May 31

Printing Moves Closer to the Readers

We’ve been waiting for print-on-demand kiosks to break out, and it looks like it’s finally happening. The Ingram publishing services on-demand book printing unit has started delivering digital books for printing on compact Espresso digital printing machines at retail centers and libraries.

The machines are being called the “ATM” of on-demand book printing. (I knew the traditional publishing industry thought they were printing money, but I never thought they’d come out and say it. You can see where their heads are at.) Others of us call the machines the still exciting “print-a-book-while-you-wait” device, yah?

Read the full story here at Graphic Arts Online. As I’ve said before, this is what Amazon and other book resellers and publishers should have been worried about, not Kindle competition.

Watch this story develop.

May 29

More interesting deals…

I thought I’d add this item to my conspiracy theory of yesterday, where I intimated questionable integrity on the part of the New York Times’ coverage of the Kindle phenomena.

Here we have a well-written article in  Wednesday’s (May 27/09) online edition of the New York Times called: “Don’t Quit that Kindle Just Yet” by David Pogue that starts as a fair and detailed appraisal of the up and coming $250 Cool-er e-book reader by British company Interead. Read it here.  Honestly, it’s an excellent article and gives the complete lowdown on this new device, clearly designed with the common reader’s budget in mind.

Now, to draw your attention to the fact that the New York Times has a content deal with Kindle, it isn’t surprising when this article begins to focus on the Cool-er’s deficits or, the very qualities that make it affordable.

I wish I could read that article and not wonder if the NewYork Times had an ulterior motive for publishing it, yah?

May 29

USA Today Boasts Arrival of Kindle Rival

You know this article kind of spoils the announcement of the Plastic Logic eReader’s  impending release by disclosing that USA Today has ‘e-inked’ a content deal with them. How can they be impartial reporting on this topic? USA Today has a vested interest. So the online version of a struggling newspaper likes the Plastic Logic eReader. Since they hope this eReader will save them from extinction, it’s hardly surprising that they’re impressed by the thing. Read the Plastic Logic story here.  The same murky integrity surrounded the New York Times’ positive impression of the Kindle DX because they’ve got a content deal with Amazon.

I mentioned Plastic Logic’s eReading machine back in January before any mention of content deals and as machinery goes, it’s a beautiful piece of tech. Take a look, yah?

May 28

Random House Group Sees the Light!

An article here at Bookseller.com announces the unbelievable. Venerable publisher Random House Group has joined the eBook Revolution by releasing mass market editions for sale at the Apples Apps store .

Listen to the way RHG’s digital publisher says this, it kills me: “The iPhone and iPod are fantastic convergence devices and we’re delighted customers can now enjoy digital versions of some of our bestselling books on a device which fits neatly in their pocket.”

When you put it that way, it all sounds so classy, yah?

p.s. Their titles list at £7.49. (That’s 12 BUCKS in US dollars, which is still too high for eBooks…but they’ll get the hang of it.)

May 27

Clearing the air at Publisher’s Weekly.

Publisher’s Weekly writer Rachel Deahl wrote an excellent article “The eBook Pricing Conundrum” in which the murky eBook pricing procedures of leading publishers are taken to task. Read the story here. Deahl sets out the twitchy mathematics publishers and resellers use to justify their high prices on eBooks, and shows what shaky ground they’re on. I get a kick out of the publishing source that blames the high price of eBooks on (can you believe this?) the greedy and overpriced AUTHORS. What a crock, yah?

The truth is, people who read eBooks are tech-savvy enough to know when they’re being ripped off, and that’s what Amazon and the old publishing industry are doing, pocketing the costs that formerly went to the manufacturing, shipping and storage of actual paperbacks and hard covers. The rest of us understand that this is the digital age. One digital file = limitless copies. Internet = virtually free shipping.

Wait until everyone figures out that eBook resellers like Amazon.com are not much different from Google in the end. I mean, you have to know the title you’re looking for or at least the name of the author before you have to ‘search’ for the product you want. These publishers and eBook resellers should be playing fairly and finding ways to remain relevant. They’re this close to becoming simple search engines dependent on adsense for profits.

May 26

Tuesday, quiet on the digital front…

Even saying that, I know that something’s going to break out the second after I post this. In lieu of any breaking news, and to save you from my usual eBook Revolutionary blather, I’ll offer a link to an interesting article by Marion Maneker from The Big Money. Read it here.

Maneker links publishing’s fertile past to the exploding phenomena of digital publishing, acknowledging the lowly book’s historic power and cultural influence that decades of profit-driven publishing empire have obscured. The book has never been a thing of the past, according to Maneker.

On the future of digital publishing Maneker says: “Digital publishing is still in its gestation period. What it will look like, how it will function, and what its impact will be are all up in the air.” While I agree with Maneker about digital publishing’s nascent and protean form, I do think its function and impact will be determined by more than the vertical drop. The reader, the writer and commentators like Maneker now have an active role in what final form and direction digital publishing will take. Writers, readers and publishers now enjoy (or dread) an immediacy (and intimacy as Maneker states) from which all will profit, yah?

May 25

Fictionwise eBooks 9th Anniversary Sale

The people at Fictionwise eBooks, pioneers in eBook sales and distribution, are celebrating their 9th Anniversary with a SALE. They’re offering 30-50% off all titles. A quick look puts their eBooks between $2.99 and $30 dollars each, so that discount can work out to large savings if you’re building a digital library. You know me, I gotta say it. The upper end of their eBook  pricing is unjustifiably HIGH, but you can see that market forces are starting to bring the prices down to earth. That’s good news for readers and writers, yah?

Visit the site and join in the savings here.

May 24

THIS JUST IN…

Looks like the squeaky wheel gets the grease after all, yah? Consumer discontent has forced Apple to reverse its decision to deny the Eucalyptus eBook reader a place at the App store. Now they’re welcoming it.

Read the story here.

Let’s face it, Apple’s reasons for ousting them were pretty fishy.

May 24

What’s Apple Doing?

The Apple App store has denied the Eucalyptus eBook reader entry for rather sketchy reasons. Read about Apple’s recent mystifying move here at Techwhack.

I have to wonder if this illogical move is a sign that Apple is starting to prepare the ground for the release of its much anticipated media(pad) tablet?

It reminds me a little of Amazon’s vain attempts to hinder iPhone and iPod Touch’s entry into the eBook marketplace by delaying the release of Mobipocket reader for iPhone, and then dragging its heels on a Kindle reader for the popular Apple devices.

That move did little to further Amazon’s Kindle ambitions, as you can read here. So we have to hope Apple is not just lining up to make the same mistake, yah?

May 23

How to Pick an eBook Reader

Wired.com‘s Gadget Lab has put together an excellent buying guide to help you choose an eBook Reader. Read the article here.

It’s tough enough knowing when to buy into an existing technology, let alone one that’s changing on a weekly basis. I think you’ll find this article a great help, yah?