BookBrunch

Macmillan, with an assist from Apple, has pushed Amazon to accept what may be a sustainable business model. (PC World) (Some of the figures in this piece may be a little off. For example, the author, David Coursey, writes: "At $14.99 with a 50/50 split, writing and publishing e-books looks like a real business." Some reports have suggested that the retailer's percentage may be only 30%. On the other hand, why would retailers accept 30% when they are accustomed to getting 50%-plus?)

Although the big publishers will take advantage of these devices as well, it wouldn't surprise me independent authors make up the bulk of products offered on Apple's iBookstore. (PCMag)

Proliferation of ebook channels is good news for publishers. (AFP)

Budgeting for Infertility is not an odd title. (About.com: Fertility Blog)

Writing on Alan Gibbons' Good Library Blog, Tim Coates says that he has "received information" that library suppliers have signed contracts offering 47.5% off the cover price of books. It sounds like good news; but the catch is that the suppliers, not the libraries, do the selecting.

You don’t have to be too experienced to know that such a level of discount narrows the field of books that can be selected by wholesalers and suppliers to a very few new publications and a wide range of remainder stock ... If this is true then it represents a major breach of public trust and a total failure of professional conduct.

HarperCollins and Hachette join Macmillan in plans to switch to agency model of selling ebooks. (Digital Trends)

Macmillan's attempt to bring back the NBA [by taking control of prices through the agency model] ... while it might result in a few more hardback sales in the short term, can only end in disaster for everyone concerned. (Paul Carr, TechCrunch)

Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America delink Amazon, accusing it of "hurting authors". (io9.com)

Waterstone's withdraws children's catalogue after mistakenly including Stuart MacBride's Sawbones (Barrington Stoke), a graphic thriller aimed at adults with reading difficulties. (Sunday Times)

Simon Beckett, the "unknown" crime writer who in 2009 was Britain's bestselling novelist in continental Europe. (Sunday Times)

British Library's e-publishing programme, sponsored by Microsoft, to make 19th-century texts available free through Kindle. (Telegraph)

J D Salinger entered into detailed correspondence with Penguin Classics editor Tim Bates over jacket designs. (Guardian)

Obituary of Peter Hodgkiss, publisher of mountaineering books at the Ernest Press. (Independent)

The Book People secures a £15m asset-based loan facility from specialist lender Burdale to support current and future working capital requirements. (Retail Week headline, via Book2Book)

FT Press introduces Elements and Shorts - digital titles at $1.99 and $2.99 respectively. (New York Times)

The London Libraries Change Programme aims to bring all London boroughs' services up to "best practice" standards, Roy Clare of the MLA writes; the LLCP has failed to respond to the most urgent needs, Tim Coates replies. (Alan Gibbons' blog)

Ed Vaizey, Shadow Culture Minister, reveals some of his speech to the Society of Bookmen (which conducts its dinner under the Chatham House Rule): Margaret Hodge's questioning of the statutory status of libraries is "an outrageous proposal to anyone who cares about books and reading". (Shadow CMS website)

Waterstone's launches digital edition of Books Quarterly. (Media Week)

Books from Manchester Central Library to be stored in Cheshire salt mines. (Macclesfield Express)

93% of owners are happy with their ebook readers. (PCMag)

Authors and consumers should applaud the push to lower prices. (Huffington Post)

The iPad is not the ebook game-changer I had hoped for. (AppleBlog)

Rupert Murdoch: "We don't like the Amazon model of selling everything at $9.99." (Reuters)

HarperCollins revenue, profits up in the fourth quarter. (Publishers Weekly)

Amazon has "egg on its face". (Crain's) Or, "Amazon is the winner". (James McQuivey of Forrester Research, on paidContent)

Authors Guild commends Macmillan. (Publishers Weekly)

Conflicts of formats "could cool consumers' enthusiasm for e-books". (PA)

Waterstone's aims to boost online sales with help from "content optimisation specialist" Maxymiser. (Brand Republic, via Book2Book)

Lee Brackstone's open letter to Morrissey: "I can only fantasise that at least you might read my letter through and consider the pleasures and prestige of being an author at Faber." (Faber blog)

The books behind the Oscar contenders. (Carolyn Kellogg, LA Times)

Thieves in the US make off with 12,000 copies of Ricky Gervais' Flanimals. (Guardian)

Amazon shares dip following ebook pricing battle with Macmillan; pressure from other publishers may follow. (Reuters)

US independent booksellers express their "alarm" at cuts to leading publishers' rep forces. (Publishers Weekly)

Don't expect unpublished J D Salinger masterpieces to surface. (Philip Hensher, Independent)

Sarah Palin spent $63,000 through her political action committee to buy copies of Going Rogue to give to donors. (New York Daily News)

Latest US book sensation is about a cat who seems to sense when patients at a nursing home are about to die. (Reuters)

"Millions of people now own Kindles," says Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, repeating the claim that "When we have both editions, we sell six Kindle books for every 10 physical books." (AFP)

Do readers really want "enhanced" ebooks? (Publishing Perspectives)

How Orchises Press, a small publisher, won and then lost the rights to publish Hapworth 16, 1924 by J D Salinger. (Washington Post)

J K Rowling, Philip Pullman are among the authors opposed to the Google Books Settlement. (Times)

But Google Books Settlement supporters include Wally Lamb, Simon Winchester, Beverly Cleary, Amy Tan, Scott Turow, Garrison Keillor and Elmore Leonard. (AFP)

Former colleague releases biography asserting that Stieg Larsson was not a prominent journalist; another believes that Larsson "could not have written the novels". (BBC)

Critics including Amazon continue to slam Google Books Settlement (Wall Street Journal).

Bristol is to spend £500,000 on technology enabling a self-service system - involving job cuts - in libraries (This Is Bristol).

The reason why Apple's much-hyped new iPad will probably not bring about the much-discussed "iPod moment for books" lurks in this review, by Bobbie Johnson in the Guardian.

Switched into ebook mode, the way the iPad emulates the printed page feels fairly natural, if not entirely on a par with rival ebook readers such as Amazon's Kindle. The backlit screen doesn't come anywhere near the clarity of electronic ink, which means it's going to prove a lot harder on the eyes of bookworms (it's great for reading in bed, one Apple flunky told me, keen to stress the positive side).

This does not appear to be a description of a category killer.

The iPad possesses several advantages over the Kindle. It has numerous other applications, so consumers are not forking out hundreds of pounds for a device that merely replicates a function (reading) they can otherwise perform for free. It uses an open format, EPub. Many buyers will prefer Apple's online store to Amazon's. For publishers, the attraction is that Apple enables them to set their own prices.

Publishers have been broadly welcoming. Reuters quotes Penguin CEO John Makinson: