TeleRead: Bring the E-Books Home

Archive for December, 2007

By David Rothman

Part of an article in the Springfield (Ohio) News:

Logos Christian Bookstore, 1062 Upper Valley Pike, is closing soon. Owner Jay Weygandt doesn’t blame electronic reading devices, despite Kindle offering 1,735 Christian eBooks—which is exactly why Weygandt loves his own Kindle.

“It never leaves my side,” he said.

He recently downloaded a Bible for $10, which is less than the wholesale price from his distributors, he said. He added that it took less time for him to download his eBible than to get one from the bookshelf.

“This is the future of reading and bookselling,” he said, when the devices are reasonably priced, which might take some time.

By David Rothman

…follow some advice from Bennett Todd, who already has succeeded: Google around for other Fedora sites offering FBReader since the server might be having problems. Here’s a head start. OK, gang, let me know if this works. My XO is supposedly due Wednesday.

Related: FBReader site and the TeleBlog’s original item on running FBReader on the XO.

Reminder: This is the last day for Give One Get One XO donations.

By David Rothman

The book Love and Sex with Robots is creating buzz. Now how about novels from robots? Might the right hardware-software combo emulate the late Jacqueline Susann? If compared to the original, could a JacquelineBot passed a customized Turing Test?

Reassuringly, both computer and lit experts are skeptical about the claims of Publishing House Astrel SPb. But you never know about the future.

(Found via Southern Review of Books.)

By Paul Biba

Now this is really a coincidence. I hadn’t even opened TeleRead yet today when I decided to post this comic. Really!! At any rate, Opus, or at least Berkeley Breathed, doesn’t seem to like ebook readers. Here is the full sized cartoon. I got a Sony 505 for Christmas, and the screen difference between that and my old 500 is amazing. I’ll try to post some comparison pictures before I leave for CES. To me, the difference is well worth the upgrade price.

By David Rothman

At a party for the Washington elite, a Middle Eastern diplomat’s wife gave out free iPods. Who knows what will be played on them? Maybe even something in violation of the DMCA? It’s the fruit of other gifts, Hollywood campaign donations.

Meanwhile for your holiday viewing pleasure I’m linking to a DMCA-related FoxTrot cartoon by Bill Amend. For copyright reasons—even though many might make a fair use argument—I won’t repro more than a small view.

What do you think? Time to lobby Garry Trudeau to take on the DMCA, the scourge of e-book-lovers in the States (and, though equivalent laws, people in some other countries)? Here’s to balanced copyright law rather than the lobbyist-written variety! For the enlightenment of e-book novices, the DMCA is why it’s illegal to, say, crack a Microsoft Reader file to convert it for the Kindle—even if you don’t share it with others. The good news is that ‘08 is an election year.

Housekeeping: I’ll be away much of the day but hope to post in the afternoon.

By David Rothman

Oh, the fun of the Tower of eBabel—all those warring e-book formats. I know it’s Christmas, or just after, when some new e-book readers ask: “How can I find books in my format?”

Ready to tour the Tower? Below are just some of the main retail choices. Old-timers can call attention to omissions if they’d like. Also please note that I’m sticking to the most popular of the 20+ formats. The Tower is scary enough during a short tour.

May novices join the fight to popularize the IDPF’s .epub format, the new MP3 of e-books! Then people can just worry about finding e-bookstores, period, based on genre or subject matter, as opposed to those selling titles in the right formats.

Inside the retailer area of the Tower of eBabel

Adobe Reader / PDF: BooksOnBoard, Diesel eBooks, eBooks.com, Fictionwise.

eBookwise: eBookwise.com.

eReader (or Palm): BooksOnBoard, Diesel eBooks, eReader, Fictionwise.

Kindle: Kindle Store (actually shopping is built into the machine).

Microsoft Reader: BooksOnBoard, eBooks.com, Diesel eBooks, Fictionwise.

Mobipocket: Mobipocket.com, Ubibooks.com, and all of the above stores except for the eBookwise, eReader and the Kindle stores.

Sony Reader: Sony eBook Store (built into Sony software), Fictionwise.

For books in French in Adobe, Microsoft or Mobipocket, try NumiLog. For Mobipocket, also consider Ubibooks. I’ll welcome suggestions for Spanish, Portuguese, Japanese, Chinese and other languages. Yet more variables, of course. eBabel is the enemy of a multilingual approach since the emphasis is on computer tongues rather than the human variety.

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By David Rothman

At MobileRead: A discussion of problem getting a PC to recognize the Cybook memory card. Might be a Windows-related prob. Read the posts toward the end.

In author Sandra Schwab’s blog: A mostly positive review with great photos (via DearAuthor).

By David Rothman

Believe it or not, that’s the idea of a Gather member, a new Kindle user, who at the same time denies he has a huge problem with DRM/eBabel. A little confusing. That said, I wonder if Amazon could actually apply the trade-in concept as a compromise for owners of DRMed Mobi books, which the Kindle disses officially, despite the famous hack. No, this wouldn’t be the best solution. But perhaps it could be an interim one while we’re waiting for Amazon to wise up on .epub.

Here’s what X Tabber wrote on Gather: “I have a number of eBooks in that Adobe DRM format. I would love to be able to translate these into the Kindle format replacing my Adobe formatted versions.

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By David Rothman

The RIAA is NOT suing a music-lover who ripped from legally purchased CDs. Yep, this outfit is Scrooge Central, but the earlier reports were wrong, according to Engadget. I’ll do a second tweak and point to the last paragraphs of a post by Google lawyer William Patry, who says the originals reports mangled the details.

Still, one wonders about an anti-ripping suit in the future, involving personal use. How that would in character! The classic RIAA downloading suit was against a 12-year-old girl in a public housing project, who had to fork over $2K and might have had to pay much more. The RIAA has yet to repent.

Eggnog-delicious news: Bad return on investment from terrorizing consumers

But wait. Could it be that the recording studios have toted up the numbers and discovered that crime—in the form of lawsuits against customers—doesn’t pay? Well, for a little holiday cheer, just check out this eggnog-delicious headline: EMI to cut RIAA funding. Also unhappy with the RIAA suits, both the legal and human kinds, seemingly, are Warner (dismayed that legal bills cut so heavily into profits) and Prince (taking the legal action in-house).

For further details, see Is 2008 to be RIAA’s death knell? (Stan Hodson’s blog, WinExtra) and The RIAA will die in 2008 (Mashable), as well as a Washington Post piece and a Slashdot discussion on the RIAA’s anti-ripping efforts.

The e-book angles

OK, gang. So what do you think? Lessons here for the e-book business? If you gonna have to sue customers by the thousands, isn’t it time to think about new business models? E-book piracy isn’t the biggest of problems now for major publishers, given that e-bookdom is so small, but that could change as the industry grows. Let’s hope books aren’t music redux.

Among the best protections against e-book piracy might be such measures as reasonably priced and flexible subscription plans and, ironically, avoidance of DRM—so as not to alienate legal purchases. No, e-book publishers shouldn’t rule out suits against big commercial pirates. Kill ‘em! But the RIAA’s sue-everyone approach is just plain crazy. People prefer to buy from warm-and-fuzzy companies, especially those without DRM. Perhaps that’s what EMI. Warner, Universal and Amazon’s MP3 store have concluded (now to persuade Amazon’s e-book arms!). PR-deaf, the RIAA has helped make its member studios some of the most hated conglomerates on the planet. No slouch in this department, the RIAA is itself the real champ.

By Darrell Bain

Moderator’s note: Darrell Bain, one of the best-selling authors of the e-book world and winner of two Eppies, is our newest contributor. See his bio at the end. His sci-fi novel Savage Survival is an e-book, trade paperback and hardback. Welcome, Darrell! – David Rothman

Ten years ago, in 1997, my budding hopes of becoming a successful author came crashing down in ruins as I learned that the so-called agent I had been dealing with for six years was an out and out crook.

Not only had all the manuscripts I submitted to the agent not been sent to publishers, I had been talked into paying a large amount for “reading fees,” “expenses” and “publishing contracts.” I paid some money up front for publication and supposedly was to recover it in sales. But the “publishers” were as fraudulent as the agent.

Broken dreams in the world of P—and jail time for the villains

I was naïve, along with thousands of other writers caught in the same web, and for a time I did nothing but brood over the dollars and years the scam had cost me. The agent and her husband and one of the “publishers” went to prison for mail fraud, but even this did little to assuage my feelings as I thought of all the lies I had believed in my eagerness to reach print.

Eventually, I picked up my broken dreams and went on with my life. I had felt the closeness of becoming published, even if it had been a fraud, and I couldn’t stop trying. But where to turn? At the time I still thought that all of my eight novels had been submitted to real publishers, so I didn’t try them “again.” Where should I next turn? Not any time soon would I trust another agent.

Breaking into E

What happened over the next five years surprised me beyond anything I might have reasonably expected. You see, I knew nothing about e-books at the time.

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By David Rothman

Although PDF Cropper looks interesting, I haven’t tested it. I might do so over the weekend. Share your impressions if you try it out yourself. A solution for PDF-fat Wowio books, among other things?

Now playing at Wowio, so to speak: The Early Works of Dr. Seuss. A gem for new XO owners and their kids? And, yes, folks, I continue to be frustrated that Wowio’s offerings aren’t globally available.

(PDF Cropper discovered via a comment at Dear Author. You might need to scroll up or down to reach the PDF Cropper-related info.)

By David Rothman

Here’s one thing you can say about the big, thick Sears catalogues of old. They were great sources of toilet paper for outhouses.

Could the Kindle e-book reader be the new Sears catalogue even though it lacks such multi-use capabilities? My belief is that the Kindle is potentially a catalogue for all of Amazon, a way to compare-shop for dishwashers, back-scratchers, you name it. I know this talk of the Kindle as a GPS gizmo is interesting (thanks, Mike), but I suspect there’s a lot more to come.

Why aren’t we hearing about the Kindle as a potential display vehicle for all of Amazon? Or is the news already out? I don’t own a Kindle and will welcome some information here.

If the Kindle won’t let you shop Amazon in general, would you enjoy this capability? And why does the Kindle lack it now, assuming it does? Is Amazon afraid of seeming too crass—preferring to limit the Kindle for the moment to books and what-not? Also, how about the Kindle as a way to shop for music? I don’t see any references in Wikipedia, or on a Kindle-ballyhoo page, to MP3 buying—even though, yes, there is a mention of audio books (the Kindle offers both .MP3 and Audible’s .aa). OK, enlighten me.

Of course, the Kindle’s having Sears-style catalogue features would not be enough by itself to guarantee the machine’s popularity at the same level. In the long run, the real Sears catalogues just might be cellphones instead.

Speaking of Wikipedia and the Kindle: Why does the online encyclopedia say, “Unlike previously existing e-book readers, the Kindle can be used without the need for a computer”? Couldn’t the old Rocket eBooks work without computers, via built-in modems, for example? Shows the amnesia surrounding e-books. It’s too bad that people are also forgetful of the many thousands of dollars that buyers spent to build personal libraries tied to their respective machine. And then many were SOL when the Rockets went kaput.

By Katherine Smith

Here we are. Techo savvy, but still testing our boundaries, learning and growing and expanding—and yes, finding the usual problems along the way. One of those, naturally, is the same one the music industry has had to address: the sharing of information across the net.

All right. How many of us feel sorry for big music stars when their songs are downloaded? (Looks for raised hands). Well, since technically it is stealing, we probably should, but heck, we all know they make a bundle…

No, it still really isn’t right. Moreover, it is against the law unless specifically released by the artist into the public domain. I am not talking about anything but current works.

Not the same as used book stores

Now then, let’s move on to e-book problems. Yes, for years there have been used book stores. Authors get no royalty for those sales. In fact, the book can be read and brought back many times. One person at a time. However, the scope of the possibilities of releasing an e-book for resale on an Internet site is endless.

To a certain extent, since e-books sales are still in the fledgling stage in many cases, I have mixed feelings about this. What if someone reads a pirated book and loves me and goes and buys all my books? Well, that would be great, if they buy it from a reputable distributor or my publisher. What if they then in turn offer it for sale and make money from it and I have no idea how many copies are out there circulating? Am I really getting up at five in the morning (and in Indiana, it is cold, dark, and I sit huddled at my computer) to write the best book possible to make someone else money or give it away for free?

No e-book millionaires

It doesn’t sound so good anymore. There really are no e-book millionaires. Not yet anyway. It is an emerging, changing, growing business, but still in infancy in many ways. The piracy doesn’t help the industry. Copyrights are protected by federal law, but the sites pop everywhere anyway, many of them overseas. I hate to even look anymore, but one recently had thee pages full of listings of my books. Three pages? Really? I felt popular for about one flat minute.

The upside is there are many reputable organizations like Epic that go after these unlawful sites. So do publishers I know Ellora’s Cave, for example, very large in e-books, has lawyers who keep on top of all this, but it is a constant problem.

Authors really do work hard. Publishers also pour a lot into a book. It will be interesting to see how this emerging part of our cyber culture deals with the issue.

By David Rothman

“My brain about exploded. Of course! What can’t you do that a businessman might typically want to do that he can’t do on Google Docs? Note to countries thinking about whether or not to get the OLPC laptop and worrying about Word and Excel and all that: not only does the OLPC have equivalents, but if you want the kids to be able to function in a Microsoft environment, let them go to Google Docs and they can even share the work. An entire class and the teacher can all work on a project together. Here’s how some others in the world are already using Google Docs. ‘Nobody needs a hard drive any more,’ the young guy said. And you know what? It’s true. So down topples another piece of anti-OLPC FUD.” – Groklaw’s super-informative, link-rich XO article.

The TeleRead take: Stories like this just add to my frustration over the late delivery of my XO, which, although useful as an e-book device, could be much much more. Apparently you can even buy a doodad to let one USB port work with both a mouse and keyboard. Caveat: I haven’t tried it.

Meanwhile, a debate is raging, as noted in the unofficial OLPC News, on whether the Give One Get One program should expire after December 31. I vote an emphatic No. If OLPC can’t handle ordinary consumer purchases, let ‘em contract this out. The more people owning XOs, the greater the number of software apps. Notice how a private XO user named Bennett Todd tested FBReader on the XO? That’s what happens when we don’t ghettoize innovative hardware and, say, confine it to the world of education. Let the market decide how the machine is to be used.

Technorati Tags: XO,Give One Get One

By David Rothman

Update, 1:36 p.m.: FBReader installation instructions for Linux geeks now appear at the end of this post. In fact, some patient and careful newbies might also succeed. – D.R.

We’re a little closer to e-book nirvana. FBReader, which in most incarnations can read .epub, the new standard e-book format from the IDPF, is now running on the OLPC laptop.

In case you’re tuning in late, that’s the machine with an extra-sharp screen and the ability to let you fold it into a tablet—-the green gizmo that made the 60 Minutes TV newsmagazine and may eventually sell for just $100.

Big thanks to Bennett Todd, who just posted a message on an OLPC software development list. Rupka, another list member, is ecstatic. And Ian Daniher is also encouraging.

Now to see FBReader with the child-optimized Sugar interface, once that’s worked out! Oh, the glories of open source!

The OLPC laptop is for international use, and suddenly educational publishers, if not fixated on DRM, have a huge new potential market even though many countries will prefer to use locally originated material.

Just as significantly, with FBReader available, the OLPC laptop will be a more promising machine for public libraries. Having been burned by the Gemstar and other machines with e-book formats that vanished from the mainstream, librarians should seriously consider trying out OLPC’s XO. It doesn’t come with all the gotchas that the Amazon Kindle does, including a terms of service agreement that might prevent libraries from lending the machines to patrons.

Frustration department: For two days now, OLPC’s warehouse folks have told me my laptop would be shipping almost immediately. But so far it hasn’t shown up in the FedEx tracking system, sob, sob.

Oh, well, I’ve got a lot to forward to. As noted before in the TeleBlog, I’ve waited years for a machine like this. A few more days won’t kill me.

Details: First picture shows the OLPC laptop running a reading program other than FBReader. Second shot is of FBReader’s Windows version set up for narrow-column use, which some kids with reading problems might prefer. FBReader allows precise control of typography. I hope that even the Sugarized version will retain the software’s flexibility. Another detail is that FBReader can’t use .epub’s CSS capabilities. But I’d be surprised if it didn’t have them in time.

Thanks to Wayan Vota of the unofficial but oh-so-informative OLPC News—interviewed on 60 Minutes’ OLPC segment, by the way—for the link.

Update: Bennett kindly shared with me his instructions for Linux fans. Less adventurous novices might want to wait for the Sugarized version of FBReader. Use Ctrl-Alt-F2 (F2 is the Friends key) to reach the command line. Go here to see what these keys look like on the XO keyboard. A further update: Yes, FBReader will do .epub on the XO (thanks to Alan Wallcraft for this info). Okay, Bennett’s instructions follow:

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By David Rothman

A new e-book reader from Teheran could be irresistible for educators.

Just touch a word with a stylus. Bingo! The e-book reader will pronounce, define or translate it. Just the ticket for students, especially those with language difficulties?

Helps understand pictures, too

Edited slightly, here’s the lowdown from the Iranian Students News Agency:

“Iranian inventor Ramin Sedighi made a small device that turns silent books into speaking ones. The gadget is a useful computer system that pronounces, translates and explains pictures and words of a book located on it when its electronic pen touches them. The device can provide a very effective method for teaching foreign languages to children between 4- 16 and will be available in early 2008. It contains a USB port, audio output, electronic pen, 512 megabyte memory for storing 15 books and a SD card which can store 60 books as its flash memory. It works with electricity or battery, is as big as a 13-inch laptop and is light enough to be portable.”

Enticing mix

Of course, text to speech is hardly novel, but if nothing else, I like the mix of the touch-the-word feature and the translation and other wrinkles.

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By David Rothman

Amazon’s DRM schizophrenia goes on. The Kindle e-book reader is DRMed to the gills, but sure enough, Jeff Bezos’s DRMless MP3 store is the first announced outlet through which Warner Music will sell music without “protection.”

The home page of the Amazon MP3 store tells it all: “Play Anywhere, DRM-free Music Downloads. MP3 Music Downloads for Any Media Player!” Meanwhile, of the big four music companies, as noted by Nate Anderson in Ars Technica, only Sony BMG is holding out on DRMless offerings. EMI and Universal succumbed before Warner did. Time for Jeff to join the crowd with a DRMless store selling books, ideally in .epub, the book world’s new MP3?

Here’s something for Jeff, along with Kindle-mesmerized publishers, to ponder about “protection.” Even if people can learn to love the Kindle’s DRM and its other proprietary eBabel—a long shot, if you consider the attractiveness of “Play Anywhere, DRM-free” books on laptops, PDAs and cellphones—Jeff needs to remember the tiny size of the Kindle market in the grand scheme of things.

Kindle-fixated Amazon blind to mobile phone potential for DRMfree E?

We’re not just talking about a tech analyst’s prediction that first-year sales of the Kindle could be a mere 50,000, or a fraction of the sales of individual multi-million-copy best sellers. Now consider the limited production capabilities of PVI, the E Ink supplier, for the moment. That will change. But then, as others have observed, the world will always have a lot more cellphones than Kindles—perhaps even billions of phones in time, capable of displaying e-books. Better and cheaper versions of roll-out displays, like the one shown here, ultimately will address the screen-size issue for phones. Simply put, even if Amazon can successfully hawk millions of Kindles, that will still be just a fraction of the potential e-book market.

Uh-oh. If I owned Amazon stock, I’d wonder if Jeff was really watching out for my long-term interests, given the opportunities that DRM and other forms of eBabel could cost him if he builds his main e-book business model around such a widely loathed technology. Doesn’t his own MP3 store treat the lack of DRM as a key selling point?

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