Amazon announced on Friday that the Kindle Unlimited funding pool grew to $23.3 million in August (plus bonuses), up from $23.1 million in July 2018. At the same time the per-page rate royalty essentially didn’t change, remaining at   $0.004491, compared to $0.004460 in June and $0.00454 in May 2018.

• US: $0.0045 (USD)
• UK: £0.0034 (GBP)
• Canada: $0.0044 (CAD)
• Germany: €0.0029 (EUR)
• Netherlands, France, Spain, Italy: €0.0045 (EUR)
• Brazil: R$ 0.0109 (BRL)
• Japan: 0.5567 (JPY )
• India: 0.8736 (INR)
• Mexico, Australia: unknown

Here’s a list of the monthly funding pools. It does not include the bonuses paid out each month.

• July 2014: $2.5 million (Kindle Unlimited launches early in the month)
• August 2014: $4.7 million
• September 2014: $5 million
• October 2014: $5.5 million
• November 2014: $6.5 million
• December 2014: $7.25 million
• January 2015 – $8.5 million
• February 2015: $8 million
• March 2015: $9.3 million
• April 2015: $9.8 million
• May 2015: $10.8 million
• June 2015: $11.3 million
• July 2015: $11.5 million
• August 2015: $11.8 million
• September 2015: $12 million
• October 2015: $12.4 million
• November 2015: $12.7 million
• December 2015: $13.5 million
• January 2016: $15 million
• February 2016: $14 million
• March 2016: $14.9 million
• April 2016: $14.9 million
• May 2016: $15.3 million
• June 2016: $15.4 million
• July 2016: $15.5 million
• August 2016: $15.8 million
• September 2016: $15.9 million
• October 2016: $16.2 million
• November 2016: $16.3 million
• December 2016: $16.8 million
• January 2017: : $17.8 million
• February 2017: : $16.8 million
• March 2017: $17.7 million
• April 2017: $17.8 million
• May 2017 :$17.9 million
• June 2017: $18 million
• July 2017: $19 million
• August 2017: $19.4 million
• September 2017: $19.5 million
• October 2017: $19.7 million
• November 2017: $19.8 million
• December 2017: $19.9 million
• January 2018: $20.9 million
• February 2018: $20 million
• March 2018: $21 million
• April 2018: $21.2 million
• May 2018: $22.5 million
• June 2018: $22.6 million
• July 2018: $23.1 million
• August 2018: $23.3 million

via Self Publisher Bibel

The free ebook distribution service Instafreebie announced on Monday that they rebranding the company on 1 October in anticipation of a pivot to provide new services.

Instafreebie sent out an email to authors today, informing them of the change:

We’ve come to realize “Instafreebie” no longer fits us as our name and brand.

We started Instafreebie four and a half years ago with one primary goal: to make it easier for readers to download free ebooks.

We’re proud to have achieved that goal!

In the past four and a half years, readers have claimed over 35 million ebooks on our platform! We’ve made it much easier for readers to download and read ebooks, and in the process much easier for authors to spread their work to the world.

We’ve built an amazing foundation for this platform, and achieved a major milestone in our larger mission to accelerate great stories and big ideas.

However, our vision for this platform has expanded, and our goals have expanded along with it!

Instafreebie did not go into detail about the pivot, but they did end the email with the announcement that they will hold a webinar on 25 September "during which our founder and CEO, Jason Freeman, will talk about all these exciting new changes in detail".

We will find out more next Tuesday. In the meantime, all we have to go on is Instafreebie’s other announcement today. They sent out an email to users and told them that IF is launching user accounts on the Instafreebie website.

We’re excited to announce that today, Instafreebie has gone live with new and improved online reader accounts!

You are now able to create a reader account online and access your own personal “Library” on the Instafreebie website.

Similar to our app, your “Library” page houses all the content you’ve claimed on Instafreebie in one, convenient location. You’ll be able to sort and search through all your claims, and see recommended lists of new content to claim, based on your selection of genres during the sign-up process.

Completely free for readers, Instafreebie is funded by the authors who give away the ebooks. It currently charges authors either nothing, $20, or $50 per month. The upper service tiers include more features like Mailerlite integration and support for multiple pen names.

It’s not clear how the two announcements are connected, but the most obvious possibility is that IF plans to expand into ebook sales, and is changing its name in anticipation of adding payment processing.

That would be the most logical next step, but the name Prolific Works is so bland that it could be used as a label for just about any service the company could offer.

Booksellers have many reasons to dislike Amazon, the least of which is that it is better at selling books than they are.

This has spurred many booksellers to blacklist Amazon-published books, and now that irrational hatred has been expanded to include not just Amazon but also anyone who uses Amazon’s services.

France24, Actualitte, and other sources report that French booksellers are objecting to a self-published book making it to the long list for a prestigious French book prize.

Booksellers are furious a novel distributed only by Amazon has made it onto the long-list for one of France’s top literary prizes, saying it rewards the goliath that threatens both their livelihood and the country’s heritage.

… one of the country’s top literary prizes – the Prix Renaudot – has sparked similar outrage among bookstores this week by selecting a novel distributed by their mortal foe Amazon.

The book, Bande de Français by French-Israeli author Marco Koskas, was included in a long-list of seven essays and 17 novels competing for the Renaudot, generally regarded as the second most prestigious French-language prize after the Goncourt. It is self-published and available only on Amazon – unless bookstores choose to order it from the online platform, a step many are loath to take.

“Do they want us to pay our most ferocious competitor? To give him money so he can kill us?” asked Mélanie Le Saux, a bookseller in the Paris region who posted an open letter on Facebook on Sunday in which she blasted the Renaudot jury for “throwing the door wide open to the beast”.

“Either we buy the book from our competitor, or we just won’t have it,” Le Saux told FRANCE 24. “It’s a very strong signal: Amazon has won their blessing.”

Just to be clear, this is not a book published by Amazon; this is a self-published book which is being distributed through Createspace.

Some booksellers have already vowed that, prestigious award or not, they will not be ordering this book. No, fighting Amazon matters more than championing French literature, which is why several booksellers have called for a boycott of the Prix Renaudot this year. 

The Syndicat de la librairie française, the trade group for French bookstores, has published a statement both condemning the Prix Renaudot jury and showing they suffer from Amazon Derangement Syndrome.

“With this decision, does the Prix Renaudot realize it is doing a disservice to the author himself and to bookshops, as well as sending a worrying signal for the future of the industry?” the statement read. The Syndicat added: “How deceitful and sinister Amazon’s dream world is. No more hierarchy between works, reduced to mere usernames on a platform; no editorial policy but millions of titles accumulated haphazardly; no books in lively areas of ‘commerce’; no people hired to bring works and authors to readers; warehouses and a sophisticated algorithm instead of spoken words.”

Apparently the Syndicat believes that no other publisher or distributor uses warehouses, or software, or any type of automation to produce and distribute books. No, only Amazon uses technology; all other books are delivered by fairies after springing fully formed from the brow of their noble creators.

Why is it that so many of Amazon’s detractors are so blinded by their hatred that they lose their ability to think critically or make a coherent argument?

The thing is, there is no good argument to be made for blacklisting this book. It was not published by Amazon; instead, it is the work of an author who used Amazon’s services.

To put it another way, the booksellers are refusing to stock a book because it was delivered by the truck company belonging to their mortal enemy.

Where is the sense in that?

image by ActuaLitté via Flickr

For the first time in a very long while, a new review unit has crossed my desk.

Update: This post combines both an introduction and first look, as well as a more in depth review posted on 11 September.

First Look

The  InkBook Lumos from Arta Tech is an odd little beast. With a price tag of $100 (at Amazon), the Lumos is intended to be a competitor to the basic Kindle, and it has its strengths. It runs Android 4.2 on a dual-core CPU, and it has a color-changing frontlight as well as a card slot, but it also has its weaknesses.

The Lumos has a low-resolution 800 x 600 E-ink screen and is limited to only 512 RAM, which means that even though you can install your own Android apps, they’re not going to run fast or look as god as they would on better Android ereaders. (There’s also no Google Play, but that was to be expected for low-cost device.)

I can live with the screen (it’s the same resolution as on the basic Kindle) but the RAM shortfall has proven to be a serious issue.

Arta Tech makes it easy to install the Kindle app (it takes just two clicks) but that doesn’t really help any because I can’t run the Kindle app. It crashes the first three times I ran it, and once I managed to log in, the app struggled to even show me my library.

I’m going to half to test this further, but what I have seen so far is not encouraging. Half the value of an Android ereader is installing Android apps, so if I can’t install apps then this might as well be a basic ereader that runs Linux rather than Android.

Review

If you read its specs you would think that the Lumos’s selling points include a color-shifting frontlight and the option of installing reading apps on Android 4.2.2, and that its chief weakness was an 800 x 600 screen resolution.

That’s what the specs would tell you, but real life use has shown me that the screen resolution isn’t a problem (I didn’t even notice) but the software is.

I spent a couple weeks reading on the Lumos. I really got into the first book in a series, so I kept reading the second and third installments on the Lumos. With most ereaders that would be a strong recommendation, but with the Lumos those 3 books instead gave me enough time to truly appreciate the ereader’s shortcomings.

The Lumos runs a buggy and unstable reading app that kept crashing when it wasn’t getting stuck in a feedback loop of phantom touchscreen presses. Furthermore, I found that I could not get apps to run due to limited RAM (512 MB).

I also found myself frequently frustrated by the page turn buttons. There’s a pair of buttons on either side of the screen, and they are too close together. I kept flipping back a page when I wanted to go forward. (To be fair, I realized while writing this review that I could have fixed this annoyance by changing the settings on the page turn buttons. Setting both buttons on the right to page forward would have been a good idea.)

The Lumos did have one small point in its favor, though; its frontlight was quite mild, and was actually nicer to use than the frontlight on Kobo devices. (I am still trying to get the frontlight on video; its range is so small that it’s really hard to pick up.)

Conclusion: Buy something else. The Kobo Clara HD would be a good choice; it costs a little more but it has solid software and hardware.

Pro

• pleasantly mild frontlight color options ranging from blue-white to a soft yellow

Con

• buggy and unstable
• outdated OS
• limited RAM, and limited support for Android apps

InkBook Lumos

Specs

• CPU: 1GHz dual-core
• RAM: 512MB
• OS: Android 4.2
• Storage: 8GB, microSD card slot
• Screen: 800 x 600 E-ink display
• Touchscreen: Capacitive
• Frontlight: color-changing (but only to a light shade of orange)
• Battery: 2Ah
• Buttons: Home, Power,  Page Turn (4)
• Connectivity: Wifi
• Dimensions: 159×114×9 mm
• Weight: 165 grams

Barnes & Noble just released their financial report for the first full quarter following the wholesale sacking of its more experienced (and expensive employees), and the news is not good.

According to the SEC filing and the press release, the company’s revenues fell almost seven percent last quarter, to $795 million. (Nook revenues fell 8.6%, to $25.3 million.)

I will listen to the investor conference call (well, I’ll wait for the transcript and read it) and update this post with additional details, but at this point it looks like the company continues to be FUBAR.

Edit: Seeking Alpha has the investor phone call. What little good news there was included: The rate of decline in sales slowed: Comparable store sales sequentially improved each month throughout the quarter declining 7.8% in May, 6.1% in June and 4.5% in July.

That was really the only part that could be described as good news; much of the rest of the call was taken up with details like B&N’s 5 restaurants are a bust, and how B&N had lots of plans on what to sell to people in the coming quarters.

As we looked at fall, we expect our business to benefit from a more robust publishing calendar than we had last year. There are big releases to support growing genres like personal growth, current affairs, history and religion. For political junkies, it seems like there’s a new book every week this fall including fear, Trump in the White House by Bob Woodward that is getting so much media attention this week.

Nick Sparks, Joni Mitchell and Mitch Albom who don’t publish every year will be on shelves by October. Other big titles include Michelle Obama’s Becoming a memoir by the former First Lady. John Grissom’s The Reckoning, which is his fortieth title and will sure delight his fans and be one of the season’s largest fiction books. Fire & Blood which will give George R.R. Martin fans a new appreciation for the dynamic and fascinating history of Westeros.

There was also a mention of Parneros’s lawsuit, but no new details were released.

Press release:

B&N today reported sales and earnings for its fiscal 2019 first quarter ended July 28, 2018.

Total sales for the first quarter were $795 million, declining 6.9% as compared to the prior year, with comparable store sales declining 6.1%. Comparable store sales improved each month of the quarter, declining 7.8%, 6.1% and 4.5%. The sales trend continued to improve into the second quarter, declining 0.8% in August.

“We fully realize that cutting expenses does not alone provide a path to the long term viability of any retail business. Therefore, our short and long term focus is to grow our top line, and, by doing so, provide us the cash flow needed to grow our business,” said Len Riggio, Chairman of Barnes & Noble, Inc. “Comparable store sales have sequentially improved each month and continued into the second quarter. Thanks are due to our team of merchants and the entire store management group from top to bottom.”

The consolidated first quarter net loss was $17.0 million, or $0.23 per share, as compared to a loss of $10.8 million, or $0.15 per share, in the prior year.

The consolidated first quarter operating loss was $16.2 million, slightly higher than the prior year operating loss of $15.2 million, as the sales decline was partially mitigated by $22 million in expense reductions. Consolidated first quarter EBITDA was $7.7 million, as compared to $11.2 million a year ago.

Outlook

As the Company prepares for the holiday season, it is encouraged by the sequential improvement in its sales trend and the fall title line-up. The organization is focused on its merchandising initiatives to grow sales, while continuing to control expenses.

For fiscal 2019, the Company continues to expect EBITDA to be in a range of $175 million to $200 million.

Conference Call

A conference call with Barnes & Noble, Inc.’s senior management will be webcast beginning at 10:00 A.M. ET on Thursday, September 6, 2018, and is accessible at investors.barnesandnobleinc.com.

Barnes & Noble, Inc. will report fiscal 2019 second quarter results on or about November 20, 2018.

image  by davidwilson1949 via Flickr

When I scooped my competition with the news of the Likebook Mars Android ereader earlier this week, the two questions everyone was asking were when could we buy it, and what OS did it run.

I can now report that the Likebook Mars runs a version of Android 6.0, and it is scheduled to be released in Europe at the beginning of next month (it shipped in China this week, which is where the Youtube videos came from).

The European ereader importer Icarus is now listing a new ereader called the Illumina XL6. While Icarus doesn’t say this explicitly, this is actually a rebranded Boyue Likebook Mars, and it is going to cost 268 euros.

The Illumina XL6 features a Rockchip RK3368 octa-core, 64-bit processor and 2GB RAM. That seems like overkill for an ereader, but as we saw in the videos earlier this week, Boyue built this machine to do more than just read ebooks.

It ships with Google Play, and clearly Boyue is intending the Illumina XL6 to be much more than just an ereader. That’s why it has audio, and a newer version of Android, and more processing power than any mainstream ereader short of the Kindle Oasis (while the Oasis only has a dual-core CPU, its Freescale chip is also more capable than a Rockchip CPU).

The Illumina XL6 is another bid to be the E-ink Android tablet desired by a niche market segment (I used to be one of them), and with a price of 268 euros it is priced to compete.

Specs

• CPU: 1.5GHz octa-core RK3368 CPU
• OS: Likebook OS (Android 6.0.1)
• RAM: 2GB
• Storage: 16GB, microSD card slot (up to 128GB)
• Screen: 7.8″ Carta E-ink display, 1404 x 1872 resolution (300 ppi)
• Battery: 2.8 Ah battery
• Connectivity: Wifi, BT
• Dimensions: 14.5 cm x 20 cm x 9 mm
• Weight: 275 grams

via MobileRead

PW reports that starting next month, Penguin Random House is changing its license terms for library ebooks from "insanely expensive" to "ridiculously expensive and short-lived".

As of October 1, 2018, PRH is moving from a perpetual access model (where libraries pay a higher price but retain access to the e-book forever) to a metered model (with lower prices on e-books that expire after two years). In a letter to library customers, PRH v-p Skip Dye said the change was made after listening to librarians' feedback.

“We have heard–loud and clear–that while libraries appreciate the concept of ‘perpetual access,’ the reality is that circs for many titles drop off dramatically six to eight months after the initial release. This is true especially for fiction bestsellers,” Dye wrote. “Most librarians are telling us they would rather pay lower prices across our frontlists and backlists, in exchange for a copy that expires after a given time period. In response to this feedback, we are happy to tell you that we will be lowering our prices on our entire catalogue of adult and children’s fiction and nonfiction titles. Under our new terms, e-books will expire after two years from original purchase date with the aligned pricing lowered for our e-books.”

After October 1, libraries' previously purchased ‘perpetual access’ e-books will remain permanently owned. In addition, PRH announced that the publisher will be creating a program exclusively for academic libraries, under which they will be able to purchase perpetual access copies, although at “a significantly higher price” than public library copies.

The change in terms will apply to all Penguin Random House U.S., Penguin Random House Canada, DK and DK Canada titles. Under the new pricing, frontlist adult titles in the U.S. will be priced up to $55 (currently, adult prices are capped at $65.); Young adult titles up to $45; and children’s titles up to $35. The changes do not apply to e-books distributed by Penguin Random House Publisher Services.

No one has posted the full letter yet; if you saw it, can you please send me a copy?

With first Macmillan and now Penguin Random House drastically changing the terms they license ebooks to libraries, 2018 is becoming the year that libraries got screwed by publishers.

And what’s even more insulting is that PRH had the gall to claim that libraries actually wanted to pay $55 for an ebook that expired in two years.

I have heard some impressive whoppers in this industry, including the industry’s belief in screen fatigue (it’s a myth) and the claim that the Price Fix Six didn’t succeed in raising ebook prices.

But to claim that libraries want to spend their limited funds on $55 ebooks that expire after two years is next-level bullshit.

image by Mirko Junge via Flickr

It looks like the next device from Chinese ereader maker Boyue has leaked on Youtube.

The Boyue Likebook Mars is a 7.8″ very similar to last year’s Likebook Plus, only with double the RAM, a color-shifting frontlight, and possibly running a newer version of Android.

The Likebook Mars has a 7.8″, 300 ppi Carta E-ink screen with frontlight and capacitive touchscreen. According to the description on Youtube, it runs Likebook OS on an octa-core Rockchip CPU with 2GB RAM and 16GB storage.

Edit: Boyue told me that Likebook OS is based on Android 6.0.1.

Weighing in at 290 grams, the Likebook Mars has a 2.8Ah battery and measures a mere 9.3mm thin. It also has Wifi, BT, a microSD card slot, and a headphone jack.

All in all this is almost the same ereader as the Likebook Plus, but there are a couple subtle improvements. The description says the Likebook Mars has twice the RAM, and a color-changing frontlight similar to what you can find on Kobo’s ereaders.

That second detail was confirmed by another Youtube video:

There’s no word yet on when the Likebook mars will be released.

via MobileRead

For almost a decade, companies have been trying to marry an LCD screen and an E-ink screen into a single mobile device. B&N tried the idea with their first ereader, Microsoft and Intel each demoed concept designs, and a mostly forgotten company called Entourage released not one but two dual-screen digital textbook readers.

Now Lenovo is trying the concept in their next notebook.

The Yoga Book C930 has a pair of 10.8″ screens, and weighs 1.7 pounds. It combines 2560 x 1600 resolution IPS touchscreen display with a 1920 x 1080 resolution E-ink.

It is designed so that you can use that E-ink display for writing, drawing, or typing (due to its faster refresh and color, the IPS screen would probably be better for drawing). There’s also a Wacom active pen with 4096 levels of pressure-sensitive input.

It is a pricy little bugger (around $1,000), and it should be available in October for $1000. It’s is rather under-powered for the price:

• CPU: Intel Core M3-7Y30 or Core i5-7Y74 processor
• RAM: 4GB
• Storage: Up to 256GB SSD
• Battery: 35.8 Wh
• Connectivity: Wifi, Bluetooth, and optional LTE
• Optical fingerprint reader
• Stereo speakers

I for one would pass on this. It costs more than a typical laptop but has a smaller screen and half the RAM of the laptop I’m using right now.

It’s almost as if Lenovo is trying to bring back the era where we were expected to carry around a laptop and a netbook – only now Lenovo wants to charge a premium for the idea. Why would anyone want that?

I called it.

Amazon has just taken the step that I am sure many saw coming. A new notice has been posted to Createspace user dashboards, informing them that CS is merging into KDP Print. Amazon has also launched a new page in the KDP help pages that explains how this merger will affect authors, and how they can move their titles from Createspace to KDP Print.

Acquired by Amazon in 2005, Createspace started life as a DVD and CD production service, but later added book POD services after it merged with Booksurge (which Amazon also bought in 2005). Judging by the website, Createspace has operated essentially unchanged since that merger, right up until Amazon started shutting it down earlier this year.

The author services dept was the first to go, and then in July Amazon announced Createspace’s DVD production had been merged into a new Amazon unit, and now book POD is getting swallowed by KDP Print.

Launched in July 2016, KDP Print is intended to give authors an easy to to manage both their print and digital books in a single location. In its early days access was quite limited, but the service opened for a public beta test early last year, and Amazon has been adding features ever since.

The newer platform doesn’t have as many features as Createspace. For example, KDP Print only offers expanded distribution in the US, while Createspace supported Australia, Japan, and Europe. Also, KDP Print charges authors full retail for author copies, while Createspace  gave authors a wholesale discount.

Update: Amazon PR disputes the point about expanded distribution, insisting that KDP Print has the same reach as Createspace. That’s not what their last announcement said, however.

Unfortunately, we’re just going to have to live it, because Amazon has made it clear that soon there will be nothing more left of Createspace than there is of Lexcycle, Booksurge, Mobipocket, or the many other companies Amazon has consumed.

A couple sources have told me, and I have confirmed first hand, that B&N has removed the Nook kiosks that used to occupy prime square footage in most Barnes & Noble stores.

Existing Nook hardware has been moved to the customer service desk towards the rear of the store, and the Nook kiosks have been replaced by a display featuring new releases.

I have seen this myself in a couple stores, including my local B&N in Manassas VA, which used to have a Nook kiosk right where this island now sits.

My local B&N has had that kiosk since at least 2011. It was installed back when the focal point of B&N’s digital strategy (when it had one) was to put the Nook front and center in all of its stores.

They installed honking huge kiosks directly in front of the entries to most of its stores which looked something like this:

This was a great idea right up until the Nook imploded during the 2012 holiday season, and ever since then the kiosks have been an embarrassing reminder of B&N’s failure.

Now the kiosks are being removed, and the Nook relegated to an afterthought on the customer service counter.

Frankly, at this point, that is where it belongs.

B&N’s ebook division has been mismanaged for so long that it only generated $111 million in revenue last fiscal year. At its peak it saw revenues of over a billion and a half dollars each fiscal year and thus deserved being the center of attention, but that hasn’t been true for a long time.

images by B&N, me, and CandyTX via Flickr

For the past several months authors have been objecting to Amazon adding their audiobooks to Kindle Unlimited without permission or payment.

No one understood why that was occurring, not even the various parts of Amazon, but numerous authors have observed that if an ebook was in Kindle Unlimited, somehow the matching audiobook (if it existed) was added to the program as well.

It took us the longest time to convince Amazon there was a problem, but once we did, they promised to fix it.

And it looks like they have.

Today Amazon sent out an email to affected authors, informing them that the audiobooks had been removed from KU, and that the authors will now be paid for the borrowed audiobooks.

We are contacting you today with regard to an update to your ACX earnings. We recently found that due to a technical issue, your audiobook(s) were included in the Kindle Unlimited program in error. We have removed your audiobook(s) from Kindle Unlimited and apologize for the mistake.

For each Kindle Unlimited subscriber who downloaded your audiobook, you will earn the same royalty as you would earn for an a la carte (ALC) sale at list price on Audible. Your earnings from the inclusion in Kindle Unlimited and related download data will be provided to you alongside your July Earnings Reports, which you will receive no later than August 31.

We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this has caused.

Did you get the email? Were you surprised?

Update: A lot of authors are angry that Amazon didn’t offer greater compensation for the "theft" of their work, which some others think was intentional.

While I can understand why they feel that way, it’s worth noting that Amazon is paying authors for their audiobooks on terms similar to those offered to traditional publishers when those publishers' ebooks are added to Kindle Unlimited. The Harry Potter ebooks, for example, were added to KU without permission, and Amazon covered for that by paying Pottermore based on the set retail price – as laid out in the KDP terms of service.

It is really hard for me to criticize Amazon on this point, not when they compensating authors at a reasonable rate.

Walmart is in the process of setting up new ebook sections in the book departments of its stores, Kobo has let slip a promo video for "Walmart eBooks", and multiple references have been found in Walmart’s help pages.

While there is no sign of the Walmart eBook apps, I did report a few weeks ago in an exclusive scoop that this would launch on the 21st, and here it is.

Walmart is going to be selling ebooks both on its site and in stores. The ebookstore will be located at www.walmart.com/ebooks when it goes live, and it will be managed by Kobo and supported via a subdomain on Kobo’s website.

Walmart will sell just one Kobo model in stores at launch, the $99 Kobo Aura. (While the ebook display has clamps for two devices, the second one is sized for a tablet and has a label that mentions the ebook app, not a Kobo device.)

I know there’s a report that Walmart will sell 3 models, but there is just the one card and one price tag for the one model. The Kobo Aura will not be on the display itself; instead, customers will take a hang card from the display, use it to buy the Aura, and then collect the ereader afterwards.

Customers will use a similar process for buying ebooks in a Walmart store.

The display has hooks for a little over 60 gift cards. They will be used to show off a selection of ebook and/or audiobook title cards. The price tags have already been applied, and range from $2.99 to $26.99.

On the other half of the display there are 18 more hooks which will be used for cash value gift cards and cards for audiobook subscriptions.  The gift cards come in increments of $10, $25 and $50, while the audiobook subscriptions come in increments of $30, $60 and $120, for three month, six month and one year subscriptions.

Customers will be able to take the cards up to the cashier to buy/activate them, and then either scan a code on the back of the card to add the ebook to their Walmart eBook app, or type a code into their account online to add the ebook to their account.

Walmart used a similar ebook gift car system for its ebookstore in Canada, but shut that down in 2016. I was told by Walmart’s tech partner that the program ended after the market dried up. That partner later sold off its tech to a 3rd party. Also, Target partnered with Livrada to sell ebook gift cards in stores in 2012, and Amazon ran a similar pilot in drug stores in 2016. Both programs were shut down for unknown reasons.

To put it simply, Walmart is now reviving a sales model that has failed three times in the past 6 years. Do you think they’re going to get it right this time, or are they repeating the same mistake as before?

images via MobileRead member rcentros