Magazines also in the game

We've talked about how natural it is for newspapers to become ebook publishers. Now let's talk about magazines. The same rules apply. After all newspapers, I mean, magazines, have content, talented writers and self-defined audiences. The Atlantic, the magazine, is launching a new line of ebooks, “The Atlantic Books,” which will include “original long-form pieces between 10,000 and 30,000 words." Paid Content also reports content will include "curated archival collections that span the magazine’s 155-year history and feature some of the best-loved voices in American letters.” The Atlantic Books’ first ebook, a memoir called Denial by Jonathan Rauch, is available for $1.99 exclusively through Amazon’s Kindle Singles store, though The Atlantic says it will “soon” also be sold by Nook, the iBookstore and Kobo.

Printing digital first

What many people may have missed in the announcement that HarperCollins continues to add to its digital first offerings is that, as Paid Content reports: "In many cases, the books are eventually released in print; HarperCollins says that to date, more than 60 percent of Impulse titles have a print format, with thousands of printed copies sold for each of those books.” The report goes on to clarify that "in many cases this means print-on-demand books that don’t make it into bookstores". So HarperCollins has now added mystery books to its digital first offerings under the imiprint "Impulse," according to the report. Previously HarperCollins had released teen, romance, and sci-fi/fantasy novels.