Slicebooks, a digital publishing platform that lets publishers cut up and repackage eBook content through a widget, has raised a round of seed funding from ICG Ventures Inc., an Ingram Content Group company.

The company will use the funding to help support the company’s technology and the launch of an upcoming Slicebooks Store, a digital retail environment intended to help publishers repurpose existing content, be it books, magazines or journals, and repackage and sell them digitally. The partnership also makes Slicebooks available to any publisher that has integrated with Ingram Content Group’s CoreSource digital asset management platform. Publishers will not have the option to have their files delivered to Slicebooks for slicing.

“The Slicebooks ecosystem is all about helping publishers repurpose content to improve discoverability while also giving consumers greater choice and flexibility,” stated Jill Tomich, CEO of Slicebooks. “Our mission is to make all content available whole, sliced and remixable, and how, when and where consumers want it. Everything we build has that goal in mind.”

Digital textbook platform Boundless has released an iPhone app that gives students access to free digital textbooks as well as premium digital textbooks for a subscription fee. Prior to releasing the app, students could only access the service through Boundless’ online platform.

The mobile app brings the online experience to the iPhone by giving students access to online versions of their textbooks. The app lets students align their assigned textbook “chapter by chapter, section by section, so that you don’t need to buy your book. Our experts use the best of the internet to bring affordable textbook alternatives to you.”

The digital textbooks allow readers to search inside of them and feature concept summaries. Students can pay $20 for premium access which includes interactive study materials such as flashcards and chapter outlines and quizzes to help students test their knowledge. (Via Engadget).

Sony has created a new feature in its eReader store that lets readers look for books to read based on their mood.

It’s called the Emotion Match-Ups Discover Tool and lets readers choose from a list of thirty emotions and feelings to help discover books to read. Feeling adventurous? Sony thinks you might like to read Clive Cussler‘s Spartan Gold. In a dreamy mood? Stargazey Point: A Novel by Shelley Noble might be just the book you’re looking for.

Using the tool you can scroll through a screen of emoticons and choose the one that fits your mood. Then you can peel back the emotion to find a recommended book underneath. The tool will automatically direct you to the book’s listing in the Sony Reader Store.

Buying an eBook from the Amazon or Barnes & Noble app on your iPhone or iPad may get a little easier pretty soon if the Department of Justice gets its way.

Today the organization released its antitrust proposal for Apple’s price fixing punishment.  As part of the plan, Apple would be required to let competing eBook retailers provide hyperlinks to their own stores within these competing eBook apps, which would make it easier to buy books from different eBook retailers from an iOS device. A few years ago you could buy eBooks on Apple devices from within Amazon and Barnes & Noble’s apps, among others, but in 2011 Apple introduced a royalty system for all in-app media sales that made it unrealistic for retailers to sell books through iOS apps.

GalleyCat has more about the DOJ’s plans: “The proposed agreement needs to be approved by the court, but it would stop Apple from ‘entering into agreements with suppliers of e-books, music, movies, television shows or other content that are likely to increase the prices at which Apple’s competitor retailers may sell that content.’”

Random House’s science fiction and fantasy online community Suvudu has launched a blogger community called Suvudu Universe.

The site is filled with original content about science fiction and fantasy media written by the community of writers.  Writers that are published on the community can earn badges for placement and access to interact with authors. Suvudu will publish appropriate content, but the writer remains the owner of the media. Here is more about the submissions process from the site:

There’s not one formula for creating a post that will get published and each community is different, but all editors are looking for engaging, insightful and all-around high-quality blog entries with pictures. Make sure your post falls in line with the theme and style of the network. If you’re having trouble getting posts approved, check out some of the more popular ones on the network and you’ll quickly get a feel for what works best. Each one is a little different. Read more

As new technologies have turned the book publishing industry on its head, the U.S.’s largest chain bookstore’s push to embrace digital may lead to its ultimate demise. As Barnes & Noble raced to compete with Apple and Amazon in the eReader and tablet business hoping to own marketshare on eBook sales, the company lost hundreds of millions of dollars.

And let’s face it, a physical bookstore in an era of cheap e-commerce options doesn’t give them a lot of cash to spare. The company is now without a CEO after William Lynch, who spearheaded the Nook business plan, was forced to quit. Barnes & Noble’s biggest mistake seems to be forgetting about people’s love of print books and banking on eBook sales, which so far have steadied out around 20% of book sales. Read more

Penguin has relaunched its online writing community Book Country adding a digital book store, where writers can sell the books they have published with Book Country’s self-publishing tools, among other new feature updates.

Penguin introduced Book Country back in the summer of 2011, as a place for writers to workshop unfinished manuscripts and get feedback from other writers. The idea was to create a platform for writers to get advice from readers and editors alike so that writers could workshop their books before submitting them to a publishing house or publishing them on their own. The site currently has more than 8,300 active members. Members are required to read and comment on another book before they can upload theirs, a process designed so that the site is not just a bunch of uploaded manuscripts with no comments on them. According to a press release, the average manuscript gets about six reviews. And writers take the feedback to heart, as each manuscript gets about six rewrites.

Aside from the new bookstore, the latest update includes a feature that lets members direct message each other. Book Country has also updated its genre mapping tool, a way for writers to locate themselves on the genre spectrum. The genre map now has more than  60 categories, including nonfiction and young adult (YA).

FW: eBooks are entertainment, just as games are and we see a big overlap between our gamers and book readers so we see it as a great fit.

AN: What kinds of books are you making? Will they have interactive features?

FW: To begin with we are making books that are based on or connected to our own IP. It could be game guides or novels taking place in the games’ universe. To begin with it’s only text, but we are looking forward to adding more interactive features going forward. Read more

VIZ Media has partnered with eBookstore Kobo, bringing its digital manga graphic novels to the Kobo store. The partnership brings more than 500 volumes from 60 different series to the Kobo store including titles from Shonen Jump, Shonen Jump Advanced, Shojo Beat, and VIZ Signature collections.

The launch also includes the popular manga titles Naruto, Bleach, Blue Exorcist, One Piece and Vampire Knight. The publisher will regularly release new titles from its collection. New titles will be added regularly on Tuesdays. Over time, Kobo will carry VIZ Media’s full digital manga catalog of more than 1,500 volumes and 130 series. In addition, VIZ Media has synchronized its digital publishing schedule with print for future manga titles so that readers can get the books digitally at the same time as the print editions are available.

The Kobo platform is designed for comic book reading. It allows readers to zoom and pan in on different frames on comic books by double tapping.

Digital book developer Inkling has partnered with textbook companies Pearson and Elsevier to produce the digital editions of their books.

Inkling will create digital books for the two publishers that include interactive and rich media content such as audio and video. The partnerships will bring more than 1,000 new academic and medical titles to the Inkling Store. In addition to creating books, Inkling will also work as a distribution platform for Elsevier’s library of reference and learning content for both mobile and web.

To support Inkling’s growing consumer business, the company has hired three new executives. Gus Gostyla has joined Inkling as VP of business development, after working on business development for Flipboard. Hema Padhu comes from ModCloth to serve as Inkling’s new VP of marketing. Stephane Panier, a former GoodData and Google executive, has joined Inkling as VP of finance and operations.

The company also recently raised $16 million in series C investment, led by Sequoia Capital.