e-book

Finally, Harry Potter Is Touching Down on Amazon’s Kindle

Tricia Duryee in Commerce on May 9 at 4:37 pm PT

J.K. Rowling has been one of the big holdouts, refusing to sell Harry Potter in electronic form through booksellers like Amazon or Barnes & Noble. That is apparently about to change.

Apple Fires Back at the Feds, Amazon

Peter Kafka in Media on April 12 at 6:29 pm PT

Apple responds to antitrust charges: “The launch of the iBookstore in 2010 fostered innovation and competition, breaking Amazon’s monopolistic grip on the publishing industry.”

Barnes & Noble Wants to Be Amazing in Bed, With New GlowLight Nook

Lauren Goode in Media on April 12 at 1:45 pm PT

Following disappointing sales of the first Nook Touch, Barnes & Noble is launching a new Nook Touch that combines E-Ink with a glowing screen.

Barnes & Noble Simple Touch with GlowLight

An E-Book Argument: Are Fixed Prices Needed to Preserve Publishing?

John Paczkowski in Media on April 12 at 12:55 pm PT

Alleged collusion aside, the publishing industry’s agency pricing model may actually protect the long-term interests of everyone in the e-book value chain.

U.S. Sues Apple, Publishers Over E-Book Pricing

Chad Bray and Brent Kendall in Media on April 11 at 7:39 am PT

The U.S. filed an antitrust lawsuit Wednesday against Apple Inc. and five of the nation’s largest publishers, alleging they conspired to limit competition for the pricing of e-books.

News Byte

Reports: Apple Could Face Federal E-Book Suit Today

Peter Kafka in Media on April 11 at 4:32 am PT

The Department of Justice may file a suit against Apple today over e-book price-fixing complaints, according to reports from Reuters and Bloomberg. The DOJ has been probing antitrust complaints regarding Apple’s 2010 pacts with book publishers; several of the biggest publishers are preparing to settle those charges by “tearing up” those deals, according to The Wall Street Journal.

News Byte

20 Percent of Americans Say They’re Reading eBooks

Peter Kafka in Media on April 4 at 7:00 pm PT

One in five Americans say they’ve read an e-book in the last year, according to a new poll from the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project. Those numbers come from a late-January survey, they’re up sharply from a December 2011 survey. Pew says the jump coincides with a jump in e-reading devices: Ownership of dedicated e-reader devices like the Kindle and the Nook went from 10 percent in December to 19 percent in January, and ownership of tablets like iPads and Kindle Fires made the same leap.

J.K. Rowling’s Website Starts Selling Harry Potter E-Books

Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg in Media on March 27 at 6:03 am PT

It didn’t take a Hogwarts magician to know this day would eventually come. The bookstore feature of J.K. Rowling’s Pottermore website went live Tuesday, enabling English-language readers to buy the digital editions of all seven Harry Potter novels—and the audiobook editions—from anywhere in the world. Editions in French, Italian, German and Spanish will be the next wave.

Fortune Gives Facebook the Apple Treatment

Peter Kafka in Media on March 1 at 5:40 am PT

Fortune is so proud of its new Mark Zuckerberg story that it’s making it hard to read.

News Byte

Inkling Rolls Out New E-Book Publishing Platform

Peter Kafka in Media on February 14 at 7:00 am PT

E-book maker Inkling is introducing new software it says will make it much easier to produce sophisticated textbooks and other digital tomes. Inkling is positioning its Habitat software as a more professional option for book publishers than Apple’s new iBook Author. Until now, the start-up’s books have been created with the iPad in mind, but Inkling says an HTML5 option will allow publishers to work on multiple devices.