I was startled the other day to see The Mainichi Daily News article a couple of days ago that said "Major publishing firms are set to form an electronic book publishers' association next month in a bid to counter the expected launch of Amazon's Japanese-language Kindle e-reader."
Where did that come from? Haven't seen it anywhere else though I waited a couple of days after reading it. They go on to say "With the e-book market expanding rapidly and the Japanese version of Kindle e-book reader expected to hit store shelves sometime soon, publishing companies have decided to come together to cope with the anticipated competition."
Whether this is just a horror they're dreading or whether they have received word of such a device or not is not known where I sit. But I do think it's an eventuality though not easy to implement for so many countries.
In the meantime, in another step toward internationalism, Amazon has announced that its digital self-publishing arm is no longer limited to authors in the U.S. and the English language. Its digital text platform "will support books written in German and French"
CNet's Lance Whitney adds "The Digital Text Platform enables writers to publish without the middleman (i.e. a book publisher) by uploading PDF, text, Word, or HTML versions of their books. Authors can set their own prices and in return grab 35 percent of sales."
That's it for now. Will have a bit more late tonight.
Mashable's Adam Ostrow14 reports