Market News for the Week

Happy Friday, everyone! Hope you all had a great week. Today we have some market news and our regular blog hop. Here's what's going on in the publishing world.

Karen Ramsey has published an amazing article about stealing e-books. As she puts it, it's not piracy, it's flat out stealing. Karen aptly points out that we writers, like many others working in entertainment, do not make lots of money off our work, contrary to popular belief. Very few of us manage to hit it rich with our writing. We use the little money we make from our books to buy groceries, pay our mortgage, provide for our children, etc. Stealing e-books is just like stealing from your neighbor. We're not some rich Hollywood big-wig. We're normal people. To read more of Karen's article, click the following link: Writers Against E-book Thieves

In a New York Times article by Richard Russo, he shines light on the horrific sales tactics on Amazon. Amazon has been encouraging customers to go into brick and mortar bookstores and use it's price check app (which allows shoppers in physical stores to scan bar-codes and see if they can get a better "deal" on Amazon) to earn a 5% credit on Amazon purchases--up to $5 dollars an item, up to three times. As author Ann Pachett states, "I do think it’s worthwhile explaining to customers that the lowest price point does not always represent the best deal. If you like going to a bookstore then it’s up to you to support it. If you like seeing the people in your community employed, if you think your city needs a tax base, if you want to buy books from a person who reads, don’t use Amazon.” To read more about Amazon's attempts to monopolize the book market, click the following link: Amazon's Jungle Logic.

A time entertainment article discusses the rise of cowboy romance. If you like reading about sexy cowboys, check this out: Cowboy Romance Popularity Growing

An article in Telegraph UK highlights the importance of beautiful book covers. Do you judge a book by it's cover? To read more about the importance of covers to book advertising, click the following link: Beautiful Book Covers--How Important Are They?

On a related topic, a NYTimes article discusses the importance of improving book covers as well. "If e-books are about ease and expedience, the publishers reason, then print books need to be about physical beauty and the pleasures of owning, not just reading." To read more about publisher's effort to beautify books, click the following link: Selling Books by Their Gilded Covers

 n a document leaked today to Digital Book World by someone inside the company, Hachette outlines just why publishers are relevant. The company has shown the document internally to employees and externally to a limited number of agents and authors.

A leaked document from publishing giant, Hachette Books, explains why publishing companies are relevant and why the rise of self-publishing does not mean traditional publishers are obselete. To read what Hachette has to say, click the following link: Leaked Hachette Document

And finally, the U.S Justice Department has confirmed an investigation on unfair pricing in the ebook industry. Uh oh, watch out Amazon. To read more, please click the following link: U.S Dep of Justice Investigates Ebooks

That's it for market news this week. Don't forget to participate in our regular blog hop. My answer to this week's blog hop question is in the comments. On Monday we'll have a QA interview with author Kristin Miller about the latest novel in her Vampires of Crimson Bay Series, titled Vamped Up. I'll post a review of the book on Wednesday. =) Til then! Have a great weekend!