by Alan Beatts
Leonard Riggio, the driving force behind Barnes and Noble for the past 40 years, is a very smart businessman. I think he's smart in a hugely cut-throat sort of way, but smart all the same. He is certainly seeing the writing on the wall when it comes to sales of physical books. Barnes and Noble recently announced that they will be closing around a third of their stores in the next decade. Their stated aim is to drop the number of stores from the current 689 to somewhere around 450-500.
It's possible, I suppose, that it will actually play out that way over the next decade. But I doubt it. My suspicion is that, in a little bit, we're going to hear that plan has been "adjusted in the face of changing consumer habits" and is going to go much faster. A number of sources, including The Atlantic and Knowledge@Wharton have recently run articles detailing some of the problems B&N faces. Nook sales are down (12.6%), store sales are down (10.9%), and Amazon continues to take business away from them.
Showing posts with label Ebooks. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ebooks. Show all posts
February 20, 2013
January 11, 2013
"Mostly dead is slightly alive" or How Faith Beats Math
by Alan Beatts
A recent spate of articles make much of reports from Nielson Bookscan about last years print book sales. It seems that the rate of decline has seemingly leveled out. At a paltry 9% per year. Hooray! According to Nielson, sales of all categories of books have dropped by that amount each year since 2009.
Ann Betts, who is Nielson's commercial director was quoted as saying, "In the context of a stagnant economy, challenging retail conditions and the growing adoption of ebooks [it] shows an underlying resilience in the market,"
The same news, combined with a Pew Research Center survey, was heralded by the Wall Street Journal in an article titled "Don't Burn Your Books—Print Is Here to Stay". That article goes on to say that "The initial e-book explosion is starting to look like an aberration." The author notes just one paragraph earlier that the annual growth rate for e-book sales fell down to the abysmal pit of _only_ 34%. Wow. I wish my business could get some of that aberration action.
The Christian Science Monitor is less enthusiastic in an article titled "Print book sales fell in 2012 – but no faster than they did in 2011, says Nielsen" though they do close with, "Only time will tell exactly what roles print and e-books will play in the lives of readers."
You know, the last time I fell out of an airplane, I was deeply relived when the speed that I fell the second 1000 feet was no faster than the first 1000 feet. And I thought to myself, "So far, so good. Only time will tell how this will end."
A recent spate of articles make much of reports from Nielson Bookscan about last years print book sales. It seems that the rate of decline has seemingly leveled out. At a paltry 9% per year. Hooray! According to Nielson, sales of all categories of books have dropped by that amount each year since 2009.
Ann Betts, who is Nielson's commercial director was quoted as saying, "In the context of a stagnant economy, challenging retail conditions and the growing adoption of ebooks [it] shows an underlying resilience in the market,"
The same news, combined with a Pew Research Center survey, was heralded by the Wall Street Journal in an article titled "Don't Burn Your Books—Print Is Here to Stay". That article goes on to say that "The initial e-book explosion is starting to look like an aberration." The author notes just one paragraph earlier that the annual growth rate for e-book sales fell down to the abysmal pit of _only_ 34%. Wow. I wish my business could get some of that aberration action.
The Christian Science Monitor is less enthusiastic in an article titled "Print book sales fell in 2012 – but no faster than they did in 2011, says Nielsen" though they do close with, "Only time will tell exactly what roles print and e-books will play in the lives of readers."
You know, the last time I fell out of an airplane, I was deeply relived when the speed that I fell the second 1000 feet was no faster than the first 1000 feet. And I thought to myself, "So far, so good. Only time will tell how this will end."
July 23, 2012
Fair Kindergarten Rules for the DOJ
by Alan Beatts
The Department of Justice has released its response to comments requested on its suit against Apple and five of the six major U.S. publishers. Arstechnica has published a detailed discussion as well. In it Jacqui Cheng distills the DOJ's position thus --
"But the DoJ says two wrongs don't make a right, even if Amazon did have a real monopoly. 'There is no mistaking the fear that many of the commenters have of the prospect of competing with Amazon on price. No doubt Amazon is a vigorous e-book competitor,' The DoJ wrote in its response. "The future is unclear and the path for many industry members may be fraught with uncertainty and risk. But certainly there is no shortage of competitive assets and capabilities being brought to bear in the e-books industry. A purpose of the proposed Final Judgment is to prevent entrenched industry members from arresting via collusion the potentially huge benefits of intense competition in an evolving market."
I agree completely that engaging in an illegal action in reply to an illegal situation is no defense and shouldn't be excused from prosecution. However, the DOJ's case still doesn't seem to clearly prove that the publishers conspired as to pricing. It still seems rather that, by supporting the agency model, they conspired about a business and sales model that would allow them to raise (or lower, for that matter) prices. The two things are not the same and it takes a fair amount of stretching to fit the actual case into the legal definition of price-fixing.
But, even if the publishers and Apple are guilty, it seems that even the DOJ is starting to agree that prior to 2010, Amazon did have a monopolistic control of the ebook market. If so, then it seems the effect of the settlements and the outcome of the case should take that control into account and not set the stage for a return to it, regardless of the guilt or innocence of Apple and the publishers.
You can find the whole 64 page response as a PDF here.
The Department of Justice has released its response to comments requested on its suit against Apple and five of the six major U.S. publishers. Arstechnica has published a detailed discussion as well. In it Jacqui Cheng distills the DOJ's position thus --
"But the DoJ says two wrongs don't make a right, even if Amazon did have a real monopoly. 'There is no mistaking the fear that many of the commenters have of the prospect of competing with Amazon on price. No doubt Amazon is a vigorous e-book competitor,' The DoJ wrote in its response. "The future is unclear and the path for many industry members may be fraught with uncertainty and risk. But certainly there is no shortage of competitive assets and capabilities being brought to bear in the e-books industry. A purpose of the proposed Final Judgment is to prevent entrenched industry members from arresting via collusion the potentially huge benefits of intense competition in an evolving market."
I agree completely that engaging in an illegal action in reply to an illegal situation is no defense and shouldn't be excused from prosecution. However, the DOJ's case still doesn't seem to clearly prove that the publishers conspired as to pricing. It still seems rather that, by supporting the agency model, they conspired about a business and sales model that would allow them to raise (or lower, for that matter) prices. The two things are not the same and it takes a fair amount of stretching to fit the actual case into the legal definition of price-fixing.
But, even if the publishers and Apple are guilty, it seems that even the DOJ is starting to agree that prior to 2010, Amazon did have a monopolistic control of the ebook market. If so, then it seems the effect of the settlements and the outcome of the case should take that control into account and not set the stage for a return to it, regardless of the guilt or innocence of Apple and the publishers.
You can find the whole 64 page response as a PDF here.
July 22, 2012
U.S. Senator Opposes DOJ Suit Against Apple
by Alan Beatts
Charles E. Schumer, a Democratic senator from New York, wrote an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal opposing the Department of Justice suite against Apple and several publishers. Of note in the article is a figure that I'd missed when I wrote about the same topic.
Despite higher prices for some ebooks after Apple supported the agency model, the average price for e-books dropped from $9 to $7 during the two year period prior to the suit (the source for this figure is court document associated with the suit).
Mr. Schumer goes on to say,
"The Justice Department has ignored this overall trend and instead focused on the fact that the prices for some new releases have gone up. This misses the forest for the trees. While consumers may have a short-term interest in today's new release e-book prices, they have a more pressing long-term interest in the survival of the publishing industry.
If publishers, authors and consumers are at the mercy of a single retailer that controls 90% of the market and can set rock-bottom prices, we will all suffer. Choice is critical in any market, but that is particularly true in cultural markets like books. The prospect that a single firm would control access to books should give any reader pause"
And he closes with this observation,
"The administration needs to reassess its prosecution priorities. Justice Department officials currently have comprehensive guidelines in place to determine when they should challenge mergers, but they have no such guidelines for non-merger investigations. It's time to come up with some. These new guidelines should take a broad, pragmatic view of the market as a whole. As the e-books case shows, this kind of perspective is sorely missing today."
Good points all, I'd say.
Charles E. Schumer, a Democratic senator from New York, wrote an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal opposing the Department of Justice suite against Apple and several publishers. Of note in the article is a figure that I'd missed when I wrote about the same topic.
Despite higher prices for some ebooks after Apple supported the agency model, the average price for e-books dropped from $9 to $7 during the two year period prior to the suit (the source for this figure is court document associated with the suit).
Mr. Schumer goes on to say,
"The Justice Department has ignored this overall trend and instead focused on the fact that the prices for some new releases have gone up. This misses the forest for the trees. While consumers may have a short-term interest in today's new release e-book prices, they have a more pressing long-term interest in the survival of the publishing industry.
If publishers, authors and consumers are at the mercy of a single retailer that controls 90% of the market and can set rock-bottom prices, we will all suffer. Choice is critical in any market, but that is particularly true in cultural markets like books. The prospect that a single firm would control access to books should give any reader pause"
And he closes with this observation,
"The administration needs to reassess its prosecution priorities. Justice Department officials currently have comprehensive guidelines in place to determine when they should challenge mergers, but they have no such guidelines for non-merger investigations. It's time to come up with some. These new guidelines should take a broad, pragmatic view of the market as a whole. As the e-books case shows, this kind of perspective is sorely missing today."
Good points all, I'd say.
July 08, 2012
Terry Goodkind, Publisher
by Alan Beatts
Terry Goodkind announced last month that his next novel would be self-published as an ebook. I was surprised to hear this since, with the exception of one novel, all of his books have been published by Tor Books. Since 1994 his relationship with Tor has steadily built his popularity to its current height where his books consistently appear in the top 10 spots on the New York Times bestseller list. Curious, I did some looking around to try to find why he is moving to self-publishing.
Terry Goodkind announced last month that his next novel would be self-published as an ebook. I was surprised to hear this since, with the exception of one novel, all of his books have been published by Tor Books. Since 1994 his relationship with Tor has steadily built his popularity to its current height where his books consistently appear in the top 10 spots on the New York Times bestseller list. Curious, I did some looking around to try to find why he is moving to self-publishing.
October 01, 2011
Amazon is Nobody's Friend, part 2
by Alan Beatts
Last month I discussed some of the more objective problems with Amazon's general business practices. This month I'm going to talk about how they just don't play nicely -- not with customers, authors, publishers, or the public at large.
But first I need to correct something that I suggested in last month's article. When I was talking about the number of companies owned by Amazon, one of businesses I mentioned was LibraryThing <http://www.librarything.com/>. I suggested that the way that they list sellers for books was influenced by Amazon's 40% ownership of the company. A very kind reader who is familiar with that company pointed out my implication was not true and that I was doing a disservice to an independent company run by a very independent man, Tim Spalding. After doing some research (which I should have done before I published), I discovered that the gentleman who contacted me was absolutely right and I was wrong. Then I got in touch with Tim to apologize. He was very pleasant and took the whole thing with more grace that I probably would have, were our situations reversed.
The short version is that, though the facts that I presented were accurate (i.e. that Amazon's purchase link (along with AbeBooks, which is owned by Amazon) appears more prominently than links to other sites (like Barnes and Noble)), the reasons for it had nothing to do with Amazon's ownership interest in LibraryThing. Instead, the reason is Amazon has a policy that, if a site uses their data, which LibraryThing does, along with the data from more than 900 (!) other services, that site _must_ list Amazon's purchase links at the main purchase page and may not list any other business. Tim doesn't like this rule and as a result made sure that the secondary purchase page was well designed and very accessible.
Tim also clarified something about the ownership of LibraryThing. Amazon's stake through ABE is now actually less than 40% due to the 2009 purchase of a non-majority interest in LibraryThing by CIG, the parent company of Bowker, the company behind Books in Print. Tim still retains majority ownership and in still in charge.
LibraryThing is a very cool site, a great service, and run by a fine, independent, and reasonable man. I recommended it highly.
On the other hand, Amazon has --
(A) Edited customer reviews with a bias towards creating sales rather than maintaining objectivity.
(B) Removed book listings to coerce authors and publishers.
(C) "Hidden" books based on arbitrary standards.
(D) Maintained unhealthy and unsafe working conditions for their employees.
(E) Fallen far short of usual expectations for charitable giving.
Last month I discussed some of the more objective problems with Amazon's general business practices. This month I'm going to talk about how they just don't play nicely -- not with customers, authors, publishers, or the public at large.
But first I need to correct something that I suggested in last month's article. When I was talking about the number of companies owned by Amazon, one of businesses I mentioned was LibraryThing <http://www.librarything.com/>. I suggested that the way that they list sellers for books was influenced by Amazon's 40% ownership of the company. A very kind reader who is familiar with that company pointed out my implication was not true and that I was doing a disservice to an independent company run by a very independent man, Tim Spalding. After doing some research (which I should have done before I published), I discovered that the gentleman who contacted me was absolutely right and I was wrong. Then I got in touch with Tim to apologize. He was very pleasant and took the whole thing with more grace that I probably would have, were our situations reversed.
The short version is that, though the facts that I presented were accurate (i.e. that Amazon's purchase link (along with AbeBooks, which is owned by Amazon) appears more prominently than links to other sites (like Barnes and Noble)), the reasons for it had nothing to do with Amazon's ownership interest in LibraryThing. Instead, the reason is Amazon has a policy that, if a site uses their data, which LibraryThing does, along with the data from more than 900 (!) other services, that site _must_ list Amazon's purchase links at the main purchase page and may not list any other business. Tim doesn't like this rule and as a result made sure that the secondary purchase page was well designed and very accessible.
Tim also clarified something about the ownership of LibraryThing. Amazon's stake through ABE is now actually less than 40% due to the 2009 purchase of a non-majority interest in LibraryThing by CIG, the parent company of Bowker, the company behind Books in Print. Tim still retains majority ownership and in still in charge.
LibraryThing is a very cool site, a great service, and run by a fine, independent, and reasonable man. I recommended it highly.
On the other hand, Amazon has --
(A) Edited customer reviews with a bias towards creating sales rather than maintaining objectivity.
(B) Removed book listings to coerce authors and publishers.
(C) "Hidden" books based on arbitrary standards.
(D) Maintained unhealthy and unsafe working conditions for their employees.
(E) Fallen far short of usual expectations for charitable giving.
September 01, 2011
Amazon is Nobody's Friend, Part One
by Alan Beatts
In all the years that I've been writing articles for this newsletter, I've never made a habit of "Amazon-bashing". Sure there have been a few times that I've made little comments about some of their poor choices and ethical screw-ups, but over all I've pretty much left them alone.
This article will be a change from that relative silence.
The reason that I'm finally being truly critical about Amazon is two-fold. First, at this moment a huge number of book buyers are facing a choice. All the former Borders customers out there have to decide where they are going to get their books now that Borders is closed. There are three choices: 1) Barnes and Noble. 2) Amazon. 3) An independent bookstore. At first glance, it will seem that I'm trying to deter customers from shopping at Amazon (and, it won't break my heart at all if you choose to avoid Amazon after reading this). But what is more important to me is that I provide you with information so you make as informed a choice as possible. Your dollars are your economic votes. Where, how and with whom you spend your money determines what businesses survive and thrive. Just like any election, I think an informed group tends to makes wiser choices.
Second, I was talking to a few friends about Amazon and I realized that my opinion of them has shifted in the past ten years. When they started up, my attitude was very much live and let live. They had their business ideas and I had mine. I figured there was room enough for both of us. But, as I've watched them grow, seen their business choices and their effect on my field, I've come to the conclusion that they are not a positive influence on the business of words & stories. During that same conversation with my friends, I also realized that there is a long list of things that they've done and attitudes that they have that I think are pretty lousy, either because I think that they are not ethical or just not . . . nice. Once I considered the totality of my opinion about Amazon, I decided it was time to say something.
In all the years that I've been writing articles for this newsletter, I've never made a habit of "Amazon-bashing". Sure there have been a few times that I've made little comments about some of their poor choices and ethical screw-ups, but over all I've pretty much left them alone.
This article will be a change from that relative silence.
The reason that I'm finally being truly critical about Amazon is two-fold. First, at this moment a huge number of book buyers are facing a choice. All the former Borders customers out there have to decide where they are going to get their books now that Borders is closed. There are three choices: 1) Barnes and Noble. 2) Amazon. 3) An independent bookstore. At first glance, it will seem that I'm trying to deter customers from shopping at Amazon (and, it won't break my heart at all if you choose to avoid Amazon after reading this). But what is more important to me is that I provide you with information so you make as informed a choice as possible. Your dollars are your economic votes. Where, how and with whom you spend your money determines what businesses survive and thrive. Just like any election, I think an informed group tends to makes wiser choices.
Second, I was talking to a few friends about Amazon and I realized that my opinion of them has shifted in the past ten years. When they started up, my attitude was very much live and let live. They had their business ideas and I had mine. I figured there was room enough for both of us. But, as I've watched them grow, seen their business choices and their effect on my field, I've come to the conclusion that they are not a positive influence on the business of words & stories. During that same conversation with my friends, I also realized that there is a long list of things that they've done and attitudes that they have that I think are pretty lousy, either because I think that they are not ethical or just not . . . nice. Once I considered the totality of my opinion about Amazon, I decided it was time to say something.
August 01, 2011
Borders. The End.
by Alan Beatts
Despite lots of work on the part of the management and staff of Borders Books and Music it wasn't possible for them to emerge from bankruptcy as a viable company. Last week all their remaining stores began liquidation sales, leaving Barnes and Noble as the only national bookselling chain in the U.S.
There has been a great deal written about what brought Borders to this point. In hindsight it seems obvious that two major differences between how it operated compared to Barnes and Noble go a long way towards explaining why Borders is closing and B&N is not.
Despite lots of work on the part of the management and staff of Borders Books and Music it wasn't possible for them to emerge from bankruptcy as a viable company. Last week all their remaining stores began liquidation sales, leaving Barnes and Noble as the only national bookselling chain in the U.S.
There has been a great deal written about what brought Borders to this point. In hindsight it seems obvious that two major differences between how it operated compared to Barnes and Noble go a long way towards explaining why Borders is closing and B&N is not.
July 01, 2011
Racing to the Bottom
by Alan Beatts
"Racing to the bottom" has become a bit of a buzzword recently. The common usage has moved a fair bit away from the origin, which dates from the late 19th century and related to the economic practice of states reducing taxes and regulations for corporations in the interest of attracting them. Today it's used anytime financial pressures cause businesses to reduce their prices in response to competition, which prompts their competitors to drop _their_ prices and so on and so on. The cascade effect can drive prices downwards to the point that none of the businesses involved can make a profit while producing a good quality product.
And what, you may ask, the hell does that have to do with books? For a very long time, it had nothing to do with them. The majority of books were created by a small group of publishers who all worked within a very similar set of financial constraints (i.e. the cost of paper, shipping expenses, rent in New York, editor and other production staff pay rates, advertising expenses, usual discounts, reasonable expectations for author advances and so forth). Additionally, the prices were set by the publisher and printed on the product. All of this left very little room for price drops as well as no real interest or willingness to do so.
On top of that, the distribution chain for books was pretty firmly fixed. Books were published, sold either directly to retailers or to wholesalers who then sold to retailers. Though it was possible to self-publish a book, it was very hard to get it into that distribution chain. And, for all intents and purposes, it was impossible to get a self-published book into that chain on anything like an equal footing with books published by major publishers.
But now, it's all changing and I'm worried we might start seeing a race to the bottom on book pricing, with disastrous consequences. And I'm not saying that as a bookseller -- I'm saying that as a reader.
"Racing to the bottom" has become a bit of a buzzword recently. The common usage has moved a fair bit away from the origin, which dates from the late 19th century and related to the economic practice of states reducing taxes and regulations for corporations in the interest of attracting them. Today it's used anytime financial pressures cause businesses to reduce their prices in response to competition, which prompts their competitors to drop _their_ prices and so on and so on. The cascade effect can drive prices downwards to the point that none of the businesses involved can make a profit while producing a good quality product.
And what, you may ask, the hell does that have to do with books? For a very long time, it had nothing to do with them. The majority of books were created by a small group of publishers who all worked within a very similar set of financial constraints (i.e. the cost of paper, shipping expenses, rent in New York, editor and other production staff pay rates, advertising expenses, usual discounts, reasonable expectations for author advances and so forth). Additionally, the prices were set by the publisher and printed on the product. All of this left very little room for price drops as well as no real interest or willingness to do so.
On top of that, the distribution chain for books was pretty firmly fixed. Books were published, sold either directly to retailers or to wholesalers who then sold to retailers. Though it was possible to self-publish a book, it was very hard to get it into that distribution chain. And, for all intents and purposes, it was impossible to get a self-published book into that chain on anything like an equal footing with books published by major publishers.
But now, it's all changing and I'm worried we might start seeing a race to the bottom on book pricing, with disastrous consequences. And I'm not saying that as a bookseller -- I'm saying that as a reader.
November 01, 2009
New Media Update
by Alan Beatts
Here's the rundown of the month's news on the eReader front. Two items very worthy of note are the report from Forester Research which estimates that total e-reader sales for 2009 will top 3 million units. That is up by 50% from their estimate of a few months ago. Second is that there is an increasing pool of circumstantial evidence that people who buy Kindles (and, to a lesser degree, other e-readers) actually read _more_ than they did before switching to the e-reader. People have cited ease of transportation and the convenience of purchasing wirelessly as the reason for their greater reading consumption.
Apple -- Ebook reading applications and ebooks are some of the most popular items downloaded for the iPhone and iPod Touch. So much so that they're even starting to edge out games as the most downloaded category.
Amazon -- In less than two weeks Amazon released the new, international Kindle (useable in over 200 countries) and discontinued the old, US-only Kindle 2. The new international version is priced the same as the old Kindle and so it's been more of a replacement with more features than a competing model. However, not all is joy in the rest of the world since the costs for books are substantially higher for international users and, for that matter, for US users who use the download feature while outside the US. The higher costs are explained by Amazon as being part taxes, part data-service costs (international downloads still originate in the US), and part wireless carrier charges.
Amazon is also trying to react to Sony's announcement last month that users of the Sony e-readers will have access to all half-million of Google's free, public domain ebooks by increasing the free offerings for the Kindle. However, at the current level of about 18,000 titles, they've got a long way to go.
Finally, Amazon has released a Kindle client application for the Windows computer operating system and they also have a Macintosh version in the works. Again, it looks like they're playing catchup to Sony and other companies who already offer desk- and lap-top versions of the reader software.
Barnes and Noble -- Not satisfied with their relationship with iRex as well as their ties with PlasticLogic's forthcoming high-end reader, the 800-pound gorilla of bookselling has announced their own e-reader, the Nook. It's a dumb name for a smart device if you ask me. The Nook comes with two screens, one over the other. The top one is a typical black and white EInk display like most readers on the market. Below it is a small, touch sensitive, color LCD. The idea is that the LCD will display full color covers while browsing the user's library as well as giving a better web-browser experience. It's a nice idea (though I prefer the book-like folding concept which supports a more reasonable sized LCD display opposite an EInk panel).
There's just one problem -- it looks like it wasn't B&N's nice idea. Spring Design, a Bay Area company, had the same idea and has patents going back to 2006 to support it. Moreover, Spring representatives meet with B&N in the spring of this year to pitch their reader (called the "Alex") as part of a joint venture. A joint venture covered by the full range of non-disclosure agreements that we're so fond of in Silicon Valley. Net result -- Spring Design is in the process of suing the pants off of B&N over violations of the NDAs and patents. Oooops!
Entourage Systems -- On the topic of two-screen readers, this start-up company has a product that, while heavy and a bit expensive, looks pretty good. The eDGe (don't ask me why the weird caps, I'm not a tech-guy) has two screens and opens like a book. One screen is a 9.7" EInk display and the other is a 10" color LCD. It runs on an ARM processor and has 4 GB storage, an SD card slot and 2 USB ports as well as WiFi and bluetooth. Other features include a web-cam, microphone and speakers. Running on Google's Android OS, it's going to be closer to a net-book computer than an ebook reader but that's not such a bad thing.
Three catches -- won't ship 'til February, price is $490, and it's big and heavy compared to a single purpose e-reader (8.25" by 10.75" by 1" and 2.75 lb.). But it's still a sign of where some people want to see the e-reader go, myself included -- if they'd make one that ran on OSX or the iPhone OS, I'd stand in line to buy one at even twice the price.
Beyond that, there are more and more e-readers being announced. Rather than do a complete round up here, I'd suggest that you take a look at <http://www.mobilitysite.com/2009/11/2010-the-year-of-the-ebook/comment-page-1/> which has a very nice list along with a release schedule.
Next month I hope that the flurry will have cleared up enough for me to make some buying suggestions for the holidays. I'm also planning on touching upon the non-US market for e-readers, as suggested by two of my readers.
Here's the rundown of the month's news on the eReader front. Two items very worthy of note are the report from Forester Research which estimates that total e-reader sales for 2009 will top 3 million units. That is up by 50% from their estimate of a few months ago. Second is that there is an increasing pool of circumstantial evidence that people who buy Kindles (and, to a lesser degree, other e-readers) actually read _more_ than they did before switching to the e-reader. People have cited ease of transportation and the convenience of purchasing wirelessly as the reason for their greater reading consumption.
Apple -- Ebook reading applications and ebooks are some of the most popular items downloaded for the iPhone and iPod Touch. So much so that they're even starting to edge out games as the most downloaded category.
Amazon -- In less than two weeks Amazon released the new, international Kindle (useable in over 200 countries) and discontinued the old, US-only Kindle 2. The new international version is priced the same as the old Kindle and so it's been more of a replacement with more features than a competing model. However, not all is joy in the rest of the world since the costs for books are substantially higher for international users and, for that matter, for US users who use the download feature while outside the US. The higher costs are explained by Amazon as being part taxes, part data-service costs (international downloads still originate in the US), and part wireless carrier charges.
Amazon is also trying to react to Sony's announcement last month that users of the Sony e-readers will have access to all half-million of Google's free, public domain ebooks by increasing the free offerings for the Kindle. However, at the current level of about 18,000 titles, they've got a long way to go.
Finally, Amazon has released a Kindle client application for the Windows computer operating system and they also have a Macintosh version in the works. Again, it looks like they're playing catchup to Sony and other companies who already offer desk- and lap-top versions of the reader software.
Barnes and Noble -- Not satisfied with their relationship with iRex as well as their ties with PlasticLogic's forthcoming high-end reader, the 800-pound gorilla of bookselling has announced their own e-reader, the Nook. It's a dumb name for a smart device if you ask me. The Nook comes with two screens, one over the other. The top one is a typical black and white EInk display like most readers on the market. Below it is a small, touch sensitive, color LCD. The idea is that the LCD will display full color covers while browsing the user's library as well as giving a better web-browser experience. It's a nice idea (though I prefer the book-like folding concept which supports a more reasonable sized LCD display opposite an EInk panel).
There's just one problem -- it looks like it wasn't B&N's nice idea. Spring Design, a Bay Area company, had the same idea and has patents going back to 2006 to support it. Moreover, Spring representatives meet with B&N in the spring of this year to pitch their reader (called the "Alex") as part of a joint venture. A joint venture covered by the full range of non-disclosure agreements that we're so fond of in Silicon Valley. Net result -- Spring Design is in the process of suing the pants off of B&N over violations of the NDAs and patents. Oooops!
Entourage Systems -- On the topic of two-screen readers, this start-up company has a product that, while heavy and a bit expensive, looks pretty good. The eDGe (don't ask me why the weird caps, I'm not a tech-guy) has two screens and opens like a book. One screen is a 9.7" EInk display and the other is a 10" color LCD. It runs on an ARM processor and has 4 GB storage, an SD card slot and 2 USB ports as well as WiFi and bluetooth. Other features include a web-cam, microphone and speakers. Running on Google's Android OS, it's going to be closer to a net-book computer than an ebook reader but that's not such a bad thing.
Three catches -- won't ship 'til February, price is $490, and it's big and heavy compared to a single purpose e-reader (8.25" by 10.75" by 1" and 2.75 lb.). But it's still a sign of where some people want to see the e-reader go, myself included -- if they'd make one that ran on OSX or the iPhone OS, I'd stand in line to buy one at even twice the price.
Beyond that, there are more and more e-readers being announced. Rather than do a complete round up here, I'd suggest that you take a look at <http://www.mobilitysite.com/2009/11/2010-the-year-of-the-ebook/comment-page-1/> which has a very nice list along with a release schedule.
Next month I hope that the flurry will have cleared up enough for me to make some buying suggestions for the holidays. I'm also planning on touching upon the non-US market for e-readers, as suggested by two of my readers.
October 01, 2009
New Media Overview
by Alan Beatts
The response to my question in the last newsletter about interest in a column about ebooks and related stuff was unanimous and so, you asked for it and you've got it. This will be the first one. I'm going to start by doing updates divided by manufacturer and business but, when the month's news deserves general commentary (and I have something half-way clever to say), I'll put something at the beginning of the article.
Apple -- Their rumored tablet device continues to but just that, a rumor, but it's looking like they've been working on it for quite a few years. None of the prototypes have gotten Steve Job's seal of approval so they haven't hit the street. The current iteration is also lacking the "go ahead and make it" stamp from Jobs and so it still may never happen though, if I was going to bet, I'd bet that it's going to come out and sometime in the first half of next year.
If it does come out, there has been a fair amount of discussion between Apple and magazine publishers about possible electronic distribution of magazines. That could be pretty important since, to do a magazine justice, you have to have a color display and Apple product is the only one that's close to distribution incorporating both an ebook form factor (i.e. smaller than a laptop and very thin) with a color display. And just think about the advertising possibilities if this tablet has a wide-area (i.e. cell phone type) wireless connection -- interactive ads that allow direct purchase of products directly from the "magazine".
Amazon -- Not much good news for my favorite big-brother company. They paid out a $150,000 settlement over their remote deletion of Orwell's 1984 and Animal Farm which cost a student all his notes (which were deleted at the same time). Most of the money will probably go to the lawyers but still, ouch!
Also, the response of students who have been using Amazon's large screen Kindle DX at schools around the country this year has been less than enthusiastic. Comment like, "slow", "clunky", and "irritating" have been common as have student who've returned the (free) devices in favor of regular books. One other, very practical, reason for the displeasure has been the comparative slowness of taking notes and highlighting on the Kindle as compared to a printed book.
Sony -- Relatively quiet on that front. They've made some deals with electronic publishers like SmashWords and and Author Solutions who specialize in getting quasi-self-published work on the net and they're creating a "publisher portal" to make it easier for smaller publishers to get their books into Sony's store. All this may pay off big time since the rush to build content for ebook readers and stores is just starting but, in the long run, it'll be critical for the success of reader manufacturers (the more content that works with your reader, the better chance someone will buy it) and ebook sellers (if you have the most and best content, the buyers will come to you first).
I talked to some people in the book business and found out something interesting -- you know all the smart moves that Sony has made in the past few months that I've complemented them on (i.e. getting readers into indi bookstores, making a reader with wireless, and moving to an open format (EPUB) from their old, proprietary one)? Seems that most of those ideas came from the American Bookseller's Association not internally at Sony. Which is kind of neat but also a little disturbing -- I know that ebook are coming but does it make sense for the ABA to speed their adoption (and the impact that they'll have on physical bookstores) in exchange for making sure that indi booksellers can get some of the profits? Seems like a bit of a Devil's bargain to me.
iRex -- One of the pioneers in ebooks just announced their new ebook reader target at consumers. The iRex DR800SG (no cute name here) has a bigger than usual screen at 8.1 inches (the Kindle is 6" and Sony's are 5, 6, and 7" depending on model), will sell for $399 and has both wireless (through Verizon's network) and a touch-screen (that only works with a stylus, unlike Sony's which will accept finger touch). It's going to hit the street this month and will be sold at Best-Buy.
Best-Buy -- And speaking of them, they're training employees to sell ebook readers like crazy and have added a special area to all their more than 1000 stores to showcase the iRex and Sony Readers. It's going to be interesting to see which wirelessly connected reader does best for the holidays -- the Sony Daily Edition or the iRex. I'm betting on the Sony because of their reputation but I think that people are going to be happier with the iRex. The bigger screen is nice but more importantly the Sony uses AT&T's wireless network and the iRex uses Verizon's. If you know anyone who has an iPhone (or if you do), you'll know that they have problems with dropped calls, bad reception, and missed calls / messages. The problem is not so much the phone but the network which seems to be overloaded by the sheer amount of data traffic that the iPhone generates. And what network is that? AT&T.
Barnes and Noble -- B&N are busy building their on-line ebook store, which has gotten a lot of attention after they did a big advertising push. The catch was that, without a paired ereader, they got a lot of visits but few sales and not many return visits. That will probably change since they are iRex's vendor of choice for the new DR800SG reader (see above). In short, if you're buying books wirelessly with the iRex, you're going to be buying them from B&N, who's ebook sales should jump upwards once the holidays are here, people start buying the iRex reader in droves at Best Buy and need to download content.
That's about it except for one last thing - part of the bottleneck with ebook availability is the process of converting the files into the right format. It can be slow, expensive, and generally a pain. But perhaps not for EPUB format anymore. DNAML has just released Pdf to ePub, a $99 piece of software that, in theory, allows simple conversion from PDF to EPUB format. And, since PDF is the default format for much of publishing now, this may mean that it just got much simpler to be an electronic publisher.
The response to my question in the last newsletter about interest in a column about ebooks and related stuff was unanimous and so, you asked for it and you've got it. This will be the first one. I'm going to start by doing updates divided by manufacturer and business but, when the month's news deserves general commentary (and I have something half-way clever to say), I'll put something at the beginning of the article.
Apple -- Their rumored tablet device continues to but just that, a rumor, but it's looking like they've been working on it for quite a few years. None of the prototypes have gotten Steve Job's seal of approval so they haven't hit the street. The current iteration is also lacking the "go ahead and make it" stamp from Jobs and so it still may never happen though, if I was going to bet, I'd bet that it's going to come out and sometime in the first half of next year.
If it does come out, there has been a fair amount of discussion between Apple and magazine publishers about possible electronic distribution of magazines. That could be pretty important since, to do a magazine justice, you have to have a color display and Apple product is the only one that's close to distribution incorporating both an ebook form factor (i.e. smaller than a laptop and very thin) with a color display. And just think about the advertising possibilities if this tablet has a wide-area (i.e. cell phone type) wireless connection -- interactive ads that allow direct purchase of products directly from the "magazine".
Amazon -- Not much good news for my favorite big-brother company. They paid out a $150,000 settlement over their remote deletion of Orwell's 1984 and Animal Farm which cost a student all his notes (which were deleted at the same time). Most of the money will probably go to the lawyers but still, ouch!
Also, the response of students who have been using Amazon's large screen Kindle DX at schools around the country this year has been less than enthusiastic. Comment like, "slow", "clunky", and "irritating" have been common as have student who've returned the (free) devices in favor of regular books. One other, very practical, reason for the displeasure has been the comparative slowness of taking notes and highlighting on the Kindle as compared to a printed book.
Sony -- Relatively quiet on that front. They've made some deals with electronic publishers like SmashWords and and Author Solutions who specialize in getting quasi-self-published work on the net and they're creating a "publisher portal" to make it easier for smaller publishers to get their books into Sony's store. All this may pay off big time since the rush to build content for ebook readers and stores is just starting but, in the long run, it'll be critical for the success of reader manufacturers (the more content that works with your reader, the better chance someone will buy it) and ebook sellers (if you have the most and best content, the buyers will come to you first).
I talked to some people in the book business and found out something interesting -- you know all the smart moves that Sony has made in the past few months that I've complemented them on (i.e. getting readers into indi bookstores, making a reader with wireless, and moving to an open format (EPUB) from their old, proprietary one)? Seems that most of those ideas came from the American Bookseller's Association not internally at Sony. Which is kind of neat but also a little disturbing -- I know that ebook are coming but does it make sense for the ABA to speed their adoption (and the impact that they'll have on physical bookstores) in exchange for making sure that indi booksellers can get some of the profits? Seems like a bit of a Devil's bargain to me.
iRex -- One of the pioneers in ebooks just announced their new ebook reader target at consumers. The iRex DR800SG (no cute name here) has a bigger than usual screen at 8.1 inches (the Kindle is 6" and Sony's are 5, 6, and 7" depending on model), will sell for $399 and has both wireless (through Verizon's network) and a touch-screen (that only works with a stylus, unlike Sony's which will accept finger touch). It's going to hit the street this month and will be sold at Best-Buy.
Best-Buy -- And speaking of them, they're training employees to sell ebook readers like crazy and have added a special area to all their more than 1000 stores to showcase the iRex and Sony Readers. It's going to be interesting to see which wirelessly connected reader does best for the holidays -- the Sony Daily Edition or the iRex. I'm betting on the Sony because of their reputation but I think that people are going to be happier with the iRex. The bigger screen is nice but more importantly the Sony uses AT&T's wireless network and the iRex uses Verizon's. If you know anyone who has an iPhone (or if you do), you'll know that they have problems with dropped calls, bad reception, and missed calls / messages. The problem is not so much the phone but the network which seems to be overloaded by the sheer amount of data traffic that the iPhone generates. And what network is that? AT&T.
Barnes and Noble -- B&N are busy building their on-line ebook store, which has gotten a lot of attention after they did a big advertising push. The catch was that, without a paired ereader, they got a lot of visits but few sales and not many return visits. That will probably change since they are iRex's vendor of choice for the new DR800SG reader (see above). In short, if you're buying books wirelessly with the iRex, you're going to be buying them from B&N, who's ebook sales should jump upwards once the holidays are here, people start buying the iRex reader in droves at Best Buy and need to download content.
That's about it except for one last thing - part of the bottleneck with ebook availability is the process of converting the files into the right format. It can be slow, expensive, and generally a pain. But perhaps not for EPUB format anymore. DNAML has just released Pdf to ePub, a $99 piece of software that, in theory, allows simple conversion from PDF to EPUB format. And, since PDF is the default format for much of publishing now, this may mean that it just got much simpler to be an electronic publisher.
September 01, 2009
Sony Gets Smart
by Alan Beatts
This month's piece is going to be kind of short since I'm working like mad to get the final paint and other work done on the cafe. But I thought that, given some announcements and events in the last month, it would be interesting to follow up on my article from last month about ebooks.
It seems that someone at Sony has decided to get serious about their ebooks and readers. And, whoever it is, they're very, very smart. First off, they have announced three new readers. One is much like their original reader but with the addition of a touch screen (which adds note taking abilities to the device) and at the same price point, $299. The other two readers both break new ground, albeit in very different ways. The Pocket edition brings the screen size down to 5" from 6" and the price to $199. That price is a major watershed for readers, though not the under-$100 price that people expect will be needed for large scale purchasing by people who aren't either avid readers or tech-heads. The other reader is the Daily edition which brings wireless connectivity and an even larger screen (7") for the premium price of $399. But, this reader can finally compete with Amazon's Kindle in the area of on-demand, wireless downloads of books.
But that's not all that Sony has been up to. Last month they also announced that they were abandoning their proprietary ebook format and switching to EPUB, which is the book industry standard open format. Also announced was a deal with Google to make all 500,000 of Google's archived public-domain works available for free download.
But Sony's last move was the icing on the cake -- they've made a deal with the American Bookseller's Association to make their readers available to independent bookstores for resale as well as making Sony's ebooks available at wholesale prices for resale on independent bookstore ecommerce sites. That means Sony will be able to get bookstores to act as a sales force for their hardware, which is a move that Amazon can't even consider.
All in all, Sony is setting itself up as the new power in ebooks.
Also, a number of other businesses are jumping into the market for ebook readers -- Asus, the manufacturer of low cost netbooks like the Eee PC has announced that they are going to produce a dual screen reader and Astak, a British company, is about to ship their 5" screen reader, the EZReader Pocket PRO, which is notable for its low price ($199).
That's about all I have time for right now but before I go, I've got a question for you. Is all the stuff about ebook and readers of interest? If so, there is enough going on in that area right now that I could write a column about it every month. But, I'm not sure if there is enough interest on the part of our customers for it to make sense. What do you think? (I should point out that something like that would be in addition to my usual column, not instead of it.)
This month's piece is going to be kind of short since I'm working like mad to get the final paint and other work done on the cafe. But I thought that, given some announcements and events in the last month, it would be interesting to follow up on my article from last month about ebooks.
It seems that someone at Sony has decided to get serious about their ebooks and readers. And, whoever it is, they're very, very smart. First off, they have announced three new readers. One is much like their original reader but with the addition of a touch screen (which adds note taking abilities to the device) and at the same price point, $299. The other two readers both break new ground, albeit in very different ways. The Pocket edition brings the screen size down to 5" from 6" and the price to $199. That price is a major watershed for readers, though not the under-$100 price that people expect will be needed for large scale purchasing by people who aren't either avid readers or tech-heads. The other reader is the Daily edition which brings wireless connectivity and an even larger screen (7") for the premium price of $399. But, this reader can finally compete with Amazon's Kindle in the area of on-demand, wireless downloads of books.
But that's not all that Sony has been up to. Last month they also announced that they were abandoning their proprietary ebook format and switching to EPUB, which is the book industry standard open format. Also announced was a deal with Google to make all 500,000 of Google's archived public-domain works available for free download.
But Sony's last move was the icing on the cake -- they've made a deal with the American Bookseller's Association to make their readers available to independent bookstores for resale as well as making Sony's ebooks available at wholesale prices for resale on independent bookstore ecommerce sites. That means Sony will be able to get bookstores to act as a sales force for their hardware, which is a move that Amazon can't even consider.
All in all, Sony is setting itself up as the new power in ebooks.
Also, a number of other businesses are jumping into the market for ebook readers -- Asus, the manufacturer of low cost netbooks like the Eee PC has announced that they are going to produce a dual screen reader and Astak, a British company, is about to ship their 5" screen reader, the EZReader Pocket PRO, which is notable for its low price ($199).
That's about all I have time for right now but before I go, I've got a question for you. Is all the stuff about ebook and readers of interest? If so, there is enough going on in that area right now that I could write a column about it every month. But, I'm not sure if there is enough interest on the part of our customers for it to make sense. What do you think? (I should point out that something like that would be in addition to my usual column, not instead of it.)
August 01, 2009
That's Not Your Ebook, It's Amazon's . . . Forever
by Alan Beatts
I've held out for months now when it comes to talking about ebooks. After writing so much about them last year, I figured that you all might have had enough and so I switched to other topics. But the recent kerfluffel about Amazon's remote deletion of books from their Kindle eReader is too interesting to ignore.
For you readers who haven't heard about what happened, I'll summarize briefly (if you've been following the story, please feel free to skip to the next paragraph). On July 17th, Amazon remotely deleted two books from all the Kindles in the US via the wireless connection that allows Kindle users to brows the internet and purchase books. In a truly lovely bit of irony, the books were George Orwell's 1984 and ANIMAL FARM. The reason for the deletion was that the ebook publisher from whom Amazon got the books was based in the UK, where both books are in the public domain (i.e. they may be freely copied, distributed and published by anyone without the need for permission or payment). However, in the US, the books are still under copyright. What that meant was that, though the electronic editions were legal outside of the US, they were in violation of copyright _in_ the US. Amazon was contacted by the US rights-holder (Harper Collins) and told that they couldn't sell that particular electronic edition in the US. Amazon responded by not only removing the edition from their site, they also remotely deleted it from the Kindle of everyone who had bought it. Amazon did refund the purchase price of the books to the people who had bought them but despite that many people felt that they had been taken advantage of and that their privacy and property had been violated.
The legality of Amazon's action is debatable but one thing that it points out with clarity is that, despite the marketing hype that presents ebooks as "just like regular books", ebooks bought for the Kindle through Amazon are not at all the same as printed books.
Strangely for a bookseller, I don't have a problem with ebooks. Don't get me wrong, I think they're going to put most bookstores out of business eventually (how soon, I'm not sure) but overall as a reader I don't think that they are awful or a sign of the end-times for literature or reading. But, I have a huge problem with ebooks business models like Amazon's which build an unbreakable two-way connection between the reading device and the company providing content. A good ebook is one that is purchased and can then be read on a number of devices (i.e. a computer, a cell phone, a dedicated reader or other personal electronic devices) without requiring contact or permission from the company that sold the ebook. For my money, Amazon's model is broken on a very basic level.
Other ebook readers like the Sony eReader <http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/CategoryDisplay?catalogId=10551&storeId=10151&langId=-1&categoryId=8198552921644523779> are stand-alone devices that can be used for any sort of content that the user chooses. You can load them with books bought from Sony, other ebook publishers like Baen <http://www.baen.com> or Harper Collins <http://www.harpercollins.com/imprints/index.aspx?imprintID=517980>, or free public-domain content from places like Project Gutenberg <http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page> or Feedbooks <http://feedbooks.com/> (a side note about free content from these sites -- many books that Amazon is happy to sell for the Kindle are available for free. But Amazon not only won't tell you that but they set things up with the Kindle so that you have to jump through a few hoops and pay to get that content on their device). If Sony goes out of business (not likely) or decides to get out of the ereader-and-book business (more likely), the only ebooks that you might lose the use of are the ones you bought directly from Sony, and the ereader will keep working for as long as it can still function. Conversely, if Amazon folds or decides to stop supporting the Kindle (which might happen -- Amazon isn't an electronics manufacturer and their reason for creating the Kindle is more about building a market for eBooks than being a electronics manufacturer) books bought for the Kindle are liable to be unusable and completely worthless. You could have spent a ton of money buying books that someday may be just as outdated and useless as an 8 track tape.
As someone who has seen music formats change from LPs to CDs and then to MP3s and video go from VHS to DVD, I can accept that you have to re-buy things as formats change. But I'll be damned if I'm going to go through that with my books too. Especially when there is _no_ reason for it other than Amazon's greed and desire to make their customers dependent on them indefinitely.
And all the forgoing was a problem _before_ Amazon demonstrated that they were willing to do the virtual equivalent of breaking into people houses and taking books off their shelves. But the recent incident demonstrated yet another problem with Amazon's model. What else can happen due to the connection between the Kindle and Amazon and the power that it provides? How about --
* A tell-all account of the Bush or Clinton presidency is published. One of the subjects of the account sues for Defamation of Character and wins (FYI - that's a civil action which means that all you need to do to win is convince seven out of twelve people that you're right). As part of the judgement the court orders that the offending chapters be rewritten and, without the consent of the Kindle owner (and possibly even without their knowledge), remotely substituted for the original chapters.
* A controversial book, such as The Turner Diaries or The Autobiography of Malcolm X, is tied to a criminal act and as part of the investigation Amazon (while under a gag order so they can't tell anyone) is compelled to provide not only purchase information about anyone who bought it for the Kindle but also information about how many times it's been read as well as any notes or bookmarks that the individual reader may have added.
* A violation of the contract that you have to sign when purchasing a Kindle gives Amazon the right to not only terminate your use of the Kindle but also delete all your books, lock the device, and lock you out of your Amazon account. All this without legal recourse or appeal and to correct it you, the user, have to take Amazon to court with the associated costs and headache.
So, if you want to buy ebooks and use a reader, please do so. There are some great reasons for it and some huge advantages. But don't get a Kindle. The Sony reader is better designed and so very much smarter. Or wait 'til fall and get one of the Apple Tablets. Sure it's more expensive and uses a LCD screen instead of eInk but it's going to be super-slick and will do _much_ more than any ebook reader out there.
I've held out for months now when it comes to talking about ebooks. After writing so much about them last year, I figured that you all might have had enough and so I switched to other topics. But the recent kerfluffel about Amazon's remote deletion of books from their Kindle eReader is too interesting to ignore.
For you readers who haven't heard about what happened, I'll summarize briefly (if you've been following the story, please feel free to skip to the next paragraph). On July 17th, Amazon remotely deleted two books from all the Kindles in the US via the wireless connection that allows Kindle users to brows the internet and purchase books. In a truly lovely bit of irony, the books were George Orwell's 1984 and ANIMAL FARM. The reason for the deletion was that the ebook publisher from whom Amazon got the books was based in the UK, where both books are in the public domain (i.e. they may be freely copied, distributed and published by anyone without the need for permission or payment). However, in the US, the books are still under copyright. What that meant was that, though the electronic editions were legal outside of the US, they were in violation of copyright _in_ the US. Amazon was contacted by the US rights-holder (Harper Collins) and told that they couldn't sell that particular electronic edition in the US. Amazon responded by not only removing the edition from their site, they also remotely deleted it from the Kindle of everyone who had bought it. Amazon did refund the purchase price of the books to the people who had bought them but despite that many people felt that they had been taken advantage of and that their privacy and property had been violated.
The legality of Amazon's action is debatable but one thing that it points out with clarity is that, despite the marketing hype that presents ebooks as "just like regular books", ebooks bought for the Kindle through Amazon are not at all the same as printed books.
Strangely for a bookseller, I don't have a problem with ebooks. Don't get me wrong, I think they're going to put most bookstores out of business eventually (how soon, I'm not sure) but overall as a reader I don't think that they are awful or a sign of the end-times for literature or reading. But, I have a huge problem with ebooks business models like Amazon's which build an unbreakable two-way connection between the reading device and the company providing content. A good ebook is one that is purchased and can then be read on a number of devices (i.e. a computer, a cell phone, a dedicated reader or other personal electronic devices) without requiring contact or permission from the company that sold the ebook. For my money, Amazon's model is broken on a very basic level.
Other ebook readers like the Sony eReader <http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/CategoryDisplay?catalogId=10551&storeId=10151&langId=-1&categoryId=8198552921644523779> are stand-alone devices that can be used for any sort of content that the user chooses. You can load them with books bought from Sony, other ebook publishers like Baen <http://www.baen.com> or Harper Collins <http://www.harpercollins.com/imprints/index.aspx?imprintID=517980>, or free public-domain content from places like Project Gutenberg <http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page> or Feedbooks <http://feedbooks.com/> (a side note about free content from these sites -- many books that Amazon is happy to sell for the Kindle are available for free. But Amazon not only won't tell you that but they set things up with the Kindle so that you have to jump through a few hoops and pay to get that content on their device). If Sony goes out of business (not likely) or decides to get out of the ereader-and-book business (more likely), the only ebooks that you might lose the use of are the ones you bought directly from Sony, and the ereader will keep working for as long as it can still function. Conversely, if Amazon folds or decides to stop supporting the Kindle (which might happen -- Amazon isn't an electronics manufacturer and their reason for creating the Kindle is more about building a market for eBooks than being a electronics manufacturer) books bought for the Kindle are liable to be unusable and completely worthless. You could have spent a ton of money buying books that someday may be just as outdated and useless as an 8 track tape.
As someone who has seen music formats change from LPs to CDs and then to MP3s and video go from VHS to DVD, I can accept that you have to re-buy things as formats change. But I'll be damned if I'm going to go through that with my books too. Especially when there is _no_ reason for it other than Amazon's greed and desire to make their customers dependent on them indefinitely.
And all the forgoing was a problem _before_ Amazon demonstrated that they were willing to do the virtual equivalent of breaking into people houses and taking books off their shelves. But the recent incident demonstrated yet another problem with Amazon's model. What else can happen due to the connection between the Kindle and Amazon and the power that it provides? How about --
* A tell-all account of the Bush or Clinton presidency is published. One of the subjects of the account sues for Defamation of Character and wins (FYI - that's a civil action which means that all you need to do to win is convince seven out of twelve people that you're right). As part of the judgement the court orders that the offending chapters be rewritten and, without the consent of the Kindle owner (and possibly even without their knowledge), remotely substituted for the original chapters.
* A controversial book, such as The Turner Diaries or The Autobiography of Malcolm X, is tied to a criminal act and as part of the investigation Amazon (while under a gag order so they can't tell anyone) is compelled to provide not only purchase information about anyone who bought it for the Kindle but also information about how many times it's been read as well as any notes or bookmarks that the individual reader may have added.
* A violation of the contract that you have to sign when purchasing a Kindle gives Amazon the right to not only terminate your use of the Kindle but also delete all your books, lock the device, and lock you out of your Amazon account. All this without legal recourse or appeal and to correct it you, the user, have to take Amazon to court with the associated costs and headache.
So, if you want to buy ebooks and use a reader, please do so. There are some great reasons for it and some huge advantages. But don't get a Kindle. The Sony reader is better designed and so very much smarter. Or wait 'til fall and get one of the Apple Tablets. Sure it's more expensive and uses a LCD screen instead of eInk but it's going to be super-slick and will do _much_ more than any ebook reader out there.
August 08, 2008
Ebooks, the Coda
by Alan Beatts
I thought this month was going to be easy. I'd been working really hard putting the past few articles together and I figured I was done. This month I was going to write about something simple -- maybe my favorite ten novels or the _real_ story of what happens to socks when they vanish in the dryer. But two things happened. First, there were several pieces of news about eBooks that came to my attention and second, (and most notably) a lot of people wrote me emails about the last article. I had no idea that so many of you were interested in eBooks and their possible effects. I also wasn't expecting so many cogent, thoughtful comments on the topic. Not that I don't think that Borderlands customers are smart (our customers are _very_ smart, believe me) but I figured that you had more important things to do than write me.
So, welcome to _the last_ (I swear) article about the state of books according to yours truly. At least for a while. Here are some headlines to start off with.
I thought this month was going to be easy. I'd been working really hard putting the past few articles together and I figured I was done. This month I was going to write about something simple -- maybe my favorite ten novels or the _real_ story of what happens to socks when they vanish in the dryer. But two things happened. First, there were several pieces of news about eBooks that came to my attention and second, (and most notably) a lot of people wrote me emails about the last article. I had no idea that so many of you were interested in eBooks and their possible effects. I also wasn't expecting so many cogent, thoughtful comments on the topic. Not that I don't think that Borderlands customers are smart (our customers are _very_ smart, believe me) but I figured that you had more important things to do than write me.
So, welcome to _the last_ (I swear) article about the state of books according to yours truly. At least for a while. Here are some headlines to start off with.
July 01, 2008
Bookstores Are Going to Close
At some point in the future, electronic books are going to put almost all bookstores out of business.
Period.
I don't like it. Even if I wasn't a bookseller, I wouldn't like it. But it's going to happen unless something really, really extraordinary happens. And I mean extraordinary on the level of World War III, a super flu that wipes out 50% of the world's population or perhaps an extinction-level asteroid strike.
The big question is how soon.
Welcome to my last article in a series of four on current trends in the book business. Last month I warned you this was going to be a gloomy set of predictions. Well, here we go.
Period.
I don't like it. Even if I wasn't a bookseller, I wouldn't like it. But it's going to happen unless something really, really extraordinary happens. And I mean extraordinary on the level of World War III, a super flu that wipes out 50% of the world's population or perhaps an extinction-level asteroid strike.
The big question is how soon.
Welcome to my last article in a series of four on current trends in the book business. Last month I warned you this was going to be a gloomy set of predictions. Well, here we go.
April 01, 2008
Book Business Shakeups
by Alan Beatts
Thus far, 2008 has brought several things that may lead to some changes in the world of books - business moves that Amazon.com is making, the current financial trouble at Borders Books, and sharply increased interest in eBooks. I thought it would be interesting to talk about all three in this column. Over the next three months I'll talk about each one in depth but first I'm going to start with an overview of what's going on. Before I start, one warning -- much of what follows isn't very good news if you love traditional books and bookstores. I don't want to bring anyone down but I do think it's good to let people know what's going on. So, if you want cheerful and happy bunnies, you might want to give this column a miss for the next few months. On the upside, in the next three months I'm going to give some specific suggestions about what you can do if you don't like some of the changes I'm discussing here.
Thus far, 2008 has brought several things that may lead to some changes in the world of books - business moves that Amazon.com is making, the current financial trouble at Borders Books, and sharply increased interest in eBooks. I thought it would be interesting to talk about all three in this column. Over the next three months I'll talk about each one in depth but first I'm going to start with an overview of what's going on. Before I start, one warning -- much of what follows isn't very good news if you love traditional books and bookstores. I don't want to bring anyone down but I do think it's good to let people know what's going on. So, if you want cheerful and happy bunnies, you might want to give this column a miss for the next few months. On the upside, in the next three months I'm going to give some specific suggestions about what you can do if you don't like some of the changes I'm discussing here.
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