Tuesday Midday Links: Amazon’s Charm Offensive

The new draft of the Google Book Settlement was due yesterday but the parties asked (and was granted) until Friday to present a new settlement agreement. Given that the biggest part of the GBKS were orphan works and that was what drew the biggest complaints, I wonder how any new settlement could address this.

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Amazon engaged in a “charm offensive” by flying out a number of top flight agents to its Seattle headquarters last week, as reported by Crains.   This wooing of the agents seemed quite odd (has it ever been done in the past).   One nugget was that agents and Amazon seem to be in agreement that publishers can make more money selling ebooks than hardcovers.   I don’t know if that is true but it seems like publishers may be headed that route regardless.   Certainly Harlequin has been able to be profitable without a hardcover division.   But what to make of Amazon wooing agents? It means something.

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Speaking of Harlequin, Quill & Quire wrote up a piece about Carina Press.   It notes that authors for Carina Press will need to play an active role in promoting their books and included this line about DRM.   Q&Q, DRM doesn’t prevent authors’ works from being copied or downloaded illegally either.

And Carina does not offer digital rights management to prevent authors’ work being copied or downloaded illegally.

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The nook is so popular that Barnes & Noble doesn’t have enough stock to meet demand. Therefore, if you order one now, it won’t come until December 11.   Of course, this presumes that the Spring Design suit doesn’t result in some injunction.

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Richard Nash asks why the sponsors for BEA don’t want to include the public. You know, the people the sponsors sell books to.

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Blogcritics makes the case why you should read debut novels. I thought this was a great blog topic and we’ll have a “best debut novel” recommendation thread later this week.

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A visually impaired gamer sues Sony for not making its games more accessible.   The gamer had sent several emails to Sony requesting “reasonable accommodations” (that’s the legal language of the law) for people with similar disabilities.   I can’t help but think that ebook readers will be subject to this type of legal scrutiny as well.    Of course, the suit would have to be directed at the publishers. If the suit is directed toward Amazon or the nook, they would open up access but the suit cannot impact those not a party, i.e., the publishers who are requiring Amazon to turn off Text to Speech.

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