Archive for the ‘eBook Stores’ Category
Read an E-Book Week 1 comment
This is Read an E-Book Week and there are a number of sales and free books to help you celebrate. Smashwords has a special section for the event and you can also visit the Official Read an E-Book Week page for a listing of other participating ebook stores and authors offering specials.
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New York Times to Offer Stand-Alone Book Review Section for eReaders no comments
The New York Times currently will cost you $13.99 per month to subscribe on your Kindle, Sony or Barnes & Noble compatible ereader. The NYT apparently plans to break out its Book Review section and make it available as a separate product at an undisclosed price.
PoynterOnline reports that Times director of marketing James Dunn referred to the plan during an interview at the Digital Publishing Alliance. The Sony Reader Store will get the Book Section first in a few weeks, followed by the Kindle store and Barnes & Noble.
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Amazon Makes it Easier to Find Free Content no comments
I noticed this morning that Amazon had put their free music downloads all in one easy to browse place, apparently they are doing the same with other free digital content.
Free public domain ebooks
There is a page of free video on demand. Mostly these are television episodes and extra content from a few movies. Not a lot here at the moment.
Free music downloads. Currently this page has about 1600 tracks that are free.
This definitely makes it easier for shoppers to find the free stuff and is a welcome addition to the Amazon shopping experience.
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Macmillan CEO John Sargent Writes About the Agency Model no comments
In a rather long article this morning Macmillan CEO John Sargent writes about the agency model and about Macmillan’s ebook pricing strategy. I’ll just quote an excerpt below:
We will price our e-books at a wide variety of prices. In the ink-on-paper world we publish new books in different formats (hardcover, trade paperback, and mass market paperback) at prices that generally range from $35.00 to $5.99. In the digital world we will price each book individually as we do today. Generally e-book editions of hardcover new releases will be priced between $14.99 and $12.99; a few books will be priced higher and lower. This is a tremendous discount from the price of the printed hardcover books, which generally range from $28.00 to $24.00. E-book editions of New York Times hardcover bestsellers will be priced at $12.99 or lower while they are on the printed list. E-book editions of paperback new releases will be generally priced between $9.99 and $6.99.
For physical books, the majority of new release hardcovers are published in cheaper paperback versions over time. We will mirror this price reduction in the digital world. It is too early to estimate the timing of the price reductions for those cases in which we do not issue a paperback edition. If we do issue a paperback, we will drop the digital price to $9.99 or lower at publication date (if not before). The price differential between the book and the e-book will become smaller at the lower price points.
There has been a lot of concern from e-book readers that $9.99 books will no longer be available. Most Macmillan e-books will still be priced below ten dollars. Our e-book sales over the last year clearly indicate that only about a third of our e-book business is in the digital versions of new release hardcovers. Unit sales of older books far exceed our new release hardcover sales, so the $9.99 and lower prices will continue to represent the largest portion of our business.
In short, we will continue to do what we have always done: provide the reader with a vast selection of great books over a wide range of prices.
It remains to be seen whether or not Macmillan will indeed adjust their ebook prices over time to reflect the actual selling prices of pbooks. So far the track record is not stellar.
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A Couple of Interesting Articles no comments
I’ve come across a couple of interesting articles today that are worth sharing.
Could a Kindle tablet running Windows 7 Mobile be in the works? Last week Microsoft and Amazon announced that the two companies had entered a cross-licensing deal allowing access to each other’s patent portfolios. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed, but payment of an undisclosed amount by Amazon to Microsoft was part of the deal.
There has been much speculation on the implications of this agreement. Patents related to the Kindle, which uses Linux, were included in the agreement. Was Amazon just trying to cover its bases vis-a-vis Microsoft’s contentions that many Linux implementations violate its patents? Or is Amazon laying the groundwork for a Kindle tablet to go head to head with the iPad? Does Microsoft plan to release an ereader, and is the Courier tablet for real?
On a ZDNet blog post Jason Perlow speculates that Amazon might have plans to ditch Linux and switch to a Windows 7 powered Kindle, possibly even with a Pixel Qi display:
Imagine a Windows 7 Phone Series device scaled up to a 10.1 inch screen, with Wireless-N networking, Microsoft’s Zune/Amazon MP3 music service, Kindle’s e-book store and the Microsoft’s developer base behind it. A synthesis of the world’s largest Internet retailer, ebook reseller and the world’s largest software company.
Such a device could also go well with Amazon’s video on demand service.
More Publishers vs Ebooks
Writing in the NY Times, Motoko Rich estimates the comparative costs of publishing a pbook vs an ebook and explains the ebook pricing controversy pretty much from the publisher’s point of view.
Citing concerns that ebooks will further pressure already beleaguered brick and mortar bookstores, Rich quotes Mike Shatzkin who is CEO of a consultant company to the publishing industry, “If you want bookstores to stay alive, then you want to slow down this movement to e-books. The simplest way to slow down e-books is not to make them too cheap.”
My thoughts would be that even if we didn’t have ebooks the bookstores would sadly still be in trouble. For one thing dedicated bookstores face similar problems as other smaller specialized shops have in recent history. How can they compete with the likes of Walmart, Costco or online stores such as Amazon? By the time that ebooks become a significant enough percentage of the total number of books sold to become a serious threat to bookstores it will most likely be far too late for many of these stores anyway.
In addition people read less than before because we are so busy and there are so many other forms of entertainment competing for our scarce leisure time. While it is of little benefit to pbook stores, ereaders have the capability to help reverse the decline in reading by making it much more convenient.
Rich also mentions the common publishing industry argument that “the industry is based on the understanding that as much as 70 percent of the books published will make little or no money at all for the publisher once costs are paid.”
In other words bestsellers subsidize the rest of the books that are published. Well, if all books were published digitally this would not be an issue. No physical bookstore can afford the shelf space to stock all of those 70 percent of books that are not bestsellers. How can titles that are slow sellers even be bought if most bookstores cannot stock them? Online pbook stores can stock much more than brick and mortar stores, but there is still a limit.
Shelf space is not an issue for ebooks. The long tail made up of the 70 percent of titles that do not sell well would cost almost nothing to stock in digital format and because they could be made readily available as ebooks they would even sell more copies than they do now. Publishers could even turn their out of print books into a revenue stream by rereleasing them as ebooks.
Rich closes by quoting Anne Rice “The only thing I think is a mistake is people trying to hold back e-books or Kindle and trying to head off this revolution by building a dam. It’s not going to work.”
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Free Kim Harrison eBook; British Library Classics Coming to Kindle Store no comments
Dead Witch Walking (The Hollows, Book 1) by Kim Harrison (4 stars/288 reviews) is available free at the Kindle store and at the Barnes and Noble eBook Store. This is a fun series if you have not read it yet.
And speaking of free ebooks, the British Library recently announced that they will soon be making 65,000 classic titles available through the Kindle store as free
downloads. The collection includes many rare and hard to find titles. You will also be able to order POD copies if you so desire.
There is a new press release from the British Museum which I will quote a couple of paragraphs from below. You can also read the announcement in its entirety here.
Estimates suggest that roughly 35% to 40% of the British Library’s 19th century British printed collections are either unique, or at least inaccessible through other major libraries in the UK and abroad. This deal is a prime example of how the British Library is continuing to explore new technologies and innovative business models to improve access to its historic collections.
Covering the likes of Dickens, Austen, and Conan Doyle, the 65,000 titles also include a range of lesser know Victorian classics such as, A Strange Story by Edward Lytton, one of the period’s most popular novelists – now largely neglected, and The Story of a Modern Woman by Ella Hepworth Dixon, described as ‘the greatest unread novel of female struggle’. Through print on-demand with CreateSpace, part of the Amazon group of companies, readers will be able to have their very own copies of these previously rare and inaccessible titles now in the public domain, including some classic first editions, re-printed at an affordable price. Print-on-demand is both a convenient and economically viable way of making these collections available. In addition, Kindle owners will be able to download these titles for free.
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eBook Sales Jump 176% in 2009 no comments
The Association of American Publishers reports that ebook sales jumped 176.6% in 2009. Ebooks accounted for 3.3% of trade sales in 2009; up from 1.2% in 2008.
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Customizable Digital Textbooks & Some More Thoughts on Publishers vs eBooks 1 comment
In the NY Times Motoko Rich reports that Macmillan’s new DynamicBooks software will allow professors to edit and customize digital textbooks to suit their classes.
Professors will be able to reorganize or delete chapters; upload course syllabuses, notes, videos, pictures and graphs; and perhaps most notably, rewrite or delete individual paragraphs, equations or illustrations.
Macmillan will start the program with 100 titles that students can purchase through CourseSmart, dynamicbooks.com or through college bookstores. The etextbook versions should be lower priced than the paper versions. Rich cites one example: “Psychology” has a list price of $134.29 and sells for $122.73 at Barnes & Noble. The DynamicBooks version will be $48.76.
The current model for paper textbooks has many students selling their used textbooks for about 50% of retail. The stores then resale the used textbooks for about 75% of the retail price of a new copy. This goes on for several years until a new edition is published. In essence, many students are renting their paper textbooks.
The publishers get nothing from these used book sales and this is one reason that paper textbook prices are so high. Publishers also control the market by periodically releasing new editions with differing page numbers, updated (hopefully) content, etc. There are no used textbook sales with digital versions, and the publishers and authors get their cut from every sale.
DynamicBooks sounds really promising. It shows that at least some at Macmillan “get it” about ebooks. Similar principles apply to all of the other books we read. If we buy a pbook we can give or loan it to a friend, sell it as used, or donate it to the library. Neither the publisher nor the author get any revenue when we dispose of our books in such ways. With ebooks all of this is gone. If you recommend a good ebook to your friend, that person will most likely have to buy their own copy if they want to read it.
In addition, if publishers and authors were to make all of their backlist and out of print titles available in digital format they could enjoy the benefits of the long tail effect. These older and sometimes esoteric titles may not sell as many units per title, but when added up together would surely amount to a substantial sum.
Readers tend to read more with ereaders, in many cases a lot more. Publishers should be able to make up the lower per title revenue from ebooks with increased sales volume, especially as more and more people move to reading digitally. This is not to mention the cost savings of distributing ebooks; such as no warehousing, no remainders, etc. We should not be expected to pay hardcover prices for our ebooks, and probably not even paperback prices in most cases.
In any case, ebooks and digital reading devices are the future of reading, and the publishers need to figure out how to adapt and thrive with the new technology rather than worrying about whether ebooks are going to impact the sales of hardcovers – because yes they will have an impact. Just as in the past other revolutionary publishing technology impacted the practitioners of the old ways. Seen any scribes lately?
If the publishing industry does not adapt they are going to find themselves much less necessary as digital publishing and reading make it much easier for authors to self-publish.
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OverDrive Announces Plans for 2010 no comments
In a press release OverDrive has announced some new digital content distribution services planned for 2010. The press release is quite long, so I will just quote a couple of paragraphs here. You can read the press release in its entirety here.
Interactive Media, DRM-Free eBooks, Periodicals, Streaming Audiobooks, Music, and Video to Join Digital Distributor’s Retail and Library Channels
CLEVELAND, OH–(Marketwire – 02/22/10) – OverDrive (www.overdrive.com), the leading global distributor of eBooks and audiobooks for libraries and retailers, announced today new services that will significantly expand its digital distribution network for copyrighted digital media. New digital book formats, streaming content services, and title discovery and fulfillment enhancements will be available in 2010, which will help OverDrive’s publishing partners, retailers, and libraries capitalize on accelerating market demand. During 2009, OverDrive achieved its fifth consecutive year of double digit growth and profitability by adding hundreds of retail, library, corporate, and school outlets for more than 1,000 publishers’ copyrighted eBooks, audiobooks, music and video in more than a dozen countries. Building on this momentum, OverDrive will introduce new services for 2010, including:
– Content Reserve® Plus: OverDrive’s global distribution platform will
integrate third party digital catalogs to add their eBooks, databases,
music, video, and enhanced multimedia content to OverDrive’s network of
retail and institutional accounts. In March, OverDrive will demonstrate
interactive educational eBook products including "read aloud" features
and DRM-free eBooks in "Open EPUB" and "Open PDF" formats at the Public
Library Association National Conference in Portland, Oregon. OverDrive
is now in negotiation with rights holders of databases, periodicals,
newspapers, music by the track, HD and mobile streaming video, and
reader apps to add their content to OverDrive’s current catalog of over
450,000 copyrighted digital titles.
– OverDrive Reciprocal®: OverDrive’s consolidated bookshelf service will
provide readers a single location for access, preferences, permission-
based contact from publishers and authors across numerous eBook formats,
audiobooks, interactive titles, subscriptions, and suppliers of premium
media. Reciprocal will provide single sign-on (SSO) eCommerce and
membership card support to dozens of eBookstores, libraries, and user
accounts. As a certified Payment Card International (PCI) Level 1
compliant service center, OverDrive will provide SSO for multiple credit
card or debit payment methods from a single bookshelf and their
OverDrive Reciprocal Dashboard.
The read aloud features are necessary for those with vision impairments. Some libraries suspended buying Overdrive ebooks last year when an Adobe software update disabled text-to-speech.
Reciprocal sounds interesting as well, depending on how it is implemented.
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Ereader Sales and Free Kindle Books 2/21/10 no comments
Other than Newegg selling the JetBook Lite for $115 with free shipping there don’t seem to be any dramatic ereader sales at the moment.
Free Kindle and nook eBooks
The following are free for now – don’t hesitate if you see something you want. Also check out my free and cheap ebooks page.
Wolf Signs: Granite Lake Wolves, Book 1 by Vivian Arend (4 stars/10 reviews) Werewolves in love. Also free at Barnes and Noble eBook Store.
Change the World: Recovering the Message and Mission of Jesus by Michael B Slaughter (4 1/2 stars/ 2 reviews) Christianity.
The Almost True Story of Ryan Fisher: A Novel by Rob Stennett (5 stars/ 28 reviews) Contemporary fiction.
This is My Test by Robin Glenn (5 stars/2 reviews) Coming of age short story.
The following two books have shown up on my scan for free books. They are not free yet, but perhaps they are about to be made so.
My Name is Russell Fink by Michael Snyder (4 1/2 stars/34 reviews) Contemporary fiction.
Amberville with Bonus Material by Tim Davys (3 1/2 stars/44 reviews) Mystery set in a community of stuffed animals.
The following are free at the Barnes and Noble eBook Store for nook ereaders.
The Unsuspecting Mage (Morcyth Saga Series #1) by Brian S. Pratt (3 1/2 stars/80 ratings) Fantasy.
Final Passage by Timothy Frost (3 1/2 stars/27 ratings) Mystery?
Cain’s Apples by Bryan L. Lee (3 1/2 stars/60 ratings) Supernatural short story.
