The Sony eReader, DRM and Literacy

eBooks have been a hot topic this week. Much news about the Sony change in strategy and what it means for the Kindle. I have had a hard time getting this piece together. . . for some reason (probably the heat), I am having a difficult time thinking, much less getting inspired or passionate. But here goes. . .

The Sony eBook Reader now reads Adobe Digital editions eBooks!

Last week Sony announced a new way of thinking. It came in the form of a software (firmware) release. In what appears to be a direct challenge to the Amazon Kindle, Sony opened up the Sony eBook Reader so that their owners can buy from other retail outlets.

Until now, the only way to read a copy protected (DRM) eBook on the Sony was to buy a book in the Sony store. Not true anymore. The latest update allows the Sony reader to handled protected Adobe files and any of the ePub formatted files.

For those who wonder, the ePub format is the new standard proposed by the International Digital Publishing Forum. The IDPF has spent a lot of time developing this "universal" standard as a way to eliminate the confusion caused by many proprietary formats.

I am thrilled that to be able to welcome Sony eBook owners to the eBooks About Everything store!

A few words about DRM

In the beginning, Sony and Amazon created their eBooks with proprietary reading software. If you owned a Sony you could only buy books from Sony. If you own a Kindle you can only buy a book from Amazon.

The lack of a standard eBook format has been even more hampered by the way publishers think about copy protection and their decision to use Digital Right Management.

Make no mistake, I am NOT a fan of DRM, but as a bookseller I am more or less forced into selling DRM protected books. The publishers insist that it will protect their intellectual property and prevent piracy. SO if I want to sell the latest titles from the big publishers like Random House, Simon & Schuster or Harper Collins I have no choice.

Most books in the eBooks About Everything store are offered in four formats -- adobe digital editions, palm eReader, MSReader and Mobipocket. Very cumbersome!

At least 95% of our customer support issues are related to DRM! That is a lot of time and energy.

As much as it might pain me, I agree with Bill Gates about piracy. It is inevitable and probably helps more than hurts:

"And as long as they're going to steal it, we want them to steal ours. They'll get sort of addicted, and then we'll somehow figure out how to collect sometime in the next decade. . . They'll get addicted and we will collect."

The music industry has finally given in; it will be interesting to see how long the publishing industry holds out.

The New York Times and Literacy in the Digital Age

The Sunday edition of the New York Times has an excellent piece on literacy in the Digital Age: Literacy Debate: R U Really Reading.

This is an excellent piece on the pros and cons of digital reading and the largely generational divide in attitudes about literacy and online reading. Highly recommended!

del.icio.us Tags: Sony,Kindle,ebook,e-book,ebook reader,piracy,DRM,digital reading,literacy

Get Caught Reading Month

One of my earliest memories is sitting with my Dad as he read me my nightly bedtime story. 

Dad may have enjoyed our nightly ritual even more than I did.  It was his big chance to indulge in theatrics.  During his daytime life, my Dad was a rather conservative, soft spoken even humble man.  But when it was bedtime story time he became something else all together.  He whispered, roared, created voices and even sang once in a while. 

It is probably safe to say that my love of reading is forever entwined with my love for my Dad.  So, I think it is exquisitely appropriate that May (the month of his birthday) is the month for the "Get Caught Reading Month" campaign.

Dad would have loved it!

This is the ninth annual campaign since The American Association of Publishers decreed May as "Get Caught Reading Month".

This year the Get Caught Reading website  offers a selection of pictures that show a celebrity (like Queen Latifa, Jenna Bush or The Miami Heat) reading. 

These images can be downloaded as a screen saver or ordered as posters.  Or you can use them to send an an ePostcard to a friend. 

One of the most interesting features of the website is the section dedicated to their literacy program.  The most fascinating piece is the Fact Sheet on The Importance of Reading to Young Children. Here are a few of the facts and figures!

Did you know that:

• When you read to a child that in a matter of seconds, thousands of cells in these children's growing brains respond?
• reading adds definition and complexity to the intricate circuitry of the brain that remain largely in place for the rest of these children's lives?
• Literacy later in life depends heavily on a child's environmental influences?
• Reading aloud to children is the single most important way for a child to develop literacy skills?
• Many pediatricians prescribe reading activities at the time of well-child visits?

Evidently all that reading had a part in determining by eventual vocation and avocation.  And here I thought that Dad read to me just for fun!

del.icio.us Tags: books,reading,literacy,Get Caught Reading Month

Reading is Fundamental

As I get older there are fewer and fewer things that bring out my inner activist.  But last week I found one.  A very simple little news item:

Bush's '09 Budget Eliminates RIF Funding
President Bush's proposed 2009 budget eliminates all the funding for Reading Is Fundamental's book distribution program that has, since 1966, provided more than 325 million books to more than 30 million underprivileged children.

That got me mad -- like in mad enough to do something! Mad enough to talk about it to everyone I know.  Mad enough to write my Congressperson and Senators.  Mad enough to write Margaret Spilling at the US Department of education.  Mad enough to write both Barbara and Laura Bush.  Mad enough to write about it here.

Reading is Fundamental is an awesome program!  It is the oldest and largest nonprofit children's literacy program in the world.   Their mission is to motivate kids to read.  An important part of the program is providing books for children to explore, read and keep. 

The program was started in 1966 by Margaret McNamara.  While her husband was busy messing up the Vietnam War at the Defense Department she volunteered to tutor a group of Washington D.C. children in reading.  One day she took a bag of used books with her.  At the end of the session she told each of the children that they could pick a book and keep it.  The kids were thrilled.  These children (an most of their classmates) had never owned a book! 

Margaret McNamara was so moved by their enthusiasm and awe that she got busy.  She recruited her friends, raised money everywhere she could and started collecting books to give away.  For the next nine years her efforts created a program that gave away books to children in the Washington D.C. public school system. 

In 1975 the US Congress passed a bill that provided matching funds to RIF. Congress has continued to fund the organization for the last 33 years in a row.  Reading is Fundamental now serves children and families in every state, district and territory of the US.  In 2007 the program gave away 16 million free books to 4.5 million children!

Now, the Bush administration has decided to eliminate RIF's funding!  Evidently it is more important to rebuild Iraq, bail out corporations and build Bridges to Nowhere than it is to promote literacy here at home.

Incredibly, this is the second time that this President who has made a bid deal about leaving no child behind, has attempted to cut funding for RIF.  The first time (in 2001) there was such a public outcry that the administration finally backed down.

This story becomes even more curious when you consider that Barbara Bush served on RIF’s board of directors from 1980 to 1988 and then on its national advisory board from 1989 to 1992 .  Add to that the fact that  Laura Bush served on RIF’s national advisory council from 1996 to 2001.

It's time for a huge public outcry!  PLEASE go to the RIF site and voice your opinion. 

The site provides links to find  your senator and representative and gives you information about how to send an e-mail message to them.  Join me and thousands of others in making our voices heard!  Write to Barbara and Laura for good measure!  But hurry, there is not a lot of time because the appropriation committee will be meeting in May and June to decide on budgets.

Oh yeah, I should mention that  this item even made me mad enough to actually make a donation to RIF.  This is an organization that deserves our support!

The families and children affected by this cut in funding are the weakest and most vulnerable members of our society. There aren't any lobbyists   in Washington advocating for them!  They have little voice or power and they need for us to speak up.  To give them a voice.

So get busy -- write, call, spread the word, donate.  Let's make sure that kids get the chance to have free books to explore, read and keep!  Let's make the outcry so loud that we can't be ignored!

Thank you for your support!

del.icio.us Tags: Reading is Fundamental,RIF,literacy,Barbara Bush

So why is the New York Times Best Seller List Being Revamped?

I hate it when elitism is used as a guise for crass commercialism. I am a great believer in point blank crass commercialism. Here: Go buy eBooks (any eBooks) at my store now!

I object, loudly, to being discriminated against because I am a Westerner who loves reading paperbacks. And I really hate it being placated with great sounding rationalization. Case in point: The New York Times Book Review section.

The New York Times Reviewers love to look down that their noses at us, the unwashed masses, and our taste in books. They especially despise common people like my friends and I. We don’t discuss War and Peace or pass around copies of Ethan Fromm. We are unabashed consumers of chick lit and thrillers.

We may be a little light on class (we've been known to buy books at Costco, WalMart and the grocery store!) but believe it or not, we are all capable of detailed literary analysis and critical thinking. . .but I digress.

Back to the New York Times: starting next week The New York Times Book Review will be expanded to three separate fiction lists: the vulnerable hardback list, the standard mass market paperbacks list and a brand new category--trade paper (the larger, more expensive versions).

The reason for the change?

According to Sam Tanenhaus, editor of the Book Review, it is because “now you have a list that corresponds closely to what we review in the section and what we gauge our readers are interested in.” Huh?

Aside from the fact he ends the sentence with a preposition, there is a fundamental flaw in that sentence. He seems to think that the Book Review is a bastion of intellectual light and literary taste that can only be appreciated by the sophisticated, educated, literary, rich, East Coast intellectual. People like me, common middle class (Western) readers who love books don’t count. It is now unclear to me why I am bothering with it at all; maybe it's because I like the pictures.

I ask you, is the hardback edition of the latest Nora Robert’s title somehow more cerebral than a paperback or even eBook edition?

All of those words to obfuscate the real deal: The New York Times is more than willing to lose a page of excellent literary review and criticism to create space for more ad revenue.

Ad revenue I understand – I don't know anyone who is against revenue! Not very erudite or cultured, but honest. But we do understand it. So why doesn't Sam just say so??