If electronic books are the future-literary volumes optimized for the Kindle, the Sony Reader, the iPhone-how come two of this fall's hottest books won't be available in digital form anytime soon?
Amazon and Macmillan reached an agreement on e-book pricing, a pact that may serve as a model with other publishing companies. Amazon resumed selling Macmillan titles." />
E-books are cheaper to produce than print volumes, but consumers may not realize that expenses like overhead and royalties are still in effect, publishers say.
Amazon said it will begin offering authors and publishers a bigger cut of book sales on its Kindle e-reader-but with strings attached aimed at keeping prices that consumers pay down." />
Google and two author and publisher groups submitted a modified version of a controversial settlement over digital books, but it appears likely the fight over the agreement will continue." />
FOR decades, even after it was renamed and relocated from its original home at Radcliffe, the Columbia Publishing Course seemed unchanging, a genteel summer tradition in the book business, a white-glove six-week course in which ambitious college graduates were educated in the time-honored basics of book editing, sales, cover design and publicity. Not this summer.
Right now, the electronic-book market finds itself roughly in the same place the market for MP3s was in 1999, the year after the release of the first portable MP3 player.
But that could change in a matter of months if the book industry insists on 1) jacking up the price of e-books and 2) withholding potential best-sellers from the e-book market.
"Publishers are in denial about the economics of digital content,"
Does the book industry want to join the digital flow, the way the TV industry has with Hulu and TV.com? Or by its obstruction does it intend to encourage the establishment of a Bookster?