Yesterday we sat down with someone who is starting a new digital venture. As we discussed the potential, the market, the options and much more, it became apparent to us that there are a lot of things that applied to the physical book market, that simply do not apply, or should be questioned in the digital market. Read more »

In a move clearly aimed at the international market KOBO has been acquired by Japanese e-commerce company Rakuten for a reported $315 million in cash. The ebook world todate has been very US driven, but this could change as all the major players now vie for the other markets where they all wish to be number one. Read more »

The Nikkei newspaper’s report that Amazon will launch a Japanese Kindle service within 2011 ends two years of gloomy speculation across an industry nervous about the impact of the global eBook giant. The leaders of Japan’s publishing industry may wish to consider three questions, the answers to which will indicate how their industry will develop over the next ten years. Read more »

One of the clear themes coming through from the Tools of Change conference, Frankfurt, was the notion of "Social Reading" or, at worst, reading online and sharing the experience. There was an inspiring keynote from Bob Stein and presentations from the team behind Valobox, and Justo Hidalgo from 24symbols - both of which were introducing new business models for reading online (both worthy of debate, I think). Read more »

James Daunt’s surprise announcement that Waterstones plan to release their own ereader by spring next year has led to lots of debate on the net about what they’re planning. Responses vary from the wildly enthusiastic to the distinctly sceptical, but what chance does the device (inevitably christened the ‘Wook’ by the twitterati) really stand? Read more »

We’ve this week uncovered Amazon’s secret weapon in the eBook reader land grab. It explains why the new Kindle reader is selling in its droves and why the other eReader manufacturers need to retaliate very quickly.

Code named ‘Operation Sandwich’ it’s a devilishly clever new tactic in the battle for ereader supremacy. Read more »

Steve Emecz runs independent London publishers MX Publishing specialising in NLP and therapy books. He talks us through the huge growth in e-book sales over 2010, what he anticipates for Christmas and into 2011: We are facing the first truly electronic Christmas trading period in the book publishing industry, and looking back on the last twelve months it has been an incredible period of change.

The digital publishing industry in China is, like the rest of the world still in its infancy.Whilst the Chinese government official statistics claim that for the first time, more digitally published products were sold than physical (by value), it's very difficult to see how these statistics have been reached, especially when Xinhua, the sta Read more »