FutureBook

A curate's egg was how one delegate described this year's Italian e-book conference IfBookThen - a concatenation of theories, pitches, ideas and essays delivered in front of a largely demure crowd of about 200 Italian publishers and booksellers in a very snowy Milan. Read more »

Barnes & Noble has said that it will not stock, in its stores, books published under any of Amazon's imprints - including importantly those released by Amazon Publishing's East Coast Group -- run by Larry Kirshbaum -- the books from which will go to market under Houghton Mifflin Harcourt's newly named New Harvest imprint. Read more »

Self-publishing star Amanda Hocking has said she turned down a higher advance from Amazon in order to strike her publishing deal with the 'legacy' publisher, St Martin's Press, because she was concerned about the giant internet company's ability to get the printed books into shops. Read more »

As Digital Book World -- the first of the two big post-Christmas US e-book conferences -- opens, last week's education announcement by Apple shows how easy it is now for any of the big digital companies to hijack the publishing conversation. Read more »

Apple has unveilved an author tool as well as a revamped iBooks platform aimed specifically at textbook publishers, authors, teachers and, of course, students. Read more »

I'm pleased to say that we have teamed up with Peter Cox of Litopia and Redhammer fame to broadcast live on the internet a discussion of whatever it is Apple announces at its 'education' event taking place in New York tomorrow. Read more »

I was intrigued to read the following comment on The Bookseller's Facebook page today: "Something has to be done to save the book in paper format. Not keen on the kindle idea but it's like an unstoppable train. Everything will be digital one day unfortunately but I hope not in my lifetime." Read more »

Last week we asked publishing chief executives what their predictions were for 2012. The comments were broadly similar of course: digital would rise as print declines: Amazon would become more dominant but new competitors will rise: new skills must be developed around brand amplification, data management and how to publish on multiple platforms. Read more »

My colleague Philip Stone has put together a top 50 e-book chart based on our weighted bestseller lists, which appear each week on the FutureBook email. Read more »

Deck the halls with holly, let the bells ring out, a national newspaper has finally written an article about how publishers are being innovative and  driving digital change rather than being driven off the road by 'e'. Read more »