The Bookseller is reporting that, for the first time ever, more eBooks were produced in the UK than hardbacks.

According to figures recently released by Neilsen Bookscan, 149,800 new ISBNs were registered in the UK in 2011 (down from last year’s 151,959). Of that total, 35,000 ISBNs were registered for eBooks, 30,175 for hardback books, and 71,000 ISBNs were assigned to new paperbacks.

As an official milestone, this is an important occasional.  Now it is no longer fair to complain about eBooks being priced as high as hardbacks; instead we should complain about hardbacks being prices as low as eBooks.

Kidding aside, we probably reached this point some time in 2009 or 2010, and I’m guessing this because the Neilsen figures don’t count all the eBooks being produced, just the ones with ISBNs. A significant part of self-pubbed eBooks don’t have ISBNs, so Neilsen cannot track them.

The Bookseller

image by avinashkunnath

If you’ve ever wondered how a full time author spends his time then the infographic above might interest you. It was put together by Ryan Gielen, and it is based on his experiences over the past year.

The Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America has responded to the Amazon/Independent Publishers Group (IPG) contract lapse — which resulted in the removal of almost 5,000 indie books from the Kindle book store — by removing Amazon links for books on its website. The site now links to other retailers, including Powell’s and Barnes & Noble.

SFWA explains the move on its site: “Our goal is to make sure that it is possible to order our members’ fiction. Hurting authors to make a point about a publishing model is not a good practice, for anyone.”

GalleyCat has more: “SFWA is not alone. Last week author Jim Hanas removed the Amazon buy button from his website for the book Why They Cried. eBook social networking site Copia also responded by running a sale on titles that had been cut from the Kindle store.”

This photo was taken in the window of independent book store Spoonbill & Sugartown in Brooklyn, NY.

It reads: “‘e-books’ are not books, only books are books. Happiness is a warm book.”

As you can see from the sign in the window, they are not one of the indie book stores that are embracing eBooks and selling them through Google.

Funnily enough some of the other bookstores that they mention as “other great bookshops” include Word, St. Mark’s and Greenlight, all of whom sell eBooks from their websites.

iBooks continues to lead as the most popular free app in the Apple App Store this week, according to Apple. Kindle is the second most popular free book app in iTunes. Barnes & Noble’s Nook app joins the list this week at No. 5. The book retailer’s B&N app remains on the list at No. 13, where it joined the list last week.

Explore these 20 free apps and find out what kind of literary apps succeed in this crowded marketplace. We spotlight the top grossing book apps, the top paid Android books apps and the most popular free apps every week.

Below, we’ve listed the top free iOS apps of the week–linking to iTunes so that you can check out the apps. Read more

Developers who create content for Apple’s App Store have revealed that they can create apps that can access users address book and photos without the user knowing.

The New York Times reports: “The New York Times asked a developer, who asked not to be named because he worked for a popular app maker and did not want to involve his employer, to create a test application that collected photos and location information from an iPhone. When the test app, PhotoSpy, was opened, it asked for access to location data. Once this was granted, it began siphoning photos and their location data to a remote server. (The app was not submitted to the App Store.).” Read more

If you’re like me then you are probably already partly converted to a digital lifestyle. For example, I don’t look up phone numbers and addresses in a phone book anymore; Google is faster and better.That means I don’t need to have a phone book around, and I was thrilled today to learn that I could opt out of receiving one. Read more

An urban fantasy novella by indie author Shirin Dubbin is our free eBook today. Here’s more detail from the book description:

One man is a harbinger. The other a bad boy. She’s set to save their race. Too bad she has to die.

NiaMora, a magical crime scene cleaner, is destined to die tonight. Severin, a harbinger of death, has already arrived to bear witness. But he’ll defy his duty. He won’t stand by and watch, not when NiaMora may be the Fae’s last hope of survival.

You can find this eBook on Amazon. It had been previously listed on B&N and All Romance, but the listings re not showing up in searches.

Amazon announced today that the Kindle Library now has more than 100,000 titles available. Kindle readers can check out a book a month without any due dates using this library.

In the press release, Amazon shared some stats including the fact that, “since launching the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library in November 2011, selection has grown by over 20 times,” and “more than a third of the Top 20 Kindle Best Sellers in February are enrolled in the library and available to borrow for free.”

Authors can earn money based on check outs. Last month, the company reported that customers borrowed 295,000 KDP Select titles in December and that KDP authors earned $1.70 for each time their book was borrowed. Amazon also revealed that authors who lend their titles in the library have on average 26% higher sales overall.

The new Harry Potter website Pottermore is not only releasing Harry Potter eBooks for sale. The company has partnered with OverDrive to make the books available for readers to borrow through libraries.

The press release explains more: “Under the terms of the agreement, OverDrive, a leading global distributor of eBooks and digital audiobooks, will manage hosting and digital fulfillment for libraries for the Harry Potter collection of eBooks and digital audiobooks in English and more than 20 other languages to OverDrive’s growing network of over 18,000 public and school libraries worldwide.”

Charlie Redmayne, Pottermore CEO, stated: “We are keen to support public and school libraries, and OverDrive, as one of the leading suppliers in this market, provides us with a global network that helps us achieve this, as well as encouraging the discovery of these amazing books across the world.”