It’s been some time since Charles Dickens and William Thackeray became famous with serialized novels, but the concept — making the reader wait for the next chapter — is being given a modern twist with an e-book on IBM’s effort to build a computer smart enough to beat the world’s best Jeopardy players.

Houghton Mifflin, the publisher of Stephen Baker’s Final Jeopardy: Man vs. Machine and the Quest to Know Everything, has released the e-book exclusively through Amazon and Barnes & Noble. However, the e-book will be missing the last chapter — until mid-February. Once the final pre-taped Jeopardy contest between Watson, the IBM computer, and “Jeopardy” champions Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter has been broadcast, the final chapter will be released to the e-book's buyers. 

The winner is already known, so the fact that readers will have to wait for the ending won’t be a draw for them to buy the book.Continue reading...

Selling books got a whole lot sexier this week as Barnes & Noble hosts a virtual Brooklyn Decker. It's all an augmented reality stunt for Esquire magazine, whose readers voted her the sexiest woman alive, prompting a February cover that is now on newsstands.

The model/actress is virtually appearing in 700 Barnes & Noble stores via GPS-enabled technology that allows iPhone users to have their picture taken with her virtual image. It's also a clever digital marketing coup for all concerned.Continue reading...

Amazon's one-day deal with LivingSocial blows Gap's Groupon deal out of the water.

AOL (whose content strategy is profiled in this week's New Yorker) launches iPad-exclusive Editions digital magazine.

Esquire promotion with struggling Barnes & Noble brings model Brooklyn Decker virtually (via an iPhone app) to stores.

Goldman Sachs quarterly profit drops 53%.

Jimmy Choo to launch men's line (online only) in July.

McDonald's signs on as lead sponsor of the NHL.

Michael Jackson to be immortalized as French perfume.Continue reading...

AT&T jumps into 4G.

Barnes & Noble launches Nook kids iPad app.

Chanel names actress Blake Lively as its global ambassador.

Chrysler Town & Country leads the way as the top-selling minivan in 2010 in the United States.

E! gives Khloe Kardashian and Lamar Odom their own show.

eBay rang up $2 billion in mobile sales last year.Continue reading...

Amazon steps up European expansion plans.

Australia floods will impact global steel industry.

Barnes & Noble sees holiday sales growth from Nook e-reader.

Borders meets with publishers to discuss the US bookseller's future.

Coca-Cola takes nuanced approach in India.

Consumer Electronics Association annual CES show prepares to open with latest tablets and more.Continue reading...

Barnes & Noble isn't letting Apple's iPad or Amazon's Kindle steal the spotlight this holiday season, if B&N can help it. It's pitching its NOOKcolor e-book reader directly to the market that most appreciates color pictures in books — kids, and their parents — opening an enormous and lucrative portal to illustrated e-books.

With more than 12,000 digital books for kids and some persistent marketing this holiday selling season, B&N just may succeed in reaching the one million e-readers shipped benchmark by year-end.Continue reading...

The online world has brought us the wonder of instant free global knowledge, but with it has come the reality that "free" really isn't. Often, advertising is the price the consumer pays for unfettered access to a vast wealth of information.

Now, it seems, that same principle is being tested with pretty much the last ad-free medium available — books. Publishers and authors have long resisted placing ads in printed books, but with the e-book market rapidly growing in acceptance, the publishing model not only might change; it is changing.Continue reading...

Amazon has made no secret of Kindle's success on its site. Its homepage has been promoting it with a call-out noting that it's the #1 best-selling, #1 most wished for and #1 most-gifted item for sale on its site. To the delight of analysts, the notoriously close-mouthed (when it comes to actual sales stats) e-tail giant went further this morning.Continue reading...