Saturday, August 7, 2010

News of the Week

It seems like the momentum is suddenly picking up on the ebook market and changes within the industry.  Between Amazon releasing a cheap ass Kindle and opening up a UK Kindle Store, they are cementing themselves  in the foreground of the ebook market.on an international level.  They'll also encourage sales of Kindles and ebooks in Europe.  People are only really beginning to notice ebooks here in Ireland but that's mostly because nobody has provided cheap ereaders.  My Sony ereader was expensive and it can't hold too many books.  I cannot wait to get me aKindle.  The only way Amazon are really going wrong (as far as I can see) is not expanding into a variety of file types.  If they took the lead from Smashwords and offered ebooks with a choice of file type, they might open up their customer base even further.

Smashwords announced a new distribution deal this week.  This time with Diesel ebooks.  They're also  reporting record traffic, customers and sales.  Things can be a little slow over there but they are constantly working to improve and expand.  The next shipment to the Diesel ebook store is on the 9th of August but some books have already been shipped.

Interesting news - Dorechester Publishing have announced their decision to cut out mass production of print copies and concentrate on ebooks instead.  They will be using a POD service when necessary.  They aren't the only company who will be forced to go down this route because of poor sales.  To me, POD makes a hell of a lot more sense than mass production anyway.  We all have to adjust to change, Dorchester's adaptability may keep them afloat.

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