This week the chain reorganised its buying team structure to allow individual stores to tailor its range. Among the other plans are a revitalisation of the brand “to reflect its specialist appeal”, increasing non-book sales from 6% to 10% by 2013 and “maximising the Borders sales transfer opportunity”. According to its presentation, there are £60m of sales from Borders up for grabs in locations overlapping with Waterstone’s.

The group is also envisaging savings of between £4m and £5m from the Waterstone’s book hub for the 2010/11 financial year.

There is no mention of whether Waterstone’s will change its store base but it appears HMV Group will try to renegotiate leases rather than exit stores. The statement said leases of around 42% of its shops would expire within the next five years, “enabling the group to target improved terms at lease renewal”. The retailer will launch a new e-book store in May 2010.

Simon Fox, group chief executive, said: “We have a clear plan to quickly revitalise the performance of Waterstone’s, and to maximise its position as the high street’s last remaining book specialist.”

Between 2006 and 2010, the TCM top 50 has declined by just over 3% from 2006 to 2010, while the number of books sold outside the top 5,000 has increased by more than 5%. Overall, the TCM increased by around 2% over the period.

Myers will say that while range sales account for more than 60% of total sales. An area of opportunity is in non-fiction range, where sales are growing. Waterstone’s will also reduce the number of titles on promotion next year from just over 12% in the 09/10 financial year to just under 8% in the 2010/11 financial year. However, Myers said the chain will “retain overall price competitiveness”.

Waterstone’s predicts that the total book market will remain stable between now and 2012. Between 2009 and 2012, the chain predicts the physical book market will fall by around 3% with digital growing to become 8% of Nielsen BookScan’s Total Consumer Market by 2012.

The Bookseller will be speaking to new m.d. Dominc Myers later today, with updates about the new strategy to published online throughout today.

Waterstones reveals new corporate strategy including new ebook stores is a post from: Book Addicts Book Group

New York, NY – December 8, 2008 — The Random House Publishing Group and Lexcycle, Inc., jointly announced today that Random House and Ballantine will be the first major book publishers to make full-length books available for free on iPhone through Lexcycle Stanza, the most popular electronic book reader for the Apple iPhone and iPod Touch.

This promotion will allow over 500,000 Stanza users to enjoy free eBooks from a varied list of authors including Alan Furst, Julie Garwood, Charlie Huston, David Liss, Laurie Notaro, Arthur Phillips and Simon Rich. The initial offerings will be drawn from each author’s backlist and will include excerpts for any new hardcovers coming in 2009. Random House is providing links to retailers like Amazon, Barnes and Noble.com, Borders.com, Powells.com and IndieBound.org to encourage readers to purchase more books by these authors.

However, the promotion is not just for iphone users. The books are available in a range of different formats all free of charge from your favourite ebook retailer. I got mine from Books on Board but you can also get them from Amazon, Fictionwise and a few others.  Titles include three by Charlie Huston so if you are a fan, get on over there and get yourself some free books!

“A free eBook is a great way to sample a new writer, and help spread the word,” says Charlie Huston, whose novels ‘Caught Stealing’, ‘Six Bad Things’, and ‘A Dangerous Man’ will all be available on Stanza. “Besides, it’s good to give things away. They’re books. We write them for people to read them.”

The full list of titles is below:

Free ebooks from Random House! is a post from: Book Addicts Book Group

“Someone” sent Oprah an Amazon Kindle as  gift and guess what, she loves it, and has given it her blessing.  I guess that means tears before bedtime for the Sony Reader and the Iliad book reader.  Here’s what she said

This summer, Oprah received a gift that she says changed her life. “It’s absolutely my new favorite favorite thing in the world,” she says.

Meet the Amazon Kindle™, a wireless portable reading device with instant access to more than 190,000 books, blogs, newspapers and magazines. Whether you’re in bed or on the train, Kindle lets you think of a book and get it in less than a minute.

Although the Amazon Kindle costs $359, Oprah looks at it as an environmentally friendly investment. “I know it’s expensive in these times, but it’s not frivolous because it will pay for itself,” she says. “The books are much cheaper, and you’re saving paper.” New York Times Bestsellers and New Releases are $9.99 or less, unless otherwise marked.

As a special offer for Oprah Show viewers, Amazon.com is giving $50 off the price of Kindle. Enter the promotional code OPRAHWINFREY during the checkout process at Amazon.com to receive the discount. This offer is valid through November 1, 2008 at 11:59 p.m. PST.

Code for $50 off the price of Kindle: OPRAHWINFREY

Go to Amazon.com to learn more and order your Kindle today!

Plus, you will receive an additional 10 percent off the price of The Story of Edgar Sawtelle (regularly $9.99 Kindle/$17.63 hardcover). No promotional code is necessary.

The above was taken from Oprah’s website

Kindle already has over 5000 customer reviews on the amazon.com site.  I can’t wait to see what happens now – especially if she announces the next Oprah book club book will be an Amazon Kindle book!

My big question is though, when will amazon.co.uk start selling a UK version of the Kindle complete with built-in wireless delivery of ebooks from Amazon?

Please do whatever it is you are doing in the US with this and please don’t partner up with any telecommunications companies in the UK or you just lost your #1 customer.  Keep it simple and keep it free.

Oprah endorses Amazon Kindle… but when will the Kindle be available outside the US? is a post from: Book Addicts Book Group

Well this is a blow, but as per my previous post, not very surprising as I knew they would have problems here with the sheer number of WiFi carriers (not a problem in the US as there is only one apparently)

This is the latest from the Frankfurt Bookfair:

Amazon will not launch its Kindle e-book reader in the UK until after Christmas as it attempts to sign up Wi-Fi partners around Europe, it has been revealed.

Rumours that Amazon.com was poised to launch the device in Europe—with the Frankfurt Book Fair the launch venue—have been circulating. However, fair-goers hoping for an early sighting of the popular device will be disappointed. Brian McBride, managing director of Amazon in the UK, said it was not yet clear when the Kindle would launch in the country. He said it was likely to be some time next year, given the complexity of signing up the many partners needed to support Europe-wide Wi-Fi access.

“The Kindle is based on wireless technology. If you need agreement with carriers in the US, there is one carrier. In Europe it is a minefield as there are so many operators. If you buy a Kindle in the UK and want to read it on the beach on holiday in Spain, unless we have signed deals in Spain it is not going to work on that beach,” he said.

The Kindle, which enables the download of books wirelessly from the internet, uses a free wireless service called whispernet provided by the Sprint EVDO network. The device has become popular in the US, and is expected to sell around 380,000 units this year.

Sony launched its e-reader in the UK in an exclusive deal with Waterstone’s last month. However, McBride was sanguine about the competition. He said the e-book market remained small and he was not concerned about losing first-mover advantage. “This is us building long-term business growth routes in the UK and it is not that important for us to enter a green field,” At a seminar held in Frankfurt yesterday Amazon.com promoted the Kindle device to international publishers, saying they could use it to get their books to US users. When asked about a European version, the e-tailer declined to comment on the “speculation”.

If you buy a Kindle in the UK and want to read it on the beach on holiday in Spain, unless we have signed deals in Spain it is not going to work on that beach,” he said.

What he means is surely that the downloading of books won’t work, not that the Kindle won’t work since I expect that most people going on holiday would have downloaded the books to the device before they left home – or at least while waiting around at the airport – not wait till they were on the beach.  And what about all that sand getting into your Kindle?  Surely that’s not very practical.  With a paperback beach read you just shake and go, with an electronic book reader?  I’m not sure I would risk it to be honest.

Expected sales of 380,000 Kindles?  Even at a quick fag packet calculation, that’s a cool US$133 million in sales.  So much for “the e-book market remaining small” uh huh.

Amazon UK Kindle – not till after Christmas is a post from: Book Addicts Book Group

Get ‘em while you can – click here

Twenty Four free books!

Here’s the complete list showing the available formats for each one:

Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson
PDF || HTMLnew! || HTML zipnew! || Mobinew!
Old Man�s War by John Scalzi
PDF || HTML || HTML zip || Mobi
Spin by Robert Charles Wilson
PDF || HTML || HTML zip || Mobi
Farthing by Jo Walton
PDF || HTML || HTML zip || Mobi
The Outstretched Shadow by Mercedes Lackey & James Mallory
PDF || HTML || HTML zip || Mobi
Crystal Rain by Tobias Buckell
PDF || HTML || HTML zip || Mobi
Lord of the Isles by David Drake
PDF || HTML || HTML zip || Mobi
Through Wolf’s Eyes by Jane Lindskold
PDF || HTML || HTML zip || Mobi
The Disunited States of America by Harry Turtledove
PDF || HTML || HTML zip || Mobi
Reiffen’s Choice by S.C. Butler
PDF || HTML || HTML zip || Mobi
Sun of Suns by Karl Schroeder
PDF || HTML || HTML zip || Mobi
Four and Twenty Blackbirds by Cherie Priest
PDF || HTML || HTML zip || Mobi
Spirit Gate by Kate Elliot
PDF || HTML || HTML zip || Mobi
Starfish by Peter Watts
PDF || HTML || HTML zip || Mobi
Touch of Evil by C.T. Adams & Cathy Clamp
PDF || HTML || HTML zip || Mobi
A Shadow in Summer by Daniel Abraham
PDF || HTML || HTML zip || Mobi
Orphans of Chaos by John Wright
PDF || HTML || HTML zip || Mobi
In the Garden of Iden by Kage Baker
PDF || HTML || HTML zip || Mobi
In the Midnight Hour by Patti O’Shea
PDF || HTML || HTML zip || Mobi
Battlestar Galactica by Jeffrey A. Carver
PDF || HTML || HTML zip || Mobi
Flash by L.E. Modesitt, Jr.
PDF || HTML || HTML zip || Mobi
Soul by Tobsha Learner
PDF || HTML || HTML zip || Mobi
Darkness of the Light by Peter David
PDF || HTML || HTML zip || Mobi
Three Shadows by Cyril Pedrosanew!
PDF || ePub

All books are in the fantasy and science fiction genres and COMPLETELY FREE!!! for a limited time only, so get downloading.

At the same time, they are also offering all 40 WALLPAPERS also for free, in a various of sizes to fit all computers.� (scroll down further on the same page as the book downloads)

Tor.com weekly free books offer comes to an end – download all for a very limited time! is a post from: Book Addicts Book Group

Enjoy!

Book Addict Polls is a post from: Book Addicts Book Group

Cost is quite prohibitive though I think unless everyone I know wants to club together and get me one for Christmas… or maybe Borders (whom I love more than is healthy at times) could send me one for saying such nice things about them? *hint* publishers this is your chance too, I’ll be able to review more books this way *hint*

From Borders UK

The Iliad
We are proud to announce that we are the first retailers in the UK to sell the must have gadget of the year, the bookworld’s Ipod moment – The Iliad. It is the biggest change in the history of bookselling and bookmaking since the printing press was invented. The Iliad will totally transform the way you read your books.

Iliad Book Edition – RRP �399

The iLiad lets you enjoy digital books as never before. The large paper-like display offers an amazing reading quality with plenty of storage so you can carry everything in your collection everywhere you go. In addition to reading digital books, it is also possible to read your own digital documents (PDF or text formats) and make handwritten notes and annotations with the stylus.

Viewing text on the iLiad�s screen is just like reading text on paper. Unlike the display of a laptop screen, which is backlit and can strain your eyes, viewing the pages on the iLiad is as comfortable as on a real book due to the stable image which does not need to be constantly refreshed, the large viewing angle, and the fact that it uses reflected ambient light. It has a similar contrast ratio to that of a newspaper and is lightweight and durable.

Key Product Features

Size

The iLiad is comparable in size to an A5 sheet of paper and weight 14 ounces. It�s more than portable.

Screen

Thanks to the high contrast, high resolution display of the iLiad you will no longer experience eyestrain when reading- and with a near 180� viewing angle reflecting screens are something of the past. The touchscreen display and innovative software allow the user to navigate through their library, open a book, turn pages, zoom in and out and make handwritten notes.

Memory

The e-book edition has 128 MB of free memory and is easily expandable to 8 GB by adding a CF type II card, MMC Multimedia Cards or USB stick. The iLiad lets you carry everything in your collection- up to 10,000 e-books.

50 Free E-books

The iLiad Book Edition comes with 50 pre-loaded classic titles to get your collection started.

News, Notes and additional features

Make handwritten meeting notes and annotation in existing documents and books. Access and view Adobe PDF, MS Word and HTML documents. Read the daily newspapers, RSS feeds and other web content.

Connectivity

USB, Ethernet, the iLiad book edition is not WiFi enabled.

The iLiad E-Book Reader is a post from: Book Addicts Book Group

The shortlist, which had been whittled down to six from the 41 previous Booker winners by a panel of judges, also comprised Pat Barker’s The Ghost Road (Viking), Peter Carey’s Oscar and Lucinda (Faber), J M Coetzee’s Disgrace (Secker), J G Farrell’s The Siege of Krishnapur (Weidenfeld) and Nadine Gordimer’s The Conservationist (Cape).

More than 7,800 votes were cast online and via text, with 37% of online votes from the UK and 27% from North America.

Rushdie, who also won the Booker of Bookers celebrating the prize’s 25th birthday in 1993, was the early favourite, with his chances of winning at 1/8 when Ladbrokes closed its books on the eve of the award announcement.

The award marks the 40th anniversary of the Man Booker Prize. Other celebrations include an exhibition about the history of the prize at the Victoria & Albert Museum in the autumn.

The British Council is also working on an online collection of contemporary British literature, and is negotiating with publishers to include former winners of the Booker as e-books for a pilot project.

Best of the Booker – winner announced is a post from: Book Addicts Book Group

Well now along with the free books, they are now offering two free wallpapers each week in a variety of sizes to suit all desktops.

The first two on offer are by Donato Giancola John Jude Palencar and shouldn’t be missed

Watch the Skies – Tor books – free wallpapers available is a post from: Book Addicts Book Group

Richard Lea
Tuesday February 12, 2008
EducationGuardian.co.uk

Two competing visions of the future went head-to-head online yesterday as HarperCollins and Random House launched contrasting new experiments in book distribution on the same day.

Building on a scheme launched in 2006 which allows users to flick through extracts of the books they publish, HarperCollins is releasing complete texts from a small selection of authors for periods of a month to test how free access affects sales.

The chief executive of HarperCollins Worldwide, Jane Friedman, was keen to stress the flexibility of the publisher’s systems.

“The advantage of our digital warehouse is that we can securely, quickly and easily change what content is available,” she said, “whether it is to meet an author’s request, to preview a title before it is on sale, or to promote backlist books. And we believe it’s the role of the publisher to develop tools to easily allow authors to promote their work to their communities online.”

With Neil Gaiman and Paolo Coelho lined up to be among the first clutch of six titles, it seems as if the publisher is only beginning to catch up with their authors’ enthusiasm for free distribution. Coelho, who has promoted free copies of his own work online since 2000, has signed up for HarperCollins to provide an entire book for download every month for one year.

“I believe that online reading helps increase book sales,” the author said. “I am very pleased that HarperCollins is able to make my titles available online for my fans to read.”

Neil Gaiman, who offers readers free stories on his website and has been running a promotional blog for seven years, is convinced that tasters are “enormously useful”. He’s running an online vote for readers to determine which of his titles will be given away – a poll currently led by his mythical American fantasy, American Gods.

Whatever the result of the poll, the author is not expecting a straightforward match between the numbers of free downloads and added sales.

“It’s much more about gaining an audience than about some one-to-one correlation,” he said. “It’s a question of how do you find new writers.” People often come to new authors in a library, on a friend’s bookshelves, or by a personal recommendation, he explained. It “doesn’t always begin with a financial transaction. I very much doubt that I discovered a single one of my favourite authors by buying a book.”

Meanwhile Random House is pursuing a different model, launching a pilot project to offer individual slices of books for a small fee. Six chapters and an epilogue of a business title by brothers Chip and Dan Heath are available at $2.99 (�1.50) each.

Users will receive a link for downloading the chapters of their choice via email, which the company claims is impossible to share electronically.

“This is a pilot project to gauge whether there is a demand or not,” said Random House’s Carol Schneider. “We’re really doing it as a kind of an experiment.”

It’s an experiment that runs counter to internet users’ expectations of getting something for nothing and to Random House’s enthusiastic promotion of free clips from their library of audio books. With no plans to extend the scheme into other non-fiction or short fiction titles, and no download figures yet available it’s impossible to judge whether Random House’s cautious strategy will prove effective, but Gaiman is convinced that publishers who are bold will be rewarded.

“The problem is not people who read books for nothing,” he said, “it’s people not reading books at all. You’re fighting the fact that people don’t read recreationally [any more]. Anything that can help has got to be a good thing.”

or you can read it here at The Guardian

You can see the poll on Neil’s website by clicking here

So we can look forward to a free copy of American Gods sometime soon, which is good for us as we are discussing it in a few months with the Book Group! �I will post more when there are more details.

Publishers experimenting with free e-books – Harper-Collins & Random House is a post from: Book Addicts Book Group