ePublishing Week in Brief – February 18^th to 22^nd, 2013

 

Book publishing offers a variety of careers

Books wouldn’t make it to libraries or our homes, if it weren’t for authors and book publishers. Book publishing is a viable career and business path, and has been successfully carried out by many men and women entrepreneurs and individuals, across the country.

Fiction and non-fiction writers, and poets find their work journeying to bookstores, libraries, people’s bookshelves, and into the hands of readers majorly because of the enterprising minds of book-publishers.

Book publishing, is a booming industry, not only for entrepreneurs, but also for authors, who find true credence only when volumes of their work are in print, and in supply, catering to the demands of the readers. The industry doesn’t stop offering opportunities here. In fact, it allows tributaries from other professions to stream into it. Book publishers hire book editors, copyeditors, illustrators, book designers, technicians, printers and other professionals who take care of all the gradations involved in the process of book publishing. Publishers also speak to literary agents, who lead them to good literary writers whose work they can develop and market.
Planning publication schedules, editing the manuscripts, designing the book, production related jobs, printing of the book, and activities centered on marketing, publicity, and advertising of the book are all tasks delegated to different departments within a publishing house. From these arise numerous flourishing career opportunities. Understanding intricate stages of book publishing will shed more light on the professional skills required to find employment opportunities.

http://www.deccanherald.com/content/313538/book-publishing-offers-variety-careers.html

 Toronto writers discuss book pre-marketing and self-publishing

With these, it’s but fair for every writer to make their publications known to the public. However, as we all know it’s not that easy. If you are a writer, you must know that finishing your work is not the end of it all. After the desk work, you must work on the marketing part; and in all honesty, it can be the most glaring part. The competition in the market can be stiff. There are others like you who are aiming for their composition to be filling the books stand and be bought.

http://www.agoracosmopolitan.com/news/review/2013/02/21/5435.html

EBSCO Publishing Introduces New eBook Subject Sets

~ Sets of Titles Aim to Meet Library’s Needs for In-Demand Topics ~

Librarians have a convenient way to begin or expand their e-book collection with 23 new eBook Subjects Sets from EBSCO Publishing. The eBook Subject Sets are prepackaged sets of titles from leading publishers in specific, high-interest topic areas chosen to meet libraries’ needs while simplifying collection development.

This latest release of eBook Subject Sets addresses the demand from libraries for more offerings in religion and theology; ethnic and cultural studies; literary criticism and writing; and engineering. The new eBook Subject Sets are:

http://www.prweb.com/releases/2013eBook/SubjectSets/prweb10443883.htm

Amazon And The Changing Face Of Retail

 

Best Buy (BBY) recently announced they will match Amazon’s prices. This follows a similar action by Target (TGT). Others will likely to follow. Amazon (AMZN) has become the standard by which other retailers are measured. Best Buy declares that this action will end showrooming, where customers look at products on a store’s showroom floor, but buy them cheaper online. But will it? It may make their customers more likely to check Amazon.com than they already were. After all, it could get them an instant discount. Also, before buying something, they can check the reviews on Amazon.com.

Looking at annual revenues, the reason for this action is apparent:

German antitrust probe into Amazon’s pricing policy begins

BERLIN — Online retailer Amazon may have broken antitrust laws in Germany by banning third-party traders from selling their products cheaper elsewhere, officials said Wednesday.

Online retailer Amazon may have broken antitrust laws in Germany by banning third-party traders from selling their products cheaper elsewhere, officials said Wednesday.

German antitrust authorities said they have begun questioning 2,400 traders who signed up to Amazon’s Marketplace platform, where they can sell products directly to the Web giant’s millions of users. In return they must abide by its policies.

The probe comes days after Amazon faced criticism in Germany over the alleged mistreatment of temporary workers and in the wake of accusations in the U.K. that it’s been avoiding paying tax.

The head of Germany’s Federal Antitrust Office said Wednesday there was “considerable” evidence that Amazon’s conditions on third-party traders breached cartel rules by unduly hindering its competitors.

“Amazon’s price parity clause … takes away the traders’ freedom to offer their products at lower prices elsewhere on the Internet,” Andreas Mundt said in a statement.

“Amazon tax” payoff starts to arrive in some U.S. states

 (Reuters) – Sales tax from Internet commerce, a prize pursued for years by U.S. state governments, is starting to arrive in California and a few other states, providing millions of dollars in new revenue, though not as much as a benchmark study once forecast.

After fighting hard to get e-tailers such as Amazon.com Inc to start charging sales tax, and eventually passing a law requiring collection, the California Board of Equalization reported last week it took in $96.4 million in September-December 2012, its first full quarter of collections.

Coinciding with the holiday shopping season, that result put the state well on its way to meeting its forecast budget of $107 million in new e-taxes for the fiscal year that began July 1, 2012, as set by the California Department of Finance.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/02/20/us-usa-tax-amazon-idUSBRE91J0DX20130220

Amazon AutoRip: ripping off copyright?

 (MoneyWatch) In its bid to become the king of all retail, media, and cloud services, Amazon (AMZN) introduced a new music feature: AutoRip. The retailer has negotiated deals with music labels that let it automatically put MP3 versions of tracks onto a cloud player people can access when they purchase the appropriate CDs. It applies to past and future sales and Amazon doesn’t charge for storing tracks when it sold you the physical media.

But there’s a problem. Although gifts aren’t eligible, because that would be copyright infringement, the company often doesn’t know whether people have bought CDs for themselves, given them away, or sold them. It means consumers that hand the CD to someone else would technically be in violation of copyright and Amazon’s terms of service.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505124_162-57570279/amazon-autorip-ripping-off-copyright/