Archive for the ‘uk’ tag
Waterstones to sell Kindle ereaders no comments
Waterstones has announced an agreement with Amazon to sell the Kindle family of ereaders in its stores. The UK bookseller will also create digital reading sections in its stores and offer free Wi-Fi access. Kindle books will also be available through the Waterstones website and in-store.
The exact date on which the Kindle ereaders will land on Waterstones shelves has not yet been announced, but the press release from Waterstones does say that further details will be forthcoming this fall.
This will not be welcome news for Barnes & Noble, which is expected to make its Nook line of ereaders available internationally before long.
Waterstones released the video below in which James Daunt, managing director of the high street bookstore chain, comments on the agreement with Amazon and the company’s planned digital reading initiatives.
(via Financial Times)
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CourseSmart expands presence in Europe and UK no comments
CourseSmart has launched its eCommerce platform in Europe and the UK, enabling students there to access their digital textbooks via any web-enabled device.
Following the international expansion plans first announced in May 2011, CourseSmart launched its free Online Sampling Platform, which enables faculty in the UK and Europe to instantly preview and select eTextbook titles for use in specific courses. The eCommerce platform, which is now live, will provide all of the functions of traditional textbooks, enhanced by today’s technologies, including:
- Anytime, anywhere access to materials via CourseSmart.com, CourseSmart UK or through various mobile devices and tablets;
- Search function for topics within a single book or across an entire eTextbook stack;
- Highlighting and note-taking capabilities within the eTextbook, which can be easily recalled or searched;
- Page fidelity and preservation, mirroring the print edition’s page numbers, full text, diagrams, illustrations and charts;
- Ability to cut and paste as well as email sections, notes and highlighted text; and
- Accessible titles for students and instructors with print-related disabilities
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Kindle Touch ereaders available in UK 7 days early no comments
Amazon UK says the Kindle Touch and Kindle Touch 3G ereaders will be available in the UK tomorrow, seven days earlier than originally expected.
Update: Today Amazon also started shipping the Kindle Touch 3G to international customers who ordered it from Amazon.com.
Amazon has begun shipping out the Kindle Touch to customers who pre-ordered and the ereaders will be available in stores, including John Lewis, Dixons, Argos, Carphone Warehouse, Currys, PC World, Staples and Tesco from tomorrow. The Kindle Touch Wi-Fi is priced at £109 and the 3G version is £169.
I’ve really come to like using my own Kindle Touch ereader and the most recent update has made it even better by adding the previously missing landscape mode and other new features like the nifty word translator. It wasn’t exactly love at first sight – I never became really comfortable holding and using the KT one-handed, something that is important to me, until I got a good cover for it. Now, in combination with the cover, it is one of the most usable ereaders I’ve had.
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Sony opens Reader Store in UK no comments
Sony has finally opened a UK branch of its Reader Store. Previously the Sony website directed its ereader users in the UK to Waterstones, WHSmith and Mills & Boon to purchase contemporary ebooks or Feedbooks, Gutenberg and ManyBooks for public domain and other free titles.
The ebooks at the Sony Reader Store UK are, of course, in ePub format with Adobe DRM. The free Reader desktop app will need to be downloaded and installed before downloading ebooks purchased at the Reader Store, unless one is using the Reader Wi-Fi (PRS-T1) or the Reader for Tablet app on one of the Sony tablets. The desktop app will enable sideloading of purchased ebooks onto your Sony ereader or other brands of ereader that are compatible with ePub and Adobe DRM.
(via International Business Times)
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WHSmith to sell Kobo eReaders in UK no comments
Kobo announced today that WHSmith will begin selling the Kobo ereaders at its over 750 retail locations across the UK beginning Oct 17. This follows news from Kobo a few days ago that the Kobo ereaders would be sold in France by Fnac, France’s largest book retailer.
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Google eBooks now available in UK no comments
The Google eBookstore has just opened its virtual doors to customers in the UK. Readers in the UK can now purchase Google eBooks and read them on any device that is compatible with Adobe Digital Editions. As in the US, brick and mortar bookstores will also be able to sell Google eBooks — Blackwell’s will be one of the Google eBookstore’s affiliate partners.
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Agency Model Coming to UK no comments
Since the UK Kindle Store
All of that could be coming to an end very soon if the publishers get their way, and they most likely will. The Bookseller reports that Hachette UK, which is the biggest UK publisher, will impose the agency model there from this Monday, September 20.
Under the agency model the publisher sets the price rather than the reseller. It remains to be seen how Amazon will react to this. My guess is that there will not be a prolonged dispute with Hachette as there was a couple of years ago in the UK, and more recently with Macmillan here in the US.
Update 9/20/2010: The agency pricing model is not being greeted with open arms in the UK. The Bookseller reports today that Waterstone’s, WH Smith, Tesco and The Book Depository have all removed Hachette ebooks from their virtual shelves. Amazon continues to sell Hachette ebooks, but appears to be still setting the prices themselves.
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Amazon DLP Comes to UK no comments
Amazon announced today that publishers and authors can now use the Kindle Digital Text Platform to upload an make their books available in the UK Kindle Store. From the press release:
"Publishers and authors can now take advantage of the Kindle Digital Text Platform and make their books available to the millions of customers that visit Amazon.co.uk," said Greg Greeley, Amazon Vice President, European Retail. "Sales of Kindle books in the US continue to rise and we are now selling more Kindle books than hardcovers. We expect to see a similar pattern in the UK with publishers and authors benefitting from greatly increased sales as a result of adding their titles to the new Kindle Store via the Kindle Digital Text Platform."
Amazon recently made improvements to the Digital Text Platform such as a more intuitive ‘Bookshelf’ feature and a simplified process for publishing. Additionally, publishers and authors can upload and make available their books in English, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese and Italian. They are also able to set the digital list price for their titles on Amazon.co.uk in pound sterling.
Publishers that hold publishing rights for the UK and related territories will earn a 35 per cent royalty for sales made on Amazon.co.uk. For sales made in the US via Amazon.com, publishers can take advantage of a 70 per cent royalty option. In the future, Amazon intends to make the 70 per cent royalty option available for UK sales as well.
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Amazon’s UK eBook Pricing Lower than Competition no comments
The Register is reporting that Amazon’s ebook pricing is lower than that of other sellers in the UK. A sample of 36 books that the Register compared was around 30 percent less than the same ebooks at Waterstones, and almost 25 percent cheaper than WH Smith. The ebooks at Waterstones were actually more expensive than the paper copies.
In the US Amazon offered lower prices on ebooks until the agency model, which lets publishers set the prices of their ebooks, took effect. For titles coming from publishers who have not adopted the agency model (Random House, of course, being the largest of these) prices are still usually lower at the Kindle Store.
