How the Kindle Could Kill Book Publishing

War with Kindle to transform business

(NEWSER) - Book publishers were locked in last-minute talks with Apple ahead of today's unveiling of the tablet, which has been touted as promising to change the publishing industry as radically as the iPod did the music industry. The tablet's model for books, which puts it in direct competition with the Amazon Kindle, moves away from the heavy e-book discounting the Kindle has brought, asking publishers to price books at $12.99 or $14.99, rather than the $9.99 Amazon favors. More»

(NEWSER) - Nicholson Baker wanted to like the Kindle, honest. But when he unwrapped it and began to see what all the fuss was about, he "tussled with a sense of anti-climax," the prolific author writes in the New Yorker. Things never improved. He slams the e-reader for having a "greenish, sickly gray" screen, cruddy images, and limited selection of books. Amazon "is very good at selling things," he writes. "It isn’t so good, to date anyway, at making things." More»

Consumers jilt e-book readers, download titles to smartphones

(NEWSER) - They’ve only been around for a few years, but digital book readers may already be going the way of the Walkman. In increasing numbers, tech savvy bookworms are downloading their favorite titles onto smartphones like the iPhone for a fraction of the cost, BusinessWeek reports. For travelers, “bringing an extra piece of equipment loses some of its value,” said an iPhone convert. More»

Publishers group says it was strong-armed to accept new terms

(NEWSER) - Amazon is playing hardball with a book distributor that refused to give it a bigger share of the pie. The company's Kindle store yanked some 5,000 e-books after Independent Publishers Group, which represents hundreds of independent publishers, refused the online giant's demands. "They decided they didn't like the terms we offered, and we said, 'We're not going to change,' and they removed them," IPG chief Mark Suchomel tells the Chicago Tribune . More»

Even with iPad competition, sales of devices rise

(NEWSER) - Amazon is selling more books as Kindle downloads than as hardcovers, CNET reports . In the past month, the website sold 180 Kindle books for each 100 hardbacks. CEO Jeff Bezos calls the shift "astonishing, when you consider that we've been selling hardcover books for 15 years and Kindle books for 33 months." More»