The Google Publisher Program allowed independent authors and small presses to sell ebooks in the Google Play bookstore. When the program was active it become a cesspool of piracy. Fake authors would sell ebooks they never wrote and publishing companies would rename all of the main characters in Harry Potter or 50 Shades of Grey and…
Google Play Books – Reviewed
What more could a self-published author want? The world’s largest search engine combined with the world’s largest e-bookstore. Google Play Books is a cross-platform application which allows users to both download and upload books in PDF and ePub formats. Unlike Amazon’s Kindle and Apple’s iBooks, Google Play Books is an open publishing and sales platform…
Google, Publishers Settle Lawsuit over Book Scanning | PW
Google, Publishers Settle Lawsuit over Book Scanning | PW It’s over—at least for publishers. The Association of American Publishers and Google today announced they have settled their long-running litigation over Google’s library book scanning. According to a statement from the AAP, Google is said to “acknowledge the rights and interests of copyright-holders,” and U.S. publishers…
The Future of Publishing 2020: Disruption
I’ve been preparing these articles for a while on The Future of Publishing 2020. One thing I have learned is that predicting the future based on current practices and trends is a precarious business. The publishing industry–as a community and business–is undergoing an utter sea change in methodology and ideology not seen since Gutenberg’s first…
Chin Schedules Google Book Settlement Case For 2012 Trial
Image via CrunchBase The Google Book Settlement case looks set to move to trial in July 2012 after Judge Denny Chin today set a timeline for the plaintiffs to reach final submission and rebuttal. What was most significant from today’s status conference was the view from lawyers for the AAP (Association of American Publishers) and…
To Google+ or Not To Google+ – The Next Step in Networking
Any of you following me on my Facebook profile will know that I have been experimenting with Google+ the past week or two. Like all new social networks, it takes time to drill out the bugs and make any new service smooth and efficient. Google+ has already achieved that with their basic interface and the…
Google and Philadelphia, Here I Come!
Google today announced the launch of the first branded Google ereader to promote and integrate with their own online bookstore. Developed by iriver, the Story HD will sell exclusively to begin through Target stores in the USA at $140. The device looks alarmingly like a first, or at best, second generation Kindle. I have not…
Introducing the North American Big Six – The Shatzkin Files
Introducing the North American Big Six – The Shatzkin Files: “But from the perspective of publishers or booksellers outside the United States, there is a new North American Big Six. These are the companies that have direct relationships with publishers — all of them that matter in the US (with one noteworthy exception) and, increasingly,…
Digital Book World Asks What We Know (and Don’t Know) About Google Editions
Eric Freese is a Solutions Architect with Aptara, which provides digital publishing solutions, and today he has written a piece for Digital Book World called, Google Editions: What We Know (and Don’t Know). The Google Editions ‘cloud bookstore’ will launch this summer and Freese looks at how Google Editions will work for authors, publishers and the…
Global Giants Bring Different Strategies to Publishing World: Book Industry Conference 2010
There is some fascinating analysis by Benedict Evans of media research company Enders Analysis presented at this week’s Booksellers Association Book Industry Conference in London. Essentially, Evans argues global companies like Apple, Google and Amazon are not book publishers and the book industry must understand clearly the approaches and strategies of these companies. Evans describes…
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