Thanks Jorgen for a link to a post by Adrian Kingsley-Hughes at ZDNet entitled “The iPad will kill ebooks as we know them.”

Rather a gloomy piece, but it makes some good points while ignoring the vast market of readers who just want to read on a device. They’re happy with the eBook’s (book’s) special and unique qualities. The written word gives the reader a personal and intimate vacation from fielding telephone calls, skimming through movies, returning emails and playing music.

There is a market for iPad, but it would be perilous to generalize about the preferences of people who enjoy reading.

In an effort to hang onto its 90 percent share of the American e-book market, Amazon is starting to talk tough with publishers in the weeks leading up to the iPad’s arrival. If you’ll remember, Amazon already got into a dustup with publishers that resulted in the eBook retailer removing the ‘buy’ buttons from resistant publishers’ products, only to reverse their decision days later. That dispute involved the publishers insisting on price-hikes up from Amazon’s market-tested $9.99 per title. The publishers wanted to charge agency rates, and change their existing deals with Amazon to match new deals they were making with Apple. Amazon conceded. You can read some background on that fight here.

Now, we see that the price for that concession might involve these publishers signing 3-year exclusive (fixed-price) contracts with Amazon or risk having the direct sale buttons removed from their titles at Amazon.

Read the specifics on the strong-arm tactics in the New York Times. The eBook Revolution is heating up!

Deadline New York gives an expanded description of the process that brought John Grisham’s titles to the eBook Revolution, and hints at the wider-ranging impact. The inclusion of this publishing heavyweight certainly adds legitimacy to an exploding literary form.

Thanks Jorgen for a link to a story at the geek.com that expands on the debate about the text-to-speech function that we mentioned in yesterday’s post about Apple iPad features.

Apparently some authors and publishers are making the case that such an auditory expression of eBooks can be considered as “derivative work” and should entitle them to royalties.

I think it’s a stretch. Wouldn’t that only apply if you recorded the text-to-speech version and tried to sell it?