Well it’s our last day here at the office until January so to celebrate, as well as having Ballerina and The Memory of Trees at half-price on our website, we have also reduced the price of Gabriel’s Gate on Kindle to €2.60 + VAT…
A very Merry Christmas to you all! (“,) – The Book Republic Team.
Don’t Tell Me I Can’t is now available to buy at the Amazon Kindle store at the great price of $5.99 + VAT.
Born without arms or legs due to Thalidomide, life could have turned out very differently. From growing up in a working class family during the Troubles of Northern Ireland, to the USA and back again, this story is of one woman’s determination to live life to the full.
Through support of family and friends, as well as sheer determination Leigh overcame prejudices, lived through the Troubles in Northern Ireland, escaped life with an alcoholic husband while raising two babies, only to find love again.
This is not the story of a “victim” but instead one of a woman who has learned and grown through the experiences life has thrown her way, has never let anyone steal her dreams and is still an activist working for dignity and respect for all people with disabilities.
Have a browse through our new ‘eBooks‘ page on The Book Republic Blog. Many of our titles are priced at €2.99 and under to celebrate the Christmas period…
On a dreary day like this, I would recommend reading a book that takes place in a sunnier part of the world…
For a limited time only, The L.A. Commandments – Gillian Duffy is only $2.99 + VAT at the Amazon Kindle store.
Enjoy!
The L.A. Commandments – Gillian Duffy
Joanne Kavanagh and best friend Suzie pack their bags and swap dreary, depressing Dublin for the cool Californian coast. Both are determined to start a new life in the land of opportunity, leaving behind the recession and their complicated families.
They make a pact at the airport to stick religiously to the ‘LA Commandments’, a list of ten ‘Thou Shalt Nots’ for their new life in LA, including ‘Thou Shall Not Fall in Love,’ but when Jo befriends sexy, shy musician Marc, and Suzie falls for womanizing bar-man Chris, not only are the commandments at risk of being broken, but also the girls’ hearts…
With all California has to offer —sunshine, shopping, killer nightlife, and drop-dead-gorgeous men, will the girls stay faithful to the LA Commandments?
CBS Corp.’s Simon & Schuster will distribute in paperback format eight of Mr. Locke’s thrillers, which feature a former CIA assassin named Donovan Creed. Mr. Locke, through his John Locke Books imprint, will publish the books and Simon & Schuster will handle sales and distribution, including returns.
Mr. Locke, a Louisville businessman who put out his first book in 2009, was the first self-published writer to sell 1 million digital books on Amazon.com Inc. Still, he decided to enter the paperback field to capture readers who haven’t yet embraced digital books.
“These are people who wouldn’t have the opportunity to find me otherwise,” said Mr. Locke.
The author noted that the agreement covers titles that he has previously written, and won’t cannibalize his digital sales.
. . . .
“The e-book world has created an opportunity in self-publishing that simply didn’t exist 18 months ago,” said Arthur Klebanoff, chief executive of New York-based RosettaBooks LLC, a digital publisher house. “But one of the things not easily understood is that for every John Locke, there are probably 5,000 authors trying and falling short. This level of success is like hitting the lottery.”
Jane Dystel, Mr. Locke’s New York literary agent, said that she was approached by Simon & Schuster and that the two then came to terms on a distribution deal, which will begin in February 2012.
It used to be like clockwork in the book business: first the hardcover edition was released, then, about one year later, the paperback.
But in an industry that has been upended by the growth of e-books, publishers are moving against convention by pushing paperbacks into publication earlier than usual, sometimes less than six months after they appeared in hardcover.
This week included the trade paperback release of “Swamplandia!,” a debut novel by Karen Russell, five months after it was first published in hardcover in February.
“The Tiger’s Wife,” the much-praised literary novel by Téa Obreht, which came out in hardcover to rave reviews in March, will be followed by the paperback in October, seven months later.
Nonfiction releases have been accelerated as well. “Those Guys Have All the Fun,” an inside account of ESPN by James Andrew Miller and Tom Shales, has barely been in bookstores two months, having arrived on May 24. Its paperback edition is already scheduled for Dec. 1.
Publishers say they have a new sense of urgency with the paperback, since the big, simultaneous release of hardcover and electronic editions now garners a book the bulk of the attention it is likely to receive, leaving the paperback relatively far behind. They may also be taking their cues from Hollywood, where movie studios have trimmed marketing costs by steadily closing the gap between the theatrical release of films and their arrival on DVD. Read more>>>
MADRID: The history of books is like a long novel. It’s a legendary story that begins with storytellers who then gave way to proto-writing, clay tablets and codices and, finally to printed books — thanks to Gutenberg and the invention of movable type which started the publishing industry. Some characters are critical to a specific chapter of this novel, but then seem to disappear for good. Some others linger longer, adapting to the changing environment that evolving culture, technology and society bring to the table.
We are now in a new and exciting passage, a key one, where the advent of digital technologies is allowing readers to have access to culture and information in a way even visionaries like Jorge Luis Borges or Vannevar Bush could never have imagined. Along with the excitement and the opportunities, though, a non-trivial set of challenges is causing lots of discussion, concern and even fear. Is the book industry in jeopardy?
Piracy is growing in the e-book industry. While not at the levels of music or movies yet, it is said to have reached 35% of published books. This is mainly related to the lower prices of the e-reader devices, the multi-million sales of iPad, new tables and smartphones…all gadgets that can be used to read short and long documents and books. People want to consume content in digital form and they either cannot find it (for years, many books have not been digitized because of digital rights issues, or because of marketing-led blockage) or don’t want to pay a price they see as being nonsense.
But the publishing industry should look at their cultural and entertainment industry counterparts to understand that some decisions should not be repeated. Trying to avoid piracy by adding more and more constraints to the books via DRM technologies only encourages pirates, who see cracking DRM as both an intellectual challenge and a duel against “the enemy.” My take has always been that pirates are fans. They love music, or movies, or books, but they just will not allow “the industry” to lead the way they consume that content if they feel what is offered to them is inherently unfair.
I truly believe the answer to piracy is engagement. Tomas Boezeman made it clear in his post at FutureBook entitled “Piracy is good”, that he advocates for an “understanding-then-reacting” position. Spotify, the European music-streaming service that has just come to the United States, has proved from a user’s standpoint that it is possible to engage music lovers and decrease piracy by offering something easier to use. Instead of taking the burden of finding a good copy of this book in several peer-to-peer systems or cyberlockers, a service offering “one-click read” options to readers would entice many of them willing to pay a subscription fee. The thinking at 24symbols is exactly that: Why pirate a book when you can read it with just one click? Read more >>>
Goodereader.com ran a poll in December 2010 and January 2011 on what brand of e-reader proved to be the most popular.
Barnes and Noble came in first place with 167 of the total vote cast. The big sellers during the poll was the new Barnes and Noble Nook Colour e-reader and the Barnes and Noble Nook WIFI. The Nook Color is not only a tremendous tablet for your money but is one of the only companies in the world that offer full color kids books, textbooks, newspapers, magazines, and all of the latest bestsellers.
Amazon came in second place due to the success of marketing their Kindle line of e-readers online and in a retail setting.
Kobo came in third place, and the firm remains very successful in other markets besides the USA. Kobo does well in Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, where retail accessibility for other e-readers is virtually nonexistent. The main e-Reader people seem to have is the Kobo Wireless which allows you to tap into 1.3 million ebooks that Kobo has in its library.
Pandigital came in fourth place but it is the only company in the top 5 that does not have its own ebook store. The company makes money only selling its Novel line of Tablets thinly veiled as e-readers. The most popular Pandigital e-Readers is the Pandigital Novel and Pandigital Novel 9 inch.
Rounding off the top five is Sony. Most of Sony’s success came from the two of the three new e-readers launched in 2010 the PRS-650 and the PRS-350. Sony is also big time into retail settings in non-USA markets. Although it does very brisk sales in America it is the international division that reports a large number of sales. In late 2010 Sony entered the notoriously fickle Japanese market for the second time and made many new local partnerships for magazines, ebooks, and newspapers. This also contributed to the global supply problems we reported on recently.
source
SITTING at a table in a Barnes & Noble in St. Petersburg, Fla., T. J. Waters was signing copies of his book “Hyperformance” when a fan standing in line with the eBook version walked up and said, “It’s too bad you can’t sign my Kindle.”
Mr. Waters, a senior consultant for United States Special Operations Command Headquarters, suddenly found himself wondering, “How come the tech world can put a man on the moon and I can’t sign an eBook?” Read more>>>
source (via @LPOBryan)
eBooks hit a major milestone in February. According to Association of American Publishers (AAP) sales figures, eBooks ranked as the top format “among all categories of trade publishing” that month.
eBook sales totaled $90.3 million for the month, expanding 202 percent compared to the same period last year. Below, we’ve embedded the full release.
Here’s more from the AAP: “This one-month surge is primarily attributed to a high level of strong post-holiday e-Book buying, or ‘loading,’ by consumers who received e-Reader devices as gifts. Experts note that the expanded selection of e-Readers introduced for the holidays and the broader availability of titles are factors.” Read more>>>
