ROMANCE IS IN THE AIR! Ev
NEWS FROM PUBLISHERS LUNCH
SOURCEBOOKS STARTSROMANCE EBOOK CLUB MICHAEL CADER
\ WHAT’S NEW FROM THE
GOOGLE EBOOK RESELLER PROGRAM?
April 9, 2012. Sourcebooks launches their latest experiment today, a subscription plan for romance readers the company is positioning as an ebook club and community. Discover A New Love offers subscribers one of four featured romance titles a month, at $9.99 for a six-month plan (so about $1.67 per book). Members can purchase additional titles at discount, and some club selections are available a month before general release. While the initial hook is value, Sourcebooks sees the long-term appeal as discovery and community. Editorial manager Deb Werksman says in the announcement, "Readers have a hard time figuring out what they should try next. It's an issue of discovery—finding great new authors with amazing stories." Members get access to online author "parties," and participation in special offers and contests. Sourcebooks promises "the opportunity to be part of romance publishing process," including focus groups, voting and feedback on titles and covers, the chance to get pre-publication copies for review, and more. The program launches with Sourcebooks' own titles, which are provided DRM- free (which enables direct selling from their own site without worrying about format compatability). The company is making the club open to other publishers, though recognizes the lack of DRM may be an obstacle to broad participation. Many of the titles are available worldwide as well.
GOOGLE CANCELS EBOOKS RESELLER PROGRAM,DROPPING INDIES
April 5, 2012. Both the ABA and Powell's Books indicate Google informed them on Tuesday it is cancelling their eBooks reseller partnerships as of January 31, 2013. ABA ceo Oren Teicher told members in an email, "Google's decision to discontinue the program is, therefore, far larger than just IndieCommerce and the users of our product. After January 31, 2013, Google will sell e-books through Google Play only." Google says on their blog that "the reseller program has not gained the traction that we hoped it would, so we have made the difficult decision to discontinue it." Whether that's a statement about the resellers or the core program itself is an open question. Google notes, "looking at the results to-date, it’s clear that the reseller program has not met the needs of many readers or booksellers." By their count they only have "16 reseller partners" and the search giant says "this change will help us focus on building the best ebooks experience we can across hundreds of devices with millions of books. Books will continue to be a major content
pillar...in the Google Play store."
Teicher remarked, "To say the least, we are very disappointed in Google's decision, but, we have every confidence that, long before Google's reseller program is discontinued, ABA will be able to offer IndieCommerce users a new alternative e-book product, or choice of products, that will not only replace Google eBooks as it currently works on IndieCommerce sites but that will be in many ways a better product."
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