Apr 08

More On the Kindle Reader Protest

I thought I’d revisit this debate. Wired.com goes into the Amazon $9.99 Boycott story in greater depth here. I mention it again because I’m sure we’re going to keep hearing about this until something drastic happens. What Amazon has to remember is the sophistication of search engines gives consumers freedom to choose where they go shopping online. Consumers can search the globe for the best prices.

If they run into an online retailer like Amazon.com guilty, as mentioned in the linked article, of fixing and changing prices from day to day, (Manipulating market forces some say…) then the consumer is entirely free to click on down the Information Highway to the next online retailer–hopefully there to find more competitive prices. (Perhaps unlocked eBooks too… [Say NO to DRM!])

Amazon.com has already had to cut the Kindle loose of their devious plan to control readers and lock in a consumer base with proprietary formats; if their greed continues to alienate those Kindle owners will the publishers and authors be far behind? Yah?

Publisher websites are already selling their own eBook titles. So are authors. Think about that for a minute and you might recognize the catalyzing force behind the ‘drastic’  change I mention above. Amazon.com’s ambition for world domination only matters so long as the online eBook retailer is relevant to the discussion.

Apr 07

The Consumer Speaks!

I just wish they’d picked a smaller number than $9.99 to circle their wagons around. Read the Amazon eBook Boycott story at Mediabistro.com here.

$9.99 is still way, way too high a price to pay for something that requires a considerable investment to read. There is no justification for it other than greed. But fine, $9.99 it is. At least it’s a line in the sand, right? eBooks and eBook Reading Devices all have to plunge in price if they’re ever going to be adopted by the ‘actual’ mainstream.

You know, the mainstream, some hundreds of millions of us that don’t  own an eBook Reader yet, but who are interested if the price was ever anything but absurd. That mainstream.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s good to start the debate. But let’s start the bidding for eBooks at say, $3.00 each. That represents a 100% markup on a product that is stored, copied and shipped for virtually nothing (if we accept the article’s supposition that it costs $1.50 to make an eBook) .

Remember people: Amazon is a mammoth corporation fixated on profit and monopolizing the marketplace. Amazon wants your money. It is mandated to take as much money as it can from you so that it can report yet another profit in its next quarter regardless of economic health or decline in product services resulting from its adoption of an unsustainable business model.

These big companies are arrogant to declare ownership and control over a revolution that will free writer, reader and publisher alike, yah? The mainstream has the power now to decide what is mainstream.

Apr 06

Writer’s Fears Kindled by eBook Revolution

Writer Chris Bohjalian (pronounce at your own risk…) expresses his fears in this article carried by the Salisbury Post here. I get a kick out of all this. You know, I would never have heard of this guy if not for the very digital changes he’s afraid of.

It amazes me that so many writers can take such a non-traditional and potentially dangerous life-path and remain worry warts. It’s the nature of the beast, yah?

(p.s. I did the online reading test he suggests, and he’s right. I quit reading before the end of the article. When I realized this and went back to finish I discovered that I would have missed this line: “That is one of the risks we have going to digital — losing our totemic, fetishistic, soulful connection to pulp and ink and glue.” I understand it, but fetishistic? Gesundheit!)

Apr 05

The Vook? Come on seriously…

Okay, you tell me? Is the VOOK a new idea? The New York Times is talking about it here. Seems to me I saw Gil Gerard reading one of these in old episodes of Buck Rogers in the 25TH Century. Spock had one too. An electronic book with video and audio components has been a regular component in  science fiction and fantasy writing since the beginning so the VOOK is not a new idea. (The name is: Vook? What the…)

Until now, it has stayed in the realm of imagination because the technology wasn’t quite there and a Silicon Valley Entrepeneur like Bradley Inman with scads of money hadn’t come along to package it.

I’m not sure if it qualifies as an eBook but it does deserve mention. Frankly, they’ve got to trundle this VOOK thing out and see if people will use it. (Let alone pay for it.) “Son, stop leaving my Vook in the bathroom! You’re always taking it in there…”

Money of course, and payment will be the silver lining for this thing, unfortunately it’s for the established publishers and eBook retailers to enjoy. The VOOK with its “EXTRA CONTENT” of minimovies and audio will at least justify the exorbidant prices they want to charge for titles, yah?


Apr 04

Rupert Murdoch’s Mystery Machine

I’ll say this much. For a guy who once owned a steam-driven car, Rupert Murdoch is an elder statesman of publishing who ain’t afraid of no newfangled gadgets. Go Rupert!

He likes the look of Kindle but thinks he can do better, so he’s investing in a company that will build him a device with a bigger screen and 4 color display–with the capability to do ‘everything right there.’  Now if he’ll just arrange loans for us so we can buy the thing. If it’s going to be anything like Fujitsu’s four-color rival it will ring the bell at about $1,000. So far no one knows who he’s wooing with his millions, but it will be an interesting thing to watch, yah?

Read the full story here at All Things Digital.

I’m on board as long as he doesn’t cook up some mysterious or miraculous retrotech name  for it like Rupert’s Fabulatronic Electrical Book Scope or the Murodocular .

Apr 03

MORE FREE eBOOKS at Online Novels!

I received a note from author Susan Crealock about several hundred free eBooks available at her blog: Online Novels. I’ve had a peek and we’re talking about some 500 titles in a wide selection of genres written by both traditionally published and Indie authors. Check it out.

Some are limited time offers too, so DON’T DELAY, yah!


Apr 02

Xerox getting into the act?

There’s a rumor that just won’t go away about Xerox making a leap into the eBook Marketplace, doing what they do best: printing and copying.

Now this story gives the rumor a bit more weight. Read it here. You know I’ve been talking about Print-on-demand Kiosks. Places where consumers can take a downloaded eBook to print. There have been a number of companies starting up, but none of them have the International Profile and Heft of Xerox.

Here’s a quote from the article at FoxBusiness: “It [Xerox Nuvera (R: 29.21, 0, 0%) 200 EA Perfecting Production System] excels at producing high-volume applications that require precise fine-line detail, high image quality and sharp halftones such as technical manuals, bills/statements and books. ”

The machine offers “perfect binding” too–the kind of binding we see on paperbacks these days. We’ll keep an eye on this story. The company that can create a dependable crossover platform might save the lives of quite a few bookshops, and it creates a “bricks and mortar” option for authors and publishers who sell directly to their readers.

The potential benefits to the reader and consumer are enormous, yah?

Apr 01

Simba Says: Read eBooks!

Simba Information a publishing and media market research firm (take a breath) has released some figures that say 8% of the adult U.S. population has purchased an eBook in the past 12 months and 15% read one. (The 7% discrepancy must have visited Project Gutenberg or another of the growing number of Free eBook Outlets.)

I find those numbers promising and a little startling. Startling, because it shows an interest in adoption, promising because it shows a willingness to adapt. Those polled could not represent a living breathing population of eBook Reader owners, so the interest to read eBooks has driven these individuals to adapt iPhones, hand-helds and desktops to the task.

You can check out the article at AjaxWorld Magazine here. A very positive sign, yah?

p.s. I’m sorry for being catty again but this statement jumped out at me. I’m adding it because I don’t want you thinking I think it’s news or profound or in any way deserving of the consultation fees these firms usually charge: “Norris [Michael Norris Senior Analyst, Trade Group] said the e-book market, in spite of recent advances, still has a lot of growing up to do and should be “cautiously” pursued as long as that pursuit does not undermine the value proposition of a publisher’s content, interfere with other initiatives to encourage engaged reading, or provide too much power to one e-book retailer.”  Well, duh!


Mar 31

Tuesday Grab Bag

In The Trailing Edge of the Envelope department, we’ve got a story at CNNMoney entitled “Amazon: thinking beyond the Kindle” in which the reporter really doesn’t say anything new, or refer to anything beyond what many of us have been thinking about for years. Still worth a look since there are interesting links, yah. Click here to read it.

In the Old News is No News department we’ve got a piece posted yesterday, at InternetNews of all places, heralding the release of BlackBerry’s eReader. (That’s so last week isn’t it?) I’ll cut them a bit of slack because they go on to mention the impending releases of a reader for Android and Linux. So, they kind of come through in the clutch. Then they fumble the ball when the article goes on to talk about the eBook battle heating up. Honestly! That’s so, February… it’s been heating up here for much longer, yah? Still worth viewing for the Android and Linux talk… Read it here.

Just when you believe you haven’t gone through a time warp, I find the London Free Press announcing that “Virtual books [are] making waves on mobile phones…” Read the article here. Apparently, they just found out yesterday that eBooks are catching on. On the upswing we finally hear something from Indigo, the book giant that is apparently just coming out of a coma. “Indigo says its recently launched digital book service has attracted customers in some 120 countries, and adds that most of the users are doing their e-reading via mobile phone.” Wow…can you imagine?

Sorry if I sound CATTY, but these stories are lagging in the SCOOP department. Could it be that eBooks are finally, really, being embraced by the mainstream as a viable alternative to traditional publishing, if not the future of it? Were all these news sources just biding their time waiting for the whole thing to flop? Sure seems like it.

Mar 30

Whatever They Can Get Away With…

A pledge by Vellum Publishing Inc. to keep their eBook prices affordable highlights a shameful business over at Amazon as it puts the screws to the Kindle 2 first adopters. Prices that used to cap out at $9.99 for new releases have magically crept up to $16.00. Read the full story here. I can’t believe they’re going to get greedy now, especially as other eBook Readers are starting to crowd the market. There’s no place for Amazon’s Information Highway Robbery.

It can only be arrogance born of past success. Reminds me of the eBay mindset, yah? They used to print their own money too…

I love it because the BIG GUYS are going to force the developing eBook marketplace to re-think signing on with any MAJOR reseller that forces eBook prices up to ridiculous heights. (Digital file right…? No printing, shipping, storing costs…no justification for prices equivalent to paperbacks.) Why do that when you can sell directly to readers or search out new (smarter) resellers that have read the iTunes Tea Leaves and understand that the net’s all about VOLUME.