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by Nathan Bransford

It's difficult to overstate how big of a deal it is to bookselling culture that the Department of Justice is reportedly planning to sue five publishers and Apple for colluding over e-book prices*.

In order to understand why this is a big deal, here's a brief recap of what led us here (this summary is described in greater detail in my post Why Some E-Books Cost More Than the Hardcover).

Wholesale vs. Agency

At the time Amazon kicked off the modern e-book market with the introduction of the Kindle, e-books were sold according to the traditional wholesale model. Essentially, publishers set a cover price and they got half, the bookseller got half. If a book was listed at $25, publishers got $12.50 on an e-book sale, the bookseller got $12.50.

Problem was from publishers' perspective, Amazon was selling some e-books at $9.99 and taking a loss on those sales, all the while locking readers into their proprietary format. Not only did this devalue what consumers felt a book "should" cost, publishers were worried that competitors wouldn't be able to enter the e-book space because they wouldn't be able to compete with Amazon's prices. No competitors would mean a virtual monopoly for Amazon, and publishers were presumably concerned about Amazon's ability to then dictate terms.

Along comes Apple and the iPad. Steve Jobs talked the publishers into the agency model - publishers set their own prices and they get 70% of the proceeds.

( Read the rest of this really fascinating post on Nathan Bransford's blog )

FYI, Nathan's blog is great for writers/authors and readers. Great community and, as a former agent, now writer, he has amazing insight into the publishing world. I can't recommend him highly enough.

Finally it's my turn, I suppose.

Voices from Haiti: 'God, I can't do this anymore'

"Thursday, January 14, 1:24 p.m.: "God, I can't do this anymore"

"I saw the Haitian Red Cross attempting to rescue someone who was trapped and still alive under a collapsed cement building. (And had been for 2 days.)

As I stood there listening, I heard people around me talking. Her first child was taken out from the rubble and was dead and lying in a body bag right in front of me. She wailed and wailed because of the death of her child.

But she sat there, clinging to her husband for support because she knew she still had a living child under the rubble...(The rest of this and other personal stories at CNN.com)

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Updates on the Rescue Effort in Haiti

As we did on Tuesday and Wednesday, The Lede is continuing to follow news of the rescue effort in Haiti, where a 7.0 magnitude earthquake has caused death and destruction that has been difficult for Haitians and observers outside the country to assess, because of severe damage to the local communications infrastructure. To supplement the work of our colleagues — including Simon Romero’s reporting from Haiti — The Lede is tracking news coverage on the Web. We are also looking for personal accounts posted online and are asking readers to help draw our attention to any news and first-hand accounts they come across. Our Times Topics team has produced an overview of the week’s events so far.

(Check out the blog for updates from various news sources, as well as tweets and bloggers on the street)

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Earthquake Day in Port au Prince

Yesterday was absolutely terrible. I’m going to share my whole experience because I’m hoping it will be therapeutic. In any case I think I’m going to have nightmares for a long time.

I spent the day in Port au Prince getting a loaner vehicle from the Toyota dealer and then taking care of some mission business. On my way out of town in the afternoon, I was on Delmas 9 (I think) and the loaner vehicle I had just picked up broke down. I called the dealer to come get it. Shortly after they arrived, the earthquake hit.

I’m ashamed of the first thought that went through my mind, which was “Cool, I’ve never been in a big earthquake before!” As the quake rolled on, though, I remembered the conversations I’ve had with the other missionaries about what an earthquake would mean for Haiti. Of course, it would be devastating. Construction materials and methods aren’t just shoddy, they’re suicidal, but now isn’t the time to rampage, just to tell you about my experiences. (Read the rest of this blog posting at Rollings In Haiti)

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and a reminder to be careful...

As World Looks to Help Haiti, Scammers Sit Poised

Charitable Americans eager to help the nation of Haiti recover from Tuesday's devastating earthquake are being warned to be on the lookout for online scammers.

A number of "text to donate" services have been set up for people to make donations directly from their cell phones. But consumer advocates are warning that, as more are created, some may be phonies.

Two that are trustworthy are:

-- Texting HAITI to 90999: The U.S. Department of State's Web site suggests texting "HAITI" to "90999" to donate $10 to the Red Cross to help with relief efforts. The $10 will be charged to your cell phone bill. Or you can go online to organizations like the Red Cross and Mercy Corps to contribute to the disaster relief efforts.

-- Texting YELE to 501501: On Twitter, musician Wyclef Jean, a native of Haiti, notes, "Haiti needs your help text YELE to 501501 and 5 dollars will go toward earthquake relief." Yele Haiti is a grassroots movement Jean has set up to inspire change in Haiti through programs in education, sports, the arts and environment. (Read the rest at FoxNews.com)