Apr 11

Enhanced eBooks and Apps Declared Dead

The Bookseller.com offers an interesting story from London Book Fair’s Digital Conference, where Evan Schnittman, Bloomsbury’s m.d. of sales and marketing, caused some debate by declaring enhanced eBooks and Apps dead. Even to the extent of showing a slide with a gravestone saying it: “Enhanced E-books and Apps: 2009 to 2011.”

While it was agreed that eBooks with extras (i.e. multimedia functions) work very well for children and educational eBooks, the enhanced eBook does not fit the narrative form of traditional, contemporary fiction.

I think the enhanced eBooks will find a home eventually, as some kind of narrative hybrid, but the eBook Revolution is still in its infancy, and the niche (and therefore the demand) has not been created.

Apr 09

Nook and Kindle owners protest high eBook Prices

Thanks Jorgen for a Cnet story about Barnes and Noble Nook and Amazon Kindle owners protesting the high prices of eBooks by making their feelings known in the user reviews.

It happened in the early days of the eBook Revolution with Kindle owners protesting any eBook over $9.99. The publishers have got to stop trying to manipulate the market. Their pricing is only fueling eBook Piracy.

Apr 08

eBook Revolution favors the Indie Author

You know the eBook Revolution is going mainstream when ABC News admits there’s something to it.

Here is a fascinating article that should put traditional publishers on guard. Digital Publishing has changed the world for Indie authors, and gives a new weight to the term ‘self-published.’

Apr 07

Barnes and Noble sells Nook WiFi for $79 at eBay.

Mediabistro’s eBookNewser has pointed out that Barnes and Noble is handling the overstock of the Nook Wifi eBook Reader (refurbished) by selling the device on ebay for $79.00 – roughly half of the regular price.

Check it out. Might be the perfect opportunity to get into the eBook Revolution.

Apr 06

Amazon and Google Building a Super-Tablet?

Okay, all eBook Revolution news links aside, this is the first really exciting RUMOR we’ve had here in a long time!

VideoGamingPros ramps up the discussion around the rumored Android-Kindle Tablet, by suggesting its development could be a joint-venture between Amazon and Google.

All this from Amazon’s mysterious Lab 126 posting a notice “looking to hire” Android developers. (Lab 126 developed the Kindle…)

Apr 05

J.K. Rowling considering a move to digital.

The Hollywood Reporter says Harry Potter scribe J.K. Rowling is getting ready to sign onto the eBook Revolution. She has giving lots of reasons in the past for dragging her feet, and now eBooks have given her about 100,000,000 reasons to get aboard.

Now that post suggests Rowling’s involvement will change the eBook Revolution as we know it, even likening her move to the Beatles songbook moving to iTunes. Not sure that’s a level playing field, or that her involvement will be as transformative as the article suggests, but it will certainly get the kids reading eBooks.

If nothing else, it will be another reason for traditional publishers to keep their eBook prices too high. (Unless she’s going to Indie publish them and take 70% of the profits…) You can bet her publisher is keeping the lid on that bit of information.

Apr 04

Uphill Battle for eBooks in Public Libraries

Jorgen dropped in with a link to an Information Today Inc. story about the hurdles public libraries face at the dawn of the eBook Revolution. It looks like an uphill battle with restrictions on lending, device compatibility problems, proprietary systems, interface and privacy issues to name a few.

Apr 02

eBook Revolution continues in Canada

The Vancouver Sun offers us a post on the BookNet Canada Tech Forum 2011 in Toronto where the publishing industry is embracing digital after years of fending it off with both hands.

I get a kick out of that. A decade of resistance, and suddenly it’s an embrace.

Apr 01

More eBook Headlines

ReviewsofElectronics posted on Amazon’s announcement that Kindle books will soon have page numbers.

Smashwords Founder, Mark Coker, shows us where eBook buyers live in a story at HuffingtonPost.

BlogCritics reports on an Expert Panel discussion of eBooks, Digital Books and Apps.

GalleyCat talks about a new eBook App that will let you incorporate Twitter conversations into your reading experience.

Mar 31

More on eBook Pricing

Many thanks to our friend Jorgen for dropping off a link to The Digital Reader where a feature by Eric Landes takes a look at eBook prices and continues the search for digital publishing’s elusive pricing ‘sweet spot.’

An excellent read that many traditional publishers could learn from. (The eBook Revolution demands adaptation. Old business models must be abandoned.)