May 07

Belkin eBook Light – Shine of the Times

Sorry about the headline. I’m still a bit punchy from all this Google Editions talk. Imagine the chatter when the Google eBook Store actually opens!

Here’s a link to a story at Ubergizmo about the Belkin eBook Light. It snaps onto your E Ink eBook Reader for reading in low-light conditions. Not newsworthy? Hardly. This is the sort of development that suggests the eBook Revolution isn’t just exploding, it has legs for the long haul. Any product that creates a demand for accessories is here to stay.

May 06

Google Edition’s Open Ecosystem

It appears to be a slow news day in the eBook Revolution. That being the case, here’s a link to ZDNet’s story that goes deeper into Google Editions eBook store announcement. They explain what Google Edition’s “open ecosystem” will bring to the eBook market.

May 05

Google Opening an eBook Store

Jorgen dropped off a link to a post at Read Write Web about Google’s announcement that it will launch its own eBook store in an open challenge to Amazon, Barnes and Noble and others. The new store will be called Google Editions and should open in June or July.

Under Google’s plan, the net search giant will let people purchase digital copies of books found through its Google book search service while offering participating eBook retailers the option to sell Google Editions on their own sites–and keep the majority of the revenue. Google is already using the ePub standard and will offer 500,000 titles for reading on laptop, phone or eBook Reader.  All this as Google continues to struggle for the right to distribute out-of-print books.

This is an interesting development in the eBook Revolution that you can read more about here at ars technica. Where Google Editions is ahead of the competition is their offer of eBook titles untethered to a specific device. Their eBooks will be “device-agnostic” for reading on any device or computer.

May 04

Publishing Strategy for Indie Authors

Jorgen sent us a link to a story by MediaShift’s Carla King detailing a publishing approach for independent authors eager to take advantage of the opportunities presented by advances in digital publishing. The article focuses on industry leading digital publishing platforms Smashwords.com and Scribd.com.

Well worth the read, King offers a publishing strategy that uses the best of these game-changing companies. This is a win-win scenario for writers and readers.

May 03

iPad Sales Reach 1 Million

This certainly deserves some mention. Apple’s iPad has reached a million sold in 28 days. Read the story here at CNN.

They’re asking the question: Will the iPad be a greater success than the iPhone?

I think we can apply the same argument that we use when people wonder if the iPad will kill the Kindle and other E Ink eBook Readers. The answer is: The market is too big, with a audience too varied for any single device to be all things to all people. And, I’ll say that Apple’s decision to keep the iPad Flash-free severely limits its adoption as a tablet device.

May 02

Win a Kobo eReader

Okay, sorry I’m a little late out of the blocks with this, but there’s still time to enter a draw for a FREE Kobo eReader. Take the link here.

Looks like the price of admission is the purchase of one eBook from Kobobooks.com.

If you’re not the gambling sort, I thought I’d mention that the Kobo eReader is available for the low price of $150. Order it here. It’s a cool little E Ink machine that’s receiving great reviews.

May 01

E Ink is here to stay.

The Huffington Post has a piece by Steven Haber “Why the iPad Won’t Kill eReaders” that will calm any E Ink lovers who might feel a bit crowded by all the press about iPad taking over the world.

A great weekend read by someone who knows readers.

Apr 30

Apple iPad Causes Insomnia?

Many thanks to Jorgen who dropped off a link to a rumor that sounds like it might have been started by Amazon’s Kindle designers. The post at PRNews says that reports are starting to filter in about Apple iPad users suffering from insomnia. Apparently the experts believe a backlit screen (like iPad’s much-touted full-color display) could suppress the hormone melatonin in the body, causing people to stay awake when they would otherwise be ready for sleep. Read the full story here.

Interesting to see this rumor appear just as the war between full-color and E Ink displays is heating up, yah?

Apr 29

eBook Sales Continue to Rise

YoungMoney.com posted on a report from the International Digital Publishing Forum showing a 200% increase in wholesale eBook sales since January.

Check out the cool graphs on first quarter growth at IDPF. While it’s an impressive visual display, it’s important to view this rationally. Yes, it looks like eBooks are here to stay, but all growth will seem explosive if a product did not exist before it became popular. The really interesting graphs will come at year end and show whether this growth continued through 2010. I think it will.

Apr 28

Adapt or Die in the Digital Publishing Age

Here’s a link from Jorgen that stands as a clear example of how fighting the flow will only bite you in the ass. Marketplace.com has a story about Random House, publisher of William Styron’s books (e.g. Sophie’s Choice), losing the digital publishing rights to Styron’s titles to a new company “Open Road” that will represent the family of the deceased author.

Apparently, the text in Styron’s contract does not cover eBooks.

It’s clear that Random House either underestimated the potential of the eBook Revolution or overestimated the strength and breadth of its publishing contracts. As the story says, Random House is not going to go down easily and will fight the decision, since this development leaves all of its publishing contracts open to reinterpretation. With eBooks signaling the future of industry growth, Random House (and others) might be left twisting in the wind.

Change is only bad if you’re unwilling or unprepared to adapt to it.