Sunday, May 17, 2015

Barnes and Noble Wants your Kindles and iPads

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Barnes and Noble has just announced a brand new Trade In & Trade Up program. The bookseller wants your old Nooks, iPads or Kindles and will give you credit to put towards the Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 Nook 7 and 10 inch variants.

What is most interesting about the trade in program is that Barnes and Noble will give you a flat rate of $50 for any prior version of the Nook.  If you have a 1st generation Nook or Nook Color, you get as much money to put towards a Samsung device as you would a Nook HD+.

In  order to qualify for the upgrade you need to factory reset your device and remove the SD card. If you have an Apple product, you need to disable “Find my iPhone” and any device passwords.

What do you have to do to get the credit? Simply bring your old device to any Barnes and Noble bookstore from May 17, 2015 through June 13, 2015 to get a $25–$200 credit towards your purchase of a Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 NOOK.

It remains to be seen what Barnes and Noble plans to do with all of the old Nook, Amazon and Apple products. Will they use them in their educational unit or sell them on eBay?

Barnes and Noble Wants your Kindles and iPads is a post from: Good e-Reader

Google Encouraging Authors and Publishers to Use Adwords

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Google is planning on launching a new mobile feature for smartphones that will allow publishers and authors to instantly sell e-books at the click of a button.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Google is allegedly planning to launch a buy button that will accompany search results, but only on sponsored links that others have paid to put in front of Google’s natural search results—in other words, AdWords links. The buy button won’t appear for organic search results, nor will desktop users even get one at first.

According to PC World “When you click on the buy button for these ads, you’ll be taken to a Google-backed page where you can (possibly) customize whatever it is you were interested in: sizing or colors. Other retailers will actually sell the products; Google’s page will just handle the processing.”

I think having a buy it now button when a user is searching for a particular title holds tremendous value. Say,  you are looking for California by Edan Lepucki. You can click on a buy it now from a Google Sponsored link and get options to buy it in print or e-book format, from a number of different retailers. The publisher and author both make money from the sale and the online bookstore also gets a cut.

Will digital bookstores, publishers and indie authors take advantage of the Google Buy Button? Its too soon to tell, but Google is making a strong case to advertise books and its appealing to the people who sell the books, the people who publish, or the writers that self-publish.

Google Encouraging Authors and Publishers to Use Adwords is a post from: Good e-Reader

Author Anna Todd Discusses Fan-Fiction and Internet Super Stardom

WIRED | Biz Con Photo by Bryan Derballa

WIRED | Biz Con
Photo by Bryan Derballa

Wattpad is likely the largest writing community on the internet and users spend 10 billion minutes a month reading. Fan-fiction is likely the biggest draw and one of the most prolific Wattrpad sensations has to be Anna Todd.

Anna Todd is best known for her book “After” which features One Direction star Harry Styles and and good-girl protagonist Tessa Young. Wattpad says After has been read 1 billion times.

According to a recent interview on Wired “Todd herself is living proof that Internet celebrity is sweeping away old notions of what it means to be famous. The Internet is no longer just a starting point for fledgling talent to reach higher, more mainstream fame and fortune. Stars are tested and can thrive in this universe without Hollywood's help, a phenomenon that has left everyone from first-time selfie takers to big corporate brands eager to figure out how to replicate the influence of this new celebrity generation.”

The success of Anna Todd is start to transcend the Wattpad platform. Her book After got a Paramount Movie deal, and likely will be made into a feature film. Wattpad also signed an agreement with Gallery Press to distribute “After” in print and major e-book stores such as Amazon, Kobo and iBooks.


Author Anna Todd Discusses Fan-Fiction and Internet Super Stardom is a post from: Good e-Reader