Harlequin Enterprises announced this week the launch of its new entity, digital press Carina Press.    According to their website, Carina Press “is a new digital-only publisher that combines editorial and marketing expertise with the freedom of digital publishing. With a long history of digital marketing and editorial experience, the Carina Press team is committed to bringing readers fresh voices and new, unique editorial. Our philosophy is: no great story should go untold!”
You can find submission guidelines on their website and a Q&A plus more information on their blog.

Ebook sales growth as reported by the IDPF.

The July 2009 report by AAR for May 2009 sales figures shows “E-books sales jumped up by 196.6 percent for the month ($11.5 million), reflecting an increase of 166.7 percent for the year.”
When you compare this to the May 2008 report, when e-books sales saw a 24.3% increase for the month of May and a 31.4% increase for the year, it’s clear that e-book sales are starting to skyrocket.
The rest of the categories reflected:

Adult Hardcover category was down by 40.7 percent in …

Some of the news to hit the epublishing industry in the first half of 2009;
More and more digital news is hitting the headlines:

January 2009

January, 2009. Dorchester to Offer Much of their catalog as ebooks. http://sfscope.com/2009/01/dorchester-to-offer-their-enti.html

January, 2009. Harlequin Offers Free Books on Stanza http://www.lexcycle.com/content/60th_anniversary_harlequin

March 2009

March, 2009. Barnes & Noble Acquires Fictionwise, a leader in the Internet E-book Marketplace.
http://www.teleread.org/2009/03/05/fictionwise-acquired-by-barnes-noble/

March, 2009. Association of American Publishers releases latest stats.Ebook sales +110.4%, rising to $10 million dollars–up from $8 million in January.
http://www.fictionmatters.com/2009/06/10/ebooks-reach-new-sales-record/

May 2009

May, …

Amazon, Sony and other ereader manufacturers are starting to drop the prices.    As the way of other technology, this mean the eReader will become more accessible to the public.  Hmm…how long before an ereader is as common on our homes as a DVD player? Or a stereo?
According to Alex Palmer at Adweek, the “Kindle craze is upon us.”   Rob Ederle, principal at the San Jose, Calif.–based Ederle Group,  adds: “We’re getting close to an iPod moment with e-books.  Kindle has shown us how close we are getting, but we can …

Harper Collins has created a new position and appointed Margot Schupf to the new role of editorial director, digital publishing, for the Morrow/Avon/Eos group, which includes Avon Romances. Her plan is to work with the imprints to create original ebooks as well as pull from their backlists.
More information on this move can be found here:
http://www.forbes.com/2009/07/28/harpercollins-ebooks-publishing-technology-paidcontent.html