tablet computer Wednesday at a press event in San Francisco. Here are the basic facts: the 1.5 pound device runs the latest version of the iPhone operating system and is only a half inch thick with a 9.7" LED backlit display and comes with built-in WiFi and 3G versions. Something of a cross between an iPod Touch and an e-book reader, the iPad has the Apple calendar and address book built in along with a connection to the iPod store and an e-book reader application called iBooks that supports the ePubs digital publishing standard.

 

Apple says five of the largest book publishers have signed up to provide e-books to for the iPad including Penguin and HarperCollins. The device also comes with a full office software suite, iWorks, as well as iTunes. The iPad will be available in three versions, retailing at $499, $599, and $699. The first WiFi models will be available in March, with 3G units to follow about a month later. more

Publisher Offers Help Converting Books to iPhone Apps

Nevada-based iPhone publisher SunScroll is offering technical help to other publishers who want to convert books into iPhone apps with advanced features that will run on iPhone OS version 4.0, expected later this month. The SunScroll publishing software is available for free download. more