Ingram Expands U.K. Footprint - Publishers Weekly

Panzer was tootling around in the Catophere when he heard clapping and cheering outside. Following all the noise took our brave kitty boy to the Publishers Weekly site. With no digging at all he found a post about Ingram Content Group.

Global is pretty big.

According to Jim Milliot, Ingram Content Group announced the acquisition of a new 96,000 sq. ft. site in the U.K. Some of Ingram Content Group's services are being moved to the new location in Milton Keynes, U.K. later in 2019. These services will include physical and digital global book distribution services and print-on-demand (POD) services. There are links to the services being moved included in the post.

Panzer says, "Hmm ... It makes sense to have those services in the same place. The company can easily track the books' global distribution that way."

Note: This is a short post. Bring a cup of tea for today's reading selection. If you plan to follow the links in the post, bring a muffin too.

To read the post tootle over to Ingram

Smashwords Enters Audiobook Market with Findaway Voices - Smashwords

Panzer was shaken from his morning nap by loud noises coming from the Catosphere. Our intrepid kitty jumped in the Panzermobile to see what was going on. Once he got into the Catosphere the cheering and clapping nearly deafened him. Following all the excitement took our poor kitty boy to theSmashwords Blog. There he found a post about Smashwords entry into the audiobook market.

According to the post by Smashwords founder Mark Coker, Smashwords has signed a partnership agreement with Findaway Voices. Smashwords authors are now able to use Findaway to produce and globally distribute audiobooks of their ebooks. The post says Findaway narrators charge between $150.00 to $400.00 per hour to produce the finished audiobook. It also says, if you have a professional audiobook already finished, you can upload it to Findaway for distribution. Findaway distributes to 20 sites globally including Audible.

I see an audiobook in my future.

Panzer says, "This little kitty thinks he needs to get and account with Findaway for production and distribution of Cats and Crime."

Note: This is a longish post with several links. Bring a cup of tea and a muffin for today's reading selection. If you plan to follow the links in the post, bring a thermos of tea and six muffins.

To read the post tootle over to Smashwords Enters Audiobook Market with Findaway Voices:

Ingram Expands Into Spain - Publishers Weekly

I'm definitely looking into this.

On Panzer's trip into the Catosphere today, he found some interesting news at the Publishers Weekly site. With just a little digging our inquisitive kitty discovered Ingram's Lightning Source has made an agreement with Spain's PodiPrint.

According to the Publishers Weekly news brief, Ingram's Lightning Source has entered into an agreement with Spain's PodiPrint to add it to Lightning Source's Global Connect program. Authors using Ingram will now have foreign distribution in Spain. Also included in the post are the other countries participating in the Global Connect program.

Panzer says, "Hmm ... Maybe this little kitty needs to use Ingram for his paperback books distribution."

Note: This is a short press release. Bring a cup of tea for today's reading selection.

To read the post, tootle over to Ingram

Why Kobo didn't focus only on the U.S., home turf of Amazon - The Globe And Mail

Today's trip into the Catosphere took Panzer to The Globe And Mail site. It didn't take any digging at all for our kitty boy to find a post about ebook and ereader company Rakuten Kobo Inc.'s marketing strategies.

Really smart thinking for humans.

David Israelson says in his post that Michael Tamblyn, President and CEO, attributes Kobo's success to the decision to go global. Early in Kobo's existence the company didn't concentrate on the United States ebook and ereader market for the simple reason Amazon, Apple, Google, and Barnes and Noble were staking their territory there. So while the others were fighting over U.S. digital supremacy, Kobo decided to do global distribution instead. In doing so, the company has grown to number three in the ebook ereader market behind Amazon and Apple. The post includes several interesting facts about Kobo's history.

Panzer says, "Hmm ... Smart move to go where nobody else was so they were the first ones there."

Note: This is a h-u-g-e post. Bring a thermos of tea and a dozen muffins and six chocolate chip cookies (biscuits) for today's reading selection.

To read the post, tootle over to Kobo

Smashwords Announces Distribution to Gardners Books

Panzer was tootling around in the Catosphere when he heard clapping and shouting. Following the noise took him to the Smashwords blog. There he found a post by Smashwords founder Mark Coker.

MeWow! Larger market distribution.

Mr Coker's post explains why Smashwords authors are so happy. Smashwords will begin distributing ebooks to Gardners Books on October 22. According to the post, Smashwords will supply 230,000 ebooks to Gardners Books. Gardners will make the ebooks available to stores, public libraries and academic libraries.

Panzer says, "This will open a whole new market for Smashwords authors."

To read the post, tootle over to Smashwords: Smashwords Announces Distribution to Gardners Book...:

Oyster Subscription Service Expansion

Into the Catosphere our kitty goes.

Panzer wasn't feeling well yesterday, so he took the day off.  But ... today, he's back in the pilot's seat of the Panzermobile.

Our big, black, bad kitty boy found an interesting post on the Oyster blog site. The Oyster ebook subscription service is one of the places Panzer's ebooks are available, so he stops in there frequently.

According to the blog post, Oyster is entering a major business expansion phase. The company expansion will involve an increase in the number of ebooks available and a global expansion making those ebooks available to more readers.

Panzer says, "Hmmm. What do you think this means for the future of Oyster? Maybe a stock offering in the future?"

To read the full post, tootle over to Oyster Books

Smashwords: Smashwords Signs Distribution Agreement with Scrib...

Christmas is here from Smashwords!

Panzer is doing the Happy Cat Dance! Mark Coker has just announced over at the Smashwords blog that Smashwords and Scribd have signed a distribution agreement. Smashwords authors' ebooks will be enrolled in two of Scribd's programs. Scribd has a subscription based program that allows readers to pay a membership fee and then have access to unlimited reading. They also will be selling Smashwords ebooks.

Smashwords authors will need to opt-in, so be sure to go to the Channel Manager page on your Dashboard to take advantage of the program.

If you already are a Smashwords author or you're thinking of becoming one, you should tootle over to Smashwords: Smashwords Signs Distribution Agreement with Scrib...: Smashwords today announced a distribution agreement with Scribd , which operates one of the world’s largest publishing platforms and onlin...

Smashwords: Barnes & Noble Opens U.K. Ebook Store Supported by...

Panzer stopped in at the Smashwords blog to see what's happening at our favorite global distributor.

Smashwords just announced that Barnes & Noble has finally opened their ebook store in the UK.  This will mean a whole new distribution channel for authors of Smashwords ebooks. Now, Nook users will have direct access to 114,000 Smashwords titles.

To find out what this wiil mean for your ebook sales in the UK, tootle over to  Smashwords: Barnes & Noble Opens U.K. Ebook Store Supported by...: