As predicted, Barnes & Noble yesterday introduced a color version of its Nook e-reader, called Nook Color, which the company colorfully called "the first full-color touch reader's tablet that delivers digital books, magazines, newspapers and children's books in immersive, gorgeous color, and all in one beautiful, thin and highly portable device."
The Nook Color is retailing for $249 (about double the Nook and basic Kindle), will begin shipping on or around November 19 and may be purchased online and at Best Buy, Walmart and Books-A-Million. The Nook Color is built on Android, has 8GB of space and has a 7" screen. The e-reader can store about 6,000 books, or "a combination that might include 1,000 books, 25 full-color magazines, 10 newspapers, 50 kids' books, 500 songs and 150 photos." It also has expandable memory.
B&N CEO William Lynch praised the product's many features and added, "Most importantly, Nook Color is designed for and differentiated by what Barnes & Noble knows best: reading."
The company also said that the Nook 3G and Nook Wi-Fi are being updated in November and that there is an "installed base of more than a million Nook customers."
James McQuivey, an analyst at Forrester Research, told the Wall Street Journal that the Nook Color, which weighs 15.8 ounces, could "fill a hole that the big, heavy, expensive iPad had left wide open. You can't underestimate the value of that, especially for the fifth of the population who are really wild about books." Forrester has estimated that by the end of this year, in total in the U.S., 6.1 million Kindles will have been sold as well as 2.2 million Sony Readers and 2.1 million Nooks.
A barely noticed aspect of the launch is the new partnership with Books-A-Million,
which has 229 bookstores, primarily in the South. In the first agreement of its kind between the two companies, the Nook will be the only e-book reader BAM offers. The company will promote the Nook with in-store displays and demo units.
For entertainment and perspective, check out CNN Money, which has a slide show of e-reader devices, going back to the Sony Data Discman, introduced in 1991, and the NuvoMedia Rocket eBook, launched in 1998.
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Book trailer of the day:
An Amish Christmas by Cynthia Keller (Ballantine).
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The
Dolphin Bookshop, Port Washington, N.Y., won a Golden Storefront Award,
"bestowed by community groups Residents for a More Beautiful Port
Washington and the Greater Port Washington Business Improvement
District," the Patch reported.
"Dolphin's
unique and eclectic bookshop is a destination in Port's waterfront
'Arts and Antique District,' " said Mindy Germain, executive director of
Residents for a More Beautiful Port Washington. "We are happy that Port
residents have recognized the Dolphin for adding beauty and charm to
this vibrant retail intersection."
Last June, the store moved to
its current location in the historic Alfred C. Bayles building, a
renovated structure with "a sandstone and celadon green façade framing
over-size, wrap-around windows that feature store displays full of
whimsy and verve," the Patch wrote. Owner Patti Vunk said, "We
have an incredible expanse of windows. And they need to capture people's
eye when they drive by in cars but also have enough detail to be
interesting for people walking around."
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A "bookclub
that supplies its members with galleys of upcoming titles four to six
months before they’d arrive in bookstores" has been launched by wowOwow, a women's website "started two years ago by a slew of famous 
female entertainers and media personalities," Forbes reported.
"The
concept really is sort of the literary equivalent to going to a
screening," said Joni Evans of wowOwow and a former publisher at Random
House and Simon & Schuster.
Evans told Forbes that
she believes avid readers will "pay a substantial fee for that privilege
and for the various other perks associated with membership, such as
author chats. The concept is now being tested on a limited scale, with
would-be members being asked to pay $15 to $30 to get one of 1,000
copies of bestselling author Jodi Picoult's Sing You Home, which doesn't come out until next March."
Publishers
have been "warm and responsive to the idea," Evans added. "In my old
days in publishing, we'd spend millions of dollars for books and do very
little market research. So here's an opportunity that allows them to do
that."
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This afternoon from 1-2 p.m. Eastern, the Book Industry Study Group
is holding a webinar on Marketing "Books" in a Digital World, which will
be presented by Peter Milburn, digital products marketing manager of
Wiley Global Finance, and Rob Goodman, director of online marketing at
Simon & Schuster. The pair will discuss how their companies are
confronting the challenges to traditional book marketing and what steps
they're taking to embrace new opportunities.
The webinar is free for BISG members. For more information, click here.
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"This time, one book isn't enough, but one author still is." The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that "One Book, One Philadelphia" has opted for two books by Sherman 
Alexie--War Dances and The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian--for 2011.
The Free Library of Philadelphia, which sponsors the program in conjunction with the mayor's office, will distribute copies of Diary
to the city's public high schools for class use, "We are... also
recommending it for the readership in general," said Marie Field, chair
of the program. "War Dances is for the general public, but we're also giving the high school teachers the option of including it."
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PGW is adding the following publishers to its client roster:
- Effective in January, the American Diabetes Association's publishing division, which publishes books on diabetes, with both consumer and professional publications on nutrition, self-care, weight management and clinical care. The ADA has a backlist of some 100 titles and will publish five new titles in the spring.
- Effective in January, Fang Duff Kahn Publishers, publisher of the City Secrets guidebooks, which is launching new edition of City Secrets: Rome. Each City Secrets title is a compilation of short essays about overlooked or underappreciated places, movies or books.
- Effective in January, the third edition of Peter Glickman, Inc.'s Lose Weight, Have More Energy, and Be Happier in 10 Days, the original master cleanse bible popularized by Beyonce and Robin Quivers, among others.
- Effective in March, Mandy & Pandy, the bilingual children's book publisher whose titles teach English-speaking children general Chinese phrases and vocabulary. Currently includes six board books with CD; four new titles will be published each year.
- Effective in November, Visual Editions, a U.K. startup whose sales PGW will handle in the U.S. and Canada. The first titles are Tree of Codes, a new novel by Jonathan Safran Foer, and a new edition of The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, with an introduction by Will Self. Visual Editions will publish approximately four fiction and nonfiction titles per year, with a focus on great design.
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Julie Blattberg has been promoted to director, content strategy and author services, at HarperCollins. Since the authors services group was created last year, she has been involved in such projects as the creation of the Author Marketing Intelligence Report, the company's global digital data repository and AuthorAssistant.
Earlier she was a managing editor in the children's division and in the general books group, and has had similar roles earlier at Disney Publishing Worldwide and Simon & Schuster.
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"I'm not one to judge a book by its cover, but I admit that a title may have some sway over me. From the moment I first heard the words Saving CeeCee Honeycutt, I knew I had to read Beth Hoffman's debut novel. And believe me, am I ever glad that I did.
Chris Kerr likes Ball Four by Jim Bouton, "a classic & such fun to have found at the time"; Bullpen Gospels: Major League Dreams of a Minor League Veteran by Dirk Hayhurst; the newly published Hadacol Days: A Southern Boyhood by Clyde Bolton--"a great coming-of-age memoir; and little read but a delight: Chasing Moonlight by Brett Friedlander and Robert Reising."
Spencer Quinn writes the funny and cool Chet and
Bernie series: Dog On It, Thereby Hangs a
Tail and To Fetch a Thief (Atria, September 28, 2010), so far. Peter
Abrahams, the one on the birth certificate, is the Edgar Award-winning writer
of more than 20 crime fiction novels for adults and children. 
Husband and wife Marc Aronson (Sir Walter Raleigh and the Quest for Eldorado) and Marina Budhos (Ask Me No Questions) here team up to tell an eye-opening, often disturbing history of sugar and its impact on people and cultures around the globe.