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  • No I said no I will No: Trieste-Zürich-Paris, 1914-1921; Cupertino, 2010

    No I said no I will No: Trieste-Zürich-Paris, 1914-1921; Cupertino, 2010

    By Tom Tivnan

    Managing editor at The Bookseller

    I am beginning to think that Steve Jobs and the gang at Apple rather than being humourless super-secret corporatistas are arch-ironists. How else to explain the news that Apple has finally granted an app version of Ulysses Seen, a webcomic adaption of James Joyce's Ulysses, after it forced the creators, Rob Berry and Josh Levitas, to cut out any nudity? Read more

  • Does DRM Mean Google Have Already Won The Ebook War?

    By Tom Williams

    Agent at The Williams Agency

    There has been so much excitement about the iPad as an ereading device that it is easy to forget what it is really good at: the internet. And this could be a problem for the book trade because it may just hand the keys to the digital books future to Google. Read more

  • Machines, Metaphors and Meals

    Machines, Metaphors and Meals

    By

     Sander Knol is Managing Director of Amsterdam-based publisher Meulenhoff Boekerij. The iPad is expected to go on sale in the Netherlands in July. He bought his iPad in New York and has reviewed it here for Futurebook.I looked at my iPad on the way to JFK. The driver saw it in my hand and said: ‘Hey, that’s a great book!’ A good start, I reckoned, but was he right: is an iPad indeed a good book? Read more

  • Facing the Author

    By Nick Harkaway

    Other at self

    People keep talking about new models for the publishing business, but it's rare that I hear them actually articulate one.Briefly, then, on the back of what would once have been a packet of cigarettes, but in this day and age is probably a stack of index cards in the style of 43 Folders' Hipster PDA...Does the emerging digital market create a space for a publishing company which thinks of authors as clients or customers rather than as the basic commodity? Read more

  • The "revolution is on, baby"

    The "revolution is on, baby"

    By Philip Jones

    Editor at The Bookseller

    So quoth US crime writer Joe Konrath in a blog in response to a Publishers Weekly article that suggested the reason he had signed on for the AmazonEncore program was because he had run out of real publishing options. Read more

  • Amazon as publisher

    Amazon as publisher

    By

    Amidst all the news about Apple's iPad and its impressive debut, people have been wondering how Amazon will react. Most eyes have turned to news of a Kindle III or at least some kind of refresh in the coming month, but I think we saw one of those reactions this week when AmazonEncore announced 10 fall titles (click here for announcement) including JA Konrath's, Shaken. Read more

  • “Life is meaningless”

    “Life is meaningless”

    By P COX

    Agent at

    “Life is meaningless,” said Ah Wei, his fingernails stained black with the dust from the hundreds of mobile phones he has burnished over the course of a 12-hour overnight shift. “Everyday, I repeat the same thing I did yesterday. We get yelled at all the time. It’s very tough around here.” Read more

  • Recasting the discussion

    By Nick Harkaway

    Other at self

    Here's another way to look at the situation:Book sales are weak. They were weak before ever the Kindle and its rivals came on the scene. Books are in competition with an increasingly sophisticated cable and satellite TV system, games consoles, and the web. Leisure time is precious and books are not the only way to spend it. The issue is not whether ebooks are a danger to the industry. The issue is whether even the power of digital is sufficient to reverse the shrinking of the book's share of people's time.  Read more

  • War! War! WAR!

    By Nick Harkaway

    Other at self

    Cry Havoc, and let slip the dogs of war!Get me Brian Blessed and a double helping of Russell Crowe!  Read more

  • An e-book pricing conspiracy tale

    An e-book pricing conspiracy tale

    By Philip Jones

    Editor at The Bookseller

    Is Amazon about to strike back in the battle over e-book pricing? An online article published by a Kindle enthusiast berating Penguin for its Kindle prices suggests that the smooth transition to the agency model may be about to hit a wrinkle. Read more

  • The Judas Pad

    The Judas Pad

    By P COX

    Agent at

    There are few pleasures quite as onanistically self-validating as basking in the smug glow of hindsight, so please indulge me for a few moments while I reflect on the twelve tumultuous months that have now passed since Apple's messianic launch of what many at the time were optimistically terming the "Jesus pad". In hindsight, "Judas pad" might have been more appropriate.  But - how were we to know back then? Read more

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