USA Today has a post announcing iPad’s plan to release a special edition of DRACULA for Halloween that includes video game features, music and more. It will be interesting to see how this multimedia experience plays out. Definitely, iPad has to justify it’s many fantastic functions and high price. (While it’s bound to be fun, it sounds like a website to me…)
Oct 13
Kindle ‘Singles’ Coming to an Amazon Near You!
I think this is a silly re-branding of an already existing literary form, but there is method in Amazon’s madness. Check out this Pocket-lint post declaring that the short story and novella have now been renamed “Kindle Singles.”
On paper, it’s a good idea since short and medium-range stories have traditionally been tough for writers to market. The evolution of the eBook Revolution has opened a door for these different narrative forms to be sold and enjoyed. (Good for writers, yah?) Previously shorter stories competed for the limited space in anthologies, magazines and periodicals.
So, on the one hand, yes it’s great that Kindle Singles (formerly known as short stories and novellas) are going to be available to the greater public at a lower price than traditional eBooks. But on the other, it is likely just another cash grab and attempt by publishers and distributors to justify overpricing longer eBooks and novels.
Oct 12
Borrow a Nook from the Library?
Tricities.com reports on an interesting development in the eBook Revolution where the Sullivan County Public Library System has allowed patrons to check out Nook eReaders to interface with thousands of available titles online.
This is a great idea! Now the companies that make the devices have to wake up and realize they need to place their eReaders in libraries where licensing will allow a captive readership to test the digital waters. Once the consumers try the devices, they’ll be asking for them for Christmas.
Oct 11
Some Holiday Weekend Reading…
Happy Thanksgiving to Canadian visitors. Enjoy the links.
Jorgen dropped by with a link to an excellent visualization of the eBook format download wars. Looks like the heat is on PDF. Check it out here at RadarOreilly.
The Sun News has a link to a post that offers solutions to all your eBook conversion needs.
And here’s a link to the Edmonton Journal and a story where American novelist Philip Roth has a good cry about the inevitable. (Though, I have to say it’s easy to defend the status quo when you’re part of it.)
Oct 10
eBooks Cost More than Hard Covers?
More screwy pricing news at Amazon from Mercury News that reports a couple of digital bestsellers hitting the Information Highway priced higher than their paperback equivalents.
Ken Follett’s Fall of Giants from Dutton was priced $19.99 for the eBook and $19.39 for the hard cover.
And publisher Little Brown & Co. marked their Don’t Blink title at $14.99 for the eBook and $14.00 for the hardcover.
Hard to understand where they’re going with this ridiculous trend. All they’re doing is slowing down the eBook Revolution and encouraging eBook Piracy.
Oct 09
PCMag.com Reviews Sharper Image Literati Reader
Here’s a link to a review of the Sharper Image Literati Reader at PCMag.com. It’s competitively priced at $159, but it falls short of the reviewer’s expectations.
Oct 08
eBook Piracy on the Rise
CNet News has the results of a recent study on eBook Piracy. Have a look at the post, there’s a graph and everything.
I thought it would be nice addition to yesterday’s eBook Rumors post. Notice in the survey they blame iPad’s release in part for the increase in piracy, and fail to mention that the biggest publishers in the industry jacked the prices of eBooks up just prior to iPad’s release. (Didn’t that have any impact?)
Read along and you find the survey author, Attributor, “has announced partnerships with Macmillan and Kensington Publishing Corp.” So, we begin to see why eBook pricing is missing from the list of reasons for the increase in piracy. The survey provider has vested interests.
Oct 07
Publishers Driving eBook Prices out of Affordable Range
Thanks Jorgen for a link to this Salon story by Dan Gillmor outlining the lose-lose scenario that publishers have foisted onto the public by taking pricing away from Amazon and other book sellers, and switching to the more expensive agency model that is now showing eBooks priced higher than their physical paper equivalents.
It’s an excellent piece that shows the true greed of these publishers who are trying to push up their failing profits but sticking it to the consumer with grossly inflated price structures.
This kind of thing just slows down an otherwise exploding digital publishing market. It’s a rip off and unfair to consumers who have adopted the new technology.
As a result of this highway robbery, overpricing by publishers is creating the environment for eBook piracy and illegal file sharing to flourish. Jorgen sent along another link to this story at The Next Web that goes into great detail about the negative impacts unfair pricing has on an otherwise (generally) honest public. People only think about obtaining information illegally when they feel they are being cheated. And OVERPRICING DRM-locked digital eBooks is cheating.
On the other hand there is a silver lining for independent authors and small publishing houses who are not ruled by greed, and can introduce new authors to the reading public at affordable prices. That’s a win for the reader too!
Oct 06
Digital Publishing Levels the Playing Field for Kobo
The National Post has an excellent feature on eBook retailer and distributor Kobo that shows the Toronto start-up and offspring of Indigo Books & Music Inc. is more than capable of going blow for blow with Internet giants Amazon, Apple, Barnes and Noble and Sony.
It all comes down to keeping it simple. After launching its $150 eBook eReader (now wireless at a lower price) and starting a price war that saw industry giants Kindle, nook and Sony Reader plummet in price, this retailer that sells into 200 countries attributes most of its success to a focus on selling eBooks to a wide range of hand-held devices and eBook readers while keeping their one tangible product, the Kobo eReader, a simple machine with pay and play options.
Now that RIM’s PlayBook is shipping with Kobobooks preloaded, it’s easy to see that the Kobo approach is working.
Read the full feature here.
Oct 05
The eBook Revolution Continues.
Our intrepid friend Jorgen has dropped off yet another link, this time to an excellent Daily Finance post by Sarah Weinman that lists the results of eBook related surveys. You’ll be surprised by some of the numbers and encouraged that all the evidence points to an eBook Revolution shifting into high gear.
Good Reads
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