ARCHIVE BOOKS BIZ NEWS

SONY WARNS OVER EBOOK PRICING - Sony are to lunch two new ebooks readers through Waterstones stores but the company has warned about ebook pricing, saying they must come down severely. Richard Palk, Sony's general manager for development said:

'The public are confused about why e-book pricing is being set based on hardback prices. And the dropping when the paperback is released. The difference is price between digital and physical books will have to widen but at the moment the industry is in an evolutionary stage regarding digital books.'

This week Sony unveiled a wireless device that will go on sale by Christmas in order to challenge Amazons dominance.


WATERSTONES ON TRACK TO SELL ITS MILLIONTH EBOOK - Waterstones have called for simultaneous release of ebooks and the printed version. They also announced that they would include a free e-copy of Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol with every purchase of the new Sony reading devices. The company then went onto say that it expected to sell its millionth ebook during the next 12 month.


TED KENNEDY AUTOBIOGRAPHY FROM LITTLE BROWN - Little Brown is to publish True Compass, the autobiography of Ted Kennedy who died last week. The book is due on 14th September at a price of £20.

BORDERS STILL IN THE SWAMP - Borders saw its sales slump by 17% for the second quarter of this year - this is a drop of almost half since the same period last year. However the recent closures of stores has managed to reduce its overall debt by 42%.

EVERY LITTLE HELPS - Tesco have appointed a senior buyer for books, creating a new role within the supermarket giant. David Blackman joined the supermarket in his new position on the 1st September. He had previously worked with Oakwood Distribution. It's good to see Tesco taking books more seriously but many believe supermarkets, with their heavy discounting are damaging to the overall book business - Watch out for a report on supermarkets and books on the Archive this weekend.