Amazon Splits Bestseller List

In case you haven’t got your weekly Amazon’s News Fix of  the Week, here’s a goodie for you. Publisher’s Weekly reports that Amazon will no longer list free Kindle e-book downloads  in their bestseller list. They will now spilt the list into two categories: free and paid downloads. So what does this mean? Well, you will see a notable change in the book titles listed on their Kindle Bestseller list and I’m sure this will make some authors very happy. Below is an excerpt from the Publisher’s Weekly article. For more information, please visit www.publishersweekly.com.

– Joy Farrington, The Book Club Expert

For some in publishing it may be a curiosity, for others a point of contention—Amazon’s practice of including free downloads in its list of most popular Kindle titles. It will soon no longer be an issue. A representative at the e-tailer has confirmed that the company will be splitting its Kindle bestseller list, creating one list for paid books and another for free titles. The date for the switch is vague—the rep would only say it will happen in “a few weeks”—but the switch will certainly be noticed.

Currently the top ten bestselling titles on Amazon’s Kindle bestseller list are free downloads, a fact that speaks to how publishers are testing the free model to get attention for certain authors. In a January 23 piece in The New York Times, the paper’s former publishing reporter Motoko Rich explored the phenomenon. In the piece, Rich noted that over half of the most popular titles on Amazon’s Kindle bestseller list were free downloads. Now, with the list to be split up, one has to wonder if publishers will find free giveaways as valuable a promotion tool

Vook Releasing 19 Titles on Ipad

The Kindle may have pushed e-book sales to record numbers this pass year, but the iPad is going to be credited for the upcoming e-media wave, making e-books more accessible for book readers. Plus when you add the continuous battle of e-book pricing between Amazon and major publishing companies, I’m sure the next 6 months will see e-media taking that last final leap into the norm.

-Joy Farrington, The Book Club Expert

Mixed-media book publisher Vook announced yesterday that it is releasing 19 titles on the iPad. The vooks, with their blending of content and video, are ideal for the device, which allows for the incorporation of more media options in the reading experience than existing, dedicated e-readers. A representative at Vook said this type of content was “tailor-made” for the iPad. The vooks’ prices vary, ranging from 99 cents to $9.99, but the rep said the average title is between $4.99 and $6.99. Vook is also currently giving away two titles–Love, Love, Love: Shakespeare in the City and The Sherlock Holmes Experience–which, like other vooks, can be found in Apple’s iBookstore. Other vooks include titles by Anne Rice, Seth Godin and Gary Vaynerchuck. Speaking to the significance of the iPad’s launch to the vook format, Vook CEO and founder Brad Inman said: “We will remember the iPad launch as the day that the publishing industry officially made the leap to mixed-media digital formats and never looked back.”

From Publisher Weekly- posted April 1st, 2010