Apple has changed the rules and wants a 30% cut of books sold through its ipad and iphone. The question is, will Amazon, Google and other places want to share? I’m guessing we’ll hear more news about this soon.
Borders received a financing commitment from GE Capital and investment firms Tennenbaum Capital Partners, LLC, a unit of Stone Tower Capital, LLC and GB Merchant Partners, LLC for $505 million in bankruptcy loans. But Borders already announced the closing of 3 stores in my area, so I think it’s too late here.
ABA, trying to be optimistic about the Borders situation, “believes that the indie bookstore model is well positioned for the future.”
More good news on this subject: “Twenty-five ABA member bookstores opened in 2010, with several filling voids left by the closing of chain stores.”
And even more: “Independent St. Louis booksellers are forming an “alliance” to help them raise awareness of their stores.” And Madison, Wisconsin’s A Room of One’s Own bookstore is getting pledges from customers that they’ll buy 5 more books from their store than last year.
Publishers are also selling books in non-book retailers. They’ve been doing this for decades, but with bookstores closing, they’re selling more than ever.
A wide range of stores better known for their apparel, food and fishing reels have been adding books. The fashion designer Marc Jacobs opened Bookmarc in Manhattan in the fall. Anthropologie has increased the number of titles it carries to 125, up from 25 in 2003. Coldwater Creek, Lowe’s, Bass Pro Shops and even Cracker Barrel are adding new books. Some mass retailers, too, are diversifying — Target, for instance, is moving away from male-centered best sellers and adding more women’s and children’s titles this year.
The best blog I’ve read on how these changes will affect writers and what we can do to survive is this brilliant post from Kristine Kathryn Rusch.
Here’s another brilliant, not-to-be-missed post by Kristine Kathryn Rusch on Modern Writer Survival Skills. She talks about changing times, traditional publishing, non-traditional, and writing itself, including why you should write fast and be a storyteller, and much more.
Google is offering a One Pass payment system “that enables publishers to set the terms for access to their digital content.”
Amazon Encore is publishing original print books. Just four for now, but this is just the beginning.
Barnes&Noble is having financial problems now, too, but they’re trying to make up for it on Pubit!, B&N’s digital publishing platform for independent publishers and authors.”
Since launching four months ago, more than 11,000 independent publishers and authors have joined the PubIt! community of booksellers, adding more than 65,000 new works to Barnes & Noble’s expansive NOOK Bookstore™ of more than two million digital titles. In fact, there are currently 35 PubIt! titles among the Top 200 NOOK Books based on sales, and Barnes & Noble customers have purchased PubIt! works in more than 50 categories to date.
Have you gotten a bad review lately? Don’t worry about it. According to this article in The Stanford Daily, negative publicity may boost sales.
