TeleRead: Bring the E-Books Home

Archive for April, 2008

By David Rothman

Ellora’s Cave arranged with S&S a while back for the bigger house to publish and distribute some titles in P.

What’s next? Acquisitions of small E-related publishers, by giant conglomerates, trying to break out of the old mold? Might a worsening economy bring on this trend? Or delay it?

In any event, HarperCollins U.K. has just bought The Friday Project, at least in part a blog-to-book operation.

While I was visiting the TFP site, by the way, I noticed a freebie excerpt from John Higgs’ well-received biography of LSD experimenter Timothy Leary called I have America Surrounded—just the first 69 pages but still intriguing.

Download the PDF here. U.S. edition can be ordered via Amazon.

(Via The Bookseller.)

By Paul Biba

I was in New York City today and took a shot of this iPhone sign with my iPhone. Stores like this are cropping up all over the city. It just testifies to the incredible demand for the iPhone. If you can’t read the sign it says, “Apple iPhones Unlocked In Stock.”

Such sights made me think about e-books and the relative lack of demand for them. Is it DRM, is it eBabel, is it expensive readers—just what is keeping the demand down? Clearly, as the iPhone shows, if consumers want something, they will demand it and get it. I see nothing like this demand for e-books. Is is just us techies who want them? Does the public even know about them? Do they really want them? I don’t have any answers, but I found the iPhone signs pretty depressing in that regard.

Just how do we get this thing rolling? If the iPhone shows anything it seems to me that this whole thing won’t take off until some really savvy marketing wiz takes it on – Sony and Amazon don’t seem to have cut the mustard in this regard. Why not? Or is it that e-books are only a niche product?

Moderator: See Making Social DRM work for e-books—with maximum privacy protection, as well as Library books you can KEEP forever—and other ideas to help public libraries survive the digital era. – D.R.

By David Rothman

“Ever wondered what we’ll all be reading on the hover bus in The Future? Wonder no more and instead enjoy the marvel that is Bridgestone’s full-size steam-powered electronic newspaper. Feel your mind boggle as it turns its own e-paper pages in a mere 15 seconds. Aw, just watch the thing, ok?” – DigitalWorld Tokyo.

The TeleRead take: Well, it’s a start. Perhaps better things will be on the way soon.

Question: Would you enjoy reading books in the form of full-sized E newspapers, so you could scan over a wider area?

(Big thanks to Mike Cane.)

By Ficbot

Are e-books really “killing literature”? E might be just the thing to revitalize a beloved, but neglected genre—the short story, with such masters as Guy de Maupassant and O. Henry. Consider all the positives:

Price, in the cases of more modern works: Fewer words, less money needed to read them. I had a friend who lived on an extreme budget, and her big shopping indulgence was the iTunes music store because she could go there, spend a dollar on a new song, and feel as if she had satisfied the shopping urge, but without spending big bucks. Might the short story benefit from this same effect?

Time: People love to read, but they find that ten-inch-high stack of neglected impulse buys to be overwhelming. Might the short story be a way to bring people back to reading great literature? It’s the same principle as the iTunes-as-frugal-splurge example above. Just spend a buck on a new story, and feel as if you’ve satisfied the reading urge, but without spending big time.

(more…)

By David Rothman

E-books sales could get a big boost if the industry ditched Digital Rights Management, a literary and sales toxin.

Wickedly, DRM  links future access to a book to the whims and survival of the DRM provider.

But what to replace DRM with?

The best scenario for e-book-lovers, as I see it, would be nothing. But many publishers won’t go for that, and what about the tricky issue of library books made available via permanent checkout quotas?

The Social DRM compromise

So, as a compromise, I’ve been talking up the concept of Social DRM—putting customer-specific information in books to discourage the posting of them on P2P networks.

The idea, named by Adobe’s Bill McCoy and based on the experiences of The Pragmatic Programmers, has already intrigued some smart publishers. People “might be a little less eager” to share a book with “5,000 of their closest friends” if “it had their name, address and ‘for a good time call….’ plastered all over it,” joked Deena Fisher of Drollerie Press in Cleveland. 

What to include beyond “For a good time call…”?

Humor aside, how far can publishers go in inserting information that would make people less likely to spread copyrighted books around without fair compensation to writers and publishers?

And what about the related issue of perhaps using some kind of digital water marking or something roughly equivalent to make unauthorized copies traceable?

Chris Webb, an open-minded Wiley editor, who dislikes DRM-style lockdowns but wants to carefully weigh alternatives, has broached the privacy question in a thoughtful post headlined Social DRM: How much is too much information? 

So has Garson O’Toole, a much-valued TeleBlog contributor, in our comment area.

Privacy-respectful possibilities: The nuts and bolts 

In response to the above and other concerns, here is one plans to consider for Social DRM and related marking:

(more…)

By David Rothman

Who says a book- or author-oriented site is enough for good visibility on Google and other search engines? Suppose, at no cost, you could also get your book listed in a search engine that’s used not only by other small fry but also by some majors such as Random House.

You might check out Bookhitch, which is offering the basic service for free and charging $20 for a premium version showing your book cover.

For readers, Bookhitch might also be a place to browse for titles not easily discovered elsewhere—in areas ranging from kids’ books to military ones. I haven’t read The Splendid Five: A True Story about the Splinter Fleet during World War II, one of the listings in the latter category, but Wesley Hall’s book intrigued the editor of Kilroy Was Here, along with others.

Started in May 2006, Bookhitch includes 3,000 publishers and authors, with close to 100,000 books listed (I don’t know how many would be E).

“We get an average of 25,000 visitors to Bookhitch a month, with over 1.2 million hits to the site in 2007,” says the site’s marketing director, Emma Ward.

Bookhitch is also into other activities, including a forthcoming community-written book, the use of RFID tags and QR codes (in this case, ways for bar codes to include meta data, related URLs and other details about books). Also check out the site’s newsletter, including interviews with an iRex staffer and the also one with the founder of National Novel Writing Month.

Ahead I’ll reproduce info Emma provided.

(more…)

By David Rothman

Odds and ends:

–Cellulose electronic paper promises superior display qualities (MobileRead). So what do you think, gang? What about the screen contrast issue?

–Sony Germany wants the Reader as quickly as possible (MR).

–New Kindle firmware? (MR)

–Audible to offer exclusive digital sci fi titles in new imprint (PW).

–An Author’s case against Amazon’s new POD demands (TeleBlog comments).

–Report backs PDF variant for long-term archiving in the U.K. (LISNews).

By David Rothman

Harlequin is sticking to DRM for now—probably to the dismay of more than a few readers. But the company is also doing many things right, and in an interview with Fast Company, Brent Lewis, Harlequin’s director of Internet and digital, talks about projects ranging from cellphone e-books (thumbs-up from the TeleBlog!) to podcasts, audiobooks and even a Paranormal Romance Blog.

Now if Harlequin can only keep an open mind about Social DRM and try it out for real. Among the majors, isn’t Harlequin somewhat of a Google of e-books—with so many projects in beta? So why not experiment with Social DRM, especially given Harlequin’s community oriented approach. What a great way for Harlequin to show it has faith in its customers and, unlike some, believes in their owning their purchases for real. How about it, Brent?

Technorati Tags: Harlequin,Brent Lewis

By Peter Osnos, Senior Fellow for Media at The Century Foundation

Moderator’s note: I’ve added the chart from Journalism.org, where you can go for a better look at it. – D.R.

In politics, “elitist” is now an epithet, surpassing even “liberal” as a description to be shunned. In the media, however, the “elitist” sector is doing better than most of the mass purveyors of news: the networks, news magazines, and the metropolitan newspapers that flourished so long as all things to all people.

Three leading elite publications come to mind, the Economist, the Financial Times, and the New Yorker. All of them are financially strong, albeit in the case of the Financial Times and New Yorker, after a period of losses. All of them have readers notable for their loyalty (and growing numbers) who are attractive to advertisers for their up-market demographics. And significantly, all of them provide journalism that is very good. Despite tony, Anglophilial reserve that can veer towards fustiness, they have avoided the image of being only for older readers. The New Yorker somehow managed to go from moribund to hip without losing its basic look or persona.

Three other publications serving the same English-language international audience also seem to be doing well, each serving a specific niche. Foreign Affairs, the bi-monthly published by the Council on Foreign Relations, has the highest circulation in its history. The New York Review of Books is choc-a-bloc with ads while newspaper-based book reviews are struggling, and Vanity Fair has held its own now for more than two decades courtesy of Tina Brown and Graydon Carter and offering a mix of first rate narrative writing and well, lesser stuff.

(more…)

By David Rothman

In 1966 Margaret McNamara, wife of the secretary of defense during the Vietnam War, volunteered as a reading tutor in Washington, D.C. She found the kids loved books as gifts. Figures. One of my biggest objections to DRM is that it interferes with true ownership, which increases people’s interest in books, be they paper or electronic.

Out of Mrs. McNamara’s informal efforts grew a program called Reading is Fundamental, now imperiled by the Bush administration even though Laura Bush once was on RIF’s advisory council and Barbara Bush even sat on the board of directors.

E as a way to make RIF even better

“Since 1966, the program has distributed 325 million new books to more than 30 million mostly low-income children,” USA Today reported earlier this year. “Testimonials have come from entertainers and sports figures, such as Houston Rockets basketball star Juwan Howard, who was given books as a child. More than 140 publishers participate.”

Rather than cutting back RIF, the Bush administration should expand existing p-book efforts and cautiously experiment with an e-book component, aimed at reaching Net-era students who prefer to push buttons rather than flip pages.

(more…)

By Paul Biba

I  don’t know, but I suspect that a lot of our readers are Star Wars fans. Well, I just received the following in an email from Random House PR:

“As a special gift to STAR WARS fans, Del Rey will be offering Book One in the series, STAR WARS: LEGACY OF THE FORCE: BETRAYAL, as a free downloadable PDF, audio book, and eBook. This promotional offer will run for two weeks, from 9:00 a.m. Tuesday, April 29, until midnight on Tuesday, May 13. The free download, which can be shared, e-mailed or printed, will be available on www.legacyoftheforce.com. …

Del Rey has partnered with booksellers to provide the free download. A1Books.com, Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com, Booksense.com, Borders.com, Deepdiscount.com, the eBook Store from Sony, Overstock.com, and Powells.com are making the file available to their customers.

“This giveaway is a great way to introduce the legions of Star Wars fans to our books,” commented Christine Cabello, Deputy Director of Marketing at the Random House Publishing Group, who oversaw the execution of this initiative. “We also expect that it will build awareness and excitement for the on-sale date of the final book in the series, INVINCIBLE.”

Del Rey will be supporting the free download with a major online marketing campaign including an announcement in the STAR WARS e-newsletter, promotion on StarWars.com, and banner advertising.”

It certainly seems that ebooks are becoming recognized as a promotional tool.  TOR has been regularly giving ebooks away.  Let’s hope the trend continues.

Good reading (or listening)!

By Paul Biba

Last 100’s editor, Steve O’Hear has a nice article entitled “Five companies that sold customers down the DRM-filled river”.  Let me quote from his opening: “The news last week that Microsoft plans to turn off its verification servers for its now-defunct MSN Music store, is a stark reminder of the potential pitfalls customers face whenever they purchase content crippled by Digital Rights Management (DRM) software. Any digital store that sells or loans you content in a copy-protected format makes you a hostage to that store or format’s commercial success. The Microsoft example, however, is just one of many. Here are five cases where companies have sold their customers down the DRM-filled river.”

Steve mentions the following: Major League Baseball,  who changed DRM systems; Google, who announced the closing of its video download store; Sony, who ditched the ATRAC format and announced the closing of its Sony Connect music store; Virgin Music, who announced the closing of its music store; and Microsoft, mentioned above.

Of course, given the major names involved, this doesn’t give the public much confidence that their ebooks will be available in the future.  The article is well worth reading.

By David Rothman

Congratulations to Michael Chabon, author of The Yiddish Policemen’s Union, for nominations for the Edgar, Hugo and Nebula within relevant categories. In fact, as noted in Media Bistro’s Galley Cat blog, he’s already a Nebula winner.

Now here’s the e-book angle. TYPU fits not just within the mystery genre (the Edgar) but also the SF-and-fantasy area (the Hugo and Nubla). It is, after all, alternate history. During World War II, the U.S. donates land for a temporary Jewish settlement in the then-territory of Alaska; and within the settlement, a murder takes place. Couldn’t e-help, since it’s a lot easier to juggle around electrons than the atoms of a multi-genre book?

E-stores vs. p-stores

At an old-fashioned paper bookstore or library, just where do you put TYPU? On the mystery shelf? The SF-and-fantasy-one? Perhaps both, but then you’re taking away space from other books.

But at an online e-book store? TYPU can show up in a number of categories without this problem. Of course, there might be less space for other titles on the Web pages for most-featured titles, but the hassles are fewer—you would not be reducing the number of titles carried. Same for e-libraries.

The medium for hyphenated books

E-books, in fact, as shown by the abundance of vampire-romances, SF-thrillers and so on, are the medium to think about for hyphenated genres.

HarperCollins, Chabon’s publisher, should be making hay with E, right?

Now the kicker–no e-book of TYPU, apparently.

And now the kicker: So far I can’t find an e-book edition of TYPU, not even in the Kindle format. Am I missing something? What’s taking HarperCollins so long? Is Chabon or his agent resisting, or the problem in-house? Strange. Isn’t HarperCollins supposed to be open to experimentation? In fact, timely releases of e-books at this point are hardly just an experiment at many publishers. Come on, HarperCollins. Get with it or at least explain the apparent delay in releasing Chabon’s TYPU in E.

(more…)

By Aaron S. Miller, CTO of BookGlutton, a Web-based community of readers

Between Google and Amazon, a lot of books are going on-line every day, and while these two are not the only companies doing it, they’re the biggest and the most aggressive.

While many smaller outfits expect people to download a book and read it on the platform of their choice, both Amazon and Google fully expect you to read the books from the Amazon.com or Google.com domains, preferably on their Web sites. Google Booksearch and Amazon Online Reader are both fully functional web-based reading systems which allow you to read paginated text, annotate, communicate with other readers, bookmark and share, all in a browser. And despite Amazon’s offering of the Kindle they are still a Web company, built on Web principles, and we can expect the Kindle won’t forsake their web properties. The Amazon Online Reader is a core product in three of Amazon’s other moneymakers: Amazon Advantage, Search Inside, and the Digital Text Platform, which is itself linked to the Kindle and uses the Online Reader as a preview device for Kindle uploads.

As for Google, well, there’s no doubt as to where Google stands on the Web as platform. They already have us reading PDFs in one of the ugliest interfaces book readers have ever known.

Dictating how books are read

The two big lessons here are:

1. Major players are dictating that books must be read on the Web, and
2. Major players are dictating the experience of reading books on the Web

These two things should worry everyone, because even though many people are disappointed and angry at Amazon’s approach to the market, and plenty are unhappy with Google’s quality control, it’s taken far too long for the rest of us to offer alternatives.

My own company has put out its best first effort: a paginated, networked way to read books called the Unbound Reader. Since we launched it sites like Manybooks, Goodreads and even Gutenberg have added features that allow a user to “page” through texts instead of scrolling them.

Unfortunately this is not on the agenda of the most vocal supporters of digital books. Among e-book lovers, there’s skepticism and even contempt for the idea of reading a book in a browser.

(more…)

By David Rothman

Just one e-book format may not be enough for your PDA, cellphone or other gizmo—thanks to the Tower of eBabel. Even Amazon’s Kindle store has its limitations. The 110,000+ books, newspapers and blogs buyable there are a fraction of the millions of books and other items available. While Amazon wants everyone to be represented in the store, I doubt that will happen before Jeff Bezos is colonizing Mars.

Defenders of eBabel would say, “Just download another e-reader.” Or if you must, buy and learn another gizmo; never mind the several hundred dollars. Meanwhile, deaf to user pleas, defenders of DRM might add, “Just contact tech support if you run into problems.” Yes, of course—with all the spare hours people have on their hands today. I won’t swallow, either, the argument of Amazon defenders that we can just wipe out the DRM hassles by standardizing the whole world on the Kindle and letting Jeff monopolize e-books, the way he’s tried to nuke POD competitors.

Empathy, please—not just technology

Here’s the big problem, not technical, but something more basic: simple lack of empathy with users. For the techies and business people of E-Bookdom, I would recommend The Great Ubuntu-Girlfriend experiment, where the author of the Content Consumer blog finds that his far-from-dumb girlfriend can’t even figure out how to download a YouTube video. And here some Ubuntu advocates keep saying their OS and related apps are consumer-ready! In fairness to Ubuntu, the YouTube problem seems to have been mainly others’ fault, not the OS’s, but do people like the girlfriend really care? Oh, well, at least the GF was able to use Gimp to “photoshop a picture of her face onto my body.”

(more…)

By David Rothman

Check out Voluminous: App for organizing, fetching and sharing public domain books, in Boing Boing.

Voluminous, written up earlier in Wonderland, is an “Internet librarian for Mac OS X 10.5.”

Get more info on Voluminous and download here. The trial download is free, and the price is around $30 for people in the States.

Voluminous’s tagline: “20,000 books. For the price of one hardback.”

Compatibility: Apparently none for the PC and linux. I assume that’ll happen in time; otherwise imagine the plight of people who switch operating systems, maybe through no choice of their own. Hmm. Any Mac emulators out there for PCs? Actually, yes, although I don’t know about OS X.

An alternative for PC owners: The free yBook, which lacks all of Voluminous’s feature but at least is integrated with Project Gutenberg’s catalog. We’ve mentioned yBook a number of times here.

By Joe Wikert

Why couldn’t Kindle 1.0 owners get $150 in trade-in credit when they bought the next-gen Kindles? That’s a great idea posted on the Kindle forum earlier today. It’s like the loyalty programs of some automakers. “Trade your 2005 Red Barchetta”—great Rush tune, incidentally—”and you’ll qualify for the Barchetta loyalty discount of $1,000, addition to the usual rebates we’re offering.”

Kindle 1.0 will have to be supported long after Kindle 2.0 arrives. In fact, could you imagine being told at some point that your Kindle 1.0 device isn’t supported any longer? Now that would cause a ruckus!

The people Amazon should value the most

So, since Kindle 1.0 will be viable for many years, what’s the harm in Amazon buying back a bunch of them as owners upgrade to 2.0? They could easily sell them to new Kindle customers, albeit for something much less than the $399 charged for new units today. And what a great way to reward the customers you value most, your early adopters! They’re the ones out there showing off their new purchase and you can bet they’re evangelizing your product to their friends.

Apple has never done something like this, as far as I know. Jeff Bezos, why not use this opportunity to set a new standard in customer loyalty and rewards?

Moderator’s note: Blame me, not Joe, for the car not being an exact fit. CC photo credit: Storem. – D.R.