Online retailer, kalahari.net, this week became the first South African retailer to make a local new publication available in both print and e-book formats at the same time, at the same price. Online shoppers will be able to buy the new Eugene Terre’Blanche biography, ‘Eugene Terre’Blanche – my storie’, on www.kalahari.net as e-book or as hard copy. The e-book is currently available exclusively from kalahari.net.

According to Gary Hadfield, CEO of kalahari.net, the online retailer has increased its range of e-books to 193 000 since its launch in March this year and is daily adding to the range. The e-tailer’s range of local e-books will also expand significantly in the near future.  Commenting on the pricing structure of e-books, Hadfield said: “The industry is still finding its feet with the pricing of e-books. Kalahari.net is selling the Eugene Terre’Blanche e-book for the same price as the hard copy, but shoppers will only pay R100 for the e-book if they buy the book in both formats.”

‘Eugene Terre’Blanche  - my storie’ is available from www.kalahari.net at R176.00.

The total revenue for 2009 came to R1,569,006,660 through the sale of 12,628,234 units across 276,860 unique titles, compared to the R1,491,140,307 and 12,578,151 units across 272,897 titles sold in 2008. The average selling price increased by 4.79% from R118.56 in 2008 to R124.25 in 2009.

Adult Non-fiction made up 44.92% of the total sales, down from the 47.43% of 2008, with the Stephenie Meyer titles helping the Children’s Fiction share increase from 7.75% to 9.25% in 2009.

Neilsen BookScan's General Retail Market (GCM) survey, which measures high street sales, showed a drop of almost seven per cent in 2009, to £968 million.

It is the first time the value of high street sales has dropped below the one billion pound mark since 2003 - when average book prices were significantly lower.

read the full article at www.telegraph.co.uk

Barnes & Noble Inc. says it's launching a textbook rental program for college students.

The new program will be available though campus bookstores or the stores' Web sites. It's designed to allow students to cut their textbook costs by as much as 50 percent for some titles.

read the full article at www.businessweek.com