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

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

Readers are the winners with the new IDPF eBook open standards

This is a first – the first in a series of blog articles written by Gigi’s friends, associates and the eBooks About staff. Contributors are welcome –please contact Gigi with ideas, articles and comments! I want your participation! This piece is by FOG (friend of Gigi) Karsten Molinaro. Check his profile!

eBook formats have always been confusing, and a sore point for eBook buyers. Other than Adobe PDF, there has never been anything remotely close to an industry standard eBook format.

I know of at least 20 mutually incompatible, propriety formats that have been used over the years, many of which are now defunct! The losers, of course, are eBook buyers who find the eBook they bought yesterday can no longer be read today, while paper books are timeless.

Adobe PDF

PDF is the most recognized "defacto open" format for eBooks. The problem is that anyone who wants to read a PDF document on screen displays (desktops and handheld devices) often finds that PDF is very limiting, and even frustrating.

PDF was developed to preserve formatting and make electronic documents look exactly like paper ones. It does this by "hard wiring" the text onto a fixed size page. Great for printing.

But what if the electronic display is of a much different size than the page (usually much smaller), which is oftentimes the case? And what if the end-user would like to adjust typography like the font size and the font itself, and have the content "retypeset" in an optimal way? With PDF this can't realistically be done.

The need for the format to "reflow" the text is an important one for eBook users. Is there such a reflowable, permanent, open standard that the eBook industry may embrace? One which is designed to provide for the important needs of both publishers and end-users?

EPUB to the Rescue

Fortunately, there finally is! The new International Digital Publishing Forum’s (IDPF), “EPUB standard”. The IDPF represents a wide range of stakeholders in the eBook industry and has recently released a set of fully open industry standards which underly EPUB. I'm proud to have been one of the primary technical contributors to this major effort.

EPUB, based upon well-developed open standards, including those used for web pages, now provides for the important needs of both publishers and eBook readers: permanence, open standards, reflowability, accessibility, and high typographic quality. The ultimate winners of this new standard will be you, the eBook reader.

Many publishers are eagerly embracing the EPUB standard, and are now reformatting their content in the new format. Even Adobe recognizes the limitation of PDF for eBook use. They have been a major player in the development of the new IDPF standards. In fact they have already released Digital Editions, which displays EPUB eBooks.

The Future

Admittedly, the copy protection (DRM) side of EPUB has yet to be shaken out. But we expect to see a large number of unencumbered EPUB eBooks released, and believe that the eBook industry will eventually forego the use encryption for most books, which is where we see the music industry now headed.

So when do we see EPUB eBooks being sold through eBooks About Everything?

No one can really know, yet. What we do know that the industry is quickly moving in that direction, and we hope that eBooks About will be able to offer EPUB titles in the near future. Gigi will most certainly let you know when it happens!