TeleRead: Bring the E-Books Home

Archive for the ‘e-book pricing’ Category

By David Rothman

News Corporation gets only $6-%6.50 of the %15 that Kindle subscribers pay for the Wall Street Journal each month, and News CEO Rupert Murdoch is POed. He’s looking forward to “half a dozen readers” in time, with deals possible for them—presumably with Murdoch’s people enjoying full access to subscriber information. Perhaps two dozen or so companies are already selling readers, and B&N and Sony will be going wireless very shortly.

“The Kindle is a fantastic invention for books,” various news accounts quote him, “but it’s not much of an experience for newspapers.”

So what do you think, gang? Certainly a color screen would help both readers and advertisers, and a fairer revenue split at Amazon would help the news business and many a book publisher.

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By Chris Meadows

Wired has a feature called “The Price is Wrong” looking at 13 ridiculously-overpriced apps for the iPhone. Some of these are really egregious, but the one that caught my eye was for an iPhone encapsulated e-book called The Sushi Experience. The price? A jaw-dropping $70. That seems more than a little fishy to me.

When I loaded up the appbook’s listing on iTunes, the first two words to catch my eye from the app’s blurb were “Random House”. At which point I said, “Ahh,” and was no longer surprised. Random House has always led the pack on ridiculous e-book pricing.

That said, the same book on Fictionwise is $40 less $12 store-credit rebate, so “only” $28 (or $23.80 if you subscribe to FW’s discount program). And it is $32 on the Kindle (and hence one of those rare e-books that Amazon actually does not have cheaper than everybody else). That is still a ridiculous rate for an e-book, however. Random House really needs to get its act together.

By David Rothman

Just in case you haven’t noticed, eBookwise is selling the model 1150 for just $89.95 and shipping (as little as $10 in the U.S.). It includes 64Mb of internal memory.

You don’t have as many DRMed commercial books to choose from as with more modern readers, and the display is an LCD, not E Ink. But thanks to Calibre, you could choose from zillions of nonDRMed ePub books available via Google and convert them to the .rb format for the eBookwise.

Feedbooks, Manybooks and Project Gutenberg are among other sources of ePub titles and others, including .rb books in Manybooks’ case.

In the place of eBookwise, now owned by Barnes and Noble via its Fictionwise subsidiary, I would commission a simplified version of Calibre designed especially with eBookwise users in mind.

By David Rothman

Darn It, Santa, I said Leave a BOOK Under the Tree, NOT an E-Ebook is the catchy headline in Richard Curtis’s E-Reads blog. He quotes from a survey, What Do Teens Want?—the results of which appeared in Publishers Weekly:

When we asked about their affection for a digital reading device for fun reading (not schoolwork) if the price were affordable, 46% said they preferred printed books. Another 38% said they would like one, and 16% indicated they were not sure how they felt about this.

When asked if they’d like to read textbooks as e-books, they were evenly split, with 36% saying yes, 33% saying they were not sure, and 31% saying they would not be interested.

Nearly one-quarter (24%) have read an e-book, while 27% would like to read one. Almost half (49%) said they have no interest in reading e-books.

When asked how they have read an e-book, 26% have done so on a computer while 33% used a dedicated digital reading device and 5% used another method. Seven out of 10 (71%) say they have never read one.

Ah, but here’s the kicker. While 46 percent said they preferred p-books, that still leaves open lots of opportunities for E.

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By David Rothman

Sony has updated eBook Library software to version 3.0.01 to provide for Windows 7 support for e-book management and transfer to Reader models PRS-300, PRS-505, PRS-600, the Reader Touch Edition and the Pocket Edition. The update is supposed to crash less often. EU users can download here, U.S. users here.

Uninstall 3.0 first if you’re using Windows 7. That isn’t necessary if you’re using other OSes. Mac users will still be downloading Version 3.0.

Sony warns: “Using the PRS-500 with Windows 7 operating system or 64-bit versions of Windows Vista operating system will require a firmware update for the PRS-500.”

In a related vein: I don’t see a mention of ePub support for the PRS-500, due by the end of the year, but I assume things are still moving ahead. The PRS-500 site is here.

By Roger Sperberg

The iPhone/iPod Touch have had the advantage of being the sole handheld devices with an e-reader that could access Amazon’s e-list.

That will soon change. The Windows UMPC will be able to run the Kindle e-reader. Also, Amazon will move the software to new Android and Maemo devices with significantly higher resolution than the iPair’s 480×320. The Motorola Droid 3.7" screen has a resolution of 854×480, and the slightly smaller Nokia N900 has 800×480. Both yield 267 pixels-per-inch compared to the Apple devices’ 163 ppi.

With nearly three times as many pixels per square inch, the typography on the new devices is wonderfully crisp and readable at far smaller point sizes than you would imagine. I write from personal experience of both the N900 display and Coke-bottle-thick eyeglasses.

Whatever the effect on sales that some experts see from waning novelty and growing choices, I predict it will be outweighed by huge new numbers of e-book buyers entering the market and expecting to split their reading among more than one device.

(Adapted with permission from a Reading 2.0 post. Screenshot shows the Kindle app.)

By Paul Biba

To those who are contemplating giving an ereader for the holidays, the choices must be a bit bewildering. The market has suddenly become flooded with possibilities. I thought I might give you my own personal recommendation based on units I’ve seen or handled.

I would go for the Kindle 2. I’ve used a number of the Sony units, a Kindle 1 and 2, have seen the Nook close up and played with the Astak 5" before I sent it over to Chris Meadows for review. Plus, I handled a number of other units at BookExpo America earlier this year. Here are my reasons for choosing the Kindle:

1. Wireless: once you become accustomed to the free wireless on the Kindle you may very well find it becomes indispensable. It is just so convenient. For example, when I went into the Nook press conference I was sitting on the ferry going across the Hudson and saw someone reading a book I was interested in. I fired up my Kindle and downloaded the book before I reached the other side. Once you can do this you will be amazed at how many books you end up buying. Of course the Nook has wireless too, but for reasons mentioned below I prefer the Kindle implementation.

2. Browser: the Kindle has a built in browser. It’s not very good, but it is important because it enables the Kindle to be a far more open platform than its wireless Nook rival. With the browser you can download from the vast catalog of Gutenberg and also get books from MobileRead, Manybooks, and Feedbooks, among others. At the beach and want to read Dickens? You can on the Kindle. I have even used the Kindle to send email when I’ve been stuck in areas with no AT&T service. The Nook will only connect to the B&N store and this is too limiting for me. I wish Sony had released its wireless unit in time for this little article but no luck so far.

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By David Rothman

Looking for an “exhaustive” Kindle/Nook comparison? Jim Fallows of The Atlantic served up some thoughts last week. He passes on opinions from a B&N-related source, then shares his own analysis.

Excerpt: “Nook and Kindle aren’t grossly different cost-wise. So for me, the only reason to switch to the Nook (or if I were a virgin ereader, to buy the Nook rather than the Kindle) is if I thought I’d get a wider selection of the sorts of books I’m likely to buy for my Kindle at a better price from B&N than from Amazon.”

Jim wonders if Amazon will imitate B&N’s friend-lend arrangement. What do you think? He also says Amazon focused too much on the Kindle for its own books and not enough on it as a general-purpose e-reader. Amen to that!

Related: All-in-one post on all-in-one devices, another Fallows post. He himself is sold for now—with the current tech—on the use of dedicated readers.

About the Kindle photo: Yes, that’s a DX instead of the Kindle 2 Jim compares with the Nook. The DX is more expensive than the 2 or the Nook.

By David Rothman

That’s the latest scuttlebutt. If the widely reported rumors are true; at least they’d jibe with Steve Jobs’ sttement that people don’t read. Some say the rumors could also show that Apple believes the book biz is broken, which, of course, it is. Or maybe the rumors are just an Apple disinformation campaign.

No matter what, a tablet for video could still be great for book reading. What’s more, books could still be part of Apple’s long-term vision. It could let Amazon and Google and others duke it out first. Then it could swoop in with its own major efforts.

Image: It’s Piper Jaffray’s conception of the tablet.

By David Rothman

Just what percentage of B&N stores will offer the Nook for immediate purchase, not just demos? A PaidContent piece talked about the unit being available for on-the-spot buys at only certain stories.

But now B&N has come forward with a clarification saying that it expects that “nook eBook readers” will be “in stock in the majority” of “stores by the peak holiday season.” Furthermore, B&N “plans to have nook devices in stock in all of its stores by early next year.” Great news! The full statement from B&N spokesperson Mary Ellen Keating follows.

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By Bill McCoy, General Manager, ePublishing Business, Adobe Systems

I remain opposed to DRMed e-books, at least for nonlibrary purposes; but in the interest of fairness, here are thoughts from Adobe’s Bill McCoy, adapted with permission from a Reading 2.0 post. Civil replies, please. I myself liked a blog post Bill did where he personally championed social DRM. Let’s hope that Adobe will officially give the SDRM idea a shot—I see a little hope. – D.R.

Adobe’s interests are far more aligned with the adoption of open formats that we can address with our authoring tools and services. We see e-book DRM as an enabler for a larger market, one that we can address with our tools and services on a level playing field vs. proprietary silos that give a choke-hold to players who have a strong position in the book distribution value chain. We don’t forecast revenue from e-book DRM even in the best case ever itself being a large material business for Adobe—large enough to pay its way and allow us to sustain and enhance the solution, but quite small relative to our other tools and services.

I’ve said before that Adobe’s open to evolving towards a non-proprietary ubiquitous DRM standard, even as we see obstacles to getting there in the near future (especially around IP enablement). What we don’t want to see is one proprietary solution taking over control, or fragmentation of multiple proprietary solutions. Publishers have already voted with their feet, so to speak, by requiring/letting Amazon deploy DRM. If the only reasonable cross-platform alternative for eBooks was to go DRM-free, then some publishers would distribute only through Amazon, leading to everyone else getting "iTunesd". So to me it’s pretty obvious that cross-platform eBook DRM that works with EPUB and PDF is necessary to ensure that the open, cross-platform alternative wins. But if every publisher were to choose to go DRM free, using PDF & EPUB but not DRM, hey I’d have absolutely no problem with that outcome.

By David Rothman

Since the early 1990s I’ve urged publishers to take e-library model seriously and even work toward well-stocked national digital library systems in the United States and elsewhere.

Now, in real life, some U.K. libraries are finding a friend in E. The Telegraph reports:

“After years of library membership declining and fears that the public no longer wanted to borrow books, some institutions are reporting a spike in interest since they started to offer e-books.

“Only a handful of libraries have started to offer the service, but many in the library world are hopeful that the revolution in digital reading can help transform libraries’ fortunes, and that the majority of libraries will soon offer downloads as a matter of course, alongside the latest Dan Brown paperback.”

If nothing else, remember that fairly or not, many consumers have trouble paying cash for a bunch of electrons. The library model is a great way to help address that.

I know. Publishers worry about becoming too dependent on library funding, but one way to address that would be a small tax on telecommunications goods and services, as well as cost justification of the kind that I describe in the TeleRead plan, the most recent version of which you can read in the Huffington Post.

Among the reasons why e-books are a hit at libraries, as noted by the Telegraph: “Readers do not need to remember to take their books back on time—a perennial problem for many consumers, because the digital book automatically deletes itself from their machine after 14 days.” Result? Cash-strapped families needn’t worry about library fines. Bingo! A whole new market for publishers.

By Court Merrigan

Billing itself as “Reading That’s Bad For You,” Electric LIterature proclaims that its mission “is to use new media and innovative distribution to return the short story to a place of prominence in popular culture.” EL is tired of hearing about the death of literary fiction. It believes in the future. You certainly have to give EL credit for trying.

Case in point: Single Sentence Animation. An animated short is made based on a single sentence taken from a short story featured in the magazine. This cunning little multimedia term hasn’t been trademarked yet, as far as I could tell. Here’s hoping the EL folks keep it that way, or maybe throw on a Creative Commons license.

To get a grip on Single Sentence Animation, I read all the sentences in “Three-Legged Dog,” by Diana Wagman—captured in a Single Sentence Animation video (caution: sexually-tinged imagery). The story is about a man whose girlfriend has lost a breast to cancer. He is her first lover following the mastectomy. Rather than being repulsed, the narrator is strongly attracted to the young survivor, so fragile and strong. The closely observed details are all there, the feel of a grubby bachelor apartment, the ironic pillow talk, the stream of conscious associations:

“My blue sheets were cool. My laundry was all in the hamper. She would be a chilly breeze in my arms. My sweat would evaporate, my skin prickle with goose flesh. I could pretend it was snowing outside. Snowing in southern California. With her, anything could happen.”

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By David Rothman

Booklovers aren’t the only ones who’d benefit from bundling e-book editions with paper books. So would shareholders of companies like Barnes & Noble. It’s great to see a writer for a stock-oriented site, Seeking Alpha, saying the same thing as TeleRead community members have for some time now.

Let’s hope that B&N follows up on the idea, quickly, and that publishers will go along. Like Seeking Alpha, I think that the bundles shouldn’t sell for that much more than paper books alone. Most people buying paper books aren’t going to buy e-books and vice versa, but they would appreciate the convenience. At any rate, keep in mind that books aren’t just competing against other books, but also against other forms of recreation. We need to make them as enticing, as easy to use, as possible.

Detail: The Alpha site is currently down, so try again if you don’t get through.

My selfish interest in P: My publisher, Twilight Times Books, is having a sale. Prices of individual titles vary all over the place, but I notice that The Solomon Scandals is currently going for $8.77 in paper at Amazon—new. Yes, I’ve raised the possibility of bundling the E and P editions. Speak up if you’d like to buy books that way!

By Paul Biba

Important news for Mac users.  Previously we reported that the Kindle software will soon be released for the PC.  Well, The Unofficial Apple Weblog is reporting that Amazon has said it will be available for the Mac as well.  Hooray!

By Ficbot

There is a guy at MobileRead with $400 in geo-restricted books sitting on his Fictionwise wish list unable to be bought. I just can’t believe that publishers who really cares about their readers would really sacrifice that guy, his wishlist and his $400.

All this just to save a few hardback sales? And because he lives in the UK instead of elsewhere? Most e-book readers I know don’t buy hardback novels anyway, so it’s not quite the same market.

I would love to get an educated take from publishers. My bottom line on this is, I think the time has come for them to stop explaining why things are the way they are. Instead publishers should tell what their timeline is for fixing this mess, what steps will be involved, and to whom we as readers (and customers!) might address our emails to get things moving along.

We need to show the ones in charge how much we care about this and how much money the publishing industry stands to lose here.

By David Rothman

What’s best for book-shoppers? An uninterrupted  duel-to-the-end over book prices by Amazon, Wal-Mart and Target? Or a U.S. Justice Department anti-trust probe into the giants’ use of discounted books to drive people to purchase other merchandise?

Yes, that’s what the American Booksellers Association wants—an investigation (PW). ABA worries that “predatory pricing” may destroy small bookstores, and in fact, I’d hate for them to vanish.

The E vs. P distinction

Part of ABA’s concerns: “It’s also important to note that this episode was precipitated by below-cost pricing of digital editions of new hardcover books by Amazon.com, many of those titles retailing for $9.99, and released simultaneously with the much higher-priced print editions. We believe the loss-leader pricing of digital content also bears scrutiny.”

That said, I agree with Brad Vertrees that ABA is wrong to set its sights on $9.99 e-books, among other targets. As Brad has pointed out, the low prices for e-books needn’t be predatory but can happen as a result of volume.

Volume can benefit paper books, too, of course, all good books have fixed costs, such is for editing. But volume can especially help E because production and distribution costs are lower. Let’s hope Justice can distinguish between E and P. While I know that Amazon is subsidizing those $9.95 bestsellers, it shouldn’t have to do so; rather, the publishers should be more fairly pricing their e-titles.