Allen Weiner

Author John Grisham talks about the devaluation of books as well as “uncertainty over ebooks” in this insightful interview on NBC’s “The Today Show.”

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Don’t get too excited, in this video, Grisham only acknowledges the fact that ereaders will make an impact on the number of authors who get published (as a result of lower retail prices). The world (or at least those of us who are fans of John Grisham), await the author giving the green flag to [...]

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Macmillian, perhaps believing it will face some tight margins as ebooks sales become as competitive as print products have become of late, has rewritten its author contracts, with boilerplate language stating that authors will receive 20% royalty fees on net ebook sales. Many major publishers, including Random House and Simon and Schuster offer authors 25% [...]

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Back in the day, the Sunday newspaper was the proverbial hearth around which families spent their morning pulling the paper apart, section by section and enjoying the Sunday newspaper magazine, comics or oversized travel and entertainment sections. As the latest Audit Bureau of Circulations report shows, newspaper circulation is down with [...]

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Barnes and Noble ended weeks of speculation by announcing The Nook, its new ereader that should not only throw a scare into Amazon but also put somewhat of a damper on the ereading capabilities of planned tablets/devices from Apple and Microsoft. Barnes and Noble has addressed many shortcomings of existing devices [...]

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Patrick Barry, Vice President of Yahoo’s Connected TV Group, has left the company looking for new opportunities. I would hope that the company would replace Barry in short order to ensure the company maintains momentum in the TV 2.0 space. With the holiday season approaching, and consumer electronics manufacturers making decisions on their IP-based TV [...]

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After some thought, I realized that B&N already has an in-store relationship with AT&T with the carrier providing free WiFi in B&N’s retail outlets. It would thus make sense for AT&T to be the book retailer’s wireless provider partner for its rumored new device.

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Putting aside my instincts to avoid writing about rumor (oops. I have said that before), an overwhelming number of published reports indicate that book retailer Barnes and Noble is about to launch an ereader, joining the parade of devices that includes the Kindle, Sony’s family of products and devices soon to [...]

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Amazon as taken two steps to ensure it has some breathing room between itself and the burgeoning list of competitors in the eBook-ereader marketplace. The company has announced that it is lowering the price of the bestseller Kindle to $259, down from $299 as well launching the Kindle with U.S. & [...]

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According to a story in the Wall Street Journal (among other places), in 2010, Time, Inc., hopes to create an independent electronic aggregation home for magazines that would follow the basic principles of Hulu. As such, a new joint venture would be formed and operated independently of its members who would [...]

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