publish

So Apple was conniving with the nation's big book publishers? At first blush, this probably sounded like the oddest coupling since Felix took up residence with Oscar. But strange bedfellows notwithstanding, that's the story out of Washington, where word is that the two sides colluded on a scheme to raise the price of electronic books.

Now it's payback time and book lovers -- e-book buyers, in particular -- ought to be cheering on the trustbusters.

Far be it for me to root for anything the government does, but in this instance I'll make a big exception. … Read more

The U.S. Justice Department plans to sue Apple and five U.S. publishers for alleged price-fixing on e-books, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Several of the parties expected to be named as defendants have already begun discussions with regulators to head off an expensive antitrust court battle, the newspaper reported, citing sources familiar with the matter. Such a settlement would likely have a ripple effect for the industry, however not every publisher is engaged in the settlement discussions, they cautioned.

Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The publishers expected to be named in the … Read more

Well, I'm bummed. I paid $75 for this product just a few months ago. But I needed it at the time, and it was worth it.

That makes this deal all the more un-pass-up-able.

Today only, PricePlunge has Serif PagePlus X5 for $14.99, plus $1.99 for shipping. Yep, it's an actual boxed copy, not a download. How quaint!

Update: Sold out! Rats. That went really fast. The closest I can find elsewhere is $42.99 shipped at Amazon. Viewed in a vacuum, that's still a great deal. (But not as great as $15, I admit.)… Read more

Links from Thursday's episode of Loaded:

Hard ball by Amazon or simply part of the normal warp and woof of business? Probably a bit of both.

The Independent Publishers Group says Amazon has decided not to renew an agreement to resell electronic titles offered by the book distributor's client publishers in an apparent dispute over wholesale discounts on books. About 5,000 Kindle titles will be affected, though the print editions of the books remain available for sale on Amazon.

The group's president, Mark Suchomel, said in an interview that Amazon "wanted better margins" suggesting this was part of a pressure campaign … Read more

Talk about fast to market.

In the wake of "Linsanity," the worldwide hype that's blown up over the last couple of weeks surrounding New York Knicks sensation Jeremy Lin, there are already at least seven books, all electronic, about basketball's instant star.

From biography to poetry to trivia to Sun Tzu Art of War-type advice, the books run the genre gamut. And all have one thing in common: they were written, edited, and published at breakneck speeds.

According to Digital Book World, one the titles, "Linsanity: The Improbable Rise of Jeremy Lin," by Alan Goldsher, was turned around in just 72 hours. … Read more

With the boom in e-readers, self-publishing has become big business, and Author Solutions, one of the largest self-publishers in the U.S., has entered the DIY e-book market in a big way with Booktango.

Whether Booktango should be called an "e-book generating app" or "self-publishing platform" is hard to say, but it basically provides a free and simple way to upload your manuscript, edit it for proper formatting, then automatically serve it up to various e-bookstores, including Kindle, Nook, Kobo, and iBooks.

On the surface, Booktango, which bears the "beta" tag, looks fairly slick … Read more

The format of today's episode is a little different, as we discuss all the products to come out of Apple's Education Event at the Guggenheim Museum here in New York, along with Bridget Carey who reports from the field on iBooks 2, iBooks Author, and the revamped iTunes U platform.

Even after the press conference is over, we're still left with questions about hardware deployment and format compatibility, so CNET's David Carnoy joins us as well to give his take on the e-publishing industry and the challenges Apple will face alongside district budget cuts and existing … Read more

Amazon's "Kindle Owners' Lending Library" has gotten off to a smashing start, the e-retail giant announced today.

The company said that Kindle owners borrowed 295,000 Kindle Direct Publishing Select titles last month alone. Amazon had $500,000 in its December fund to compensate authors for the free rentals, and said that the writers earned $1.70 per borrow. Amazon said that authors who made their books available to borrow saw purchases grow, as well.

"KDP Select appears to be earning authors more money in two ways," Russ Grandinetti, Vice President of Kindle Content, said … Read more