FutureBook

The European and International Booksellers Federation this week upped it lobbying efforts around the threat posed to its members by Amazon (and Apple) in the way they have developed the e-book market. Read more »

Pottermore picked up the Digital Strategy of the Year award at The Bookseller Industry Awards, beating an incredibly strong shortlist that included Orion's SF Gateway, Nosy Crow, Kobo, Random House, Harlequin, Penguin and Bloomsbury. I thought it was worth reflecting on the award and why Pottermore won it. Read more »

No doubt the big news this week for the digerati, the surprise decision by Tim O'Reilly to 'shutter' the Tools of Change conference and cull the community. Read more »

The BBC reports today that the WorldWideWeb (W3) is 20 years old, a moment that will be marked by the recreation of the first ever web page by Cern. Read more »

The US author Barry Eisler writes very well about self-publishing and what he needlessly refers to as 'legacy' publishing. He is also prepared to debate his points, and does so in good spirit. He recently caused a stir when he gave one of the keynotes at the 21st annual Pike's Peak Writers Convention, which he says led to "a bit of upset here and there" and an apparent walkout. Read more »

Kobo's big set-piece launch of its new upmarket device—the Kobo aura—held last night in London should be remembered as the moment the e-bookseller became a serious player in the e-book business. This statement might surprise some. Read more »

The publishing industry is struggling to find the metaphors that describe the transformation that is taking over the sector. This is one conclusion from Digital Minds, the annual digital conference that acts as the Sunday-prelude to the London Book Fair. Read more »

Last week in The Bookseller we published the first quarterly bestsellers list with publisher supplied e-book data, following the chart we published in January as part of our Review of the Year. Read more »

The acquisition of Goodreads by Amazon serves as a reminder of how bifurcated the book business now is. As bookshops waited for a busy Easter weekend, on twitter and other social networks the commentariat declared 'game over' in the battle for the future reader, after Amazon announced that it had bought the bookish social network late Thursday. Read more »

The Government-commissioned report into library e-lending, led by William Sieghart, has finally released its findings. On the surface it looks like all sides have been listened to, which is a polite way of saying that this is a report that seeks to be all things to all parties. Yet it does have an edge, particularly over the issue of remote lending. Read more »