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News stories from the book world in October 2003

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October 2003

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Amazon's book search

27 October 2003

As mentioned in our 28 July News Review Amazon continues to power ahead, Amazon has been working for some time now on its just-launched 'Search inside the Book' feature, which allows browsers to search within the pages of books offered on its site. You can jump to a number of pages within the book, but not view them all.  Read more

Second-hand books take off

20 October 2003

The Internet has transformed the sale of used books. In an operation which works a little like Ebay, except that it serves primarily the antiquarian book trade rather than private sellers, the Canadian firm Abebooks has opened up a new world. Antiquarian books used to be a somewhat dusty corner of the book trade, even though large amounts of money could change hands when wealthy c  Read more

Frankfurt under threat?

13 October 2003

The Frankfurt Book FairWorld's largest trade fair for books; held annually mid-October at Frankfurt Trade Fair, Germany; First three days exclusively for trade visitors; general public can attend last two., just drawing to a close, is still the biggest international book fair by some considerable margin, but there are signs that its pre-eminence is being challenged by smaller fairs. The London Book Fair, for example, is more user-friendly for the publishers who gather from all over the world to buy and sell rights.  Read more

E-books threatened by takeover

6 October 2003

In an interesting coda to last week's story on the progress being made by e-books, some sudden changes of personnel and policy have followed on from a switch in ownership at a key e-book operation. Palmgear, an independent retailer based in Tennessee, acquired the assets of Palm Digital Media last month.  Read more