News from Publisher's Lunch:
Book social networking site Shelfari announced on their site that Amazon, which was an investor, is buying out the company: "As many of you may already know, Amazon has been a long supporter of Shelfari. They've worked closely with us as we introduced readers, like you, to our global community of book lovers…. And now Shelfari and Amazon will work hand in hand to continue to grow our dynamic community and create innovative new tools around the books you love. We've got some big plans ahead. With more resources and Amazon's expertise in building a platform where people come to share ideas, there are a lot of new opportunities in the future that will benefit each of you." As a Seattle PI itm noted before the announcement, Shelfari "raised about $1 million in February 2007 and had been considering another round of funding." The purchase only heighten questions of what Amazon will do with the minority stake in LibraryThing they acquired as part of the recent AbeBooks purchase.
I have a page on Shelfari, but it has fallen so far behind that it isn't even funny. I have no clue how other writers keep up with their pages on Shelfari, MySpace, ShoutLife, Facebook, et al.
-rlh-
