eBooks

Guest Commentary: Publisher’s decision to limit eBook access is bad news for library patrons

by Lisa Rosenblum on August 6, 2019August 6, 2019 at 9:30 amComment

A recent decision by a book publisher to limit public libraries’ access to eBooks should concern readers and authors everywhere. Macmillan Publishers, one of five major publishers in the United… Read More

Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited, ‘book stuffing,’ and the darker side of being a digital content consumer

by Frank Catalano on June 23, 2018June 23, 2018 at 10:49 am 6 Comments

Convenience. Portability. Access. All are reasons that consumers have embraced digital content. The ability we have to rapidly find an unimaginable variety of reading, viewing and listening material, and easily… Read More

Traditional publishers’ ebook sales drop as indie authors and Amazon take off

by Frank Catalano on May 19, 2018May 19, 2018 at 8:38 am 5 Comments

Ebook sales are dying. Ebooks are insanely popular. If the short definition of cognitive dissonance is holding two contradictory ideas to be true, ebooks are about as dissonant as digital… Read More

Polaroid, vinyl…and paperbacks? Bookstore sales are up for the first time in 8 years

by Monica Nickelsburg on August 19, 2016August 19, 2016 at 1:18 pm 2 Comments

The battle between digital and analog is a David and Goliath match. But peddlers of antiquated products do have a magic slingshot: Nostalgia. It’s a powerful weapon, one that made the… Read More

New features added to Amazon Giveaway, tool for running online promo contests

by Madeline Vuong on March 1, 2016March 1, 2016 at 8:24 am1 Comment

Amazon announced today that Kindle eBooks and items Fulfilled by Amazon can now be used as contest prizes by users of Amazon Giveaway, a free service that helps organizers to run online promotional… Read More

Amazon’s other physical retail test: A mini bookstore for Kindle ebooks

by Todd Bishop on January 25, 2016January 25, 2016 at 8:47 am 3 Comments

It only takes up a couple square feet, a small fraction of the size of Amazon’s first real bookstore in Seattle, but the company has been quietly making another foray into physical retail —… Read More

Paper is back: Why ‘real’ books are on the rebound

by Frank Catalano on January 18, 2015January 18, 2015 at 6:04 pm 59 Comments

All hail paper, the book reading technology resurgent. Eight years after the first Amazon Kindle and five years since the first Apple iPad, lowly pressed wood pulp is on the… Read More

E-book sound effects: Google wants to patent audio ‘trigger points’ for digital reading

by Todd Bishop on August 20, 2013August 20, 2013 at 1:02 pm 3 Comments

Are you ready to add another of the human senses to your reading experience? Google has been working on a way to use “trigger points” in electronic books to… Read More

How to Win the Ebook War

by Jason Merkoski on April 10, 2013April 10, 2013 at 3:41 pm 3 Comments

[Editor’s Note: Former Amazon manager Jason Merkoski, one of the early leaders of the company’s Kindle team, is the author of the new book Burning the Page: The Ebook Revolution and… Read More

Video game vet creates books you can play with, reaches $10K Kickstarter goal in 4 days

by Taylor Soper on March 19, 2013March 19, 2013 at 2:42 pm 6 Comments

It all added up for Joe Booth. Having spent 25 years in the video game industry at places like Microsoft, Electronics Arts and Ubisoft, the England-born veteran had learned the… Read More

Paper trumps tech at national library conference

by Frank Catalano on February 1, 2013October 3, 2014 at 11:25 am1 Comment

I went looking for the digital future of libraries at the American Library Association’s Midwinter Meeting this week. Conveniently, the conference was held in Seattle, near a couple of very… Read More

Why eBooks won’t rule the Earth

by Frank Catalano on September 6, 2012September 25, 2014 at 2:00 pm 30 Comments

The certainty in the headlines is almost palpable. “eBooks Now ‘Dominant Single Format’ in Adult Fiction Sales,” shouted book publishing site GalleyCat. “Kindle ebook sales have overtaken Amazon print sales,”… Read More

Kindle Touch to launch in Europe April 27

by Frank Catalano on March 27, 2012September 25, 2014 at 2:18 pm1 Comment

Amazon’s Kindle Touch will finally make it across the pond to Europe, five months after its U.S. launch — but not the advertising-subsidized version. The BBC is reporting that April… Read More

Amazon adds DRM to ‘DRM-free’ Harry Potter eBooks

by Frank Catalano on March 27, 2012September 25, 2014 at 2:18 pm 4 Comments

Those expecting to unwind with all seven Harry Potter volumes in glorious, DRM-unencumbered pixel are likely in for a disappointment, according to early buyers. An original announcement about the pending digital… Read More

Can ebooks fuel innovation? Startups explore the potential

by Todd Bishop on December 2, 2011December 2, 2011 at 10:04 amComment

A group of startups met up this week in Redmond for the first Ebook Innovation Summit, a small gathering of companies involved in different aspects of the electronic book business… Read More

When eBooks attack, mass paperbacks die

by Frank Catalano on November 27, 2011September 25, 2014 at 2:22 pm 6 Comments

The mass market paperback is dead. It just doesn’t know it yet. Ailing for months, its demise is now all but assured by Amazon’s recent bold announcement. Not the over-analyzed,… Read More

Startup Spotlight: Bluefire looks to spark eBook sales

by John Cook on October 11, 2011October 11, 2011 at 7:30 amComment

More consumers are turning to electronic reading devices. And Seattle’s Bluefire Productions, which emerged from founder Micah Bower’s 10-year-old design and development services company last year, is looking to help… Read More

Michael Hart, inventor of the eBook, dies at age 64

by John Cook on September 8, 2011September 8, 2011 at 8:39 amComment

Tacoma native and electronic book pioneer Michael S. Hart has died at the age of 64. Before Kindle, Nook or iPad entered the lexicon, Hart was tinkering with electronic books.… Read More

Lawsuit claims Apple and publishers colluded on eBook pricing in fear of Amazon.com

by John Cook on August 9, 2011August 9, 2011 at 3:22 pm 7 Comments

A Seattle law firm has filed a class-action lawsuit accusing Apple and five book publishers of engaging in price fixing around sales of electronic books. The suit, filed today in… Read More

Kobo inks $50 million round for electronic reading gadgets, digital bookstore

by John Cook on April 19, 2011April 19, 2011 at 10:59 amComment

Amazon.com’s Kindle may have a leadership position right now in electronic reading devices and digital books. But the market continues to heat up. Today, Toronto-based Kobo is turning a new… Read More