Around the Bookish World: News Week-in-Review

Filed in News , The Smutty Lover Posted on October 21, 2011 @ 11:00 am 8 comments
Welcome to this week’s news post and we have a pretty much packed post! The Booker awards finalist, more Amazon news and a new announcement from Kobo who will be releasing a coloured tablet. Plus our picks of upcoming books!
Well, for me the big announcement has to be from Kobo who will be launching a new wifi only tablet, and I have to say it might have pipped Amazon’s Fire tablet to the post if they are offering an open Android platform. It has similar specs to the Amazon Fire tablet, but also consists of an SD slot which can hold up to 32 gigs. An 8 gig memory and most importantly has the same price point of the Fire which is $199. It is up for preorder and is available for the US and Canada. I suspect it will also be available for international customers pretty soon, and unlike Amazon which I have suspected have delayed their releases due to setting up content and negotiating agreements in international countries. Whilst Kobo is basing their tablet on the open Android platform and wont be facing this barrier and will have gained a firm foothold by the time Amazon has. For more of the tech details click here.
Harlequin has announced they will cease to support the Mobi and the now defunct LIT formats at their site. So if you have any books in those formats stored in your account, I would download and backup before December the 31st.
Amazon has also announced they will be supporting HTML5 and according to blogger Mike Cane will probably discontinue their Mobi format. As he states in his post entry- whether the e-ink models can handle this is a question. But it looks like Amazon is revving a new war with its competitors and their tablets!

Another major publisher has launched an epub only imprint, Penguin has announced they will be releasing previously out of print titles by Nora Roberts and Guenevere Jones (AKA Jayne Castle). The new imprint is called InterMix – and they will also bring back the old category sized line, Signet Regency which released books in the 1970s and there is plans of original and reissues books to be published next year. However, Sarah from the Smart Bitches reported that the price point for the books will be around $6.99 which is a tad high for the length of these books.

This week announced the winner for the UK’s Booker Prize winner, Julian Barnes, The Sense of the Ending. Random House which publishes the book has already ordered 125 thousand copies to be printed due to increase in demand.

And now for this week’s covers!
First up – we have the YA, Born Wicked by Jessica Spotswood which looks fantastic.

Everybody knows Cate Cahill and her sisters are eccentric. Too pretty, too reclusive, and far too educated for their own good. But the truth is even worse: they’re witches. And if their secret is discovered by the priests of the Brotherhood, it would mean an asylum, a prison ship—or an early grave.

Before her mother died, Cate promised to protect her sisters. But with only six months left to choose between marriage and the Sisterhood, she might not be able to keep her word . . . especially after she finds her mother’s diary, uncovering a secret that could spell her family’s destruction. Desperate to find alternatives to their fate, Cate starts scouring banned books and questioning rebellious new friends, all while juggling tea parties, shocking marriage proposals, and a forbidden romance with the completely unsuitable Finn Belastra.

If what her mother wrote is true, the Cahill girls aren’t safe. Not from the Brotherhood, the Sisterhood—not even from each other.

Sophie Littlefield’s 2nd YA book, Unforsaken, I really liked her her first book Banished and she’s definitely an author to look out for!

Sabrina Jeffries, A Lady Never Surrenders which looks fun!

When the youngest Sharpe sister hatches a plan to gain marriage offers, the straight-laced Bow Street Runner Jackson Pinter knows he’ll do whatever it takes to ruin her scheme…

Lady Celia Sharpe hopes that if she can garner offers of marriage from several eligible gentlemen and show her grandmother she is capable of gaining a husband, she can convince Gran to rescind the marriage ultimatum for her. And if that plan doesn’t work, at least she’ll have a husband lined up. But Bow Street Runner Jackson Pinter seems determined to ruin her plans by disapproving of every suitor she asks him to investigate. It’s only when she and Jackson work together to solve her parents’ murders, plunging them both into danger, that she realizes why—because the only man he wants her to marry is himself!

And I really really am looking forward for these two books. Courtney Milan’s Unravelled and Jennifer Ashley’s The Duke’s Perfect Wife.

And finally we have Nadia Lee’s upcoming book slated for release this December from Carina:

Ashera del Cid is a talented demon hunter, but when she kills a demigod’s pet dragon, the hunter becomes the hunted. Her only potential ally is Ramiel, a sexy-as-hell demon. Now the two must work together to battle dragons and demigods…and the chemistry crackling between them.

Ramiel has his own reasons for offering Ashera his protection. He knows her true identity and the real reason the demigods want her dead. What he can’t predict is how she’ll react when she discovers he knew who she was all along…

Ashera is shocked to discover that she is the only daughter of the last slayer. To claim her destiny, she and Ramiel must join forces to face down danger and outwit their enemies. Only then will she be able to truly accept her legacy…


So what do you think of the new announcement by Kobo? Do you think it will entice you? 
And what about the new imprint InterMix? Is the price point fair?

About Caro The HEA Lover


Caroline is a HEA loving, yarn addicted French who's desperately hoping to get a HEA of her own. If she's not reading then she can be found knitting while listening to Audiobooks or watching Tv shows. Her secret addiction is reading websites that make fun at other people's expense (DYAC, Failbook)! Caroline also blogs at the Secret HEA Society with Susi.

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8 Comments

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  • JenM October 21, 2011 at 12:40 pm

    If it's true that Penguin is going to try to sell old Regencies and backlists at $6.99 for the ebook copy, they really do deserve to fail. They just keep shooting themselves in the foot and they have no one to blame but themselves when the inevitable happens and they are driven out of business. I would NEVER buy one of these books at that price.

  • LSUReader October 21, 2011 at 7:13 pm

    I'm looking forward to the books by Jeffries, Milan and Ashley. Thanks for posting the covers.

  • Diane October 21, 2011 at 7:23 pm

    The new Kobo certainly looks interesting!

  • roro October 22, 2011 at 8:29 am

    Thanks for posting the covers.lov the dragon 1

  • draconismoi October 23, 2011 at 12:14 am

    I stopped reading at "when she kills a demigod's pet dragon…"

    KILLS the dragon? Travesty! I've lost all interest in the Hearstone Trilogy.

  • Sheree October 23, 2011 at 3:35 am

    At least I managed to get Harlequin to let me download the ebooks I bought years ago before they close down the format. Now, if only they would remove the DRM, then I can convert the ebooks with calibre to a format I can use in my Kindle.

    Also, if Amazon is not going to use mobi anymore, what am I to read on my Kindle? pdf is horrible on Kindle. At times like this, I'm glad for my paper books.

    And I won't pay $6.99 for an ebook, no matter the size of the file.

    Not to be too grumpy, but I'm bummed that Sabrina Jeffries' "A Lady Never Surrenders" has a woman by herself on the cover. The rest of the series have at least a guy (and a couple of them were Paul Marron).

    Upside (and a great upside it is), I'm looking forward to "The Duke's Perfect Wife" – topless Paul Marron in a kilt! Woohoo!

  • LoriStrongin October 23, 2011 at 4:57 pm

    Thanks for these updates! Ditto than Penguin is out-pricing themselves into shutting down that line of business.

    Personally, I'm thrilled to see the mobi file format go. There are already way too many, and god help you if you want to change devices. That's the reason I'll only buy pdf editions since I have no problems switching them between my Sony ereader and my iPad.

    A bit of book news to share with you: Former head editor with Aspen Mountain Press goes public with the implosion of an established publishing house and brings to light the plight of the authors stuck there. I'm personally not involved with AMP, but definitely found this info important to know: http://kaantira.blogspot.com/2011/10/breaking-my-silence-on-aspen-mountain.html

    Thanks again for posting this!

    Smiles!
    Lori

  • Alisha (MyNeedToRead) October 24, 2011 at 11:44 pm

    Sheree…THANK YOU for putting a name to that body. :o)
    -New Paul Marron Fan

    On another note, I guess Im not understanding the whole mobi closeout. As another poster mentioned, what the deuce else are we supposed to use on a Kindle (outside of the proprietary AZW)? I buy a lot of books on from other sites (direct from publisher when possible), so hopefully that will work out. I love my Kindle, but I refuse to be 100% locked in to the device.

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