The largest online retail website Amazon.com dropped thousands of California affiliates on Wednesday. Amazon affiliates in California are the latest victim of an ongoing campaign by states to collect sales tax from online retailers.

The catch is, however, that the retailer must have a physical presence in the state to collect the sales tax. State laws have been written to include affiliates as being a “physical presence” in the state.

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Since Brad’s Reader seems to be growing in readership and popularity, I’m going to try an experiment in shameless promotion. I’m going to be selling exclusive Brad’s Reader gear, compliments of DIY design site Zazzle.com.

This decision was decided, in part, by the loss of revenue after the state of Illinois passed a law that will tax the internet, forcing Amazon to dump all affiliates in the state.

Don’t worry, my products won’t just be boring shirts and mugs with the Brad’s Reader logo and URL. Yes, there will be t-shirts and mugs, but they will feature original drawings/designs by yours truly.

Right now my store is still a work in progress. Once some products are up, I’ll be tastefully promoting them right here.

A few days after JK Rowling’s new Pottermore website came to life and the announcement of the Harry Potter series being released in ebook format, got me thinking about the big shift that has taken place in Rowling’s thinking over the years.

She has gone from dismissing ebooks because of worries about piracy (even though the absence of ebooks actually increased piracy of her books), to releasing DRM-free versions of her ebooks. Not only that, but she is essentially self-publishing the Harry Potter series on her website (her publishers do share some of the revenue, however).

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Amazon might unveil a new tablet computer later this year, reports suggest. The largest online retailer, who released the Kindle to the world in 2007, could up the ante with their own tablet to better compete with Apple’s iPad.

Rumors of an Amazon tablet have been swirling around the web for a long time. But now, suppliers of tablet components appear to be confirming Amazon’s plans.

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The numbers are out for April 2011: Print book sales took a dive while digital book sales continued their climb upward. Anyone else not surprised?

The American Association of Publishers (AAP) released the figures for all of their member publishing houses, which include Penguin, Random House, Scholastic, Simon & Schuster and many more.

Publishers Weekly gives the rundown:

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Note: I’ve been writing about the Harry Potter/Ebook saga for a while now. Check out my most popular Harry Potter post that has links to most of my other HP posts. Thanks for reading!

The announcement has finally arrived for all you Harry Potter fans out there: The popular 7 book series will be released in ebook format this October!

Speculation has been running rampant for the last several days with the mysterious Pottermore website. As it turns out, the website will be home to Harry Potter, the digital version.

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Here’s a quick follow-up to the previous post I wrote about the possibility that Borders could liquidate the entire company next month.

They were granted a last-minute reprieve by the bankruptcy judge. This means that the book chain will be sticking around for the near future.

Publishers Weekly has the scoop:

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Nothing says relaxing like sitting on the beach with an eReader loaded with Elin Hilderbrand novels (for example). Ereaders were made for the beach.

Kobo is taking ereading to the warm water of the Caribbean. In a recent press release, they announced a partnership with a local bookseller Nigel R Khan:

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July can be the ‘make or break’ month for the Borders book chain. If they don’t get a buyer soon to take over their debt, then the chain will start liquidating by July 29.

Borders entered into bankruptcy earlier this year. Since then, over 200 stores have closed, and there are more on the chopping block. Actually, the entire company is on the chopping block right now.

Publishers Weekly gives the dirty details:

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I have said many times before that ebooks are opening the floodgates for independent (read: self-published) authors. Well the flood gates have really opened for indie author John Locke.

He has sold 1 million Kindle ebooks through Amazon’s self-publishing program, Kindle Direct Publishing. Locke joins an elite group of big name authors like Charlaine Harris, Stieg Larson, James Patterson and Nora Roberts, just to name a few, who have all sold over 1 million Kindle ebooks.

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