Recent reports have suggested that Google is moving to push ahead its Google Books venture by submitting a court brief to try and convince the US District Court to approve its revised settlement terms with American publishers and authors.

Google Books would be an online platform for digitising and selling books, but opponents have raised concerns about copyright law and monopoly issues that would surround the deal.

With the publishing world already struggling because of the selling power of supermarkets, who are able to sell books at reduced prices thereby circumventing the efforts of dedicated bookshops, could it be that Google will add to publishers’ woes with their digital venture? Or will Google Books signal something of a new age in publishing?

The new Apple tablet is all set to redefine the future of publishing by offering new methods of charging for digital content.

Print media companies have suffered from the amount of free and accessible content available these days. This may be all set to change with this new device as Apple gears up to market its product.

Past releases have proved that when it comes to these types of devices, consumers are more ready and willing to shell out their hard earned cash. People are happy to pay small amounts of money towards apps for their iPhone and download ringtones.

Many magazine publishers will soon offer their content on this platform and three have now signed up with Apple to do just that.

Ever since Amazon released the popular Kindle electronic reading device, other software developers have been frantically working on their own version to grab a slice of the market.

As Apple gears up to release its own version, with e-books accessible through its iTunes store – and Google is also expected to follow suit later in the year – publishers, authors and readers will be spoilt for choice.

The true value of an electronic book is still yet to be fully determined with Amazon setting its prices competitively and publishers working hard in negotiations to secure the best deal. Their positions could be strengthened somewhat with the introduction of Apple, and so a royalty terms battle is all set to commence.

With the recent demise of Borders Books just before Christmas as well as the poor sales over the festive period, Waterstone’s has not only decided to get rid of its boss Gerry Johnson but that enough is enough with regards to its strategy.

The book retail market has been dominated in recent years by online Amazon sales as well as cheap celebrity book sales at the likes of ASDA and Tesco. Waterstone’s has now decided it cannot compete and has decided to focus once more on being more of a ‘local’ bookshop.

This is hopefully good news for all those writers and small time publishers looking for their voices to be heard.

AOL, the American Internet services and media company, has announced this week that it is planning to lay off over 1,000 of its staff. This announcement was made as the business streamlines its efforts towards Web content publishing.

The company will be focusing on new online content and news blogs such as Politics Daily and Engadget.
Scott Steinberg, analyst with Digital Trends the media research site, has explained:

“This is a large behemoth trying to reposition itself as a smaller, more agile player in the online publishing space.

“The big question is whether AOL is going to be able to adapt fast enough.”

If you had been asked this question a few years back you would expect to be met with a sharp response. Any novelist or writer would have thought it futile to try and publish their own work. In this day and age of the Internet and online books, the reality is, there is more opportunity than ever before.

Some people have decided to invest in self-publishing packages to get their work published and keep the a greater share of the proceeds themselves without handing most over to publishers and advertisers. But this is not just about making money. In fact, many people who publish their own books do it out of the satisfaction that their book is out there in the public domain.

So, if you are starting to despair that no publisher will consider you for a book deal, think again. Maybe self-publishing is the way forward for you.

It can take years of patience before your work is finally published. However if you use innovative ideas like author Michael J. Gyulai you can help move things on a little quicker.

The author self published his work ‘Midnight in Rome’ in January 2008 but it didn’t’ feature on any large publishers radar. However Gyulai had other ideas. Using his knowledge of social media and web design skills he started a campaign which proved to generated a huge spike in sales. This meant that he got noticed and was offered a two year deal from a major publisher to reprint the work which was re-released in August.

Open publishing leader Lulu has just added a huge selection of 200,000 new eBook titles to its online content. Lulu has taken the step of introducing traditionally published content onto its site for the first time and hopes to break down the barriers of publishing. Their mission is to give readers opportunity to access to all types of content from a vast array of sources. Harish Abbott, senior vice president stated:

“It’s time for a new era in publishing, one that treats all content equally and gives all authors an equal shot at success,”

Access to literature and other forms of content from one source is Lulu’s ultimate goal and the addition of these 200,000 titles is a step in the right direction.

The Times online, the website version of the popular daily newspaper could be subscriber only early next year as Rupert Murdoch tries to claw back profits from lost revenue over the past few years.

The Times online is currently free to view but from June next year anyone who wants to read content on the site will have to pay a monthly or annual subscription fee. News International may even take the bold step of removing all its content from search engines like Google to try to win back readers and increase profits.

Plans for other titles like The Sun and The News of the World have yet to be finalised but whatever the outcome it will have to be a well calculated gamble to not alienate viewers and lose readers.

With many of today’s books now converted into digital format, the market has been flooded with different types of digital book readers. The Kindle, possibly the most high profile of these readers, is backed up by hundreds of thousands of books in digital format from the Kindle store. In fact, some new books are only available in Kindle format so can only be read in digital format by kindle, iPod touch or iPhone owners.

Now however, non-Kindle owners can rejoice. Amazon has announced the availability of a free application called Kindle for PC that now lets you read your digital Kindle downloads directly on your PC.

This is also great news for current Kindle owners who has amassed a collection of digital books and would like a different way to read them and also for non-Kindle owners who now have access to a huge library of digital books from the Kindle store.