Amazon

John Oakes, the co-founder of OR Books, has written an opinion piece for Publisher’s Weekly, encouraging publishers to free themselves from the traditional print book supply chain (as well as from the shackles of Amazon) by selling eBooks directly to consumers and fostering community around small bookstores.

Oakes said that with good marketing its is possible to train the consumer to bypass Amazon and buy eBooks from the publisher. He also explained how this can help build print sales among small bookstores. He wrote:

By creating a buzz around a book online and fostering online communities of readers around each book, we create a small but reliable in-store demand as well. And we’ve found that increasingly stores are open to buying on a prepaid, nonreturnable basis; we give them a flat 50% discount, not dithering over a percentage point here or there. Stores order a smaller amount than they would under the old “order now, pay later” system, but they sell what they take in stock, and reorder.

Launch a social media campaign that will build your brand and deliver results in our online Social Media Marketing Boot Camp starting June 7. Speakers include Abigail Cusick (Bravo Digital), Gregory Galant (Sawhorse Media), Alex Leo (Thomson Reuters Digital), Jim Tobin (Ignite Social Media), and many more. Read the reviews.

Amazon has unveiled its Most Well-Read Cities in America list, an annual list of the leading cities with 100,000 or more residents that have the most Amazon sales of “all book, magazine and newspaper sales in both print and Kindle format.”

The complete list follows below–what do you think? Here’s more from the release:

Berkeley, Calif., is a city full of jet-setters – it topped the list by ordering the most Travel books. Boulder, Colo., keeps the closest eye on its waistline by topping the list of cities that order the most books in the Health, Fitness & Dieting category. Virginia is for lovers – Alexandria, Va., that is, which tops the charts in the Romance book category. Cambridge, Mass., grows the most budding entrepreneurs. These locals topped the list for ordering the most books in the Business & Investing category.

Read more

Big box retailer Target, which has been selling Amazon’s Kindle devices in its stores since 2010, is pulling the devices from its shelves. However, industry experts don’t think the move will hurt Amazon’s device sales.

The New York Times has more from Simba Information senior analyst Michael Norris: “[Amazon] pushed aggressively into the retail stores because they realized that people like to be able to touch things before they buy them … It’s probably just a mild annoyance for Amazon unless other retailers follow suit.’”

We explained why Target decided to stop selling the Kindle over at AppNewser: “The reason? Because Amazon encourages customers to check out products in physical stores but tries to compete by offering cheaper prices for shopping on Amazon.com.”

Read more

The Hunger Games trilogy now rules Amazon Kindle’s Most Highlighted Passages of All Time List. Out of the ten most popular quotes underlined by Kindle readers, eight passages were from the dystopian trilogy that spawned a blockbuster film.

The only non-Hunger Games book to crack the top ten most highlighted passages of all time list was Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. This quote has been underlined by more than 8,800 Kindle users: “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.”

Here is the most highlighted passage of all time on the Kindle, a quote from Catching Fire (the second book in The Hunger Games trilogy): “Because sometimes things happen to people and they’re not equipped to deal with them.” This quote has been underlined by 17,784 Kindle users.

Amazon Studios will now accept pitches for comedy and children’s series, hoping to add one project a month to the company’s growing slate of projects to develop for its instant video viewers.

The company will pay creators $55,000 if they distribute the series, along with “up to 5 percent of Amazon’s net receipts from toy and t-shirt licensing, and other royalties and bonuses” for the work. If any children’s writers in the audience apply, keep us posted on your progress.

Here’s how to apply: “To submit, a project must have a five-page description, along with a 22-minute pilot script for comedies, or an 11-minute pilot script for children’s shows. Within 45 days of submission, Amazon Studios will either extend an option on the project for $10,000 or invite the creator to add the project to the Amazon Studios site. If a project is not optioned, creators may remove their idea from the Amazon Studios site or leave it to get community feedback.”

Author Buzz Bissinger watched his book get yanked off Amazon recently. Byliner removed After Friday Night Lights (a sequel to his bestselling Friday Night Lights) after Amazon dropped the price to zero as a matter of procedure.

Through an Apple and Starbucks promotion, customers could redeem the book for free. To compete with the lowest price available, Amazon dropped its price to zero. Unhappy with this move, Bissinger’s publisher Byliner.com pulled the title.

The company released this statement to The New York Times: “While we greatly value Amazon as a partner in this new category, we need to protect our authors’ interests. As such, we had to remove the title from Amazon until May 1. We’re disappointed that Amazon customers won’t have access to this wonderful story, but we’re pleased that readers still have other options to purchase and enjoy Buzz’s powerful sequel.”

Amazon has released its earning report for the first quarter of 2012, beating Wall Street estimates. Nevertheless, net income decreased by 35 percent compared to the same period last year.

Here’s more from the release: “Net sales increased 34% to $13.18 billion in the first quarter, compared with $9.86 billion in first quarter 2011 … Net income decreased 35% to $130 million in the first quarter, or $0.28 per diluted share, compared with net income of $201 million, or $0.44 per diluted share, in first quarter 2011.”

Experts had expected the online retailers sales to increase by 31 percent, estimating Amazon would count $12.9 billion in sales. The company also counted “more than 130,000 new, in-copyright books that are exclusive to the Kindle Store.”

Amazon has cut a deal for a ten-year print and eBook license for North American rights to Ian Fleming‘s James Bond series. Starting this summer, Amazon Publishing’s Thomas & Mercer imprint will re-release the classic spy series.

Curtis Brown managing director Jonny Geller negotiated the deal. Amazon has also acquired the rights to two nonfiction books written by Fleming:  Thrilling Cities and The Diamond Smugglers. Geller had this comment in the release: “This deal heralds a new phase in Ian Fleming’s publishing story. We are excited to be working with Amazon in North America to bring a new generation of readers to Ian Fleming’s classic novels.”

Last year, the Thomas & Mercer imprint announced that acquired the rights to 47 books by the late crime writer Ed McBain.

Amazon’s digital sales grew 29% for Q1 2012 compared to Q4 2011, according to a new report from intelligence company eDataSource. The report, which estimated of the sales of both iTunes and Amazon’s digital business as part of its new e-commerce monitoring service, found that  iTunes sales grew 2% during the same period.

eBookNewser has more: “While Amazon’s business appears to be growing faster in these numbers, the report points out that iTunes sales still are 3.5x higher than Amazon’s digital sales volume domestically. In addition, the report found that iTunes customers spend 61% more than Amazon digital customers.”

eDataSource CEO Carter Nicholas stated: “iTunes was a key driver in hardware and overall sales for Apple.  They built a great lead and a very sophisticated ecosystem where it is easy to buy. That shows in terms of the magnitude in total sales for iTunes and the amount spent per person.  Amazon and others are behind but showing growth as their ecosystems become more robust and complete.  29% growth from the previous quarter is an impressive number.” Read more

Amazon.com is now selling “eBooks Kindle en Español” in the Kindle store. This includes titles from Spanish speaking authors such as Pablo Neruda, as well as translated titles from authors such as Kurt Vonnegut.

This is the first time that Spanish language eBooks have been available for sale by Amazon in the United States. Amazon also has some new Spanish language customer service pages including a phone number and email support in Spanish.

eBookNewser has more: “Spanish speakers can set their Kindle and Kindle apps to Spanish language and shop for titles in their language, as well as access the social features in the Kindle in Spanish.”