New York, NY (October 31, 2011) HarperCollins Publishers today announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Thomas Nelson, Inc. for $200 million. The acquisition, which is expected to close by the end of the calendar year, is subject to regulatory clearances and other customary closing conditions. HaperCollins is owned by Rupert Murdoch, who also owns Fox News and many other media properties. HarperCollins also owns Zondervan.
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Michael Stern Hart was best known for his 1971 invention of electronic books, or eBooks. He founded Project Gutenberg, which is recognized as one of the earliest and longest-lasting online literary projects.
Hart often told this story of how he had the idea for eBooks. He had been granted access to significant computing power at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. On July 4 1971, after being inspired by a free printed copy of the U.S. Declaration of Independence, he decided to type the text into a computer, and to transmit it to other users on the computer network. From this beginning, the digitization and distribution of literature was to be Hart’s life’s work, spanning over 40 years.
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Many novice Christian writers are spending thousands of dollars to have “vanity” books printed by Westbow, Xulon and other pay-to-publish companies. Most Christian writers would be better served if they created a cost-free Kindle e-book to see if there is an audience for their writing before they enter into expensive contracts with such publishers. Recent publishing industry statistics support this strategy.
Amazon now has 950,000 Kindle titles available. Christian writers need to understand the impact of that if distribution and sales are more important to them than just saying they have a printed book.
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Thomas Nelson, Inc., announced that in October 2011, world-renowned preacher, evangelist, and author Billy Graham will release his first major trade book in more than five years: Nearing Home: Life, Faith, and Finishing Well.
In the book, Billy Graham shares his personal experience of growing older, but also teaches lessons on how to view our time here on Earth. He says that the Bible makes it clear that God has a specific reason for keeping us here. So what is His purpose for these years, and how can we align our lives with it? How can we not only learn to cope with the fears and struggles and growing limitations we face but actually grow stronger inwardly in the midst of these difficulties?
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InterVaristyPress (IVP) has embraced e-Books in a big way. They now market 22 titles in the ePub format, 250 titles in GoogleBooks format, and over 600 titles in the Kindle format.
They also unrestricted file formats so that you can transfer titles to your personal devices and platforms easily. This makes it possible to distribute copies to students, small group members, church congregation, ministry donors, blog readers, employees or any other group. This program is available directly at the IVP site.
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