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Digital rights management for ebooks is dead. Readers knew it couldn’t last. It was simply a matter of when publishers and retailers would realise it was unsustainable. Cutting edge Australian publishers like Pan Macmillan digital offshoot Momentum Books are leading the way by announcing they will remove DRM from their titles within months. It won’t [...]

Amazon looks set to give the Australian book market a mighty shake-up. The Sydney Morning Herald has reported that Amazon is seeking warehouse space in Australia. The Australian’s IT section has this week run a piece outlining rumours that the Kindle Fire’s arrival in Australia is imminent. It seems the greatest of all the ebook [...]

So, after over a year of dithering and over-thinking and hestitating and general procrastination, I am finally the owner of an e-reader. It was an early – very early – Christmas gift from my partner who realised that if he were to wait until December 25th to give it to me, he would once again [...]

After more than two years of watching their local publishing colleagues get digital, tech giant international competitors eat into their market, and a handful of locals like Booku.com enter the fray, many of Australia’s top independent booksellers are finally, happily, in a position to provide their customers with ebooks … in time for Christmas, too. [...]

How good are ebooks for instant gratification? Want to read a book now, right now, rather than heading to a bricks and mortar bookshop or library, or waiting till Christmas on the off chance that someone will buy it for you? Download an ebook. I loved libraries as a child, but in recent years have [...]

Plenty of things have been happening in the world of ebooks over the past few weeks, but for the first time I’ve been too busy working on an exciting project of my own to post about them. That project is Momentum, a new digital-only imprint of Pan Macmillan Australia, which was announced today. As a publisher [...]

    From the Weekly Book Newsletter, 11 May 2011: BOOKU REPORTS STRONG SALES IN FIRST TWO MONTHS; SELLS 11 EBOOKS PER 100 PBOOKS Australian ebook retailer Booku has reported strong sales in its first two months, with close to 2000 ebooks sold since its launch in March. Booku managing director Clayton Wehner said in a statement [...]

Easter has come and gone, and big things have happened in the world of ebooks! Sorry about that, couldn’t help it. That really is a big creme egg. Apologies for my lack of posts the last week or so, the unholy trinity of Easter, moving house and my special lady friend leaving the country for [...]

New local eBook download website Booku (www.booku.com) has been operating for two months and the business has had a positive start, according to Managing Director Clayton Wehner.  ‘When we launched Booku, we fully expected to lose money for a good twelve months, but we have been pleasantly surprised by the website’s traffic and sales to [...]

If you’re reading this blog then you’ve probably got an interest in ebooks. If you do, then you may have already heard about Calibre. Calibre is a free, open source, cross-platform (Windows, Mac and Linux) ebook reader, organiser and converter. If you’ve ever listened to music you downloaded from the internet, then you’ll probably be [...]

This is a two-part post. To read part one, please click here.   Reading Using Overdrive Booku ebooks are compatible with any reader that’s can read Adobe Digital Editions DRM. That means you can use it with a Sony eReader, a Kobo eReader or any other (and cheaper) brand that is compatible with Adobe’s DRM [...]

  Welcome to the new location for the Smell of Books. From now on you’ll find the blog over here at Booku. To celebrate the launch of the site at the new location, I’ll be giving away $100 credit in Booku Bucks. Read on to find out how.   What You’ll Need To buy a [...]

Australian consumers can now purchase the latest bestselling electronic books from a new local eBook download website – Booku – at www.booku.com. The company behind popular Australian online bookstore Boomerang Books have launched the new website today in Adelaide. The new site has more than 134,000 eBook titles available for instant download, including a growing [...]

Australian consumers can now purchase the latest bestselling electronic books from a new local eBook download website – Booku – at www.booku.com. The company behind popular Australian online bookstore Boomerang Books have launched the new website today in Adelaide. The new site has more than 134,000 eBook titles available for instant download, including a growing [...]