Japanese Giants Team for E-books

by Michael Fitzgerald

Japan's biggest cellular services provider NTT Docomo and the Dai Nippon Printing Co. have launched a partnership to bring e-book content to Docomo's handsets to compete with Sony and others. Due to debut this fall, the service will combine Docomo’s existing content-distribution and payment systems with DNP’s planned hybrid digital/physical bookstores.

“The domestic e-book market is expected to grow as much as 7 times its current size to over JPY300billion) $3.5 billion) in the next 5 years, so it is natural a big player like Docomo will want be in the race,” said mobile industry consultant Mr. Kei Shimada of Tokyo-based Infinita. The service will be initially targeted at Docomo’s 56 million customers. E-books will be available via a mobile bookstore that users will access with Docomo wireless devices, including mobile phones, smartphones, tablet computers and e-book readers. The store will launch with more than 100,000 titles, including electronic books, manga comics, magazines and newspapers, according to Docomo.

Japanese publishers, which on the whole had been slow to capitalize on the e-book revolution, seem to welcome the deal. “We expect this alliance, which encompasses a vast number of physical bookstores as well as Japan’s largest mobile operator in terms of customers, will play a major role in the development of Japan’s e-book market.” said Yoshinobu Noma, vice president at Kodansha Ltd.

DNP says it will use Japan’s top bookseller Maruzen (part of the DNPg roup) and other bookshops to increase dramatically the number of books for sale in the digitized form.

DNP, one of Japan’s largest comprehensive printing companies, revealed last month its plan for a hybrid digital/physical bookstore system, which will combine the newly announced mobile store for e-books, the DNP group’s existing online store for printed books and physical bookstore chains in the DNP group, including Maruzen, Junkudo and Bunkyodo.

Docomo will first offer the Dai Nippon e-book service through its smartphones before releasing a dedicated e-book reader sometime this year.

The two are now pitting themselves against the country’s second biggest mobile provider KDDI Corp which teamed up with Sony in May to distribute e-books and Google which plans to launch an e-book service in Japan early next year. Sony/KDDI are to start offering its service through a new Sony e- reader to be released in Japan this year.

Second firm backs Barnes & Noble against Burkle

Second firm backs Barnes & Noble against Burkle

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Egan-Jones Proxy Services has recommended that Barnes & Noble Inc shareholders support the bookseller in its proxy battle with billionaire investor Ron Burkle, becoming the second advisory firm this week to side with the bookstore chain.
Egan-Jones said shareholders should support two of Barnes & Noble's three nominees for the board, including chairman and top shareholder Leonard Riggio at the retailer's annual meeting on September 28 in New York. It also urged them to reject Burkle's proposal to change Barnes & Noble's anti-takeover poison pill.
Egan Jones said in its report that Burkle has not proposed a "convincing strategy" to turn the retailer around, echoing an analysis submitted on Wednesday by Glass Lewis & Co.
Burkle, whose Yucaipa Companies owns 18.8 percent of the retailer's shares and is its second-largest shareholder, last month launched a proxy war against Riggio and the company, charging Riggio, who founded the chain, has mismanaged Barnes & Noble for his own benefit. Riggio owns 28.2 percent of shares.
Burkle has nominated himself and two others for election to the board for three-year terms.
Egan-Jones recommended shareholders withhold support from Barnes & Noble nominee David Golden, a partner in investment firm Revolution LLC, because he serves on too many boards.
In a statement, Barnes & Noble said, "Egan-Jones's analysis reiterates what we have been saying all along -- Yucaipa has not put forth a convincing strategy."
Representatives for Yucaipa did not immediately return a request for comment.
Barnes & Noble shares closed down 0.4 percent at $15.88.
(Reporting by Phil Wahba; Editing by Bernard Orr)

Oprah picks Franzen's novel "Freedom" for book club

By Andrew Stern Andrew Stern – Fri Sep 17, 12:27 pm ET

CHICAGO (Reuters) – Television talk show queen Oprah Winfrey chose Jonathan Franzen's best-selling novel "Freedom" for her book club on Friday, calling the book "a masterpiece" and setting aside a previous contretemps with the author.
"I am really betting that 'Freedom,' by Jonathan Franzen, will end up being for you, as it is for me, one of the best novels you have ever read," Winfrey said as her staff handed out copies to her studio audience in Chicago.
"This book is a masterpiece spanning three decades," Winfrey said of the 64th selection on her syndicated show, which is in its 25th and final season and is viewed by millions in 145 countries.
"It is an epic family saga. It has everything. It has sex and love, even rock and roll, and everything you should want in a book," Winfrey said.
In 2001, Winfrey chose Franzen's National Book Award winner "The Corrections," but the novelist snubbed her by calling her book club picks "schmaltzy, one-dimensional" and worried that her recommendation might discourage his male readers.
Winfrey canceled Franzen's appearance on her show, saying he was apparently "uncomfortable" with being selected.
The book went on to become a big seller, perhaps aided by the additional media attention.
This time, Winfrey said she sent Franzen a note asking for his permission to feature his latest novel "because we have a little history."
Franzen has said in interviews he would be happy if Winfrey chose his novel.
Since launching her book club in 1996 to promote reading, Winfrey's choices have ranged from high-brow fiction and popular autobiographies to new releases and classics of literature. Her picks invariably vault the books to the top of best-seller lists.
But a 2005 pick, James Frey's "A Million Little Pieces," angered Winfrey after the author admitted to fabricating parts of the memoir. She subsequently excoriated Frey in a televised interview.
"Freedom" is published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux, which is part of Germany's Georg von Holtzbrinck Group.
Franzen, 51, released "Freedom" last month and it shot straight to No. 1 on The New York Times hardcover fiction list. The newspaper's review said the story of a liberal middle-class American family was Franzen's "most deeply felt novel yet."
Past picks by Winfrey included "Say You're One Of Them" by Uwem Akpan, "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy, "The Story of Edgar Sawtelle" by David Wroblewski, "A New Earth" by Eckhart Tolle, "Anna Karenina" by Leo Tolstoy and "Night" by Elie Wiesel.
Winfrey obtained a rare interview with McCarthy and has entertained other authors, posted excerpts from their books on her web site, and suggested topics for book club discussions.
Winfrey insisted the coming end of her show does not mean her book club will expire, saying she planned to continue making book recommendations when her Oprah Winfrey Network begins airing on cable television next year.
(Editing by Chris Wilson)

Obama children's book already a hit

NEW YORK – President Obama is still a hit with the nation's book buyers.

Obama's tribute to 13 American ground breakers, "Of Thee I Sing," was in the top 25 on Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble.com as of Wednesday morning, less than two days after the children's book was announced and two months before its scheduled release. Random House Children's Books plans a first printing of 500,000 copies.
Both of Obama's previous works, the memoir "Dreams From My Father" and the policy book "The Audacity of Hope," are million sellers.
Obama, who finished "Of Thee I Sing" before his administration began, is the rare president to have a book come out while still in office. He will be an even rarer one if "Of Thee I Sing" is a best seller. Presidents from Ulysses S. Grant to John F. Kennedy to Bill Clinton have written popular books, but none came out while they were in the White House. Clinton's policy book, "Between Hope and History," was released near the end of his first term and sold a fraction of the memoir "My Life," published three years after his second term.
At a press briefing Wednesday, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said that neither Obama nor his daughters, Malia or Sasha, who helped inspire "Of Thee I Sing" and appear on the illustrated, will be involved in marketing the book.
Asked about how the White House urges the media to respect the girls' privacy, but then features them on the book jacket, Gibbs said, "Our encouragement is to keep their private lives private.
"If you read the book, it is, I think the president would tell you, an inspirational book about the country they live in and about their ability and the ability for children throughout this country to dream, as the president talked about yesterday (during a back-to-school address to students), to dream big and accomplish whatever they want to," Gibbs said.
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Associated Press Writer Darlene Superville in Washington contributed to this report.

Schwarzenegger-Shriver daughter writes first book

LOS ANGELES – Katherine Schwarzenegger is following in the footsteps of her high-achieving parents, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver.

The 20-year-old college student has written a book coming out next week that's aimed at helping girls gain confidence in their bodies and themselves. It's titled "Rock What You've Got: Secrets to Loving Your Inner and Outer Beauty" (Hyperion).
Schwarzenegger says part of the motivation for the book was overhearing her preteen cousins talk about their desire to be thin and "sexy." She's also faced her own battle with self-esteem as a teenager in the public eye.
The book is the first for Katherine Schwarzenegger, a junior at the USC Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism. Her mother, a former NBC News correspondent, also is an author.

Fans charged 690USD for Jimmy Page book

LONDON (AFP) – A leather and silk-bound photographic autobiography by Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page will go on sale later this month for a hefty 445 pounds (540 euros, 690 dollars).
Page, one of the world's top guitarists, has chosen nearly 650 photographs to provide a visual history of his musical career, annotated by extended captions written by him.
Only 2,500 copies are being sold, each of them signed and hand-bound in leather and laser-cut Perspex. The pages and spine are decorated in gold, and the book is presented in a silk-bound slipcase.
Although most fans are likely to balk at the price, Page said he appreciated the "fine bookbinding" of the speciality publishers, Genesis.
The book goes on sale on September 27.

Declining Frankfurt book fair pins hopes on digital

FRANKFURT (AFP) – The Frankfurt Book Fair, the world's largest, will focus this year on the digital sector, organizers said Thursday, as the show seeks to arrest a decline in exhibitor numbers. With smart-phones and electronic books all the rage, "reading is undergoing a revolution," the fair's director Juergen Boos told reporters.
However, he added that the fair "is dedicated to content" and will showcase authors and editors rather than technology.
The fair, which welcomed 290,000 visitors last year, will have 6,930 exhibitors this year, a five-percent drop compared to 2009, organizers said.
The decline is mainly due to the fact that Argentina is this year's "guest of honor" and is bringing a smaller delegation than China, which filled this role last year.
The economic crisis has also hit numbers, preventing some exhibitors -- especially from Eastern Europe -- from making the trip to Frankfurt, the birthplace of Goethe, Boos said.
The 62nd edition of the fair runs from October 6 to 10.