Self-publishing News: What’s in a Name?
A self-publisher's attempt to trademark a word in the title of her bestselling series has indies up in arms. The ebook market in India continues to expand, and Dropbox launches an ePub reader.
Self-publishing News: The Price of Amazon
Amazon Prime raises the price of its full year Prime membership, Barnes & Noble adds new features to its self-publishing dashboard, and the Young Writer of the Year Award is open once again to indies.
Self-publishing News: New Discoveries
Google has launched Talk to Books, which moves discovery beyond metadata and inside books' covers. Amazon has launched Prime Reading in China, and a new group of small independent publishers is seeking to change the way the industry works.
Self-publishing News: Fun of the Fair
London Book Fair saw an emphasis on audiobooks, big data, and blockchain. And Amazon runs into problems with scammers while Kobo expands its audiobook offering to France.
Self-publishing News: Signal-boosting Non-fiction
Amazon has taken action against manipulators of its Kindle Unlimited programme, as well as more hapless terms and conditions violators. They have also launched Great on Kindle, a scheme for non-fiction ebook authors.
Self-publishing News: A Bad Week for Adult Content
In a bad week for erotica writers, Amazon doesn't seem to know what it is doing with their rankings. And a major new umbrella organization, the Independent Bookshops' Alliance, launches in UK Parliament.
Self-publishing News: Finding Your Voice
Smashwords partners with Findaway Voices, more than a million ebooks have now been borrowed through Overdrive, and we meet the best ebook coders.
Self-publishing News: A Brief History
Arts Council England has issued a report outlining what it thinks the impact of technology on culture will be in the next decade, ebook platforms expand in Europe, unstaffed bookstores are with us, and it has been a very sad week in the indie community as cyberbullying has dominated much of our discussions on social media.
Self-publishing News: New Ways to Connect
Streetlib launches a marketplace for authors and service providers, the Audible Romance controversy rumbles, on, and we look at the differing trends in ebooks across the globe.
Self-publishing News: A Not So Fine Romance
Initial royalty payments from Audible Romance are distinctly underwhelming, Amazon sponsors DigitalBookWorld, and Publica announces a blockchain-based alternative to DRM.
Self-publishing News: The Problem With Ebooks?
Hachette's CEO claims that ebooks are a stupid product but admits publishers are partly to blame, while Amazon's own imprints look strangely dominant in its bestseller charts, and sales of ebooks in Germany stagnate.
Self-publishing News: When the News is the News
Wattpad are giving viewers the chance to decide if they like the look of a series with short pilot adaptations taken from the site, while a court rules if you embed copyright-infringing content from elsewhere on your website, you may be liable, and Book Expo gets a makeover but may have forgotten a key ingredient in its core business...authors.