TeleRead: Bring the E-Books Home

Archive for the ‘Stanza’ Category

By David Rothman

Stanza is one of the hottest e-book apps for the iPhone and iPod Touch, with more than 500,000 downloads. New York Times columnist J.D. Biersdorfer recently recommended Stanza in Tip of the Week: Turn your iPhone into an e-book.

Wouldn’t it be great if you could sell your e-books to Stanza’s growing number of iPhone-toting fans? By now, more than a few of these readers might want to extend their horizons beyond free public domain books. Just the other day, All Romance eBooks said it was offering Stanza-readable books for direct download.

Want to do the same? Or are you a reader eager to have your favorite bookseller accommodate your iPhone or Touch? Check out the Stanza Bookseller page. Within the Stanza FAQ, here are some handy links:

• How can I link to a book on my web page so that it launches Stanza on the iPhone/iPod Touch?
• How can I integrate with Lexcycle’s Online Catalog?
• How can I create ePub files from my books?
• I am a bookseller. How can I make my books readable on Stanza iPhone/iPod?

Important update, 11:11 p.m.: See Jane Litte’s comment, posted this afternoon. Jane couldn’t bring up a whole book for direct downloading from All Romance eBooks—just an excerpt 

But bookstore COO Lori James tells me that Jane "didn’t click on the link to purchase the book at the end of the excerpt.  If she had, she would have been taken directly to the page where she could add the book to her cart and check out…

"This isn’t an erroneous claim," Lori says. "It’s really working rather fabulously, and we’ve been hearing for the past couple days from lots of happy users." Read Lori’s comment.

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By David Rothman

What if your iPod or Touch screen could display the same view as on your PC or Mac?

Including even programs such as Mobipocket that will work on a PC but not the Apple gizmos?

I can’t promise that the free Mocha VNC Lite app for the iPhone and iPod will allow such miracles. But maybe some kind soul can at least try—and share the results with us.

Lite does not just provide the desktop view, it also offers at least right mouse-button support.

Thwarted by clash with Vista

So why haven’t I tested Mocha VNC Lite on my HP machine?

Because, alas, VNC Lite needs a VNC server on the desktop, and the free versions of the required software don’t get along well with Vista. Could this be my punishment for the Faustian deal I made when I bought a Vista-OS desktop?

VNC server info

For the desktop end of the WiFi link, compatible software comes with the Mac’s OS X Software and free versions apparently exist for Windows and Linux.

By the way, a 3G connection will also work. So if my hunch is correct, you just might be able to access your desktop e-library from anywhere with your iPhone.

And speaking of Mobi…

As for Mobipocket running on iPhone or Touch itself, does anyone have an update?

Is an iPhone/Touch version of Mobipocket for the iPhone still due by the end of the year, as was suggested at the IDPF conference last spring? Mobi has wonderful features. But its delayed appearance on the iPhone reminds us of one more negative of DRMed proprietary formats. The Stanza iPhone app can read Mobi, imperfectly, but not the “protected” variety.

Related: Gizmodo’s  20 essential iPhone Apps, through which I discovered VNC Lite.

By David Rothman

Non-Amazon apps might legally run on the Kindle someday, according to Ian Freed, the company’s VP for Kindle. He says more consumer choices would  result. Great, if it happens!

So why not open up the Kindle now? Because, Freed says, “our focus is on providing a great reading experience and we’ve developed applications that do that.” Hmm. So a Kindle-specific DRMed format—useless on desktops and other devices—lead to a great experience? And why not a native ability to read ePub, the IPDF standard that’s catching on?

On Stanza vs. Kindle

In an interview in TechFlash, Freed also had a few words to say when asked the mix of the iPhone/Touch and the Stanza e-reader software, which some see as a threat to the Kindle. Here is his reply—or semi-reply, since he really steered the conversation back to the K Machine:

We think the Kindle ecosystem, end to end, is pretty special. The idea that you can get over 180,000 books from publishers that are sold on a regular basis delivered to you under 60 seconds—that’s something that we really do uniquely. And moreover being able to get over 25 different newspapers and over 25 different magazines delivered on a regular basis is something we do uniquely. So far things have been great and we think that will continue.

But wait. What if Stanza turns into a major ecosystem to rival Amazon’s? Stanza enables you to download books directly to your iPhone or Touch? If the DRM issue can be addressed, ideally by avoiding “protection,” Stanza could be one solution for book publishers and others who fear Amazon’s growing power. What’s more, Stanza isn’t the only potential threat to the Kindle. eReader also allows direct downloads to the iPhone/Touch, although the shopping experience right now isn’t as seamless as at Amazon.

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By David Rothman

The Feedbooks site and the Stanza e-book reader, two names familiar to TeleRead regulars, show up in an upbeat International Herald Tribune feature on e-books. So does the International Digital Publishing Forum.

"A survey published in conjunction with the Frankfurt Book Fair last month showed that 40 percent of book publishing professionals thought digital sales, regardless of the format, would surpass the ink-on-paper kind by 2018," the Trib’s Eric Pfanner notes. Let’s hope this isn’t just boosterism in the tradition of the old dotcom boom. 2018 is just a decade away.

Feedbooks, Stanza and IDPF mentions

On Feedbooks: "…there are limits to what readers can find… The Orwell book ‘1984,’ for example, is available; the latest best sellers are not. That is because Project Gutenberg archives mostly books that are in the public domain, meaning their copyrights have expired." As I recall, 1984 is still under copyright in the Bono-hobbled U.S., though not in France and many other places, including Australia, where a local PG exists. Hello, Barack Obama? Time for Congress to kill Bono if you want U.S. tech companies to be more competitive? It could be legally problematic for me even to point to Feedbooks’ file of 1984.

On Stanza, with mention of the IDPF: "About half a million people in more than 50 countries have downloaded Stanza, an application that lets them read e-books on the iPhone, said Michael Smith, executive director of the International Digital Publishing  Forum in Toronto. ‘The adoption is happening,’ he said. ‘It’s not theory. It’s happening.’" Perhaps Marc at Lexcycle can update us on Stanza’s numbers—the total might be even higher now.

And some tidbits: "Penguin this summer joined Match.com, a creator of online dating services, to set up a site dedicated to helping book lovers hook up." Site is here. In addition, Penguin is considering new biz models such as subscription plans for access to bestsellers, or ads in books for those wanting them at reduced prices or perhaps for free. Good! The more options for readers, the better.

Euro digi library to launch Nov. 20

Of interest, also, in the Trib, is a little reference to "a group of European national libraries and archives plans to open Europeana, an online database of two million books and other cultural and historical items, including films, paintings, newspapers and sound recordings. Letters from Mozart to his friends, from the Austrian National Library in Vienna? They’re there. Early printings of his work, from the Bibliothèque Nationale de France? They are, too." Here’s the link to Europeana, which will "launch on 20 November."

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By David Rothman

A ZDNet blog has some tips for users. Helpful? One challenge is to shrink the PDFs to a decent size.

By Paul Biba

Received an email from the author about this book. I haven’t had time to download it myself, but take a look. I’m a little bit skeptical because the writer is from Warsaw and his English isn’t the best. However, good or bad, the main point is that the iPhone is sparking new ebooks and perhaps a new ebook subculture. Here’s a quote from the email:

Nick Name’s “Password Incorrect” is a selection of short stories addressed especially for iPhone users. The book was designed to be downloaded for free to iPhone, which among its many other features seems to be also a great e-book reader. Opposite to devices specifically designed for e-book reading, which still look inattractive and suffer early stage problems, iPhone with it’s large color screen, smooth interface and milions of users around the world has the real power of rediscovering the pleasure of reading books - so that we could hear a louder “bye, bye” to paper.

Choose one of download options:
A. Open Stanza in your iPhone, go to “Online Catalog”, select “Free Books by Feedbooks”, and then search for the book by name or title.
B. You can download the book directly, by opening Safari in your iPhone and tapping a link below:
epub:// www.wydawnictwoindigo.pl/pi.epub
Stanza will automatically open itself and download the book.

By David Rothman

Apple still hates Podcaster, the tiny startup that the suits say is an evil threat to iTunes.

Steve Jobs and buddies—or are these "friends" actually saboteurs from within Apple?—continue to ban Podcaster from the App Store.

Door slammed on Podcaster shoppers

And now Apple has zapped Podcaster’s ability to provision more iPhones and Touches. Read more via Techmeme roundups.

Existing Podcast customers, including TeleBloggers who followed up on my enthusiastic review of the beta, can still download and install the program. You just had to sign up before September 23. But thanks to Apple suits, would-be new iPhone/Touch customers are SOL. Here you could have downloaded podcasts directly to your portable gadget!

The legal and dev angles: Bad news for Apple?

Could there be anti-trust issues down the line? Weren’t developers supposed to have a way to bypass the App Store?

Google, moreover, especially after having just seen T-Mobile unveil the spiffy new phones for the Android platform,  should love Apple’s latest missteps. Photo is from Gizmodo’s hand-on ("the screen is fantastic").

And on the e-book front…

Lexcycle (Stanza), eReader and other first-rate developers of e-book apps also may want to consider the implications here.

It’s not as if they’ll stop developing for the iPhone. But at least in their place, I’d start paying a lot more attention to Google’s rival Android platform, the new destination for Podcaster.

Actual thinking at eReader and Lexcyle, right now?

Just as in the case of download stats (here and here), I’d love to hear from Steve Pendergrast at eReader and Marc Prud’hommeaux at Lexcycle about the ramifications of Apple’s Podcast policy, if they care to comment.

Steve and Marc, are you concerned that Apple will muscle in on a business you’ve developed? Not ban you, necessarily—but perhaps restrict you?

Needless to say, both eReader and Stanza have distribution capabilities built-in—eReader directly and Stanza with help from Feedbooks’ API. So what happens if Apple gets serious about e-books and wants all the action, or at least a heftier part of it than it’s getting now?

By David Rothman

Some 85,000 users of the iPhone and iPod Touch had downloaded Stanza as of August 12.

Now, just five week or so later, the cumulative number has shot up to 300,000, consistent with the fast growth of eReader as well. Stanza at this point would appear to be drawing more users. Just a few minutes ago it was #32 on Apple’s list of free iPhone apps for the U.S., one notch higher than this morning. eReader doesn’t show up in the first 50, but certainly isn’t hurting, with 300,000+ downloads of books from paying customers.

A major reason for Stanza’s own popularity could be its tight integration with Feedbooks via Feed’s API. You don’t just get a currently-free reader. From within the program, you can effortlessly download thousands of out-of-copyright classics—works from Charles Dickens’ to Edith Wharton’s—as well as Creative Commons books like Cory Doctorow’s. You don’t experience all the hassles that public domain sites require if used directly. May FBReader follow on the API front! Hey, guys, didn’t we suggest that? Care to do the integration to take full advantage of Android’s debut?

Marc Prud’hommeaux, the main developer at Lexcyle, responded to our e-mailed questions with other news about Stanza:

Congratulations to Steve Pendergrast and the rest of Fictionwise on their extraordinary number of e-book sales! As it happens, we just passed 300,000 users Stanza iPhone/iPod last week, so 300K seems to be the number of the day. We don’t currently have detailed information on the number of books downloaded, since the book files themselves are usually hosted by our catalog partners like Feedbooks, Munseys, and other catalogs that are in private beta. But we do know that well over 1 million books have been downloaded to date through the Stanza Online Catalog, and the count may well be closer to 2 million.

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By David Rothman

2M downloads of ePub books for the iPhone/Touch will have taken place at Feedbooks in the next two weeks or so—that’s my guess based on info earlier this month from Hadrien Gardeur there.

And on the commercial side, Steve Pendergrast, replying to my just-posted question, reports 300,000+ iPhone/Touch downloads in eReader.

Remember, we’re talking about paying customers, not just freebies (both biz models have their place—freebies if nothing else can pave the way for commercial books).

Steve is co-owner of eReader.com and its parent company Fictionwise. His informative comments today:

As of the end of August eReader had been installed on just under a quarter million iPhone/iPod touch devices. Over 300,000 ebooks have been downloaded onto the iPhone/iTouch platforms from our store, and that does not include downloads of free books from places like Manybooks.com (for privacy reasons we don’t track anything about what people do from the app if it does not involve our own stores).

Add in Stanza, bookshelf, and other iphone ebook offerings and it is abundantly clear that many more people are reading on the Apple devices than Kindle. There really is not even a question about it anymore. iPhone/iTouch required only about 90 days to exceed even the stratospheric end of the estimates for Kindle that Amazon themselves said were “extremely high”.

This is not to say that Kindle won’t be an important niche player going forward. Choice is what it’s all about. Consumers who can afford a dedicated stand-alone device have a lot of options now including Kindle, and Kindle may get the lion’s share of those high-end consumers even with the many new e-ink offerings that are launching in the next few quarters.

It’s just that there will always be many times as many consumers who find the iPhone screen “big enough” and can’t justify the extra expense of a stand-alone device. There’s just no overcoming that simple fact.

The real story in 2009 will be iPhone vs. Android. iPhone vs. Kindle is a settled question.

Many thanks, Steve! Your company is private, but maybe you can give us an approximate idea of the expected annual revenue coming in from the iPhone/Touch books, based on the 300K figure over the summer. Even at that level, we’d be talking about a million downloads a year, and we know the iPhone is just getting started. Plus, Android’s ahead! I think there’ll be room for both. Can’t wait to see the inevitable eReader for Android. Keep us posted.

Now over to you, Marc. What are the latest numbers for Stanza? And Hadrien, feel free to join in with more information on your march to the 2M mark!

By David Rothman

Ficbot and Chris Meadows aren’t the only ones seeing promise in the iPhone/Touch for e-reading.

Both the MediaBistro Galley Cat blog and TheBookSeller have just run items—here and here. Our buddies at The Cat are looking for people who read on the iPhone, and I very much hope you can help ‘em out.

My own answer to the related "How many?" question would be, "Very few within the book biz itself, but lots of potential here."

Looking beyond the people in the book biz

For the bigger picture, The Cat might check out iPhone siphoning off Kindle buyers, says Fictionwise and eReader iPhone/Touch app after a month: On 130,000 devices, with 35,000 owners buying e-books for that platform. As of August, moreover, Stanza had claimed 85,000 users.

These iPhone apps are hardly going to destroy the Kindle. But the numbers, at such an early stage, show the risks of the book business becoming too Kindle-centric.

Updates, please, Steve and Marc

And now? I’d love to hear from Steve Pendergrast at Fictionwise and Marc Prud’hommeaux, the Stanza developer—what are the very latest stats. My guess, nothing more, is that the number of people who’ve downloaded books for the iPhone/Touch might even be north of 500,000 or at least getting there.

Stanza, as I write this, is #33 among the top free apps showing up on within my iTunes store here in the States, and it might be doing even better elsewhere. Hello, Hadrien? What’s the latest from France?

Given all the millions of iPhones out there, the number could represent a nice niche, even if few people in the book business itself are reading off phones right now.

Turning readers into customers

For publishers and retailers, the challenge will be to turn readers into customers. I continue to believe that nonDRMed ePub, which works great with Stanza, offers the most promise for the iPhone and other mobile platforms.

Tech keeps changing, especially in the mobile phone area. Standards are the best way for the book business to keep up. Any tech barrier for customers is a sales barrier.

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By David Rothman

New York is a pretty glum place these days, and I applaud Mike Cane’s Chronicle’s of Depression, straight from the Big Apple in his inimitable WTF tone.

Mike’s writings just might jibe with my own thinking. Humans have gotten worse, at least in recent, Gecko-ish decades, while the gadgets keep getting better and better.

Cheerier than Planet E as a whole

Despite all hassles of DRM and eBabel, however, the e-book world is a much cheerier place than Planet Earth as a whole. I rejoice in the rise of ePub, the growing resistance to DRM, and the little personal triumphs of people such as Ficbot, the latest convert to the iPod Touch. And to think we’ll see color E Ink in a year or so, for real!

That’s not the same as an end to Wall Street crime, war or poverty, or mixes thereof; and I’d highly recommend that e-bookers follow Mike’s example and care about those issues, too, rather than just retreating into gizmo-dom. The economy will leave many of us with no choice. Looking ahead, I could think of few better investments for the U.S. or many other countries than a national digital library system well-integrated with local schools and libraries (I mean appropriate pedagogy, too, not just content and  technology).

For now, Mike is centering own his gadget-related fantasies around the red Sony Reader, shown in the photo above. He did the best job he could with the tool at hand, a cheapie "crapcam," then ran this headline: FIRST PHOTOS! Red Sony Reader!! In the era of doom in caps on the front pages of the tabloids, I’ll go for that.

Why I sold my Sony…

Not as pessimist but as an optimist, I sold my own Sony yesterday on eBay, in anticipation of a wireless model coming in the next few months—if not in October, then in very late ‘08 early ‘09. My needs were and are not your needs. I’m a special case in that I try to keep up with technology that’s relevant. I buy so you may not have to. Yesterday’s sale for $215 helped raised cash toward a wireless reader or one of the rugged large-screen models that will soon be appearing.

How I wish I could have hung on to the Sony without worrying about the resale value! Were it not for the TeleBlog, that’s exactly what I’d have done. Furthermore, like Chris Meadows and Ficbot, I got a refurb iPod Touch because I’d concluded that the new ones didn’t offer a enough extras.  I could just as easily test Stanza and the rest on the old one. Case by case, huh?

Your own buy-and-sell policies?

So what are your own retention policies toward e-reading gear? What are you planning to keep over the next few months and what are you shedding, in an anticipation of the early arrival of something markedly better? And how do you feel about DRM and eBabel in this context? Do they make you less likely to buy new hardware?

Meanwhile I’ll keep my fingers crossed about the Sony Reader. As reported in Forbes: "Cheaper, book-focused e-readers are also likely to be revamped soon. Sony has all but confirmed that it will announce a new version of its Reader in early October, though it won’t share any details." True? I don’t know—just that sooner or later Mike will have much more than a red Reader to do an all-cap routine about. Meanwhile we’ll see if those Kindle rumors pan out.

Your comments: Yes, feel free not only to discuss your buy-and-sell policies for your e-book gizmos but also what you own now and what you have in mind to replace it.

Human bug update: The upper-res infection is still there, and I still feel lousy, but I think the antibiotics are finally kicking in. Thanks to TeleBloggers who asked about me.

By David Rothman

Stanza 1.4 is now downloadable from the iPhone App Store.

As noted here earlier, it offers colorful displays of book covers and helps pave the way for public domain books to have a much more polished feel.

It’s almost as if you’re in an online bookstore.

Just how long until commercial publishers start using Stanza to sell and distribute their wares as nonDRMed ePub? And how will the terms compare to those of Amazon and others?

At any rate, keep in mind the math. Tens of millions of iPhones are out there, and if just a fraction of the users try e-books, this could be a nice-sized niche at the very least.

Anther good iPhone/Touch contender: eReader, also free, from Fictionwise. I’m just hoping that FW can begin offering ePub, which has more capabilities than mere HTML.