Last year, Tor Books UK went completely DRM free. At the time, the publisher said that it was removing DRM from its e-books because it was a “constant annoyance” to its customers. It also said that DRM prevented customers “from using legitimately purchased e-books in perfectly legal ways, like moving the from one kind of e-reader to another.”

It’s been a year since Tor Books removed DRM from its products. Did the publisher suddenly see a sharp increase in piracy? Is the company finding that its business is failing because of its move? Will publishers that still insist on DRM look at them and say “Told you so” while sporting a malicious grin?

In all actuality, none of the above occurred as removing DRM has had no discernable effect on the publisher. Tor UK’s Editorial Director Julie Crisp said just as much in a blog post this week:

As it is, we’ve seen no discernible increase in piracy on any of our titles, despite them being DRM-free for nearly a year.

Crisp never outright says that sales increased when Tor UK removed DRM, but she does say that it has endeared readers and authors to the publisher:

The move has been a hugely positive one for us, it’s helped establish Tor and Tor UK as an imprint that listens to its readers and authors when they approach us with a mutual concern—and for that we’ve gained an amazing amount of support and loyalty from the community.

Of course, some publishers will argue that Tor’s experience with ditching DRM is the exception. They’ll argue that DRM is necessary to stop piracy, but we already know that DRM does nothing to stop piracy. Instead, in the words of Charles Stross, DRM is a “monopoly” that reduces readers’ freedom while hampering competition.

Even with Tor’s evidence, DRM will still be used for many years to come. Legacy industries refuse to even entertain the idea that DRM may be negatively affecting legitimate customers opting instead to continue beating the anti-piracy war drums.

[h/t: TechDirt]

This week, Patti Davis, born Patricia Reagan, self-published a novel in the Kindle book store. Titled Till Human Voices Wake Us, the book deals with a woman’s lesbian relationship with her sister-in-law. From the book description on Amazon:

In the empty days after her son’s death, left alone in her grief by her husband, Isabelle Berendon falls in love with the unlikeliest person in the world: her sister-in-law.

Davis has previously written 8 books, including The Long Goodbye, which chronicled her father’s, Ronald Reagan’s, battle with Alzheimer’s disease. Now that she has penned a fictional novel (and one dealing with lesbianism at that), she states in her author biography that she finds herself in the same boat as other authors who can’t get an offer from a publishing house. However, she is also embracing the self-publishing model that ebooks are making more possible:

I’ve written a lot about my famous family, the Reagans — maybe this non-autobiographical novel was too much of a departure for publishers to wrap their heads around. But now there is KDP and the room to publish a book yourself. It’s exciting to me — a new era in publishing. Most writers have books they have labored over for years and long to put out into the world. Till Human Voices Wake Us is one of those books.

Apple announced this morning that the iBookstore has officially launched in Japan. Much like the launch of the Kindle Store in Japan, Apple is touting a number of exclusive titles in hopes that customers will choose their store over the competition.

We’re excited to launch the iBookstore in Japan with a wide selection of Japanese publishers and authors,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Internet Software and Services. “We think customers are going to love how engaging and interactive the books are to read, and how beautiful they look on iPad.”

The biggest grab for the iBookstore is a collection of digital novels from Ryu Murakami. The novels contain experimental ways to tell stories in a digital format, including the addition of interactive emails in each chapter.

Children’s books, like the charming Piyo-Chan: A Letter for Piyo, have been updated on the iBookstore as well to include new interactive and visual elements.

Apple’s real win against Apple, however, comes in the form of its exclusive selection of digital manga. The company announced that a full color version of Hirohiko Araki’s JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure Part 4 is exclusively available on the iBookstore.

With this news, expect Amazon to kick its Japanese Kindle business up a notch. There are a lot of readers in Japan, and securing exclusive titles is the way to win in that particular market. In fact, I’d be willing to bet that the winner will be whomever is able to secure Murakami Haruki’s next novel, which is set to be published next month.

Reuters reports that Barnes & Noble posted a net loss for its third quarter, which includes the holiday shopping season. Its retail business posted a 2.2 percent loss. That was nothing compared to its Nook business, however, as it took a massive $190.4 million, or 25.9 percent, loss.

Barnes & Noble founder and Chairman Leonard Riggio wants to buy the retail bookstore business, but he would leave the company’s Nook and textbook business to fend for itself. After splitting off the Nook business from its retail business, it received a few substantial investments from companies like Microsoft. It may need more of that to stay afloat until it can get its groove back.

Analysts are saying that will be difficult though. They call Nook’s ability to compete with Google, Amazon and Apple into question as its tablets lack many of the apps that make tablets from the former more popular. Morningstar analyst Peter Wahlstrom seemingly suggests that the Nook business should be sold, but says that “the window of opportunity” to do so is closing.

Despite all this, Barnes & Nobile CEO William Lynch says the company is still committed to its Nook business. What that means for the future of Nook, especially if Riggio is able to buy back the retail business, remains to be seen.

The most likely scenario to emerge from all this is Nook abandoning or selling off its hardware business, and focusing exclusively on its software/eBook business. Even then, the subsidiary could be bought up by somebody else for its massive selection of eBook titles. My money is on Microsoft as it needs to better equip Windows 8 in the fight against Apple, Google and Amazon. A collection of exclusive eBooks could be just the thing Windows 8 needs.

BioShock Infinite: Mind in Revolt will be released for the Kindle bookstore on February 12. Readers can pay $3 to download it, but a free copy of the novel comes with every BioShock Infinite pre-order as well. The book is written by Irrational writer Joe Fielder with the help of Irrational’s creative director, Ken Levine.

“Since we first announced BioShock Infinite, our fans have asked for more information about Columbia and the complex cast of characters that inhabit the floating city,” said Fielder. “After reading the e-book, players will have a better understanding of BioShock Infinite‘s world, the struggle between its factions, and the motivations of key characters, like rebel leader Daisy Fitzroy, without spoiling the mysteries of BioShock Infinite.”

That’s Daisy in the picture above. The full poster, seen below, shows her as the leader of the Vox Populi faction in the game.

In addition to a free copy of Mind in Revolt, gamers who pre-order BioShock Infinite get the “Industrial Revolution Pack,” which includes three in game items that “boost combat abilities,” 500 bonus in-game currency, five lock picks (in-game, presumably), and a puzzle game that is somehow tied to Facebook.

A Judge in the county, Nelson Wolff, is pushing for the construction of an entirely bookless public library. He says it will be called BiblioTech, which is a play on biblioteca, the Spanish word for library.

While some public libraries across the country offer ebooks to their readers, none operate as completely paperless. Wolff wants to change that. He reportedly got the idea after reading the Walter Isaacson biography of Steve Jobs.

The BiblioTech will resemble an Apple store, says Wolff. Readers will be able to go in and read ebooks on site or take them home either on their own device or on rentable ereaders.

“We wanted to find a low-cost, effective way to bring reading and learning to the county and also focus on the change in the world of technology,” Wolff said. “It will help people learn,” he said.

He estimates that the first 10,000 ebook titles would cost around $250,000.

To Wolff, it wouldn’t only benefit residents intellectually, but the county would benefit financially. As of right now, Bexar county doesn’t have its own public library system. They actually pay $3.7 million a year to give residents access to San Antonio’s public libraries. But that cost may nearly double, says Wolff.

The BiblioTech would be the nation’s first public library to go completely no-paper. Other places have considered it, even making proposals to begin construction – but none have been realized. There are also bookless academic libraries, but no true bookless public libraries.

[My San Antonio via Mashable]

The publisher’s eBook library includes nearly 2,000 titles, and is continuously updated. McGraw Hill says academic libraries will be interested in reference works, and public libraries will find “a wealth of titles” on careers and business skills, student and career exam study guides and “How to Do Everything” books on consumer technology.

“In a fast-changing environment, McGraw-Hill Professional continues to provide new ways to deliver our content and respond to our customers’ needs,” said Philip Ruppel , president of McGraw-Hill Education International and Professional. “Our enhanced perpetual access program is another way to ensure that libraries around the world have all of the options they need to build eBook collections to best serve their patrons.”

With the publisher’s eBook library, users can access hundreds of thousands of pages of content in engineering, computing, medical, business and student study aid categories.

Peanuts Worldwide and Graphicly announced today that the library of Peanuts children’s books and comic strips will be available as eBooks on iBooks, Kindle, Nook, Kobo Reader, Google Play Books and other eBook retailers. Over 60 titles will be available at launch with A Charlie Brown Christmas leading the pack. Other titles include Happiness is a Warm Blanket, Charlie Brown and the complete Peanuts newspaper strip archives.

“For years, publishers have waited like Linus in the pumpkin patch for an integrated, simple and cost-effective way to convert, distribute and promote digital and interactive books. We are excited to partner with Peanuts Worldwide to help make the rich history of Peanuts available to readers everywhere,” said Micah Baldwin, CEO and Founder of Graphicly.

This is actually the best time for Peanuts to go digital as more and more children are starting to own tablets. The eBooks format ensures that a whole new generation of children can enjoy stories of Charlie Brown never winning at life. If that’s too heavy, kids can enjoy the simpler tales of Snoopy being an all around badass. There’s a little something for everyone which may be why Peanuts is still so endearing after all these years.

The Arthur C. Clarke eBook collection includes 35 of the author’s works, including Childhood’s End, the 2001: A Space Odyssey series, the Rendezvous with Rama series, and Prelude to Space. All 11 of Clarke’s short story collections are also included in the eBook collection.

“Arthur C. Clarke’s work is as fresh and engaging today as when originally published decades ago. Clarke’s novels and short stories are uniquely suited to eBook formats. It is an honor for RosettaBooks to publish the Arthur C. Clarke Collection,” said Arthur Klebanoff, CEO of RosettaBooks.

Clarke, who died in 2008, was the author of numerous novels and short stories. His writings won many Hugo and Nebula awards, and for decades he was known as one of the “big three” of sci-fi authors, along with Robert Heinlein and Isaac Asimov. He also hosted the Arthur C. Clarke’s Mysterious World U.K. television series and its successors. In 1994, Clarke was nominated for a Noble Peace Prize.

Clarke is also famous for popularizing the idea of geostationary satellites, and the geostationary orbits satellites today use are often referred to as the “Clarke Orbit.”

Published and showcased via Leanpub, “The Startup Chef” currently sports 75 recipes from people all over the tech spectrum. It’s the work of YouTube’s Hunter Walk and ABC News’ Maya Baratz.

“What does the founder of the most popular blogging platform on the internet make for breakfast? What type of creative pastry do Randi Zuckerberg and her sister Donna whip up for their family during the holidays? It’s all in here, with their own personal stories and recipes, for you to make and enjoy (in a totally non-creepy, non-Single-White-Female sort of way).And of course it wouldn’t be a launch if there wasn’t that ‘one more thing’: all proceeds from the book will go to charities aiming to end hunger — ranging from feeding hungry children in the US to helping feed families severely affected by Hurricane Sandy,” they say.

Here are some recipes from some notable people that you’ll find in the ecookbook:

• Double Marinated Tenderloin / Fillet of Beef by Daniel Ek, CEO Spotify
• Porcini Mushroom Pasta Sauce by Soraya Darabi, Foodspotting
• Mom Crowley’s Sausage Soup by Dennis Crowley, Foursquare
• Eggnog Cinnamon Chip Scones by Donna & Randi Zuckerberg, Zuckerberg Media

They suggest that you pay $20 for the cookbook, but will accept $10. They say that the book will receive new recipes and updates as they come in, and you’ll receive all of those for free. You can sample the cookbook here.

[via Business Insider]