TeleRead: Bring the E-Books Home

Archive for August, 2008

By David Rothman

Let’s get it straight. I’m been on the Internet since 1993 and can’t stop praising the Net as a bridge between readers and writers—not to mention its value as a research tool, distribution mechanism and life-enhancer in general. But here are two Not So Good Things:

1. Writer Stephenie Meyer is complaining that "my partial draft of Midnight Sun was illegally posted on the Internet and has since been virally distributed without my knowledge or permission or the knowledge or permission of my publisher." Bottom line: "I feel too sad about what has happened to continue working on Midnight Sun, and so it is on hold indefinitely." It was to be her final book in the Twilight series. She’d rather fans not read the draft with typos and all that. But so they could see the material without reading an illegal copy, she’s posted the draft—scroll down to the appropriate link. I know some have said that the biggest threat to the typical writers is obscurity, not piracy. True. But Stephenie Meyer already has The Fame Thing worked out.

That said, I wonder if Meyer will miraculously return to Midnight Sun to take advantage of the fuss. Oh, how evilly cynical the Net has made me.

2. PW editor-reviewer Rose Fox correctly depicts the Net as a major time sink, a distraction from the actual process of novel writing. "I can’t even imagine how many literal millions of words I’ve written online since I started posting to Usenet in 1996. I know my personal blog averages around 380,000 words a year. That’s four novels, right there, and it doesn’t include emails and Genreville posts and comments and IMs and text messages and all the other reasons I have classic keyboarder’s RSI." She marvels that Harry Turtledove—author or coauthor of 84 books in the past three decades—can resist the temptations of interactivity.

Correction: Yep, I royally mangled her name earlier. Fixed.

(Meyer item reported by Michael Cader of PublishersLunch. See his publishing blog, which may or may not be reachable to nonsubscribers. Subscribe here.)

By David Rothman

In this never-ending debate, DearAuthor quotes Nancy K. Herther, an anthropology and sociology librarian at the University of Minnesota Libraries, who’s on the multiuse side.

I’d second observations from DA’s Jane: "For me, the perfect device would be a slightly larger (6-8″ screen size) iPhone. I don’t mind the LCD. I like the touchscreen, the beautiful video abilities, and the expanded software options."

By David Rothman

This week Twilight Times Books is locking up the first galleys for The Solomon Scandals, the D.C. newspaper novel on which I’ve worked, on and off, for three decades. It’ll be out in P, not just E, complete with an almost surely memorable cover from Carl W. Scarlborough, who normally designs for Godine, known for its aesthetics.

Matt Richtel’s approach is just the opposite. The New York Timesman and comic writer has drawn 400 subscribers to his Twitter posts of a novel done in real time. Details:

Recently, a handful of creators (present company included) have scrapped pen and paper for mobile phone and keypad, and started texting their novels — in real time, just a few characters at a time. Our medium is Twitter, a service that lets you broadcast bursts of 140 characters at a time to be read by people who subscribe to get your updates.

In my case, I’ve for the last two months been using Twitter to write a real-time thriller. Hence: Twiller. (Cheap word play is what you get when you disintermediate, as they say, your agent and editor).

It’s about a man who wakes up in the mountains of Colorado, suffering from amnesia, with a haunting feeling he is a murderer. In possession of only a cell phone that lets him Twitter, he uses the phone to tell his story of self-discovery, 140 characters at a time. Think “Memento” on a mobile phone, with the occasional emoticon.

So here’s the big issue. Will humanity and literature be better off with traditional novels or with Twillers and other novels done on Twitter? I say a mix of the two is fine, just so we don’t overdo the Twitter fiction. Who knows? Twillers might even lead readers to the authors’ traditional works. Promo tool? Notice the Borders photo in the Richtel image? That said, just how reflective can Twillers and the rest be? Are we impoverishing ourselves by Twittering novels? Or just making literature more vibrant and broadening its audiences?

Related: Hooked: A Thriller about Love and Other Addictions, Richtel’s more traditional novel. Also see Valleywag post (source of image), which Richtel says is off target.

By David Rothman

Ten years ago the United States carried 70 percent of the world’s Internet traffic.

Now? A mere 25 percent, according to estimates from Andrew M. Odlyzko, a well-regarded specialist in these matters.

Just the decentralized nature of the Internet means that America can’t control the beast forever. But Luddites in D.C. are unwittingly speeding up the decline.

Check out two of the points in Internet Traffic Begins to Bypass the U.S., in today’s New York Times:

"Since passage of the Patriot Act, many companies based outside of the United States have been reluctant to store client information in the U.S.," said Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center in Washington. "There is an ongoing concern that U.S. intelligence agencies will gather this information without legal process. There is particular sensitivity about access to financial information as well as communications and Internet traffic that goes through U.S. switches"…

Internet technologists say that the global data network that was once a competitive advantage for the United States is now increasingly outside the control of American companies. They decided not to invest in lower-cost optical fiber lines, which have rapidly become a commodity business.

To the above list, I’d add Hollywood-bought copyright legislation, which, come to think of it, ties in. Pampering big movie-makers counts more than copyright reforms that would aid the many-to-many model, one way to spur demand for optic fiber. And Hollywood is hardly the only villain here. Here’s one example. I love the Associated Press news reader for iPhone and am rooting for the American-dominated AP to survive despite the exodus or planned exodus of major members and other issues, but if you quote just a few paragraphs from the AP, you just might open yourself up to a DMCA takedown. Not the best encouragement for many-to-many.

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By David Rothman

“Last week Random House announced sales for e-books were already more than double the total for 2007. The trade body, the International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF) estimates that sales of e-books in March 2008 were 58.9% higher than in March 2007.” – The Times in the U.K.

The TeleRead take: This is hardly an isolated phenomenon. Also see recent IDPF stats, from which I picked up this image.The Times further reports:

“In the first four months of this year Penguin’s sales of e-books surpassed all those made in 2007. So far, [chairman and chief executive] John Makinson said, the company had found little difference between the bestselling titles sold in paper form or as downloads. Price had not affected sales, he said. Penguin’s bestselling e-books generally cost as much to download as they do in print…

“Simon & Schuster recently announced that by June this year sales of e-books had exceeded 2007’s total. The company expects revenue in the format to double for the full year…

“The [e-book] trade body, the International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF) estimates that sales of e-books in March 2008 were 58.9% higher than in March 2007.”

At the same time, keep in mind that e-book sales are just a speck of those for the book industry as a whole. They’d be higher without eBabel and DRM, of course. Lower prices would also help despite Penguin’s belief that “price has not affected sales.” I base this opinion on the repeated pleas of TeleBlog readers for reasonable prices.

Related: Paul Biba’s just-made post: E-book sales still tiny in U.K.—but will Kindle, Sony Reader help change the game and affect p-book market?, Chris Meadows’s Open Letter to Random House

By David Rothman

John Platt at RiverWired weighs in, and veteran e-publisher Elizabeth Burton challenges him on various points.

The TeleRead take: E probably beats P at least in cases where you’re a heavy reader and don’t constantly swap out your gizmos. Keep in mind that many people are reading E off multi-purposes devices that they’d be using anyway. What’s more, e-book-capable devices can also be used for newspaper reading. In the end just about all of us are heavy readers of something.

So what’s your current thinking on the above topic?

Question: Isn’t an e-book a "book"?

Related: Earlier TeleRead items on this and similar topics.

By Paul Biba

The Sony Reader will debut in England next week, and the Amazon Kindle may very well be coming to England soon.  A Times of London article article mentions both and has a number of interesting quotes from John Makinson, Chairman and Chief Executive of Penguin.  I suggest you pop over to the site and read the article in full.  This statement interested me the most:

Makinson said paper-based books were still his primary business and he didn’t see that changing soon. As a result, it is hard to see how it will change the publishing business. Although there is less cost associated with an e-book — no printing, warehousing or delivery — the market is still so small that when they sell an e-book they don’t know where, or whether, they are losing a sale of a physical book, said Makinson. “Consequently, we don’t manufacture or ship any fewer physical books at the moment.”

Only when e-books reach 5% of the market will publishers get a clearer idea of how the new digital format will affect their supply chain, he said.

By Robert Nagle

Although I’ve continued to manage  the TeleRead backend over the years, I’ve taken a little (involuntary) hiatus from posting on TeleRead for practically the whole summer due to an avalanche of work at my job. So I’m back….to announce that as of September 4…. I’ll be taking a three week vacation from TeleRead!

I’ll be mainly to Germany, Ireland, Kosovo and Albania. I have dual Irish citizenship even though I’ve never actually been there. I’ll be visiting friends in Germany and Kosovo, and I’ll be spending a week in Albania (where I worked as a Peace Corps volunteer).

Although this trip is for pleasure, e-books will be an important part of my trip.  Lots of time will be spent waiting around airports and bus stations. I want to make sure that I have e-books ready to fill the gaps.  This trip will give me a good sense of  how comfortable I am using e-books. Along the way I’ll be interested in hearing from TeleBloggers in the countries I visit—I’m at idiotprogrammer at fastmailbox.net. Within the limits of my time, maybe we can get together. Meanwhile here are my notes.

Which device(s) to bring? To bring or not to bring, that is the question (every geek will say). I am consciously trying to downsize my gadget pack, although to nongeeks, it must seem excessive. Sony Reader 505 or Cybook? I love both devices to death, but ultimately, the fact that Sony Reader 505 offers a 2 year service plan with Accidental Damage from Handling for $54.99 proved to be the deciding factor. If you remember, a few months ago David and I conducted a straw poll of e-book owners and found that for all e-ink devices, having the display break (a very expensive repair) occurred for about 10-15% of the owners. That is a startlingly high rate, and you definitely need to consider that when making a purchasing decision.  The next question was: should I bring my Nokia 770 or my Dell Axim x51v or OLPC? I don’t use my Nokia 770 often anymore for various reasons, but its wifi receptivity is outstanding, and having fbreader is great too.  Dell x51v ultimately won the contest. I use the outstanding Ilium Newsbreak RSS reader for Windows mobile (and also eWallet password storage software). Also, I was able to find a cheap 220v recharger. The Dell Axim’s wifi is less reliable, but still functional. I have a Thinkpad bluetooth keyboard, but its reliability has always underwhelmed me. Gosh, it would be so nice to have the ability to type a brief essay on my Pocket Microsoft Word. I will try again and see if a new supply of batteries will make a difference.

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By David Rothman

How can you install the new eReader upgrade safely on your iPhone or iPod Touch, so you can enjoy a progress bar, page numbers and other goodies? Nothing is certain with any upgrade of any program. But in the wake of some people’s problems, here are helpful tips from Steve Pendergrast, a co-owner of eReader.com and Fictionwise:

"We seem to get a handful of reports about losing books each time we release an upgrade. At least in a few cases this was user error: They upgraded by deleting the old version of eReader (which removes all application data including books, that’s the way iPhone works) then installing the new version from scratch. So far it is unclear whether this is the problem in all cases, we are investigating.

"The correct procedure is to hit the UPDATE button inside the app store. That should retain your e-books.

"Doing a sync to iTunes before upgrading is always a good idea though."

My own eReader upgrade installed without the least problem. The update is well worth the very small risk—especially if you do the iTunes sync.

A cool feature: It turns out that eReader does have a slim progress bar at the bottom of the screen that you can see constantly even when you’re in the full-screen made (unlike the top bar). It shows your progress through the entire book, not just a chapter. Now for a way for the page numbers, too, to be visible all the time? Or am I missing something?

What I most want in eReader for the iPhone: A wide choice of fonts, as well as a boldface option. Steve, what are the ETAs on that stuff? Thanks.

Related: Page numbers, global progress bar, full-page views show up in eReader update.

By Joe Wikert

A tip of the hat to my former colleague Steve Pool for this one. Steve, by the way, is Director of Content Management and Production at VitalSource Technologies, an Ingram company.

Steve recently sent me an e-mail to tell me a quick story about his son, a freshman at a local high school, and the Kindle. His son explained how "his World History teacher at Fishers High School, Chris Edwards, told the class to put away the textbooks for the day. He was tired of teaching from the book. Then he surprised the class by unveiling five Kindles the school had purchased. He was told that his is the first school to order and use them in the classroom. They read an article about India from the National Geographic. But it wasn’t India he was talking about when he got home. It was the Kindle."

Steve went on to say that, "my son knows I have been working in digital publishing for years and I keep telling him ‘print is dead,’ but he has resisted the notion of reading text from a screen. This coming from a so called digital native. But today when I asked him how was the experience he had to admit, ‘it was pretty cool’. And then, ‘where can we buy one?’"

Very cool! I’m curious to hear more about this and so I’ve got an e-mail message in to Mr. Edwards to see if he’d be willing to do a quick blog interview. I hope to be back soon with the interview.

By Joe Wikert

Book Business Magazine hosted my Kindle webinar, and I had a lot of fun with the presentation. If you missed it, you can still watch it via this archive link which also lets you download my slide deck.

We received quite a few questions from attendees and I wasn’t able to address them all during the session—so I thought I’d try to tackle a few via a blog post. Here are some of the ones I didn’t get to during the webinar:

Do you think Sony has lost?

Wow, what a loaded question! I think the Kindle’s wireless connectivity is a game-changing feature and represents a huge disadvantage for Sony. Amazon’s stellar reputation as a bookseller means more challenges for Sony as well. That said, Sony could easily introduce its own wireless model down the road, and it’s unclear how much Sony might benefit from its recent announcement to support EPUB format. It’s still way too early in this game to say who’s won and who’s lost, but the fact that I bought a Kindle and not a Sony Reader says something about who I think is best positioned for the future.

Do you think people will start to read on the iPhone?

Absolutely. If someone already owns an iPhone or iPod Touch, there’s less of an incentive for them to buy a Kindle. The key will be seeing how much content will be made available for the iPhone reader app. If Amazon can maintain a solid lead in the number of titles available, the Kindle will always be a tempting consideration, even for iPhone owners.

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By David Rothman

"In the first move by a major American publisher to publish iPhone-ready (and friendly) reference material, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt has rolled out applications for four of its reference titles. The titles, which can be purchased in Apple’s App Store range in price from $29.99, for The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition, to $8.99 for Wall Street Words." – PW.

The TeleRead take: Amid all the fixation on the Kindle, I’m pleased that HMH also sees possibilities in the iPhone. What’s more, the American Heritage Dictionary isn’t just shovelware, but rather includes multimedia capabilities, such as audios of correct pronunciations.

Now if only the big publishers will appreciate the extent to which the iPhone could be a major recreational e-reading platform! The availability of the just-improved eReader should help; same for the forthcoming Mobipocket.

Detail: Customer reviews of the the AHD are mixed. Read carefully before buying. Rightly or wrongly, some say it’s Crash City and might even brick your machine.

Question: Any brave souls want to try this one and share the results?

By David Rothman

Details from ActuaLitté (thanks to Nicholas Gary). Google translation here. Cybooks—at least some and maybe all—will come preloaded with French and English classics.

A bare package will go for 350€; a deluxe one, for 450€—with a 2G SD card, a USB charger, a headphone and other trimmings.

By David Rothman

One of my gripes against iPod e-reading software is that it typically lacks a progress bar for an entire book and offers one just at the chapter level.

eReader, via an update to version 2.2, has addressed this deficiency. Nice going, guys. It’s in line with a promise from eReader that it would be upgrading regularly

Page numbers, too!

Trying out the update, you’ll also notice that eReader lets you call up page numbers—an issue related to Chris Meadows’ concerns—and that the usual view is a full screen.

What I’m not clear about is whether there’s a toggle to keep the progress bar and numbers on the screen constantly, as Mobipocket can do in a more polite way. Mobi should be appearing soon for the iPhone. Let’s hope the interface will live up to the usual Mobi standards.

Installation bug: Back up your books

Meanwhile a TeleBlog reader, who kindly tipped us off, reports that his first stab at the update failed and that he had to reinstall his books on his machine. Luckily he could reloaded them. But this should serve as a warning to be careful and maybe arrange for multiple backups.

I myself didn’t have problems. I was in the middle of a re-read of Scoop, and when I next opened up eReader I miraculously saw a blue line begin to load (though it soon vanished). At any rate, the update is definite progress and comes with a bunch of bug fixes.

Still missing: A wide choice of fonts in eReader.

A speed issue—nothing to worry about: When you first open up a book, it’ll take time to appear, while the page numbering code does its act. But in the future it will come up fast enough.

Related: Recent New York Times item on Scoop. Former New Yorker publisher Tina Brown has borrowed the name of Evelyn Waugh’s fictitious Daily Beast for a new Web site on the media. Hmm. Is this the placeholder? By the way, the original Times review of Scoop said: "Mr. Waugh writes with such mastery that the use of 321 pages of his prose—prose that in this generation is practically peerless—to bring off too obvious a farce seems rather wasteful, almost as wasteful as was Mussolini’s use of his war machine to capture Abyssinia."

By David Rothman

The Sonny Bono copyright term extension law has resulted a torrent of creativity output, right?

Leaping out of his grave at Rockville cemetery, F. Scott Fitzgerald has just pulled off some new Hollywood deals to make up for his past failures. Brad’s Reader and PW have the details.

The real joke in this case: It’s on Hollywood. Without Bono, might the Fitzgerald properties be free?

The bigger picture: Studios want to protect their own copyrights and mice, so they’d point out that the small-n net from Bono is larger than without it. Still, many public interest types would also argue that creativity suffers in the end since less fodder is out there for adaptations.

In the U.S., thanks to Bono, terms are the life of the writer plus 70 years. Terms on corporate properties can run as long as 120 years after creation.

Related: The not-so-heavy representation of writers on an Aussie digital publishing task force (post from Kate Eltham).

By David Rothman

Any writers care to share dollar sales stats—-either through direct dealing with Amazon or reports from publishers? Mitzi Szereto, an erotic writer, talks about $30 in K-earnings from a series and seems to think that it is a promising start. Mike Cane would disagree.

That said, I can recall Oxford University Press and some others reporting better-than-expected earnings. So what’s the deal here?

By David Rothman

Two-handed typing and even a virtual scroll wheel are among the features that Apple might include in a tablet Mac running a full-strength OS X operating system. AppleInsider ran across helpfully illustrated company filings. Will this be a real product?

Other questions arise. How fast and accurate will the typical user be? Will he or she be able to type comfortably for any length of time, and without risking injury? At least with a regular mechanical keyboard you can rest your fingers on the keys. Oh, and will they teach gestures in high school if this approach catches on?

Yet another issue could be whether a smaller, iPoddish model could appear. Or might there be a way to run iPod-style apps through emulation?

Click on the images for full size-size views.