In case you missed it, the latest Hobbit production video is up on The Hobbit Blog. It’s nearly 14 minutes long. If you’re excited about the upcoming movie, you won’t want to miss this.
Dear Author reports on the Department of Justice’s recent release of comments about the proposed ebook price-fixing settlements and their response to those comments. It’s a clear post, with lots of good explanation about what everything means, so I won’t there’s no need for me to elaborate on it here. “Tuesday News: Department of Justice Publishes Comments to Proposed Settlement and Responds” (Jane Litte, Dear Author website.)
Dear Author’s Jane Litte details what personal information and data are collected by the four biggest ebook retailers in “Privacy and eReading Part 2: Amazon, BN, Kobo & Sony”. Useful reading if you’re concerned about Internet privacy.
Google’s ebook re-seller program for independent booksellers expires in January. Zola hopes to fill the gap, offering a platform through which independent bookstores can sell ebooks. Ultimately, it hopes to compete with both Google and Amazon in selling ebooks. They will offer a social e-reader, allow independent stores to set up their own storefront and choose what titles to offer, and give bookstores a better percentage of the profits than Google did. It will be interesting to see whether Zola succeeds and whether it has any impact on independent bookstores’ survival. (“Zola Aims to Replace Google Books, Then Take On Amazon.” Jeremy Greenfield, Digital Book World)
Rich Aden, who blogs as An American Editor, makes a case for print/paper books over ebooks as a child’s introduction to reading in “eBook vs. pBook: Imaginative Discovery.”
