eBooks, Digital Publications and Publishers

If you wonder why bookstores keep going out of business and why publishers are losing money, here is a clue:

I don't think I've ever heard a reader say: "I want more fancy digital stuff in my eBooks! I want videos and audio and animations!" . . . The publishing business ought to concentrate first on their core value: getting books people love to readers who love them. --- Anonymous "Publishing Professional"

First let me give the guy (I assume it is a guy) credit for the statement that he hasn't heard a reader say they want more "digital stuff" in their books.  This is a depressingly accurate statement.  Readers, the dying breed that still exist probably don't say that.

 

The problem is that there are several generations (GenX,Gen Y, the Millennials and whatever comes next) that have been raised to EXPECT digital stuff (videos and audio and animations and links) as a part of any media they consume.  What would FaceBook, MySpace or even Twitter be without digital stuff?

Sure, they read.  Text will always be with us.  But it is mostly a big stretch to call them readers.  They are in fact consumers and creators of digital stuff. 

They are not patronizing Borders or Barnes and Nobles.  They are increasing relying on information they download from the Internet.  Much of it free.  Who needs bookstores?

When it comes to publishing the problem is slightly different.  The Internet has enabled almost anyone with something to show, say or sing to publish their work.  This is incredibly artistically liberating.  It is, however, rarely lucrative.  Most of the owners of the intellectual property do not make any money at all. 

As people come to expect more interactive publications there is an unfortunate downside.  Many works of genius may never be commercially viable because the author lacks the skills or the ability to assemble a team. 

This is where Publishers become incredibly important.  Their role in this new world is to find those geniuses, help assemble teams and promote the finished publications.  If  the current batch of publishers want to remain in business they will have to substantially change their outlook and attitude.  I'm rooting for them!

del.icio.us Tags: books,ebooks,e-books,publishing industry,digital media,digital reading

eBooks in the News

It was busy, busy week for eBook news items. Here is a grab bag of the ones I found the most interesting.

Google Mobile

Google announced that it's library of 1.5 million scanned books is now available for the PC, the iPhone and the T-Mobile G1. These books are scanned so that there are no links but the image quality is pretty impressive.   Check out it out on the Google Book Search Blog.

Amazon Kindle 2.0 and Surprise Announcement

Rumor has it that Amazon will be releasing a new version of the Kindle next week.  More info and pictures can be found on the  Boy Genius blog

AND according to the New York Times, Amazon is now working on making Kindle titles available on a variety of mobile phones. Not surprising really. . . of course there is no time estimate but the idea has a lot of people watching this new development.

Computer World Predicts a Bright Future for eBooks

One of the most interesting articles I have read about the growth in the eBook market showed up over the weekend in Computer World.  Staff writer Mike Elgan makes a case for revolutionary growth in the eBook market.  He believes that six major trends will finally kick eBooks into the mainstream:

• The economy
• The environment
• Publishing revolution
• Aggressive eBook marketing
• A rise in books written for electronic reading
• The decline of the newspaper industry

An excellent and persuasive piece which is worth reading from top to bottom.  Click here to read it.

A Short History of eBooks

Another excellent piece is a rather long article by John Siracusa at ars technica.  He traces his experience with eBooks starting with his job at Palm in 2002 to the present.  My favorite quote:

Let me leave you with a quote from another Peanut Press founder, one which reflects his not-entirely unfounded optimism about the subtle seduction of e-books: "You know what we call people who finally try e-books after they've sworn they could never read on a handheld device? 'Customers.'"

It is an excellent history of eBooks and the story of his personal experiences with the content and the technology.  I actually laughed out loud a couple of time!

Cell Phones -- the Statistics

I know.  Lies, Damn Lies and Statistics.  I can not resist, however, quoting some statistics that back up my belief that cellphones are going to rule the world of eBook reading.  

• 1.18 Billion new mobile phones were sold in 2008 (IDC 2009)
• There are 4 Billion mobile phone subscribers
• The world has about 6.7 Billion people, so this means that 60% of the world population has a cell phone

Admittedly some people own multiple phones but even so, that might take the percentage down to 50% (extremely low).

Tomi Ahonen and Alan Moore explore this phenomena in great detail on their blog. Check it out!

That's it for this week -- my top five stores.  Stay tuned for news and updates and follow the links to read the items mentioned here.

del.icio.us Tags: ebooks,e-books,amazon,google,google book search,kindle ebook,digital reading

eBook and eReader update

Last September. Waterstone's, the British bookseller, began selling the Sony eReader. Last week they released sales information.

The chain claims to have sold almost 30,000 readers and their downloads have passed the 75,000 mark. Which works out to about 2 1/2 books per reader. Very interesting. . .

Particularly interesting since Amazon refuses to give out any sales numbers on the Kindle other than Jeff Bezos' statement that "sales are great." And an estimate that 12% of book sales are for the Kindle editions.

The one sure thing is that eBook sales are on the upswing, whatever anyone says about individual eReader sales. The IDPF (International Digital Publishing Foundation) reports that between January and November, 2008 sales were up 63.8%. The disclaimer on this is that the IDPF number reflects only the sales for 13 of the many trade book publishers.

Alternatively, Ingram's Education Solutions unit reported that eBook sales from January to May, 2008 surpassed the 2007 figures by 400 percent!

Both of these stats sound really great until you realize that eBooks sales are about .5% of all book sales. And when you consider the number of smart phones (including the iPhone) in use .5% is shockingly low.

My original supposition was that much of the reading on these devices are downloads from project Gutenberg on other free eBook sites. But if Juniper Research is correct, my supposition is dead wrong.

The Juniper analyst predicts that the worldwide mobile adult market will hit $4.9 Billion within the next five years. Hmmm. I suppose that is good news for Larry Flynt, but not so good for Amazon and the major publishers.

No matter what you choice of reading material is I want to remind you that Read an eBook Week starts March 8th. We will have more info about how you can help promote this week and make it a success.

Short post today -- have to spend the week getting all my tax info to the accountant. I do hate this time of the year!

del.icio.us Tags: ereading,digital reading,ebooks,kindle,sony prc,IDPF,ebook statistics

GoodBye 2008!

I can't say I am sorry to be making the last post for 2008.  It has been an amazing year with terrific highs and lows. 

So, what is in store for 2009?  I checked my crystal ball and evidently it is broken since everything is cloudy.  Oh come on, it's a joke. . .

There are, however a couple of things that seem intuitively obvious to me: 

• Digital books will become increasingly popular and the percentage of books sold this way will double (from 1% to at least 3%)
• By January, 2010 the iPhone will up a more popular reading device than the Kindle

As additional "proof" for my predictions you only need to look at an article in the Huffington Post.  It shows that five of the six most popular Christmas morning Google searches were iPhone, iTunes, and iPod Touch-driven. All six are:

1. iTunes.com
2. iTunes download
3. iTunes store
4. stores open on Christmas day
5. www.itunes.com downloads
6. iTunes gift card"

Add to that that TechCrunch is reporting rumors about a 7 inch - 9 inch iPod screen due out next fall. 

I want one of these!

So, Goodbye 2008 (and pretty much good riddance!) and Hello 2009!

del.icio.us Tags: iphone,toch ipod,kindle ebook,iphone for books,ebook readers,digial reading

The Roiling Role of Publishers

 Here is Henri's take on James Glieck's New York Times Article How to Publish without Perishing.  Enjoy! 

I’m confident that James Glieck is sufficiently abused by now that he won’t mind serving as an object lesson. If you haven’t heard he consigned the world publishing industry to the Limbo of artisans in a marketplace where books in print are only bought because of their beauty. By doing so he entered the publisher free zone, called the blogosphere by some, without a helmet.

Of course his article was published in the NY Times so he at least had the services of an editor, thousands of coworkers and, oh yes, a publisher to get his article out to the public. The real discussion on the Internet related to this was whether to bury him in purple prose or a nice puce necktie made of paper.

A lot of amusing stuff got said at his expense but none of it will really matter. We are going to be so far beyond the printed word before long that a generation from now children will be asking, “What is a keyboard, daddy?” Being a good dad he will have to rummage around in his virtual garage to find one to show them.

The invention of writing was a real hallmark in the development of human society. It allowed ideas to stick around long enough to be dissed by the next generation as, “Old hat,” remember that phrase? Of course the next few generations are going to be developing total immersion virtual reality and that will probably put paid to the written word once and for all.

The extension of the human memory made possible by writing is now meeting the challenge of the extension of the human environment made possible by the computer. I’ve been reading a lot lately about how much impact computers will have on the human mind itself within a couple of decades.

It seems likely that within the next two generations computers will be directly connected to the human brain. In that world there will be no need for sitting at a keyboard, you will be able to write and edit text faster than the speed of thought. Computer time is significantly faster than the human finger or even the human mind.

As computers get more and more powerful eventually they will exceed the capacity of any single human mind. Some of the prophets out there are clearly of the faith that computers will pass up humans in thinking capacity by 2030 and never look back.

As for me,I will be so old that a virtual life may be the best option unless the optimistic among us are right and we will be able to rebuild our bodies by then. Of course I really doubt that I would ever voluntarily undergo the blessings of the kind of hormonal vitality that goes with excessive youth again for any reason.

I’ll probably wind up living my virtual life sitting in my perfectly comfortable virtual chair in front of my virtual fireplace petting my virtual cat and reading my copy of the one millionth virtual tome in my favorite series by the greatest virtual author of all time, myself. No publisher needed, thank you very much.

Is the Digital Era creating New Life for P-Books?

After a very long weekend of too much food, too many relatives and too little sleep, I woke up yesterday, poured a cup of coffee and started reading the New York Times.  The first article to catch my attention was How to Publish Without Perishing.

In this piece James Gleick opines that there is a bright future for printed, bound books:

I think, on the contrary, we’ve reached a shining moment for this ancient technology. Publishers may or may not figure out how to make money again (it was never a good way to get rich), but their product has a chance for new life: as a physical object, and as an idea, and as a set of literary forms. . . .

Go back to an old-fashioned idea: that a book, printed in ink on durable paper, acid-free for longevity, is a thing of beauty. Make it as well as you can. People want to cherish it.

Really?!

While I find this an interesting view, I wonder if Mr. Gleick has been out and about in the real world lately.  Has he been to his local bookstore?  Does he have any contact at all with "the younger generation"?

Later in the day I found myself inside the local Barnes and Noble.  In our town, they have the best selection of CDs and it is Christmas time. 

The store was moderately busy.  A few people in the coffee shop, a few people sitting in the oversize chairs (mostly they looked like they were waiting for someone), a bustling staff and a handful of customers. 

I took a seat and did some intense people watching over the next half hour.  Anything was better than facing the chaos in my house!

I found the demographics very telling.  I saw children (approximately 5-13) accompanied by parents; I saw middle aged women, and I saw old men and women.  Aside from the staff, I did not see one person between the age of about 13 and 30.  None!

I was willing to chalk it up to a very unscientific survey and leave it at that.  I decided I better quite procrastinating.  So I started gathering my stuff and getting ready to go clean up my house.  And then I saw her.  A real life teenage girl.  She just appeared before my eyes. I was so intrigued by the sight I just stared.

She looked around for a moment, and then she threw herself into a chair with a big sigh.  She routed around in her jean's pocket and pulled out a cell phone.  Within seconds she was texting away.  Totally ignoring all the beautifully bound books along with everyone in the store.

I for one, am unwilling to bet that she will someday wake up and find a book a thing of beauty; something to cherish.  I doubt that she will see a book as an idea or a set of literary forms.

She may see it as furniture (a great way to warm up a room and give it a little class).  Kind of like the antique rolltop desk I inherited from my grandmother.  Beautiful but with very limited usability.   

del.icio.us Tags: ebook,e-books,digital reading,publsihing,books,p-books

Digital Reading and the Human Brain

There are times when I think that technology and living in the 21st century is just too cool for words.  Last week, I had once of those times. 

UCLA just completed a study about Internet usage and the human brain.  Specifically it was a study designed to see "if regular Internet usage was more effective than other intellectually stimulating tasks in keep the brain limber in aging test subjects."

Because they are a medical educational institution they have access  to the most amazing technology around --  fMRI (Functional Magnetic Imaging Resonance).  I won't pretend to understand why this is so cool.  All I know is that it gives researchers and amazing window into the human brain.  The fMRI actually lets us see activity in the human brain.   Very pretty pictures!

In terms I understand, this study tracked brain activity while adults did various online tasks including reading and "googling."  They wanted to find out if regular internet usage effectively keeps an aging brain more limber, more able to flex and and bend freely.

Evidently digital reading does keep the brain limber for those who do it often.  Interestingly, internet neophytes (people without previous Internet experience) showed little change on brain activity when reading vs when using the internet.

But real changes were seen in those who habitually use the Internet. Those subjects were evidently exercising their brains in a big way.  They showed a significant increase in activity in the frontal, temporal and cingulated areas of the brain.  These are the areas associated with complex reasoning.

The digital readers weren't just passively taking in information, they were actively engaged.  Online activity evidently engages multiple parts of the brain.

This is significant for the aging, but it has real, everyday value growing children and adults.  Consider this study as a piece of evidence that using the internet keeps us learning new things which in turn help us build new skill sets.This intellectual exercise keeps our brains flexible and able to adapt to our increasingly complex world. 

I have watched my world get larger and more complex with every passing year.  The flood of information can be almost overwhelming.  I used to read one or two newspapers each day and a half dozen trade journals in a month.  Now I read three or four newspapers a day, have several RSS feeds bringing me hourly news and information and read hundreds of blog pieces a week plus I have access to literally hundreds of journals.  Sometimes I wonder if my brain is up to the challenge.  AND I wonder what all this means for my children and their children.  It is conceivable that we will all just implode from too much info.

Evidently this is a rather foolish notion on my part.  Seems that the human brain is infinitely adaptable and the more we use it the more it expands.  I don't know about you, but I find this an enormously reassuring world view.  

del.icio.us Tags: digital reading,digital books,book technology

Google and the Very Long Tail

Henri is never short on opinions!  Now, the Google settlement has given him a lot to think about.  Here's his take:  if you agree or disagree be sure to let him know.  He loves a good discussion!

Of all of the services that Google has done for mankind in the name of profit and good business practices this one may be the most important yet. I am talking about the recent settlement of its lawsuit related to putting a lot of copyrighted material online without first seeking rights from each individual owner. Google and everyone with any interest in the past won and the forces of darkness lost big.

Oh yes it cost Google an eighth of a billion dollars and some big lawyer’s fees. The project itself is also expensive and will take a long time. On the other hand the library at Alexandria is never going to burn again. The massive literary and knowledge base built in our past on paper will be safer from war and fire and the ravages of time than ever before in history. Even more important it will be accessible to innumerable scholars in the future.

The unprecedented access offered by this settlement is worth anything Google and all of the rest of us could pay for it. I have a serious love affair with the written word and a vast (And possibly useless) eclectic knowledge base derived from struggling with great libraries and depositories. They yield up their secrets reluctantly. I am definitely a biased observer.

That said, how else could anyone have penetrated the maze of laws and rights that buried so much merit in dusty treasure troves with no hope of release until Google came along? The laws governing use of once published and still copyrighted material made little sense in the digital age. Unless they allow for a much broader access path they are merely inhibitory, not protective in any meaningful sense of the word.

So Google ignored them and invited lawsuits as the most efficient way to sort out that mares nest of laws, regulations and garbage. It is a messy mélange of rules that we have assembled around protecting Disney and other huge companies against unreasonable use of their long lived intellectual property assets.

Google did not want those assets; they wanted the poor huddled masses of books and papers languishing in vast dusty depositories. And now they have them and are moving to free them for the fun and profit of all of us including of course Google. It is a story worthy of greater pens than mine and it will continue to be written for a very long time.

Money was not the only point of this action but it will flow back into Google’s coffers in plentitude over time. Those of us who could only dream of this day until now are living a dream of vast access brought on by smart young businessmen and women.

If I could tell any young entrepreneur how to succeed here would be  the three things I would recommend. Have fun, do something good for people and the world they live in and make money doing it. Google is a good example of that ideal and this project shows what can be accomplished with the right people and the right level of access to capital. Bravo Fortissimo, Encore!!!!!!

del.icio.us Tags: google,AAP,google books,digital reading

The Sony PRS 700 and the eBook Reader Market

Last week Sony proudly announced the 3rd generation PRS series eBook Reader.  It has some nice features; particularly the reading light and the fact that it has a touch screen.

And yet I can't help thinking that something is broken in the marketplace! This new Sony readers and the rumored Kindle device prove to me that the Reader design world is stuck in neutral.

There is little happening in the narrowly focused electronic reading world that makes sense to me. It is now nearly twenty years after we tried putting books on a CD ROM disc to stimulate reading opportunities. Over time the Internet and cheap hard drive space have removed the CD disc from the equation.

Today, the digital publishing is still very much alive and growing rapidly (if not broadly). The best reader that money can buy is still very expensive ($800) and excruciatingly dumb.

The consumer is quite happy with a multifunction device that has about three inches of screen space.  After all you can read books, handle email, surf the net and listen to music all with one device.  And that doesn't even take into consideration the convenience of being able to make and receive phone calls!

Reading devices are still being designed by people who know some technology.  What they don't seem to know much about is the consumer generally or publishing specifically.  And therein lies the rub.

So where is publishing headed? Debates about that vary from the sublime to the ridiculous as do most debates. The one thing everyone seems to agree on is that the Internet or its children will provide the delivery vehicle.

Cell phones with substantial screens or projection capabilities are going to hit the market soon. With their programmability based on open operating systems they almost certainly will become the device of choice for both computing and reading. They will also probably take over the world of TV show presentation to major audiences everywhere.

So what is possibly wrong in that world? The idiots that keep designing readers persist in building devices that will not compete. They are holding back the market that they need to develop before it is too late for them. Goodbye Sony reader: Goodbye Kindle: Hello open systems and the new old revolution.

All that cell phones really still need to own this market should appear in the next generation phones. I am hoping that happens because the brain dead place holders made by Amazon, Sony and Phillips make no sense. Or maybe they make as much sense in this market as one hundred thousand dollar CD recorders would make in today’s data transfer marketplace. Yes folks,  twenty years ago a CD Recorder cost a hundred g’s.

Cell phones are following that cost and value curve and dedicated reading devices are not.  Wether they recognize it or not -- this game is already over.  The spindle, ah the bindle, no the, don’t help me, I’ll get it. . . oh yeah, THE KINDLE,  that’s it, is dead. It was slaughtered by a real market before it mattered to anyone anywhere except a few engineers and those of us early adopters who bought their bad designs.

del.icio.us Tags: ebook,e-books,ebook readers,Sony PRS700,Kindle,ebook hardware

eBooks have Arrived, and How!

Here is an excellent guest post from Heather Johnson -- all about eBooks.  She is probably "preaching to the choir" here, but the points she makes about eBooks are worth revisiting and remembering.  This is a great article to pass along to your friends and relatives to explain the importance of eBooks.

The world we live in is increasingly becoming digital, and books are no exception. Paper and print have transitioned into bits and bytes that are floating around in cyberspace ready to be downloaded to your computer or mobile device at the click of a button. You no longer have to set foot in a bookstore if you choose – your reading habits are taken care of by your friendly cyber-neighborhood e-store. True connoisseurs of the art of reading are yet to become eBook aficionados, but what they do not realize is that there are various advantages to the electronic version of books that their papery counterparts do not offer:

· Most of them are free: The Gutenberg Project, the brainchild of the inventor of eBooks Michael Hart, is an initiative to convert as many books to eBooks that are available to all as free downloads.

· They last forever: Paperback novels and books tend to tear and lose pages with time and improper handling. Digital books are not prone to such damages.

· They take up no shelf space: Your eBooks need virtually zero physical space and don’t demand shelves and libraries. They only occupy space on your hard disk which is a part of your computer anyway.

· They reside on your computer: Anywhere you take your laptop, your whole library comes along. You don’t have to tote heavy books in your luggage just so that you have something to read on long flights and journeys.

· They can be read with PDAs: Various eBooks are available as downloads on your personal digital assistants and smartphones. The Gutenberg Project offers free software called Plucker to help read your eBooks on your mobile handheld device.

· They are also available as audio files: Most eBook readers provide options to listen to the books as audio files.

· They protect the environment: eBooks do not consume paper which means that a smaller number of trees have to be cut in order to produce books.

· They are cheaper to publish: Anyone can make eBooks of their work and get it published online with just the minimum number of resources.

· They have a larger reach: With the popularity of the Internet, eBooks reach more people than regular books ever will.

The Internet has made avid readers out of those who have never before shown interest in the habit of reading, and it’s all due to the easy availability and access that eBooks provide.

By-line:

This post was contributed by Heather Johnson, who writes on the subject of teaching certificate. She invites your feedback at heatherjohnson2323 at gmail dot com.

del.icio.us Tags: ebooks,e-books,digital reading,ebook reading

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

Penguin and eBooks

Last week Jim Makinson, company chairman of  Penguin Books talked to journalists about the Company's new and enhanced line of eBook classics. 

The books will be packaged to work with all existing eBook readers including the Sony and the Kindle.

Penguin is taking ten classics and repackaging digital editions with extra digital information.  Jane Austen's  Pride and Prejudice will be the first and is slate to be release in May.

The enhance eBook is said to include "a filmography, period book reviews, recipes, a primer on social etiquette, rules of period dancing and black-and-white illustrations."  Kind of like the extra info you get on a DVD.  All of this for $8.00!

I have been carping on the idea that publishers don't get it; so you would think that this news would make me very happy.  After all, Penguin is finally utilizing the power of digital presentation. 

Well, sort of. 

First, you have to get over the fact that they are asking you to pay $8.00 for a book that is in the public domain and can be downloaded for free at project Gutenberg.  Even more to the point, Project Gutenberg  offers four different text version (at least two of which can be read on ANY eBook Reader)  and an MP3 audio version.  

Second, from what I can see all they are planning to do is to add more text and a few static images and call it a day.  Things you can easily Google if you are interested in the info.  I have to agree with Jimmy Guteman at O'Reilly Radar that this is a pretty lame experiment in eBooks. 

But it is a start. 

I am actually more impressed with their other experiment entitled We Tell Stories. This is a story/game created by a new Company Six to Start and Penguin.  They describe it as "hybrid of traditional story-telling, Web 2.0-style mashups, interactive games and classic novels."

Jeremy Ettinghausen, the digital publisher for Penguin says "We Tell Stories is actually a seven-part adventure.   It will begin with six weekly installments, each of which is based on a classic novel–and written by a different Penguin author–and which tasks participants with finding their way through the story using tools developed for the game"

The descriptions didn't really tell me anything so I went and checked it out.

The first installment 21 Steps is based on Charles Cumming's 39 Steps. It is clever.  You follow the character on Google map as the story is told in a series of text bubbles.  This is one of those cases where you probably need to experience it to really get it. 

This is not exactly my cup of tea, but it is at least a creative blending of technology and books. 

Kudos' to Penguin for at least trying something different!

del.icio.us Tags: Penguin,we tell stories,jane austen. e-book,ebook,digital reading

eBooks and Technology on College Campuses

College Bookstore Retailers get together once a year to discuss ideas and trends in their industry.  This year they gathered in Austin, Texas.  One of the pieces of news coming out of that conference caught my attention.  

It was a report about a speech by Mark Nelson, digital content strategist for the National Association of College Stores.  He spoke at length about digital reading on college campuses.  In his remarks he noted that "digital change could come as quickly as the iPod became a staple of college students."  He went on to say that "in four years, iPod adoption by college freshman went from 0% to 85%."

I knew the percentage of "plugged in" kids was high, but 85%?  Wow!

The advent of digital content and the iPod revolutionized the music business.  I keep waiting for something to come along to do the same for publishing.  I used to think that there might one day be an iPod for books.  I am less certain of that these days. 

But I digress.

The real point is that digital delivery of all media, including reading,  is very much integrated into college life. Even with no iPod for books, digital textbooks are making inroads.  There is enough of a trend that College Book stores are taking note.  A study by the National Association of College stores reports that:

• 18.5% of students strongly prefer e-texts over the print version of the same books,
• 18% have purchased or accessed digital material.
• 17% of students said they would pay more for a print book if a digital version is included.

David Rothman over at Teleread reported on another study.  This one released by Educause.  They did an in depth study of Students and Faculty Preferences for Print Books vs eBooks.  This study had more interesting information about digital reading on college campuses:

• 18.5 percent of the surveyed students preferred eBooks for textbooks
• 7.9 percent had no preference for eBooks over print books
• 80.1 percent of students favored p-books for recreational reading
• 0% of College Faculty preferred eBooks for recreational reading
• a mere 2.6 percent preferred E for recreational reading.
• 38 percent of students favored e reading for research or had no preference

My introduction to eBooks on the college campus was almost six years ago.  My daughter signed up for a political science class.  "The Prince" by Machiavelli  was assigned reading. I'll never forget how excited she when she figured out that she could download the book on to her pocket PC (telephone) and carry one less book.  It seemed like textbooks as eBooks was a natural.  And six years later it is starting to happen. 

I would like to come up with some wise words or profound conclusion about this information.  Unfortunately, after a long week of moving our offices, I am too brain dead to do that.  About the best I can do is to observe that eReading is finally beginning to make a difference in education and it is about time.

del.icio.us Tags: ebooks,ebooks in education,e-book,digital reading,ebook reading

eBooks and Publishing News 2/21/08

First a correction!

I got email from Jenny Murphy at Guerilla PR. She wrote:

Thanks for writing about the “Plant a Tree” drive. I just wanted to take a moment to clarify the purpose of the $5 gift certificate to iChapters.com. Our intention was to give you an opportunity to try out the site for yourself, before representing it to your readers. I’m sorry if that was unclear.

So, looks like I misunderstood and I stand corrected; they weren't trying to bribe me after all and I shouldn't have crumbed on them. My apologies to iChapter and Guerilla PR.

Keep up the good work!

Fairfield Research Make eBook Predictions

Publishers Weekly is reporting on a research report that estimates that somewhere between 6.8 and 16 million adults will download a digital book in the next few (?) years. I consider this WONDERFUL news!

The report also finds that 17% of current book buyers say that would seriously consider purchasing a digital book. 55% of books buyers are planning to stick to paper, thank you very much; but there are 27% who are "ambivalent"; they just might be persuaded.

The finding that fascinates me the most, however, is their of the profile of the most likely buyers: employed males ages 25–34 with income over $100,000.

I emailed fairfield@navix.net for an executive summary and am anxiously awaiting it.

Heads Up -- It's almost here!

Read an eBook week is almost here. This particular week's celebration was created by Rita Toews. For some amazing facts about eBooks and pBooks visit her site -- www.domokos.com/readebookweek.html. Mark your calendar for March 9-15.

del.icio.us Tags: ebook,e-book,read and ebook week,fairfield research,iChapters

Literacy and eBooks on Cellphones

Over the last couple of weeks I have come across these interesting factiods:

• Half of the best selling novels in Japan last year were originally written on cellphones.   
• In the first eight months of last year Goma Books sold over 1,000,000 copies of it's two most popular titles: The Red Thread by Mei and If You Could by Rin. 

• The New York Times reports  that many cellphone novelists had never written fiction before, and many of their readers had never read novels before, according to publishers.
• According to the novelist Rin:  “They  (young Japanese readers) don’t read works by professional writers because their sentences are too difficult to understand, their expressions are intentionally wordy, and the stories are not familiar to them.”
• The CIA World Fact Book reports the rate of literacy in the US is 99%.
• The NEA reports that the percentage of 17-year-olds who read nothing at all for pleasure has doubled over a 20-year period. Yet the amount they read for school or homework (15 or fewer pages daily for 62% of students) has stayed the same.

I use the word literacy often but if you asked me to define it I would probably stumble around and make a vague statement that about reading. I really think about it vague and somewhat academic terms. 

On impulse I went to the dictionary and looked it up.  My Dad would be so proud!.  Here is what I found:  Literacy is the ability to read, write, communicate, and comprehend words. 

Interesting. 

I don't see one word about reading books in that definition.  What I see is that literacy is about communication. 

There are millions of teen who text message every day.  Even my aunt tells me that her eight year old granddaughter texts her so often that she has had to learn how text back. 

These messages are written communications using words.  If you think about it, the text messagers are  by definition literate.  Who knows, that might even be as literate as a PhD who writes a thousand page tome on Henry James. 

Which brings me to the conclusion that the problem for publishers is not reading ability or lack of it.  It is more simply a case that most of the books produced aren't doing the job of communicating.

Technorati Tags: ebooks,e-books,cell phones,literacy,ebooks writers,japan

Steve Jobs: "People Don't Read Anymore"

Earlier this week New York Times blogger John Markoff got the chance to sit down and talk with Steve Jobs.  In a fascinating and wide ranging interview they talk about the MacBook Air, the Kindle, Google smart phone, television and Bill Gates.

Jobs disses the Kindle and predicts it will go nowhere.  From his perspective:

"It doesn't matter how good or bad the product is, the fact is that people don't read anymore. . . Forty percent of the people in the U.S. read one book or less last year. The whole conception is flawed at the top because people don't read anymore."

Steve loves controversy, and this is one more in a long line of outrageous statements.  It most certainly will get him and the new MacBook Air noticed. 

I happen to agree that the Kindle is a deeply flawed product - ugly, proprietary and dumb.  But I am not letting him off the hook here: his statement is deeply flawed (not to mention dumb and inflammatory). 

People Don't Read Anymore

First and foremost is the presumption that the only reading that "counts" is book reading.  Particularly ironic in this case since the interview was given to someone who writes a blog; last time I checked most people read blogs. 

His statement ignores newspapers and magazines and the tremendous amount of reading done online.

How many people do you think will read his statement that no one reads anymore? 

Oh yeah, there is this:  I would be willing to bet that more time is spent reading email on the iPhone than watching TV or actually talking.

There isn't a market for Books

Makes you wonder why Amazon is in business at all, doesn't it?  But even more problematic is that his statement is not accurate.  The actual statistic from the National Endowments for the Arts study is:

57% percent of Americans over the age of 18 read at least one book per year not required for work or school.

Let's just take the statement at face value.  Let's agree that there isn't much market for books or book related technology.  Then let's do the math: 

• The US population is about 300 million people. 
• If 57% of them read 1 book a year then there is (at the very least) a 171 million unit market. 
• The average book price is $18.00
• That translates to something like a $3 Billion market. . .

By the way actual annual book sales in the US are more than $16 Billion per year

I personally wouldn't sneeze at that kind of money. And that doesn't touch the educational market.

Hey, Steve

Before you so lightly dismiss reading (and eBooks) you probably ought to start praying that people continue to read for a while. 

If they don't, all those iPhones and that shiny new MacBook Air (which requires the user to read) will be sitting on the shelf for a long time to come.

Technorati Tags: eBooks,eBook,Kindle,Jobs,Steve Jobs,MacBook Air,Google phone,iPhone

Digitization, Books and eBooks

The very gloomy NEA report on reading had me (almost) rethinking this whole bookstore thing. And then, I stumbled on the London-based Bookseller's Association new report -- Embracing the Digital Age. Just the subtitle made me feel better: An Opportunity for Booksellers and the Book Trade.

Written by Francis Bennett and Michael Holdsworth and released last week, it give a glimpse into the book trade's uncertainty and fear. The industry is, daily, being changed by digitization.

The authors acknowledge that it is hard to define exactly the size of the market or the immediacy of change. But even so, it is clear to them that the book trade is entering a transforming phase.

eBook sales alone, tell us that. Just look at the graph of quarterly eBook sales over the last seven years as produced by The International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF).

What is less clear is how the book trade (beyond mere sales) is transforming.

With the advent of the first .com in 1985 the written word gained a whole new life. Email, Web Sites, Blogs, Instant Messaging, and Social Networks have created an explosion of words and creativity.

It bears thinking about. The last time there was this must energy created around words and ideas was when Gutenberg invented the printing press in the 15th century.

Gutenberg unlocked literacy and information with his press. For centuries the book has informed and entertained us. Digitization propels that notion to the next level. It takes a one dimensional object and adds to it participation, sound and movement to create a richer, multidimensional experience.

The idea that a book should continue to be a one dimensional experience is, of course, nonsense. Links, social networking, multimedia presentations and embedded advertising are daily altering our views and expectations about a digital document.

I have always loved books; that is unlikely to change anytime soon. And yet, I find myself increasing feeling claustrophobic and impatient with print. As a result, it has been a long time since I picked up a magazine or newspaper. Why bother when I get the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Publisher's Weekly on my screen with instant updates, links and feedback opportunities.

Digitization is indeed transforming the book trade. Consciously, or unconsciously, we are in the process of examining and redefining the entire concept of a book.

Printed books aren't going away any time soon. But 2008 will inexorably force authors, publishers and consumers to clarify our concept of a book. Digitization has already changed our world forever.

Technorati Tags: ebook,ebooks,digitization,book trade,book sellers

Amazon eReader and Google Book Search

Last week the New York Times had a long article on Amazon and Google. Seems both companies have a big interest in digital reading. Their approach to digital reading has nothing in common, except that, neither one expects to create a significant revenue stream from it in the short run. Their approaches are an interesting window into today’s world of electronic reading.

Amazon is reportedly taking a gamble on a new e-reading device, the Kindle, complete with wireless connection, keyboard and e-Ink screen. Google, on the other hand, is eschewing the reader and focusing on content.

Amazon’s “revolutionary” feature is the ability to download directly from the Web (no intermediate computer needed). I am still shaking my head in disbelief! After all, any smart phone has been able to do this for years. And when you think it can’t get weirder, you find out that this "revolutionary" web-connected device is unable to produce color or handle animated images.

Google continues to focus on aggregating content. Now, however, they want to start charging you for it. Soon Google Book Searcher users will be able to open a book and read a segment of it for a small fee. The owner of the content will receive some type of revenue sharing. In other words every time someone uses a device (computer, smart phone, eReader or PDA) to open a book and read even 1 page, the owner receives a little dough. Since Google reaches about 25% of all internet users in any given day this could add up to a lot of cash for publishers and authors.

Amazon will present their titles in Mobipocket format, while Google offers most of the Book Search titles in Adobe PDF (digital editions) format.

Amazon has been building a device while Google has been busy digitizing books that can be read on just about any device.

The two approaches really do highlight everything that is wrong with commercial digital content and the eBook market. Here are two giant companies with different approaches to digital reading and neither one of them will make a dent in the real problem.

They don’t get it! The consumer (you and I) is drowning in a flood of words and information: email, newspapers, newsletters, RSS feeds, magazines and books are coming out our ears. We don’t need or want every book every book ever written in digital form. A lot of them weren’t any good on paper in the first place!

We want and need a common sense way to access, utilize and organize the information we have!

Ultimately, the winners in the digital reading derby will not be the maker of a device or the aggregator of content. They will be the companies that focus on what the consumer needs – making the right content visible, accessible and usable.

Adobe officially releases new eReader – Digital Editions

Finally out of Beta and officially released, Adobe Digital Editions 1.0 has been showing up in a lot of my alerts, blogs and publishing industry news. I downloaded the Beta about three months ago and spent several hours poking around. My first impressions were that I didn’t like the black on black screen because the buttons and sliders are very hard to find and use. And for some reason the pages didn’t seem as crisp or letters as clear as in previous versions. Of course, I tried to open one of my own eBooks in Digital Editions since I wasn’t really impressed with the Adobe selection. What I found out was that Digital Editions and my eBook files didn’t like each other. I checked with the company that provided the eBook files and they informed me that in fact, my eBooks could not be read by Digital Editions. To read the eBooks I would need to use the Acrobat 7.0 reader. So my first look at Digital Editions ended. Frankly, it seemed like more trouble than it was worth. I simply reloaded Acrobat Reader 7.0 and went back to work. The official announcement on Tuesday grabbed my attention. According to the Adobe “Digital Editions is a lightweight consumer-focused application for acquiring, reading, and managing eBooks and other publications, and is the centerpiece of Adobe's expanded digital publishing strategy.”

I, like many others, wonder if Adobe is offering this as the “Killer Ap” for eBooks; the eBook version of iTunes?

I was intrigued enough to try again. My second take is not much different from my first. The black is still too black and hard to navigate and the screen quality is somehow not up to par. Given my previous experience, I haven’t had the courage to try my existing eBook files yet. But I keep wondering is this the iTunes for eBooks? Well, for those who spent $300+ on a Sony eReader and have been dealing with the soon to be defunct Sony Connect store, maybe. At the very least it means that thousands of new (meaning different) titles will be available for their enjoyment once this is actually implemented. No timelines for that implementation have been announced. For the rest of us, I’d have to say that the exciting stuff is pretty much technical involving standards (yawn) and how easy it will be to publish new material (uh-huh!). The standards part: Digital Editions supports the new EPUB standard -- Harper Collins, Harlequin and others have promised to adopt it. Based on the EPUB standard support, as noted above, Sony has agreed to work with Adobe. Digital Editions supports the EPUB standard so any book produced in the EPUB format can be read on any device that supports the Adobe reader software. That is great. The not so great is that right now only MACs, Windows based computers and PDAs can use the software. There is no support for many of the mobile reading devices on the market -- specifically any Linux based eReader or any of the Smart Phones. So right now, reading on the go is still a challenge.

There is a temptation to go off on a rift about xml based publishing and reflowable text, but that is for another day. Suffice it to say, that the support for the standard does make for interesting possiblities for the future and for redefining the definition of a book.

The publishing part: Digital Editions is supposed to work seamlessly with Adobe InDesign that is InDesign CS3. That will mean for me (and most InDesign users) a $200.00 upgrade. For new users it is a $699.00 investment. I will do the upgrade and let you know the results as soon as I get a little time to download and install the upgrade.

So for the moment Digital Edition holds some good promise for publishers. It is still an open question how much it will benefit the consumer. Sometimes technology people get very involved with the idea that standards are important and new, accessible content is necessary. The thing they should never forget is that in the end, the consumer will make that decision. Is Digital Editions the “Killer Ap” for eBooks?

Only time will tell!