Penguin Random House ‘holds an effective veto on the success of ebook subscription services,” says Peter Hudson at Vancouver’s Shelfie. Read More
Subscriptions, 'know your readers'
Last August in his two-part essay for us here at The FutureBook, “On streaming, subscription, and big data,” CyberLibris’ Eric Briys (pictured) wrote of “understanding reader frustration.” Briys joined us from France Friday for #FutureChat with a timely reminder that knowing readers is really the key to right decision-making in the bounding changes of marketplace strategies.… Read More
Can subscriptions take the heat?
‘A long day. Full of complete and utter nonsense.’ That’s the author Hugh Howey writing about Wednesday (1st July), when Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) Select payout structure officially changed from its original per-borrow plan to a per-page-read plan. Howey, no stranger to post-apoc poesy, was less than impressed with the run-for-your-life! reactions of many of his… Read More
'Growing pains': Scribd's romance 'purge'
Mark Coker: Smashwords’ Scribd sales may ‘drop at least 50 percent’ Coming in the context of Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) Select’s controversial new per-page paymentsin its Kindle Unlimited (KU) and Kindle Owners Lending Library (KOLL) services, the news from Scribd may not raise independent authors’ spirits. One key platform c.e.o., Smashwords’ Mark Coker, refers to it as a… Read More
Scribd makes cuts to romance in its catalog
Scribd has announced to publishers and distributors that it is “making some adjustments, particularly to romance” in its $8.99-per-month ebook subscription service. Described by Mark Coker, founder and c.e.o. of Smashwords, as “dramatic cuts to [Scribd’s] catalog of romance and erotica titles,” the changes are removing an unknown portion of the subscription’s titles from the… Read More
All-you-can-guess about subscriptions
Publishing can be forgiven for its mixed response to the ebook-subscription issue. Not only does the all-you-can-read construct for selling books run contrary to traditions in bookselling — and reading — but even some of our sister media disciplines, much deeper into their experience with subscriptions, are still trying to parse the effects of similar models. Just… Read More
Do you subscribe to subscriptions?
Many young, digitally oriented companies enjoy taking a specific kind of staff photo these days, I’m sure you’ve seen it. In such a photo, everyone is happily gregarious but individualised. Several staffers laugh together. Two or three peer at some paperwork as if it were intensely interesting. Another small knot of employees watches something on a screen.… Read More
At Frankfurt Book Fair: 'Surprise' support for subscriptions
As my Bookseller colleague Philip Jones is writing for us today in Turn up the volume, Frankfurt Book Fair 2014 provided, if nothing else, a look at digital now under sail in early, calm waters. He writes, “The one common factor is that we have have all become participants rather than watchers. The being dazzled bit looks to have gone.… Read More
Vote on The FutureBook Innovation Shortlist's "Inspirationals"
The winner will be named as part of The FutureBook Innovation Awards announcements at The FutureBook Conference on 14th November at Queen Elizabeth II Centre in London. (Best early-bird prices for the event are offered only for a week longer, to 17th October.) Among a boisterous gathering at Halle 8’s Publishing Perspectives Stage on Thursday evening to… Read More
#FutureChat recap: A busy workout in the subscription debate
“There is much to unpack here.” That line from The Bookseller’s Philip Jones in his lead editorial Friday may have been the understatement of the week. Articles and essays, blog posts and comments continue to proliferate around the many issues in the digital book subscription debate, of course. One of the points made by Rachel Deahl at Publishers… Read More