FutureBook

The news today that eCommerce giant Rakuten is to acquire Kobo Books for $315m lifts Kobo into the big leagues alongside Amazon and Barnes and Noble.

Rakuten are a big Japanese player in eCommerce with a 2010 turnover of over $4bn and they have grown by strategic aquisition in Europe. They have over 10,000 staff worldwide and the inclusion of Kobo in their portfolio should be viewed as excting for the eBook market as it sets up further potential interest from other eCommerce players - both as investors and retailers of eBooks. Read more »

If you had told me even a year ago that we would start to see books with embedded 3D video before Christmas 2011, then even an enthusiast like me would have said you were a few cards short of a deck - but here we are, a kids book with 3D video. Read more »

A quick straw poll on the train in the morning heading into London and in a carriage packed with 60 people there are close to ¾ of them with an electronic device, 10 reading the Metro free paper and five with a book – oh and one bloke with a paper copy of The Times. Before you ebook guys get excited, a quick walk through of what content people have on their iphones/android phones and iPads I spot a dozen people playing Angry Birds, a couple have newspapers but no books. There are fortunately four people with Kindles. Read more »

If you watched the coverage of London Fashion Week yesterday on SKY News, you will have witnessed the tipping point for that industry as an editor from a leading blog was a lead live interview in the studio. The day before we found that reactions to book press releases from bloggers are lightning fast, and can be aggressive too. Read more »

You know that feeling when you see a new innovation that is so blindingly simple (and important) a concept that you kick yourself for not thinking of it. Well, I had that feeling when I came across a new global book rights trading platform aimed at independent publishers.

I had to know more so I tracked down one of the founders, Lisa Buchan who agreed to what turned out to be a fascinating interview.

How did Sparkabook come about? Read more »

We’re seven months into selling eBooks through Kobo and we report back on whether or not new markets have opened up for us. Read more »

It’s an overused phrase, but one that we have used to avoid the growing pains that the new eBook world is creating for royalties. We think we’ve cracked the payment issue on eBook royalties for our authors in a way that is fair to the authors, but doesn’t shackle our growth. Read more »

In what we feel is brilliant timing, Ingram (Lightning Source) have gone live with their shiny new POD facility in Melbourne, Australia, which signals a new boom for ebooks in Australia for British publishers. What on earth has POD got to do with ebooks though? Read more »

After analysing the ebook performance of our authors so far this year, we’re revising our position. 

We got a bit of flack earlier this year for our article about blogs, and I’m sorry but some of you you are going to like this even less. As of this summer, unless an author will have a blog, twitter account and fully fledged eCommerce site, we won’t be considering their manuscript. Why? Read more »

If you are excited about the new Nook, colour and touch screen, then a word of warning. If you happen to be a UK based publisher then you may be in for a shock. Unlike Kindle, Apple, Kobo and others it seems that B&N doesn't want you providing content for their devices? Read more »