All the news that warrants your attention
Marvel is Shutting Down Its Digital Comics Shop
11 May 2020 (ScreenRant)
Marvel has announced they will be closing the Marvel Digital Comics Shop on June 2nd. Readers will still be able to access already-purchased digital books after that date. After the closure, Marvel’s digital comics will be available to purchase through Comixology.
eBook sales are undergoing a revival in 2020
9 May 2020 (Good E-Reader)
Digital book sales are increasing across the board, due to the viral pandemic. Thousands of physical bookstores have closed all over the world and companies like Amazon are taking weeks to ship out the latest bestseller in hardcover or paperback. Digital book sales can be instantly purchased and they are available via apps, tablet or e-reader.
Colour E-Ink Readers are Here
1 May 2020 (Good E-Reader)
The first wave of color E INK products that are using Kaleido are right around the corner. Pocketbook is going to be releasing the six inch Pocketbook ColorPocketbook Color sometime in June and Onyx Boox is releasing their six inch ColorOnyx Boox offering around the same time.
U.K. Scraps Its 20% VAT On Ebooks
30 April 2020 (Forbes)
The U.K. government’s Treasury has today announced that, starting May 1, it’ll drop its value added tax (VAT) on digital publications. The decision was already planned to take affect in December of this year, but was pushed up seven months in response to the coronavirus pandemic and its negative impact on the publishing industry.
Most men stop reading a book by page 50
28 April 2020 (UK Daily Mail)
… but women are more likely to persevere past page 100.
UK’s Guardian Recommends eBooks.com as an Ethical Alternative to Amazon
27 April 2020 (The Guardian)
“Ebooks.com serves customers around the world and has titles starting at 99p in the UK. It has got the thumbs-up from Ethical Consumer magazine and is the only ebook seller in its top five.”
Humble Bundle’s Covid-19 package raised $6.5 million for coronavirus charities
27 April 2020 (TechSpot)
Unlike other Humble bundles that give a portion of the money raised to developers of the games, 100 percent of the $16.5 million in this instance went to charity.
Kortext providing thousands of electronic textbooks for free
27 April 2020 (Bournemouth Daily Echo)
James Gray, chief executive and founder of Kortext, said; “The scale of the FSTP is truly ground-breaking. Only by pulling together as a sector has the programme been made possible and ensured we are able to support all UK students with an unprecedented amount of content on a single, customisable digital bookshelf for free, thus ensuring they can continue to study at this crucial time of year.”
Cambridge University Press partners with Perlego on online textbooks
24 April 2020 (The Bookseller)
Perlego will host a range of content from the publisher on its platform, which also includes titles from Pearson, Wiley and Cengage.
Penguin Random House India launches ebook store on Amazon Kindle
19 April 2020 (The Hindu)
Publishing group Penguin Random House India on Friday announced the launch of its first exclusive ebook store with Amazon Kindle. Readers will find over 400 bestselling titles available on Amazon India website at discounted prices.
CoreSource data breach: Ingram hack resulted in theft of publishers’ titles
17 April 2020 (The Daily Swig)
Asked when the breach was detected and how many titles were illegally downloaded, a spokesperson told The Daily Swig, “as this is still under investigation, we really aren’t able to disclose anything more than this at the present time”.
UK relaxes copyright licence terms to support educators through COVID19 crisis
17 April 2020 (fe News)
The UK’s copyright licensing agency has temporarily increased the copying limits from 5% to 30%. These changes will last until schools re-open or 31 July at the latest.
BibliU Raises $10 Million to Scale Online Textbooks
17 April 2020 (EdSurge)
The Series A investment was led by Nesta Impact Investments. Guinness Asset Management, clients of wealth management firm Stonehage Fleming and investors associated with impact investment bank ClearlySo also participated. Oxford Sciences Innovation reinvested.
US ebook sales were $75 million in January 2020
7 April 2020 (Good E-Reader)
This was down 6% from 2019 when the format generated $80 million. March’s data will likely surge, due to people practicing social distancing and most bookstores are closed, so ebooks would be the only format many people could easily
Why authors are so angry about the Internet Archive’s Emergency Library
2 Apr 2020 (Vox)
Authors are suffering under the pandemic economy, too. They say the Emergency Library will make things worse.
Australian bookseller Booktopia partners with Kobo for ebooks
1 Apr 2020 (Good EReader)
The partnership, going by the catchy name “Booktopia by Rakuten Kobo”, features an integration of the Booktopia and Kobo ecosystems.
More Ebook Industry News (back to Aug 2017)
