TeleRead: Bring the E-Books Home

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By Ficbot

Moderator’s note: The IDPF is holding the Digital Book 2008 conference today. May companies there heed Ficbot’s advice! - D.R.

I enjoyed the recent TeleBlog debate on resizing text on the fly. Is this a feature people really use on a regular basis? And do we need an e-book standard like ePub, which allows easy resizing and could work for everything from a cell phone to a book-optimized tablet?

One’s not enough

In a word, yes, because many e-book fans read on more than one device. They can pack their p-books in their bags and take them anywhere, so why shouldn’t they be able to carry around their e-books just as easily, no matter which device they are toting (an aside: that’s not my bag in the photo)?

They also need to be able to resize fonts easy to allow for different reading conditions, such as when their eyes are tired; and that’s not the only issue. On some devices, such as a cell phone or PDA, the fonts in formats like PDF may display differently compared to a tablet or desktop with a much-larger screen.

Potential boon to publishers and e-retailers, Amazon included

And why might readers be carrying different devices? Because some of their devices may be tools they use for other purposes. Letting them carry books between them would be a boon to publishers because it lets people do more reading and be more inclined to buy books. If the only device I have with me on a given day is my Eee PC and I can’t read a certain format on it, even though the book is important to me, then eBabel has once again reduced my productivity.

I hope Amazon is reading this. Remember, you can’t display an e-book from the Kindle Store on anything but a Kindle, not even your desktop machine. This eBabel is no small reason, among others, why I don’t own a Kindle even though, yes, it would let me change fonts within a certain range. Even Amazon’s Mobipocket is no solution since it can’t run on many computers, including my Linux Asus. We need a true nonproprietary standard.

A not-so-secret diary which Jeff Bezos should read

For Amazon and for those who wonder just what an avid e-reader means by “multiple devices” and why the reader might need them, here’s a glimpse inside the last week or so of my techie e-reading life:

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By Ficbot

My eBookwise is a talented one-trick pony, but I wanted to do more than read. And yet I didn’t want to lug around a fragile, hefty notebook PC or spend big money on a subnotebook. Then I read of the Asus Eee PC, priced for an impulse buy even though it was a long way from a true $100 laptop. About time!

The $350 I paid for my shiny new 4GB Eee, just $50 more than the 2GB Surf model, was well worth it to me.

I had some fairly typical newbie issues while getting the EEE set up. But now that I’m getting more comfortable with its features and how to customize them, I am in love.

Setting up the Eee: Good to go, right out of the box

The EEE was ready to use out of the box. When I turned it on, I saw a window with tabs—work, play, Internet, settings and favorites. Each tab comes pre-set with large buttons. Click, and launch, it was that simple. I already knew most of these applications because the machine is built on an open-source Linux platform, and I had seen some of these programs on other devices: OpenOffice, FBReader, Tux Paint and a few of the games played exactly as on my Mac. I was up and running at once.

The tabs can be customized—to a point. Anything that’s already on there can be added to the favorites tab, but any major tweaking will involve mucking around with the Linux “terminal.” I keep hearing how flexible and customizable the Linux system is, and that may be true for advanced functions. But for the average user who is used to dragging an icon onto a taskbar—and voila, shortcut—putting path names into a “simpleui.rc” file from within the scary terminal mode will be a challenge. Is there really not an easier way? Of course there is. Just not in Linux! With that said, if you are happy with the setup that the Eee gives you, and you don’t want to add anything new, you really can be up and running in about two minutes.

Using the Eee: A snap on the whole, with Acrobat and FBReader included

The keyboard took a little getting used to because of its tiny size; I kept hitting the S when I meant A. I spent about half an hour playing with the included Tux Typing arcade game and it got me much more comfortable with the keyboard layout.

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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.

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By Ficbot

Are e-books are killing the print book as we know it? “True/False” or “Either/Or” won’t do here. No binary split, please! As I’ve said before, E and P can coexist.

Print is my choice for gift-giving, the reading of beloved keepsake favorites, foreign-language titles not available in e-versions, and specialty genres like cookbooks where I prefer to see the whole page at once.

What are some cases, though, where I might favor E? Below is my list, and I’d welcome hearing from other TeleBlog readers.

Putting a toddler to bed

I babysit for extra income and often find myself in this situation. The story has been read, the toddler is tucked in and drowsing, but I can’t leave the room until he’s completely sleeping or else the noise of my doing so will wake him up again.

At such times, where noise is perhaps an issue, but proper lighting is definitely a problem, my backlit eBookwise, which can be read legibly and without eyestrain even in total darkness, is a godsend. I can tuck in beside the baby, finish my chapter and hang tight until he’s out completely. My eBookwise an essential in my babysitting bag.

The subway

You’re on the subway, it’s rush hour, and the only thing standing between you and a faceplant into the nearest fellow commuter is a tiny strip of pole which you must sacrifice one of your hands to cling to. Even if you could manage a newspaper with one hand, there simply is not a big enough personal space bubble to allow you to turn the pages. A PDA, cell phone or e-book reader that you can hold in one hand is a wonderful thing.

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By Ficbot

In the old days families watched just the big three or five TV networks—mass-appeal shows like The Love Boat—and that was it. Then the numbers started dropping, and people panicked. But why? Viewers hadn’t wandered far. Millions, for example, were watching cable, including the specialty networks now owned by—you guessed it—the same big networks. NBC Universal is now behind USA Networks, while Disney owns not just ABC but also ESPN.

Today many people are getting their TV fixes online; and, again, the big networks have shown themselves adept at getting a piece of the pie. In short, the viewers are still there. But you may need to advertise in two different spots if you want to hook both the young Web-oriented viewer and his more traditional mom, because they are different markets.

Same crossroad, same need for specialization

I think the book industry may be nearing the same crossroads that television came to. Numbers are down! Oh no! Nobody reads anymore! Or do they? Consider the following scenarios, all based on people I know:

1) An older person is not buying as many books for herself because she is retired now and trying to save her money. Is she lost as a customer? No. She dotes on her grandchild, and every year she buys him books for birthdays and holidays. Target some good kiddie-book marketing at older people, and you may earn back some of their book-buying dollars.

2) A young professional, trying to pay off her student loan, has been getting most of her fiction at the library these days. Is she lost as a customer? No. She’ll buy nearly any book she can find which relates to her developing career—and often, her boss will pay her back for them if she asks. Target some good professional and financial books in the trade journals and personal development mags, and not only will you get her money, you’ll get her employer’s money too.

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By Ficbot

Critics of Read an E-Book Week may be missing the point a little. Why assume that “E. vs. P” is an “either or” scenario?

Everyone I know who buys e-books buys p-books, too, and lots of them. There are simply times they might favor one format over the other. For instance. I prefer p-books for cookbooks, health and wellness titles and beloved favorites that I may want to read again. But I would happily take an e-format—if the price is right and the DRM is not unreasonable—for a paperback bestseller I may read once and then get rid of. I also will buy print books when the title is intended as a gift for someone.

I’m not the only one who loves both E and P:

• My sister buys a lot of short stories on Fictionwise. This type of reading is often not available in print bookstores except in anthologies or collections. She likes being able to buy just one story if it catches her interest. Novels or longer works, however, she tends to get in p-form. Additionally, she has a child and gets all her kiddie books in print.
  
• A friend buys magazines such as Analog and Ellery Queen in e-form. These are not the type of magazine that employs fancy layouts or elaborate photo spreads, so they’re very well-suited to an e-format, and it is a cinch to backup his past issues without needing a second bookcase. There is potential here for more literary magazines (where the bulk of their items are just text) to go online!
  
• A lot of the stuff I read in university as a literature major is online now. Too bad it wasn’t then! I would have needed to buy or borrow the modern authors, of course, and I would have needed access to print versions for essay-writing since you need page numbers and line references for that. But if you have to read Oroonoko or Dombey and Son or Dr. Faustus for a course and don’t plan to write on it, you can save a ton by reading it in free e-book form.

That said, there are two arguments the anti-e folks make which, I think, fail to address the bigger picture:

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By Ficbot

Now that I have settled in with my eBookwise e-book reader, I have started to think about future books for it. I have a good stash for the time being, but when I am ready to buy new stuff, what will I do?

Entry point number one will be Internet freebies, of course, from places like Munseys and Manybooks. There are so many classics I haven’t read, and so many trashy pulp fiction hits from yesteryear. But eBookwise and its parent company. Fictionwise, both have on-line stores which can be used with the device. Do I, as a reasonably tech-capable and fairly careful and educated consumer, plan to use these?

What “secure” means in Fictionwise Land

I’ll start with Fictionwise. I won’t buy secure e-books from it. In Fictionwise Land, “secure” means “only available in certain formats,” and most of the time, that means eReader. eReader files are not readable on the eBookwise. I can read them on my Dana, if I have it with me, or on my MacBook, but that’s it. I like that you can download them again if you need to down the road, and eReader seems like the best of the DRM schemes, if one must suffer with DRM. But I enjoy reading on the eBookwise and will try not to buy something that can’t go on there.

How about the non-secure Fictionwise titles? I would buy those, absolutely. Non-secure means you can download them in your pick of formats, and one of those is the eBookwise-compatible .rb format. I would but at Fictionwise before I would buy at eBookwise because with Fictionwise multi-format titles, I would have the option to download a backup directly to my computer. eBookwise does not allow this capability; its on-line bookshelf only allows you to transfer onto your device. If you want to back up those files, you need to copy them off your memory card, and even then, that file is in the proprietary .imp format and not readable on other devices the way .rb files are. So, if the book I want is available at both sites, I would buy from Fictionwise.

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By Ficbot

E-books can be a real bargain for us Canadians.

For years, I shied away from anything “American” because I was so terrified of the almighty exchange rate conversion and how it would rip me off. But last year, I came to realize that I was wrong about this. Even when the dollar is not at par, Canadians can still save money because the American list price is typically so much lower in the first place.

$9.99 American, even when converted to Canadian dollars under a less generous exchange rate, was still cheaper than $14.95 Canadian, even back in the not-par days. And now, with our dollar pretty much equivalent, it gets even better. With Amazon.com, I have been coming out even because my discount gets used up by the shipping cost. I can get free shipping off Amazon.ca, but then I have to pay the much higher Canadian list price.

Enter the e-book! Now that I finally have a suitable reader, the eBookwise, I can buy books in e-form and benefit from the American list prices without needing to worry about shipping. A little cost comparison for The Best Life Diet by Bob Greene, my first eBookwise buy:

• Amazon.ca Canadian List Price: $18.89 (shipping free
  with certain orders)
• Amazon.com American List Price: $15.19 (10.20 + $4.99
  shipping)
• eBookwise.com List Price: $7.99

That is a substantial difference! Even the cheaper American print version is just shy of double the e-book list price.

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By Ficbot

I have been an e-book reader for years, both on computers and on portable devices such as Palm organizers and my Alphasmart Dana.

For anything longer than a short subway trip, however, or an afternoon coffee break, the Dana won’t cut it for reading—the screen is too reflective and the lighting has to be arranged just so.

Enter the eBookwise, with a long-lasting battery and a screen the size of a real book. Also, eBookwise is owned by the same people who run Fictionwise, where I already had an account and a few books ready to go. So I ordered.

Priced for frugal booklovers

Prices of basic eBookwises start at $110 and shipping, a fraction of the costs of such machines as the Sony Reader ($300) and Amazon Kindle ($400). That’s with 8MB of internal memory and no slide-in card. A machine with a 128MB card will cost $180, allowing you to store far more than 100 typical books.

While the eBookwise lacks the most modern technology, it could delight frugal booklovers, and unlike the displays on E Ink machines, the LCD screen will glow hour after hour in places that would be too dim even for reading off old-fashioned paper.

Part I: Content, and where to get it

As soon as my new eBookwise reached me—I waited three weeks—I bought a test book from the company’s server. Shopping was easy enough for the most part. Browse for the title you want, submit your payment information, and the book will be transferred to your “online bookshelf,” from which you can download to your device.

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By Ficbot

Here’s another great MSM article—this one about the revitalization of the Toronto Public Library system.

A slew of branch renovations are going on right now, in spite of modest budgets for such things, and one recently reopened library reportedly saw an 80 percent increase in use. What’s happening? Among other things, the Toronto Star article highlights the use of public libraries not so much as “repositories for books” but as community spaces—with ties to such organizations as employment agencies and organizations aiding immigrants.

How E would fit in

So would e-books fit into such a community-based model? Quite well, I think. The library, as the article says, continues to play a major role in the lives of learners of all levels. E-books fit very nicely into that mission statement. And they can bring people together, too, serving as a platform for teaching literacy, research skills, even general
computer skills. And of course, while your snazzy new community library is closed for renovations, you’d be able to get books anyway if the library had a decent stash of e-titles available!  So, if the e-movement wants that 80 percent hike in usage, what do they need to do? The same thing the print libraries are, I think. Here are some keywords I plucked from the article that highlight why the recent changes have brought it more people:

• “service has improved” (e-angle: make hardware, software easy to use)
• “invite input from the community…questions answered” (e-angle: listen to your customers and provide for
  their needs)
• “excitement…that something very positive was happening in the community” (e-angle: give them a
  device to get excited about)
• “partnerships with other agencies” (e-angle: long live interoperability! Get rid of the e-babel and DRM
  snafus so people can access more content)
• “help if I can’t find something” (e-angle: hardware and software must be easy to use)

I think physical library branches will remain important community spaces, even if e-reading does take off. People will still want that attractive, quiet space to read and work. But if the e-hardware becomes accessible both in price and ease of use, it could be such a powerful complement to what’s already there.

One example that jumped out at me from the article was the teenaged patron who said she uses the library because she cannot get help at some since her parents do not speak English. Now, imagine a friendly librarian setting this girl up with an e-book reader, showing her how to get content, how to annotate content, maybe even how to auto-translate it so that she might share it with her parents after all…one click, and now everything she’s found is ready to go
in Mandarin, or Vietnamese, or Thai…

That’s community too. And it could happen. We’re not there yet, but one day, we will be!

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By Ficbot

The Vancouver Sun ran a great editorial yesterday about the current ‘Fair Copyright’ debate in Canada right now.

Our minister of culture, under pressure from American big business, was due to introduce a disastrous and very restrictive new copyright amendment prepared without input or discussion from voters. Under the leadership of the fabulous Michael Geist, however, the blogosphere caught wind. Activists organized. Minister Prentice was visited by several dozen constituents during his holiday Open House, and a rapidly growing Facebook group currently stands at almost 40,000 members, with local branches springing up for more targeted activism around the issue. Now, major papers like the Vancouver Sun are bringing the issue to the attention of the public at large.

Buddy Holly book project: Legal risks galore

I had been wanting to write about this for the TeleBlog for days, ever since I read about a woman whose life apparently inspired the song “Peggy Sue Got Married” (a partial inspiration for the movie shown in the poster). Due to legal pressure from Buddy Holly’s widow, the woman can’t publish a book, titled Whatever Happened to Peggy Sue? about a claimed friendship with the late rock star without the risk of being sued. It’s already being advertised online as “in stock.” Fingers crossed.

This story, to me, summed up everything wrong about copyright law. Does a person have special protections as far as creative works go? In some cases, yes. I am not permitted to write false or untrue things about another person. If I did, they could sue me for libel or slander. Additionally, I might be governed by a confidentiality agreement in certain circumstances. For example, celebrities often ask their employees to sign such agreements prohibiting them from writing a tell-all story. But is a friendship with a VIP by definition protectable? If I were to, for example, be walking down the street and I should happen to run into Angelina Jolie, should I need her permission to write an article about it? Should she be entitled to royalties if my article becomes the hit of the blogosphere? If this woman wants to write a book about her life as the Peggy Sue of the song, should his widow be able to stop it because she ‘owns the rights’ to the mere existence of a very public figure?

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By Ficbot

Following my already-blogged-about Mobipocket vs Adobe e-book Deathmatch, I revisited my public library Web site, wondering if perhaps in my overly techie head, I had made things more complicated than they really were.

I spent a solid hour tooling around the e-offerings of the Toronto Public Library. My conclusion?

Yes, I was right; it’s really that hard. And if even a gadget geek like me can’t hook in with this, the library won’t ever get the average patron on board.

Interface babel

The first unnecessary complication is that the e-offerings are split into three separate collections. So you must log in three times, search three times, and use three different proprietary software interfaces to access the full collection.

• The OverDrive service has novels, non-fiction, movies and audibooks in various protected formats (Adobe, Mobipocket, Secure WMA which is not iPod-comptabile) that the user may download.
•  The NetLibrary service has similar offerings, but the key difference here seems to be that you can’t download anything. You have to read the e-books on-screen right then and there, and you can only listen to audio, not save it for later.
• Finally, the Safari service has technical books from O’Reilly Media on subjects such as IT and computers.

Let’s say you’ve figured out which of three is most likely to have offerings which interest you. Now you’re into the format wars.

Is your portable audio player compatible with the protected WMA format? There is a “Click here” to find out.

Can you handle Mobipocket? “Click here”’ again. So many screens to click and check and verify and set passwords from, and then type the passwords in.

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