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Amazon is opening a Manhattan bookstore this spring
Amazon is opening a brick-and-mortar bookstore in the middle of Manhattan sometime this spring, the company told the WSJ in an email. That confirms a rumor from last summer that it would launch a New York City location, though the retail giant is opening it sooner than expected and in a different spot. Rather than being at the upcoming Hudson Yards development, projected to open in late 2018, it'll be located at Time Warner Center in Midtown at the edge of Central Park.
Amazon's bookstores charge more if you're not a Prime member
If it wasn't clear already, Amazon really wants you to sign up for Prime. As GeekWire reports, the company has adopted a unique pricing model inside its physical bookstores: one sticker price for Prime members, another for regular customers. Subscribers get the same amount shown on Amazon's website, while everyone else has to pay the normal (usually higher) list price. The unusual system has been in place since August, according to one store clerk, but this is the first we've heard of it. The message from Jeff Bezos is simple: sign up for Prime if you want the true Amazon experience.
Amazon to open bookstores in Chicago and Portland
For an independent bookstore, few threats are bigger than Amazon. With its e-book store and brutally competitive print book prices, it can be hard for a family-run business to compete. Well, it's only going to get tougher now that Amazon is expanding its footprint of physical stores. The company has confirmed it'll be setting up shop in Chicago and Portland -- these locations will be joining Seattle, which opened in November, New York and San Diego. The details of each store is under wraps, but it's safe to assume they'll be packed with Kindles and Kindle Fire tablets.
Amazon may open its first East Coast bookstore in NYC
Given how Amazon has done its best to put the brick-and-mortar bookstore out of business, it's still odd to see the company building retail locations of its own. But CEO Jeff Bezos said the company would keep doing it after opening a store in Seattle and announcing plans for one in San Diego, and now we're hearing rumors about the location for the next store. The New York Post says that Amazon will soon be going toe-to-toe with the many wonderful booksellers that can be found around NYC.
E-book sales in the UK decline for the first time
There's something to be said about a printed book. It's easy to read outdoors, you can lend it to a friend and, unlike a top-end Kindle, it doesn't spell disaster if you lose it. E-readers have their place, but today The Publishers Association (PA) has confirmed that Brits still love holding paper between their fingers. In the UK, printed book sales rose from £2.75 billion in 2014 to £2.76 billion in 2015 -- the first increase in four years. Digital book sales, meanwhile, dropped from £563 million to £554 million over the same period. It's the first drop in e-book sales the PA has ever recorded.
Amazon's retail plans could include a lot more than books
Amazon is taking steps to make its brick-and-mortar dreams come true, according to Recode. Its sources confirm that the e-retailer aims to open not just more book shops, but also other types of retail stores in the future. They also echo The New York Times' revelation that the company has no immediate plans to open as many as 400 bookstores, "but they could not rule out that eventual outcome." If you recall, a shopping mall CEO claimed that Amazon is planning to launch 300 to 400 physical book shops. That same CEO issued a carefully crafted follow-up statement clarifying that his words were "not intended to represent [the company's] plans."
NYT: Amazon plans to open more brick-and-mortar bookstores
Amazon's physical bookstore in Seattle might not be its first and last. According to The New York Times, the e-retailer is planning to open more brick-and-mortar bookstores in the future. Sandeep Mathrani, the chief executive of a mall operator, claimed during an earnings call (and before NYT published its scoop) that Amazon is looking to open as many as 400 outlets. That would put the company in direct competition with chains like Barnes & Noble that operates over 600 stores. NYT's source said, however, that the online retailer's plans are much more modest than that.
Amazon opens first physical bookstore in Seattle
It may feel odd associating Amazon with a brick-and-mortar store, but you'll get used to it. The online marketplace will open its first physical outlet at University Village, an open-air shopping center in Seattle, on Tuesday. It won't be selling everything under the sun like its website, though: it's a true-blue bookstore -- though it will carry Kindle e-readers -- just like the thousands of bookstores that shuttered in the past due to the rise in e-book sales. One difference is that most goods inside Amazon Books will be displayed face-out instead of stacked with their spines in view. Also, the company will take advantage of the data it's collected for the past two decades to stock books that have the potential to sell.
Bookindy Chrome extension lists local options for books on Amazon
There's no question that Amazon is hurting independent bookstores. It's hard to compete with the convenience of quick shipping. If you live in the UK, though, a Chrome extension uses the online retailer's listings to give you a local option during the hunt for a new book. The add-on is called Bookindy and leverages info on independent retailers from locally-focused site Hive. Not only does it display the spot with the best price, but how far you'll have to travel in order to pick up the title in person, too. "I wanted to build something that doesn't compete head-on with the Amazon machine, but embraces it, augments it and nudges you towards the local option to buy," explains Bookindy's creator Will Cookson. Unfortunately, it's only useful in the UK, so here's to hoping another creative soul devises a similar plug-in for other locales.
Oyster hopes you'll buy the books its subscription doesn't cover
Oyster's all-you-can-read subscription service includes a lot of books, but it doesn't cover everything that piques your curiosity. In many cases, you still have to buy those titles that slip through the cracks. The company may have a way to cover all the bases, though. It just launched a store that offers books from all five major publishers (Hachette, HarperCollins, Macmillan, Penguin Random House and Simon & Schuster) plus "thousands" more, so you shouldn't have to head elsewhere to get that hot new novel. It's also useful to safeguard the titles you want to keep. You can buy a permanent copy of that Harry Potter collection if you're tired of subscribing, for example. It's too soon to say how well this two-pronged strategy will work for Oyster, but we wouldn't mind seeing it elsewhere -- wouldn't it be nice to buy movies from Netflix when they're not available in your plan?
Amazon offers physical bookstores a cut of Kindle e-book sales, and just enough rope
Just as Kobo has cozied up to physical booksellers, so too does Amazon have a plan to smother them in e-ink kisses. Under the company's new "Amazon Source" program, any independent bookstore that sells a Kindle tablet or e-reader will be rewarded with ten percent of future book purchases made on that device. This incentive will be in addition to the margin they'll make on re-selling the hardware in the first place, although this margin will be less than that given to retailers who choose to stay out of the Source program. In terms of hard cash, the combined total might actually be worth something to struggling stores, depending on how many units they're able to sell, and it's surely designed to entice them away from Kobo. That said, we're still inclined to wonder whether this is a supremely clever Trojan Horse. A bookseller will only get a cut on digital e-book sales made within two years of the device being purchased -- just enough time for a Kindle customer to get hooked on speedy electronic transactions, and for the store to be turned into a Taco Bell.
Google Play Books now available in Mexico
Despite going on quite the world tour, Google Play Books hasn't been available as close by as Mexico. That's been rectified: the online bookstore is now open in the country, with both local titles and prices in Pesos. As with some other countries, the expansion also gives Mexicans their first real taste of Google Play content beyond Android apps. Those who have a Galaxy in Guadalajara just need to start browsing. [Image credit: Luis Medina, Google+]
Google Play Books comes to India with an updated Android app in tow
Google Play Books has been on a slow world tour that hasn't given Asia much love. Google is addressing that regional deficit in grand fashion today by launching its digital bookshop in India. The collection includes the expected blend of local and international titles, although the Books expansion is almost more important as a milestone for Google's overall content strategy in the country -- it's the first instance of anything besides Android apps reaching India's Google Play Store. In an appropriate (if not necessarily intentional) pairing with the launch, Google has also pushed out a worldwide update to the Books app for Android that lets readers filter books by type and identifies place names on the existing page. The news will still be happiest for those eager to read in Rajkot, but there's a little for seemingly everyone at the source link.
Amazon Kindle bookstore reaches Canada, cuts Americans (partly) out of the loop
Canadians have had to be content with a form of Kindle Store limbo until now. They could buy Kindle e-books, but they've had to rely on a US-centric portal that scarcely acknowledges their literary tradition. As of this weekend, they don't have to cross the virtual border: Amazon Canada now has its own dedicated Kindle book section, with prices in local currency and the highlights on local writers like Margaret Atwood. Customers just have shop the newly opened store to make the switch. We wouldn't call it true parity with the US when Canucks still can't officially buy some Amazon hardware, like the Kindle Fire HD or Kindle Paperwhite. Nonetheless, it's nice to know they'll be treated as first-class customers when shopping for a copy of Alias Grace.
Kobo Touch, localized e-bookstore reach Portugal through FNAC
It's all too easy to forget in English-speaking countries that the e-reading selection often isn't as diverse in other parts of the world, where local authors are often kept out of the equation. The Portuguese may know that all too well, which makes Kobo's arrival in their country a potential breakthrough. A deal with European retailer FNAC has both the Kobo Touch and a localized Kobo e-bookstore reaching physical and online stores in Portugal as of today. The price strategy won't be a shock versus what we've seen through an earlier deal in France: the Touch itself costs €99.90 ($129), while books vary and typically hover around €15 ($19). Whether or not Kobo's offering is a good deal, its arrival could be a relief for lisboetas who'd rather not resort to paper and ink to catch up on their own culture.
Hold the presses! Amazon UK selling more e-books than printed ones
It's becoming a habit of Amazon's to report on the rise of the e-book at the expense of physical texts, and their latest announcement is no different. Sales figures show that in the UK, 114 Kindle purchases have been made for every 100 printed copies so far in 2012. A similar statistic was achieved in the US last year, but whether these are true indications of e-book supremacy is up for discussion. Free downloads were excluded from the tally, but those released via Kindle Direct Publishing without a paper twin were counted. The Guardian also notes that these are unaudited figures, so there may be a digit awry here or there. And with a few physical stores still around, there's no need to panic-buy that Kindle just yet.
iBook Lessons: Getting Apple reviewers to wake up and pay attention
iBook Lessons is a continuing series about ebook writing and publishing. One of our editors suggested I take a look at Holly Lisle's discussion of her issues with the iBookstore review process. Lisle, who writes both fiction and a series of instructional titles for writers, included an in-book link to Amazon in one of her educational ebooks. The topic, in this case, was how to leverage Amazon's site to come up with alternative genres for listing books. Apple's iBookstore reviewers rejected the book, stating the "Rejected Reason(s)" being "Competing Website(s)." She replied by updating her book to redact the problematic links, resubmitting it to Apple. It was rejected again with the explanation, "The original change request was not fulfilled. Your changes were not saved. Original Issues have not been resolved. Please log in to iTunes Connect to view this request and upload replacement assets." Lisle insists she did update the book, and that Apple is wrong. She writes, "As noted, however, I HAD changed the lesson, HAD removed the links, HAD complied with their request. Since the links were gone, their only possible objection-NOT STATED-was content." She decided to pull all her content from the iBookstore. I have attempted to contact her to discuss the matter further. My take on this is that she may have reuploaded the wrong assets, or that the EPUB contained vestigial content, which was detectable by the automated scan. I did not get a reply, so I can't really explain what went wrong in her situation, nor can I offer suggestions specific to this case. (I would love to see the submitted EPUB to dissect it for a full analysis.) Since I am unable to deal with the specifics of her book's rejection, Mike Rose asked that I offer some general advice about the Apple Reviewer/author relationship instead. I have four years of store-based experience under the belt. I have had material rejected, accepted, and escalated. Here are some of the lessons I have learned over time. There are humans at both ends of the situation, even if Apple does not give you access to them. With most businesses, you can expect to call or email and either talk to someone directly or expect a reply within a business day. Apple doesn't work that way. A lot of the App Store/iBookstore experience involves autoreply robots and a vast echoing silence from the Apple end. As an extreme example, I submitted a review variance request for Ad Hoc Helper, an app, in early April. I quickly received standard we-got-your-mail reply. "Thank you for contacting the App Review Team about your app , Ad Hoc Helper. We appreciate you providing us with this information. We will investigate this matter and follow up with you as needed." Since then, nothing. It's been over three months. This is slightly unusual, as normally Apple does reply to queries in a reasonable amount of time. You never know who you are going to get. You never know how much background they have in your area, but someone usually (eventually) replies. You don't know who your someone is going to be. It's more like accessing a call center than working with a personal rep. Although Apple does assign reps for larger companies and offers troubleshooting and concierge services for those premium partners, for little guys and indies, you get whomever is on duty, who picks up your ticket and little else. You are just one product in the midst of their busy work day. What's more, they won't greet you and say, "Hi, my name is Bill, how can I help make your day better?" There's a fundamental power differential at play. Because of this, your communication needs to be courteous and deferential. You cannot make demands; you can make requests. Don't expect to call and get, for example, Verizon or Comcast customer support. This is a vast improvement, by the way, compared to Amazon. Getting an Amazon ticket handled by KDP support works on geological time scales. So keep in mind as you're reading that Apple is by far the preferred experience -- although it's fair to say that Apple has more rules that one might run afoul of. Do as much work for them as you can in your communication, and never assume there is any institutional memory happening. Put all the information a reviewer needs directly in your email and keep your requests succinct. Here is how I would have phrased Ms. Lisle's communication: Dear Apple Review Staff, On (date), I submitted (product). It was rejected for containing a competing website reference. I removed the reference and resubmitted on (date). It was rejected again on (date) for the same reason. My case reference number is (number). I have spot checked my EPUB and can confirm I submitted an edited version. Would you please determine if your validation tools are picking up on any remnants within the file that were manually deleted using (tool, e.g. Pages, or whatever)? I'd like to work with you to ensure that (product) makes it to the iBookstore without any further hitches. Sincerely. The key points in this communication are as follows: It contains a history of the situation, with specific details about what is going on. Further, it assumes the person reading the communication has no other background on this case. It explains the immediate problem at hand and it contains a concrete request that a reviewer can act on. It is short and respectful. These points do not differ much from the best practices for writing any other consumer complaint letter. Further, you should follow up on a regular basis if Apple does not respond, e.g. I'm touching base to check on the status of my previous request, case reference (number). It's important to be proactive, because no one is going to be your advocate other than you. [hat tip to BoingBoing and Hacker News]
UK bookseller Waterstones to start selling Kindles
The UK's biggest bookstore chain has announced that it will start selling Kindles alongside other digital services from Amazon. Waterstones stores will let Kindle owners digitally browse books in-store and link up with special offers, tying into the chain's plans for substantial renovations that would also include dedicated digital book areas and free WiFi. The move follows on flies in the opposite direction of Target, who has started phasing out its Kindle sales in the US. We assume any plans for the bookseller's very own e-reader will remain the back-burner for now.
Norwegian bookseller begins selling e-books on memory cards, for some reason (video)
Literary changes may be afoot in Norway, where one bookstore is looking to drastically revamp the e-book medium. Last week, Norwegian retailer Norli Libris announced that it would begin selling books on small plastic memory cards that can be inserted into the backs of e-readers. Each card, known as the Digi Short, would contain a single file, allowing users to devour one publication at a time on their customized, Android 2.1-laced Kibano Digi Readers. Doesn't that sort of defeat the purpose of an e-reader? It certainly seems like it, though Norli Libris' Caroline Heitmann says the idea is to simply convert e-books into physical commodities, like their ancestors. Because of this, these one-hitters would be exempt from VAT duties within Norway, though Norli Libris says they'll likely be priced on par with their downloadable counterparts, which won't help the consumer much. The company hopes that this system will be adopted as an industry standard, though it's only available at Norli Libris for the moment. Head past the break for a rather obvious demo video.
Google thinks your digital books belong on a digital bookcase, digitally (video)
How to best view the Google Books collections? Why, a digital bookcase, of course. But this isn't just any bookcase, it's a giant spinning 3D helix of a bookcase, collecting more than 10,000 titles in 28 subjects. Users can navigate the WebGL Bookcase by spinning it around or swiping it up and down. Sure, it's not the quickest way to locate a title amongst tens of thousands of books, but perhaps it'll offer up some small consolation for those who miss browsing real-life bookstores. You can check out the experiment in the source link below -- be forewarned, however, that it's a bit of a resource hog.
