This week, Kobo learns to say, “konnichiwa,” and Nook moves into the tablet market. Within weeks of rolling out its new tablet, Japanese e-commerce company Rakuten has acquired Kobo for a hefty $315 million, Andrew Albanese reports. Rakuten is an international e-commerce company with holdings in everything from travel to banking, media and online marketing. [...]
BTB #259: B&N’s Riggio Keynotes PubWest 2011
Just ahead of an announcement from Barnes & Noble for a tablet-version of its Nook e-book reader, company chairman Len Riggio declared in a keynote address for the 2011 PubWest Conference, “We are committed as ever to the future of our bookstores, and to bookstores in general. We will adapt to whatever the new world [...]
BTB #258: How Social Media Is Keeping Alive the Journal Article
Scholarly communication is rapidly changing, and information managers in private companies and other sectors are finding new ways to serve their users. Social media, mobile devices, data mining, semantic technologies and other developments are creating a whole new environment for publishing. Yet the old standby – the journal article— seems to have no real rival [...]
Les réseaux sociaux, un nouvel allié pour l’article scientifique
La communication scientifique est en train de changer très rapidement, et les professionnels de l’information dans les entreprises privées et d’autres secteurs cherchent des nouvelles façons d’offrir des services à leurs usagers. Les réseaux sociaux, les appareils mobiles, le data mining, les technologies sémantiques et d’autres développements sont en train de construire un nouvel environnement [...]
PW’s Week Ahead 11.04.11
On Thursday, Amazon jumped into the digital book lending business, announcing the launch of Kindle Owners Lending Library for Amazon Prime members. PW’s Features Editor Andrew Albanese runs through what’s to like, and what’s not to like, for publishers and authors about this latest move to drive Kindle sales (and oh yes, book sales, too). [...]
Best of BTB: The Writing Game
It’s late October, and while “the boys of summer” play out their last innings, professional and college football teams keep cheering crowds in their seats even as temperatures fall. And everywhere, the fans pore over the best in sports journalism. “I don’t want to pretend that sports figures are the best representatives of American culture, [...]
PW’s Week Ahead 10.28.11
With a new e-reading device arriving this week on the market, every book you read could have its own network. PW Features Editor Andrew Albanese tells CCC’s Chris Kenneally what he heard when Kobo‘s Matt Welch and Jason Gamblen stopped by the PW offices to show off Kobo’s new tablet, the Kobo Vox. “Kobo’s social [...]
BTB #257: Coker The Barbarian
Ahead of his keynote address this weekend to the annual conference of Novelists, Inc., Smashwords founder Mark Coker tells CCC’s Chris Kenneally who he fears in today’s turbulent publishing times. Hint: It’s not the Big 6. A self-styled “barbarian at the gates,” Coker believes authors now hold the cards and must be up to the [...]
PW’s Week Ahead: 10.21.11
Competition heats up in the e-reader/tablet market as Kobo introduces the determinedly “open” Vox reader, built on the Android 2.3 operating system. “[Kobo] has now made openness part of the deal,” PW’s Features Editor Andrew Albanese notes. “This is a big, big step for people who don’t want to be locked into the Apples or [...]
Best of BTB: Tips For E-Book Success
Later this week, CCC’s Chris Kenneally attends the annual conference of “Novelists, Inc.,” where he joins a distinguished roster of speakers including Angela James, executive editor of Carina Press, the “digital first” imprint from Harlequin. A prolific blogger, James is leading the charge to create a business model for e-books in trade publishing. She spoke [...]
