Ingeborg Lauterstein survived a tumultuous childhood in Nazi-occupied Vienna, Austria during World War II. She watched the world around her crumble, and lived to tell the tale: some 40 years later, her life and her volatile homeland formed the basis for two novels full of wonder and intrigue: The Water Castle (Houghton Mifflin, 1981) and Vienna Girl (W. W. Norton, →
With the first shipments of its e-reader tablet, the Kindle Fire, Amazon announced its new “Lending Library”—a free service available to “Prime” subscribers that allows them free access to more the 5,000 e-books. This $79.99/year membership also offers free 2-day shipping on all orders and free streaming video and music on the Kindle Fire. Sounds →
The Espresso (or Electronic) Book Machine (EBM), a creation of On Demand Books, is designed for the efficient and worldwide distribution of Print-On-Demand (POD) books. The first EBM was installed and demonstrated in June 2007 at the New York Public Library; today there are over 50 locations worldwide in 10 different countries spanning 5 continents. EBM →
Open Book Systems has been innovating from within the publishing industry since 1982. “OBS” originally stood for “Online BookStore,” the first online book store on the internet in 1992, and now, we are revisiting what it means to publish online. The new Online BookStore will provide publishers with a secure “sandbox” environment for experimenting with →
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos unveiled three new Kindle models last week, including the much-anticipated Kindle Fire tablet. Amazon’s new 7” vibrant color multi-touch tablet sold an estimated 95,000 units in the first day of pre-orders for just $199 each. The new Android-powered tablet is compatible with Android apps sold through Amazon’s app store, with the →
Lulu, the premier self-publishing service on the internet, announced this week that they have formed a partnership with Barnes & Noble, the world’s largest bookseller. The new collaboration will allow Lulu’s members (called creators) to distribute their books through the Barnes & Noble Nook e-reader, what Lulu founder and CEO Bob Young calls: “another step →
OBS will be exhibiting at the Frankfurt Book Fair from October 12-16—come and visit us at the Independent Publishers Guild stand A934-937 in Hall 8A! We started coming to Frankfurt in 1985 and look forward to this year’s event! The Frankfurt Book Fair is the largest trade show in the world of books, an annual industry →
Earlier this month, internet titan Google acquired guidebook publisher Zagat for a reported $125 million. Zagat has been publishing restaurant guidebooks for over 30 years, and has had problems breaking into the online reviewing world, with Yelp being their biggest competitor—problems that Google is well prepared to address.
We have lost treasured authors and friends this month. We mourn their passing, and celebrate their lives. Mr. Joseph Garland passed away on August 30, 2011. We first met Joe in the 1980s when he championed the Schooner Adventure’s return to Gloucester; he helped us research and put together the Web site for the ship in →
Starting in October, the Boston Globe will start a digital-only subscription of $3.99 a week for access to stories and breaking news from their website. The new pay-to-read website will be accessible anywhere using a “responsive web design” that automatically adjusts to any screen. This business model differs from other online newspapers that allow you →