Monthly Archives: July 2013

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Why Overstock decided to start a price war with Amazon

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Lauren Hockenson's avatarGigaom

Overstock.com’s was founded in 1999 with the purpose of selling surplus office goods after the burst of the dot-com bubble, and like many companies from that era, it went through plenty of turbulence.

But the site has gradually drifted away from outlet goods and is now selling everything from rugs to name-brand women’s apparel. It has, in the process, become a stable billion-dollar business.

It’s always been dwarfed by Amazon (s AMZN), which had $61 billion in revenues last year. But Overstock says it’s now ready to take on the goliath. Its first strike? Overstock’s decision this week to undercut Amazon’s prices on some books by 10 percent, which forced the mega-etailer to quietly bring down its prices as well. We asked Overstock CEO Patrick M. Byrne (pictured above) why he thinks he can go toe-to-toe with Amazon.

What was the impetus for challenging Amazon on pricing in books?

We have sold books…

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Article: Call to End Geo-Blocks for Ebooks in Australia

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The link below is to an article that reports on the call for ending Geo-Blocking for ebooks in Australia.

For more visit:
http://www.the-digital-reader.com/2013/07/30/ebook-prices-in-australia-are-so-bad/

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Article: Kindle App Updates

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The link below is to an article reporting on the latest updates to the Kindle Apps for iPad and iPhone.

For more visit:
http://www.the-digital-reader.com/2013/07/30/kindle-for-ipad-iphone-updated-w-new-dictionary-support/

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Not My Review: Undercover: The True Story of Britain’s Secret Police, by Rob Evans and Paul Lewis

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The link below is to a book review of ‘Undercover: The true Story of Britain’s Secret Police,’ by Rob Evans and Paul Lewis.

For more visit:
http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/lsereviewofbooks/2013/07/29/book-review-undercover-the-true-story-of-britains-secret-police/

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Article: Books Over Games

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The link below is to an article that records one how one person (the article’s author) convinced a child to choose books instead of a game.

For more visit:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jordanshapiro/2013/07/30/how-i-convinced-my-8-year-old-to-choose-books-instead-of-minecraft/

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Not My Review: Our Violent World – Terrorism in Society, by Kevin McDonald

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The link below is to a book review of ‘Our Violent World: Terrorism in Society,’ by Kevin McDonald.

For more visit:
http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/lsereviewofbooks/2013/07/29/book-review-our-violent-world-terrorism-in-society/

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Site: Building a Children’s Library

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The link below is to a page on The Guardian’s website that is concerned with putting together a collection of books for a child’s library. Well worth a look I think.

For more visit:
http://www.theguardian.com/books/series/building-a-children-s-library

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Booksellers furious that Obama is giving jobs speech from Amazon warehouse

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Laura Hazard Owen's avatarGigaom

Obama is giving a jobs speech Tuesday at Amazon’s(s amzn) warehouse in Chattanooga, Tenn. — infuriating booksellers and publishers, who see this as evidence that the Obama administration is in the tank for Amazon (especially following the Department of Justice’s win over Apple in the ebook pricing case).

“No American monopoly has ever been so cozy with the government,” Dennis Johnson, the founder of independent publisher Melville House, wrote on his company’s blog.

Book trade publication Shelf Awareness cites angry letters from the publishing industry. In one, sales rep Bruce Joshua Miller cites Amazon’s alleged mistreatment of workers at a Pennsylvania warehouse with no air conditioning and writes, “This visit comes at a time when Amazon, despite losing money in the most recent quarter, is attempting to further damage brick-and-mortar stores by lowering discounts to unprecedented levels.”

Publishers Lunch sensibly points out (paywall) that “Obama has also visited independent…

View original post 144 more words

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Article: Some Little Free Libraries

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The link below is to an article (with photos) featuring 5 Little Free Libraries.

For more visit:
http://bookriot.com/2013/07/29/5-of-the-coolest-little-free-libraries/

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Not My Review: Slated by Teri Terry

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The link below is to a book review of ‘Slated,’ by Teri Terry

For more visit:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/childrens-books-site/2013/jul/29/review-slated-teri-terry