Until now, Amazon has set e-book prices with $9.99 as the default for new releases and bestsellers.
But last week, Macmillan changed how they want to price their publications, $12.99 to $14.99 for new released e-books.

On Friday, Amazon removed “buy” buttons from thousands of titles published by Macmillan, including recent bestsellers. Customers who wanted to buy print editions could do so only from third-party sellers. Digital editions made for Amazon’s Kindle device disappeared.

But yesteday, Amazon.com finally surrendered to Macmillan and agreed to raise prices on some e-books.

The Amazon Kindle team announced it on Kindle forum:

For space geeks looking for e-reading, NASA recently added an e-book section to its publications list and rolled out the first free title for the Kindle and Sony Reader: “X-15: Extending the Frontiers of Flight” by Dennis R. Jenkins

“Apollo of Aeronautics: NASA’s Aircraft Energy Efficiency Program, 1973-1987″ by Mark D. Bowles will be available soon and more titles are on the way. The agency already has plenty of technical papers, presentations, case studies and other publications on its website that could eventually land in your e-reader.

Source: Wired Science.

Amazon.com, Inc. today announced that authors and publishers around the world can now use the self-service Kindle Digital Text Platform (DTP) to upload and sell books in English, German and French to customers worldwide in the Kindle Store (www.amazon.com/kindlestore). Until today, DTP was only available to authors and publishers based in the United States. Now, authors and publishers outside the United States can take advantage of this same opportunity and start offering their books to Kindle customers at http://dtp.amazon.com.

“We are excited to make the self-service Kindle Digital Text Platform available to authors and publishers around the world,” said Russ Grandinetti, Vice President, Kindle Content. “Now any content owner can offer English, German or French-language books to the fast-growing audience of Kindle owners around the globe.”

Additional language options with DTP will be added in the coming months. To learn more about the Kindle Digital Text Platform visit http://dtp.amazon.com.

Source: Amazon’s Kindle Digital Text Platform.

Coelho’s books, including the iconic “The Alchemist,” are now available in the author’s native language for download in under 60 seconds

Amazon.com announced on January, 08 that international bestselling author Paulo Coelho has decided to make 17 of his books, including “The Alchemist,” available in his native Portuguese exclusively for worldwide distribution in Amazon’s Kindle Store (www.amazon.com/kindlestore). This is the first time any of these editions have been available as electronic books, and they will be exclusive to the Kindle Store for six months. Kindle is the most gifted, most wished for and the No. 1 bestselling product across all categories on Amazon.com–not just electronics. The Kindle Store now includes over 400,000 books and the largest selection of the most popular books people want to read, including New York Times Bestsellers and New Releases.

“Our customers around the world have long been fans of Paulo Coelho’s books,” said Russ Grandinetti, vice president, Kindle Content. “We’re thrilled to work with Mr. Coelho to offer these titles in his native Portuguese in the Kindle Store for download in less than 60 seconds in more than 100 countries around the world.”

Paulo Coelho is the all-time bestselling Portuguese-language author. One of his best-known books, “The Alchemist,” was a No. 1 bestselling title in 74 countries. “The Alchemist” also holds the 2008 Guinness World Record for the most translated book in the world (67 languages in over 150 countries).

“The great opportunity that Kindle offers to a writer is that it allows readers who are not in their country and do not have access to their local bookstores to immediately access texts in their mother tongue,” said Coelho. “Therefore, it is with great joy that I now see all my books in Portuguese, so far only available abroad in a few specialized bookstores, being just a click away from all Portuguese readers that are around the world.”

Kindle is in stock and available for immediate shipment today at http://www.amazon.com/kindle. Kindle DX will be released on Jan 19, 2010.

Source: Amazon.

Project Gutenberg, abbreviated as PG, is a volunteer effort to digitize and archive cultural works, to “encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks.” Founded in 1971 by Michael S. Hart, it is the oldest digital library. Most of the items in its collection are the full texts of public domain books. The project tries to make these as free as possible, in long-lasting, open formats that can be used on almost any computer. As of December 2009, Project Gutenberg claimed over 30,000 items in its collection. Project Gutenberg is affiliated with many projects that are independent organizations which share the same ideals, and have been given permission to use the Project Gutenberg trademark.

Wherever possible, the releases are available in plain text, but other formats are included, such as HTML, PDF, EPUB, MOBI and Plucker. Most releases are in the English language, but many non-English works are also available. There are multiple affiliated projects that are providing additional content, including regional and language-specific works. Project Gutenberg is also closely affiliated with Distributed Proofreaders, an internet-based community for proofreading scanned texts.