May 25

More about the $150 Kobo eReader

Okay. I know I’m obsessing about this thing, but come on… think of how much time we’ve talked about the pricey Kindle, nook, Sony Reader and iPad. Doesn’t an affordable E Ink eReader deserve some extra attention?

ZDNet has had some hands-on time with the $150 Kobo eReader. Check out their post here. There’s a great picture gallery too.

I think of the $150 Kobo eReader as the mainstream machine. The eBook Revolution has been waiting for a device that uses E Ink technology, and is priced to sell. It will open the door for the curious and hesitant adopters and if it becomes as popular as industry insiders think, the affordable machine puts pressure on Kobo’s competitors to lower their prices.

May 24

Free eBook Horror at SkinEaters.com

I’ve been enjoying this chap’s writing and promotions. Now that he’s got the entire Variant Effect eBook finished (he wrote it in serial installments) I’ll post this from his press release. The whole eBook’s available at the address. Enjoy!

The final installment of THE VARIANT EFFECT – Part Seven: ALPHA is now available in FREE multi-format downloads at SkinEaters.com.

May 23

Are eBooks Green or not?

Sorry for the late post. Holiday weekend here.

Stuff.co.nz ponders the Green eBook question. Data’s starting to pile up, but it’s still too early to make the call. Check it out here.

May 22

Harlequin Goes Where Many Have Gone Before

Here’s a link to a story at The Wall Street Journal describing publisher Harlequin Enterprises‘ intention to sell a novella that “will serve as a link” between a novelist’s debut book and the second, that goes on sale July 27.

It will be interesting to see if people will buy what is generally offered as a freemium out there on the web, but you have to expect that a publisher will try selling eBook samples if there’s a remote possibility that they can get away with it.

We’ll see if the eBook Revolution has evolved to allow for this kind of thing, or whether the reading public will see it as an attempt to charge $2.99 for a 15,000 word ‘linking’ novella.

May 21

Six Months in the “Year of the eBook”

Jorgen dropped off a link to the Mobility Site and an interesting post entitled: “The Year of the Ebook: The Story Thus Far” that is a nice review for eBook fans who have been following the revolution since the beginning and an education to the uninitiated.  A nice recap of the highlights and major stars in the exploding eBook market. (My prediction: Kobo’s $150 eReader is going to dominate the second half of 2010.)

p.s. that’s the first time I’ve ever heard Kindle software called the “the gold standard of eBook reading,”  so I guess we can pretty much assume the writer owns a Kindle.

May 20

Barnes and Noble – eBook Publishers

Here’s a MarketWatch story about Barnes and Noble again showing they’re able to think off the shelf. For a company that up until a short time ago had closed its eBook store, B&N is showing the industry how to make up for lost time.

Not only are they embracing the eBook Revolution by converting their own titles, building their nook eBook Reader, and offering special eBook friendly applications and specials to take advantage of their bricks and mortar locations, they’re also now offering an easy and lucrative eBook publishing service to independent publishers and writers.

Read about their easy-to-use publishing and distribution platform here.

May 19

New Amazon Kindle to fight iPad? What’s going on at Lab 126?

Many thanks to Jorgen for a link to a Telegraph.co.uk post that hints at mysterious activities over at Amazon.com’s research and development department. Apparently dozens of jobs have been posted at Amazon’s Lab 126 which just happens to be the division responsible for building Kindle in the first place.

Industry insiders are suggesting that Amazon is planning to guard its market with a re-design of Kindle that can go head-to-head with Apple’s full-color, multi-function iPad. Read the full story here.

May 18

Does iPad Drive eBook Piracy?

Here’s a link to a great story at WIRED’s Gadget Lab that investigates the impact of iPad’s launch on eBook Piracy. Their initial findings were “kinda.”

Check out the full story on whether there is a story here.

May 17

eText Books Arrive for California Schools…

The Inland Valley Daily Bulletin has a post updating last year’s story about California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Digital Textbook Initiative and the state’s cash-strapped school districts’ efforts to find ways to utilize the 30 standards-aligned textbooks now available for high school classrooms.

Schwarzenegger should be applauded for his hi-tech maneuvering. At $105 for an English printed textbook and $65 for math it’s easy to see the long-term savings in going digital. The tough part will be crossing the hardware divide that some lower-income students might face, but the article indicates the use of identical print outs (PDF’s) should provide all of their students access to the information.

May 16

Edit eBook then Publish, then Edit?

Thanks to Jorgen for a link to this Christian Science Monitor story about Amazon sometimes updating eBooks with patches and narrative fixes. This is causing some controversy among literary purists who feel that a book is inviolate once the writer has signed off.

I think updates make perfect sense with science and textbooks to keep up with advances, though it could present dangers for fiction writers.

We’ve all read books that had the art and spontaneity re-written out of them.