Elonex to Launch eBook/Tablets Lines at IFA on Thursday

Per Pocket-lint: PC maker Elonex confirms that it will be launching multiple ebooks and tablets at the German tech fair IFA 2010 when the show starts on Thursday. These will include both color and eInk eBooks models.

WattPad eBook App Updated for the BlackBerry Torch

Ronan Halevy, BerryReview.com: "WattPad let us know that they have updated their eBook app for the BlackBerry Torch offering their 100,000 eBooks on the new device. They keep on touting that they are the #1 BlackBerry App World eBook app but that is mostly because Amazon has not put their Kindle or MobiPocket eBook readers in App World. If you have been looking for another eBook app for your BlackBerry Torch check out WattPad at www.wattpad.com or in App World. Their app has some nice features like MobiPocket giving you control of the font size and color adjustment capabilities as well as an auto-scroll function for hands-free reading, something I miss in MobiPocket."

Adobe Reader for Android ... Now Supporting Six Languages

Adobe Reader Blog: "It’s here – today we added support for five additional languages for Adobe Reader for Android: French, German, Italian, Spanish and Dutch. In this update (V9.0.2) Android phone users in these locales can now view and interact with PDF files in the language most convenient to them. It’s easy and just a few clicks away to download (click from your Android device) this free update in your own language from your Android phone. Once the update is installed, Adobe Reader adopts the current language settings of your smart phone for any of the supported languages."

Borders Lowers Prices on Kobo and Aluratek Libre e-Readers/Target to Begin Selling Kindle

TheStreet: "After a brief cessation of hostilities, Borders(BGP) is again reigniting the e-reader price wars, lowering the cost on two of its devices. Borders announced Tuesday that it will lower the price on its Kobo e-reader to $129.99 from $149.99, while its Aluratek Libre reader will now be sold for $99.99 from $119.99. ... Elsewhere in the e-reader world, Staples (SPLS) announced today that it will begin selling Amazon's Kindle in stores this fall. Currently, Target (TGT) also carries the device."

The Eco-Friendly Kindle

DailyTech: "Producing one paperback book is not as bad for the environment as producing one Kindle, but a one-time purchase of a Kindle and downloading books rather than continuously buying paperback's is better for the environment. Buying a Kindle is a good idea (environmentally) for people who will download a large number of books, and who don't trade in gadgets every year. According to Cleantech, an environmental consulting firm, a book generates 7.5 kilograms, or 17 pounds, of carbon dioxide equivalents through production, transport and disposal or recycling. A Kindle, on the other hand, generates 168 kilograms, or 371 pounds of carbon dioxide. But according to The Washington Post, the Kindle pays for its carbon dioxide emissions halfway through the consumer's 23rd book. Every time a consumer downloads an electronic book rather than buying a paperback, a small amount of the water and carbon dioxide deficit from Kindle production is paid back."

Bertelsmann Raises Outlook

WSJ.com: "Media conglomerate Bertelsmann AG Tuesday lifted its full year outlook after a significant improvement in first-half results, driven by the steady improvement in advertising markets, cost cutting and lower charges compared with a year earlier. Growth was mainly fueled by the advertising-driven divisions, broadcaster RTL Group SA (RTL.BT), Hamburg-based newspaper and magazine publisher Gruner Jahr, and by trade book publisher Random House where the U.S. business and digital activities were particularly positive, Bertelsmann said."

LG To Start Mass Production Of 9.7-Inch Color, 19-Inch Flexible E-Papers By End Of 2010

WWWery.com: "An SEC filing by LG revealed its plans to launch 9.7-inch color, 19-inch flexible e-papers at least by Q1 2011. The company said that it will start the mass production of the e-papers by the end of 2010. While a color-screen e-reader is fancy, it’s not a necessity that can replace the current generation e-readers like Amazon’s Kindle. But the e-papers are something to lookout for."

Kobo Opens New York Office

Kobo Press Release: "With Kobo and US publishers, it’s been a long-distance relationship. Lots of planes, a river of email, plenty of phone and Skype. And like all long-distance relationships, it starts to get a little tired. Another meal at the airport. You wonder if they’re seeing someone else. You want more. Someone has to move. We asked the publishers if they could all move to Toronto. They said something about the lease on their Manhattan apartment and how they were focused on their career right now. It looks like it’s up to us. So I am happy to announce that Kobo has opened an office in New York, focused on publisher relations and content acquisition for the US market, and even happier to introduce the first two members of our New York team. ... "

Joe Wikert: iPad Magazines, Thumbs Down

iPadHound Blog: "After much disappointment with Amazon, and their inability to offer a comprehensive magazine portfolio on the Kindle, I had high hopes for the iPad. And while the iPad is still fairly new, the magazine experience up to now has been pretty disappointing. Like so many others I tried the first issue of Wired in their iPad app and I haven't been back. (I have a print subscription, btw.) I've also tried Zinio and subscribed to PC Magazine in it. Nothing remarkable. ... "

Digital Royalties: Random House Sets 40% Bar for Some Titles

Here's the thing. The so-called "big-six" no longer define the industry standard. The publishing world is fast becoming flat. The majority of small indies offer 50% royalties on new frontlist titles off the break. And the big, old-media houses bring less and less of an advantage to the publishing/distribution equation every day as paper evaporates and digital distribution comes to the fore.

Publishers Weekly:

A source confirmed that the biggest of the 'big six,' Random House, has adopted an e-book royalty that tops out at 40% for all titles covered by contracts signed before 1994. Sources said that Random is offering a starting royalty of 25% on these titles—which is the de facto standard in the industry on frontlist books—that then rises to 40%. The hike works, as one source put it, like a 'sales escalator,' jumping a certain percentage after a specified number of sales. While Random considers the agreement it has with Wylie and other agencies to be a standard, there is room for flexibility in different negotiations. The 40% royalty rate does not apply to digital editions of Random frontlist titles; that royalty remains 25%. ...

Agent Richard Curtis, president of Richard Curtis Associates, also questioned the supposed fairness of this new rate. “It’s fairer than 25%, and not as fair as 50%,” he quipped, noting that e-reads, the digital publishing company he also runs, offers, like Rosetta, a 50% royalty.

Although sources did not specify whether a similar backlist digital royalty standard has been adopted by the other big houses, agent Robert Gottlieb, chairman of Trident Media Group, said, “What Random House has done successfully is press the issue and work out a deal with Wylie that will help the other houses come to a similar conclusion.”

Certainly the presumption is that all of the big six are talking to agents about trying to come to terms on digital royalties for titles where e-rights are in question, and that agreements will closely follow the RH-Wylie settlement. The contentious issue over digital royalty rates for frontlist titles, however, remains to be resolved.

Nicholas Negroponte: The Paper Book is Dead; Long Live the Narrative

Global Post:

Kindle owners buy twice as many books as non-Kindle owners. Just one of the many signs that while the paper book is dead, the narrative will live on.

If you are saying to yourself, “That sounds horrible. I hope books do not go away,” I ask you to consider the world’s poorest and most remote kids."

The manufactured book stunts learning, especially for those children. The last thing these children should have are physical books. They are too costly, too heavy, fall out-of-date and are sharable only in some common and limited physical space.

Paper books also do not do well in dampness, dirt, heat or rain. Not to mention that 320 textbooks require, on average, one tree and produce about 10,000 pounds of CO2 in manufacturing and delivery. This makes no sense. Kids in the developing world should not be sent physical books.

The only way to provide books to the 2 billion children in the world is electronically. You cannot feed children or clothe them electronically, but you can certainly educate and provide hope with these weightless, sizeless and mostly costless 1’s and 0’s. ...

Oxford University Press: Third Edition of OED Unlikely to Appear in Print Format

The Guardian: "Publishers of the Oxford English Dictionary have confirmed that the third edition may never appear in print. A team of 80 lexicographers began working on it following the publication of the second edition in 1989. It is 28% finished. In comments to a Sunday newspaper, Nigel Portwood, chief executive of Oxford University Press, which owns the dictionary, said: 'The print dictionary market is just disappearing. It is falling away by tens of percent a year.' Asked if he thought the third edition would appear in printed format, he said: 'I don't think so.' ..." But no final decision has been made. Note that the Third Edition is not due for another ten years.

Paul Carr: A Modest Proposal For Authors Who Abandon Their Publishers — Give Me A Break

I actually don't agree with anything Carr says here, as he is basically knocking the indie movement. But he does it so engagingly. TechCrunch: "If I were a commissioning editor in a major publishing house, I’d be feeling a little unloved right now. Like the wife of a guy who runs over his neighbour’s cat: why does everyone hate me? What did I do? Maybe hate is too strong a word: hate is when you hope that someone will burst into flames and die. The current feeling towards publishers isn’t quite that: no one wants them to combust – it’s just that, well, they wouldn’t urinate on them if it happened. ..."

No News is Sometimes Good News

There is nothing worthy to chronicle re: ebooks business/tech on this beautiful Sunday. So, I'm trotting off into the largely non-digital Rhode Island outdoors. I'll be back tomorrow. Please just talk amongst yourselves until then.

Extremely Detailed Kindle Review from BlogKindle

Here it is. Summary: Five thumbs up. The review is highly useful for its depth. No detail overlooked.

USA Today to "Shift Business Model Away from Print" and Emphasize Mobile

NYTimes.com:

... lately the paper has lost its grip on the national media market. Its advertising revenue has collapsed. Its circulation has plunged — last year it forfeited its title as the nation’s most widely circulated newspaper on weekdays to The Wall Street Journal.

Faced with this dour reality, USA Today announced on Friday the most extensive reorganization in its 28-year history. The paper will eliminate about 130 jobs, or 9 percent of its work force, and shift its business model away from the print edition that has become ubiquitous in airports, hotels and newsstands across the country. The paper’s focus will now be on its digital operations.

It will emphasize breaking news on its Web site, aiming to post articles within 30 minutes of a breaking news event. It will create a stand-alone sports edition called USA Today Sports. And it will shift more of its resources toward making content more available in digital form, an effort to win a larger share of the tablet and mobile phone news market. ...

eBooks in India

Digits - WSJ:

... With last week’s release of “Wink,” Bangalore’s EC Media claims to have launched India’s first e-reader tailored to serve the local population. One can’t help but wonder, are e-books worth the money and will Indians take to them as eagerly as many have in the U.S.?

While techno geeks may like this new device, only 42% of the people that buy books in India are habitual readers, according to a survey in Tehelka Magazine early this year.

The survey, which asked 1,152 people across the country about their reading habits, found that while 20% of the respondents said they had read e-books, 92% of them were using PCs, not reading devices like Apple’s iPad, Amazon’s Kindle or Sony’s Daily Reader.

A survey by the National Council of Applied Economic Research published in the Financial Express estimated that there are only around 83 million non-syllabus book readers in India. Researcher, Preeti Kakkar, said the survey sampled over 311,431 literate youth all over the country.\

“Our reader has the distinct advantage of being the only one to support so many Indian languages,” Pradeep Palazhi, chief operating officer of EC Media told India Real Time. “It will also have a free newspaper service called Wink Wire where owners will get daily regular news updates.”

While the language capability may make it attractive to Indian buyers, it will be years before any e-reader is real competition for books said B. Narayanaswamy, president of Ipsos Indica Research in New Delhi.

“I see a whole new generation of people getting into e-books, but those people will mostly be the kind who are more tech savvy, have grown up on the Internet and are upwardly mobile,” he said. Some of the biggest buyers of books in India are libraries, he said, and they only buy bound books. ...

LG Producing New Flexible Electronic Paper

The New York Observer: "What if you could fold up your Kindle and stick it in a coat pocket like you do with a newspaper? How cool would that be? We're about to find out, because LG has announced it will soon produce something that may let you do just that." Note: LG supplies the screens for the iPad and Kindle DX. E-Ink is also at work along the same lines.

Lance Ulanoff: The 7-inch Apple iPad is a Stupid Idea

PCMag.com:

... the fact that Apple is creating touch devices at various sizes doesn't bolster the argument for a 7-inch iPad. Why? Well think about what 7-inch device does or doesn't get you:

• A 7-inch device means less real estate and more zooming in on pages and documents. Immediately that's less attractive than my iPad.
• 7 inches is big enough to draw on, but I get a larger canvas on the iPad
• 7 inches is too big to put in my pocket.
• 7 inches is still too large to use as a phone. Would you hold something that size up against your head?

I think most manufacturers are already learning that even 5-inch "tablets" are a tough sell. The awkward devices turn off anyone with smaller hands and they don't add enough screen real-estate to be that much more attractive than 4.3-inch devices.

Kobo iPad/iPhone App Review - Slow Page Turns, Slow Chapter to Chapter Movement

Macworld: "I don’t know that the world needs yet another e-book competitor, but that’s not my call. If Kindle, iBooks, Nook, and the rest haven’t yet sated your unique e-reading hunger, Kobo’s certainly worth a shot; generally speaking, it works fine. But unless the developer can address the app’s occasional slowness—when changing chapters and when turning pages—Kobo will remain my last e-reading choice on the iPad and iPhone."

2 New eBookstores Open in France

Digital Reader: "Actualitte are reporting that Darty and Carrefour have each opened an eBookstore this week. Each site will be selling eBooks encumbered with Adobe DE DRM in Epub and PDF formats. They also sell e-readers. There are a couple rather interesting details here. First, these companies are retail chains, not tech companies. Darty’s closest US analog would be Best Buy, and Carrefour are an international conglomerate of chains (similar to Kroger in the US). They’re also both using Numilog to supply and run their eBookstore. ..."

Digital Publishing To Be Center Stage @ Frankfurt Book Fair

eBookNewser: "The Frankfurt Book Fair is approaching soon, and this year, there is a more digital focus than in year's past. The event hosts about 300,000 attendees and about 7,500 exhibitors will include partnership with more technology companies, including a second year partnership with O'Reilly Media. 'The eBook has really takes off this year, especially in the U.S.,' said Thomas Minkus, VP Emerging Media & English Language Markets, Frankfurt Book Fair. 'We know that publishers from all over the world want to know what is going on with digital publishing so we hope to have a lot of companies and exhibitors addressing these issues.' ... This year will also feature six digital 'hot spots' throughout the fairground. The idea is to connect publishing professionals with the technology industry to help expand digital publishing partnerships."

Penguin in "Conversation" with Andrew Wylie Over Odyssey Titles

theBookseller.com: "Penguin has confirmed that it is negotiating with agent Andrew Wylie over books that have been included in the agent's digital offshoot Odyssey Editions over which Penguin has print rights. The news follows the truce declared between Random House and Wylie, with reports suggesting that a deal was struck after the adoption of a new royalty rate based on a sliding scale. ... Penguin refused to elaborate on its discussions with Wylie, but has two books—Saul Bellow's Adventures of Augie March and William Burroughs' Junky—for which it holds global rights in print, and one further title Brideshead Revisited, where it has UK and Commonwealth rights. A statement from the publisher read: 'Penguin Group has had conversations with Andrew Wylie regarding the books in the Odyssey Editions program and those conversations are ongoing.'"

HarperCollins Thriller Sells More in eBooks Than in Hardcover

WSJ: "Laura Lippman’s thriller, I’d Know You Anywhere, went on sale Aug. 17, and in its first five days sold 4,739 e-books and 4,000 physical hardcovers, said News Corp.’s HarperCollins Publishers. 'This is the first book of ours of any consequence that has sold more e-books than hardcovers in the first week,' said Frank Albanese, a senior vice president at HarperCollins. 'What we’re seeing now is that if a book gets a good review, it gets a faster lift on the digital side than it does on the physical side because people who have e-readers can buy and read it immediately.'"

New iWork 9.0.4 Exports to ePub

Softpedia: "You can now put your documents into iBooks on your iOS device, according to the changelog accompanying iWork 9.0.4, the latest version of Apple's productivity suite for Mac OS X. ... 9.0.4 includes compatibility with the standard ePub file format when exporting. Apple highlights that this is 'for use with iBooks.' Users can now create an ePub document that can be read in iBooks on the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. The feature comes with a note on behalf of Apple saying 'not all Pages formatting options are available in ePub.'"

Market Research: eBook Medium Significantly Increases the Number of Books Read and PURCHASED

NYTimes.com: "A study earlier this year by L.E.K. Consulting ... found that almost half of those with e-readers were buying and reading more books, and Amazon has said that customers buy more than 3 times as many books after they buy a Kindle e-reader. Interestingly enough, the L.E.K. survey found that 36 percent of the books read by people with e-readers were what it called 'incremental consumption.' In other words, e-reader owners were reading new books, rather than books that the owner would otherwise have read in print. The global consulting group reported the findings in its second annual 'Hidden Opportunities in New Media Survey' of more than 2,000 households. According to recent figures from Amazon, in the second quarter of this year the company sold 143 Kindle e-books for every 100 hardcover books sold."

Get Chicken On Your Kindle

My  favorite indie novelist hits Kindle. Wanda Shapiro/One Girl One Novel: "Sometimes That Happens With Chicken is now available on Kindle for all you ebook addicts. I’ve been looking forward to this for quite some time and soon you’ll be able to get Chicken on your iPad too. Here’s a link to Amazon where you can start reading in under a minute. http://www.amazon.com/Sometimes-That-Happens-Chicken-ebook/dp/B0040GJ97A/ref=kinw_dp_ke?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2 I personally haven’t tranistioned my reading habits to the very sleek and tempting Kindle but I can feel myself getting closer to taking the leap. When I was testing my Kindle file I got help from a friend who seems to have given up paper books almost completely. It was the first time I had actually used a Kindle and I must say, I was impressed. I’m even a little more tempted now that the price has dropped a bit ... "

Kindle 3 vs. Kindle 2 Web Surfing Death Match

Led Edgerly, host of the Kindle Chronicles podcast, provides a GREAT side-by-side comparison of Web browsing on the new Kindle 3 vs. the Kindle 2. Guess what. Kindle 3 wins. By a mile.

Acer LumiRead to Make IFA Debut: €250 Pricetag Rumored

SlashGear: "Acer’s LumiRead ereader will make its official debut at IFA 2010 next week, according to Lesen‘s sources at the company, with a commercial launch – in Germany at least – following on in September. As with the Amazon Kindle, a second source suggests, the LumiRead will come with free 3G access to download new ebooks, and a sticker price of around €250 ($318). That’s considerably higher than what Amazon and the rest of the ereader market leaders are offering their devices for.  Acer are hoping to differentiate themselves with their ISBN-scanner, which can be used to build up a wish-list of titles owners intend to buy in the future."

Acer LumiRead television ad (in German):

David Pogue: New Kindle Leaves Rivals Far Behind

NYTimes.com: " ... what makes the Kindle so successful isn’t what Amazon added to it; it’s what Amazon subtracted: size, weight and price. Nook’s two-screen setup makes it fussy and complicated. Sony’s additional screen layers make the E Ink less sharp. In the meantime, certain facts are unassailable: that the new Kindle offers the best E Ink screen, the fastest page turns, the smallest, lightest, thinnest body and the lowest price tag of any e-reader. It’s also the most refined and comfortable."

What Can We Take Away From Random House's Backlist eBook Deal With Andrew Wylie?

DailyFinance: "What does the Wylie/Random House deal mean for the future of digital publishing ventures? The flippant answer is that no one really knows yet, even as Amazon's newest version of the Kindle sells out faster than any other device they've made and the e-book market continues to grow. The more nuanced response is that Odyssey Editions was always a one-of-a-kind venture, hovering well outside the ever-expanding horizons of a most exciting -- and unpredictable -- future for existing and still nascent e-book ventures."

Here's the Official Press Release on the Doomed Literati eReader - Get it at Bed, Bath & Beyond!

MarketWatch: "After an extensive two-year design and development process, the Literati (www.LiteratiReader.com) will ship nationwide in early October to more than 7,000 retail stores -- including Bed Bath & Beyond, Best Buy, JC Penney, Kohl's, Macy's and more -- creating the broadest retail footprint of any eReader currently available. Holiday shoppers are expected to benefit from the current eReader price competition and find the Literati priced for $159 or less through rebates, special offers and promos." BIG PICTURE: Kindle Wifi is just $139. The platform, btw, is Kobo.

Random House Has Caved to Wylie on eBook Royalty Rates

Told you so: "While Applebaum held the line on the question of the digital royalty rate--he said that 'Random House has been engaging in ongoing and productive conversations relating to e-book rights for certain Random House backlist titles and the arrangement reached with The Wylie Agency to now publish these particular titles as e-books in the United States is consistent with agreements we've reached with other literary agents'--one high-placed source with direct knowledge of the rights talks said the house has quietly been offering agents a better deal on backlist e-book rights for a brief period now. The source said Random is offering a royalty built around a sliding schedule on e-book rights for backlist titles that can approach 40% 'rather quickly.'" - Publishers Weekly

New Kindles Selling At Record Rates, U.S. Amazon Store Now Has Over 670,000 Titles

TechCrunch: "Amazon has announced today that more 'next generation Kindles were ordered in the first four weeks of availability than in the same timeframe following any other Kindle launch, making the new Kindles the fastest-selling ever.' While the company didn’t reveal how many Kindles have been sold, it said that in the four weeks since the introduction of the new Kindle and Kindle 3G, customers ordered more Kindles on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk combined than any other product. The new version of the Kindle started shipping to customers today, which Amazon says is two days earlier than previously announced."

MerchSource Literati - Color Comes to an E-Reader

$20 more than Wifi Kindle with no web site access & no games? Just for color display in a dedicated eReader? I don't think so. Gadgetwise Blog - NYTimes.com: "MerchSource thinks it has a shot at grabbing some e-reader market share. The company announced today its full-color e-Reader, the Literati: a low-cost dedicated e-reader with a full-color screen. The Literati by The Sharper Image sells for about $159 including a case, $20 more than Amazon’s 6-inch Kindle Wi-Fi model. It’s designed to display books and other printed materials, and nothing more. No Web site access and no games."

Amazon starts shipping next-gen Kindle, Sales outpace previous versions

ZDNet: "Amazon said Wednesday that it is now shipping the latest Kindles to customers—two days ahead of schedule. Meanwhile, the company said that the latest Kindles are the fastest selling in the device’s history. ..."

Haiku on Your iPhone

App Smart- NYTimes.com: "There are probably people who have read 'War and Peace' on their smartphones, but just the thought of spending that much time squinting at a little screen makes my eyes hurt. A little haiku, on the other hand? A snippet of e.e. cummings? ... Smartphones are arguably the best thing to hit poetry since the printing press, as even the most casual lovers of verse can read a poem whenever the spirit moves them, not just when they are in the vicinity of a book or computer. ..." Read on for a list of recommended apps.

More Re: Seth Godin's Abandonment of Old-Model Book Publishing

WSJ.com: "The author of about a dozen books including 'Purple Cow' said he now has so many direct customer relationships, largely via his blog, that he no longer needs a traditional publisher. Mr. Godin plans to release subsequent titles himself in electronic books, via print-on-demand or in such formats as audiobooks, apps, small digital files called PDFs and podcasts. ... It's unclear how many, if any, best-selling authors will follow Mr. Godin's lead. However, his departure from Portfolio, an imprint owned by Pearson PLC's Penguin Group (USA), comes at a critical juncture for the industry. With many new titles spending less time on best-seller lists and in bookstores, publishers are increasingly dependent on brand-name authors such as Mr. Godin to deliver significant book sales."

And of course the brand-name authors are the very ones who are best positioned to fly the coup.

Market Research: Converts to eBooks Read More

WSJ.com: "A study of 1,200 e-reader owners by Marketing and Research Resources Inc. found that 40% said they now read more than they did with print books. Of those surveyed, 58% said they read about the same as before while 2% said they read less than before. And 55% of the respondents in the May study, paid for by e-reader maker Sony Corp., thought they'd use the device to read even more books in the future. The study looked at owners of three devices: Amazon.com Inc.'s Kindle, Apple Inc.'s iPad and the Sony Reader."

Maybe Andrew Wylie Actually Won the Random House/Odyssey War

Fast Company: "Publishers are concerned about losing their relevance in the digital age. Production costs of e-books are declining thanks to online distribution (Amazon, iTunes, Barnes & Noble), and literary agencies are more and more considering breaking from traditional publishers. The Wylie Agency was one of the first to perform this coup, launching a line of e-books through Odyssey Editions, an e-publishing firm the agency started that attracted authors with offers of higher royalties. As reported by the Associated Press, traditional publishers typically offer 25% royalties for e-books--agents and authors are now hoping for 50%. But today, the situation has been resolved, though not in the Wylie Agency's favor."

How do we know that this was not settled in the favor of Wylie and his clients? The terms of the agreement between Wylie and Random House are sealed. It is entirely possible that Random House blinked and Wylie got the 50%. Also note this from the Financial Times: "Mr Wylie was not immediately available to discuss where the truce left his plans for a new imprint, but told the Financial Times last month he was principally trying to make a point about the importance of getting the right terms in the e-book era."

The only clear loser in this particular deal is Amazon, which loses its two-year exclusives on the 13 Random House titles. But by my count, that leaves them with seven more Wylie/Odyssey exclusives still in hand.

Overuse of Digital Devices May Lead to Brain Fatigue

Your Brain on Computers - NYTimes.com: "Even though people feel entertained, even relaxed, when they multitask while exercising, or pass a moment at the bus stop by catching a quick video clip, they might be taxing their brains, scientists say. 'People think they’re refreshing themselves, but they’re fatiguing themselves,' said Marc Berman, a University of Michigan neuroscientist. Regardless, there is now a whole industry of mobile software developers competing to help people scratch the entertainment itch. ..."

Random House/Odyssey Editions (Wylie) Tiff Settled

The NY Times's headline suggests that Random House has "won" the standoff. But since neither party is willing to disclose financial terms of their agreement, my guess is that the jury is actually still out on the question of win/lose. NYTimes.com: "'We are pleased to announce that the Wylie Agency and Random House have resolved our differences over the disputed Random House titles which have been included in the Odyssey Editions e-book publishing program,' said a joint statement signed by Markus Dohle, the chairman and chief executive of Random House, and Mr. Wylie. It added: 'We both are glad to be able to put this matter behind us.' The dispute erupted in July, when Mr. Wylie announced that he was starting Odyssey Editions, which would release e-books exclusively through Amazon.com. ... Stuart Applebaum, a spokesman for Random House, declined to disclose the financial terms of the agreement but said they were consistent with agreements that Random House had reached with other literary agencies on backlist e-book rights. He said Mr. Wylie met with Mr. Dohle alone at the Random House headquarters in Manhattan on two occasions, most recently last Friday. ..."

Samsung E60 eBook Reader Goes on Sale at W.H. Smith Later This Week

But it doesn't stand a chance. Which? News: "According to Samsung the E60 is compatible with major ebook formats including ePub, PDF and TXT. The Samsung E60 can also playback MP3 music and audiobooks, and has a text-to-speech feature that can read out ebooks. ... The Samsung E60 doesn't have a 3G connection but instead connects via wi-fi for users to download ebooks from the WHSmith ebook store. Samsung's new eReader will cost £200 when launched - £90 more than the wi-fi-only version of its high-profile rival, the Amazon Kindle."

Nook/eBook Sales One Bright Spot in B&N Earnings Report

Wireless Week: "Sales of Barnes & Noble's Nook eReader have been higher than expected, helping the company's market share in digital books exceed its share of physical books just one year after it entered the eBook arena, the company said in its earnings today. 'Since launch, sales of Nook have been nothing short of spectacular and consistently above plan,' Barnes & Noble said in its earnings, adding that eBook sales are 'accelerating week-over-week.'"

Another Rave Amazon Kindle Review

Fast Company: " ... for reading books and newspapers, it can't be beat. The newly revamped e-ink screen is startling in its clarity and contrast; gone are the days of dull greyish screens. The Kindle's text absolutely pops. The screen is also the fastest in terms of page refresh times of any e-ink screen I've used. Turning pages is very quick, never interrupting your reading rhythm. It's still black-and-white, but really, that's for the best. The screen almost glows outdoors. In comparison to the iPad, which turns into a pretty but useless mirror in sunlight, the Kindle only gets more readable. This is a gadget that loves the beach."

Barnes & Noble’s Loss Wider Than Anticipated

Told you so. BusinessWeek: "Aug. 24 (Bloomberg) -- Barnes & Noble Inc., the U.S. bookstore chain that put itself up for sale this month, posted a wider first-quarter loss than some analysts estimated as retail sales fell for an 11th straight quarter. The loss excluding some items was $1.02 a share in the three months ended July 31, the New York-based chain said in a statement. Analysts projected a loss of 80 cents, the average of five estimates compiled by Bloomberg."

EnkHouse Brings New Take on Enhanced E-books

Publishers Weekly: "Things are moving fast in the digital book world, but perhaps no one is moving faster than David Marlett. With a background in law, film, and business, Marlett has put together a series of partnerships to develop enhanced e-books and apps through the newly formed enkHouse. EnkHouse is the digital division of the Dallas, Tex., self-publishing house Brown Books Publishing Group. The company has just signed a deal with KiwiTech, the new company of Aptara founder Rakesh Gupta and the developer of Penguin's amplified e-book Pillars of the Earth. According to Marlett, transmedia producer at enkHouse, pitches for projects are coming so fast, 'it's all about picking which rabbit to chase.'"

A Whopping 42% of B&N's Float is Sold Short Ahead of Earnings Report

BloggingStocks: "Traders should be aware that Barnes & Noble's high short-to-float ratio could trigger a volatile post-earnings move, whether higher or lower. And happily, despite the proxy battle and looming earnings report, options on BKS are still fairly priced at the moment. ... "

Scholarly Publishing: Web Changing the Sacred Rite of Peer Review

NYTimes.com: " ... some humanities scholars have begun to challenge the monopoly that peer review has on admission to career-making journals and, as a consequence, to the charmed circle of tenured academe. They argue that in an era of digital media there is a better way to assess the quality of work. Instead of relying on a few experts selected by leading publications, they advocate using the Internet to expose scholarly thinking to the swift collective judgment of a much broader interested audience. 'What we’re experiencing now is the most important transformation in our reading and writing tools since the invention of movable type,' said Katherine Rowe, a Renaissance specialist and media historian at Bryn Mawr College. 'The way scholarly exchange is moving is radical, and we need to think about what it means for our fields.' ..."

Eric Frank, Founder/CEO of Flat World Knowledge, Talks About The Future of the Textbook

Dianna Dilworth, eBookNewser: "Flat World Knowledge, a publisher of openly-licensed college textbooks has doubled its business this year. This semester, the company is selling books on more than 800 college campuses, up from 400 last fall. EbookNewser caught up with Eric Frank, founder/CEO of Flat World Knowledge to discuss how the textbook business is evolving. ..."

Inkling Says the iPad Is the Textbook of the Future

NYTimes.com: "University students may all carry smartphones and netbooks now, but for the most part, their textbooks continue to be stubbornly old-fashioned: huge, expensive, hard-cover books printed on dead trees. Inkling, a startup founded by former Apple staffer Matt MacInnis that launched last week, wants to change all that. The company believes the iPad — for now, at least — is the future of the textbook."

Related: Check this from Nick Bilton, writing in the Bits Blog:

Matt MacInnis, founder and chief executive of Inkling, said in a phone interview that the company wants to offer a textbook experience that moves far beyond simply downloading a PDF document to an iPad.

One unique feature the service offers is the ability to discuss passages of a book with other students or professors. By selecting a piece of text you can leave a note for others to read and develop a conversation around the text.

The application also breathes life into textbooks by giving publishers the tools to create interactive graphics within a book. In a demo version of the application, available for download in the iTunes store, “The Elements of Style” includes quizzes that help students learn by touching and interacting with the screen. There’s also a biology book that offers the ability to navigate 3-D molecules from any angle.

Some other features include the ability to search text, change the size of the type, purchase individual chapters of books, highlight text for others to see and take pop quizzes directly within the app. ...

iPad and Kindle Books = Better for Environment than Print Books

Washington Post/Brian Palmer: "Environmental analysis can be an endless balancing of this vs. that. Do you care more about conserving water or avoiding toxic chemical usage? Minimizing carbon dioxide emissions or radioactive nuclear waste? But today the Lantern has good news: There will be no Sophie's Choice when it comes to e-books. As long as you consume a healthy number of titles, you read at a normal pace and you don't trade in your gadget every year, perusing electronically will lighten your environmental impact. ..."

Aluratek's Libre eBook Reader Pro Falls Below $100 Retail

There are hardware price drops, and then there are irrelevant hardware price drops on stuff no-one wants to buy. This is the latter. PCWorld: "The price of an e-reader from Aluratek dropped to under $100 over the weekend, which could escalate a price war that broke out between device makers in June. The US$99 Libre eBook Reader Pro ... was previously priced at $169. Pitched to be 'small enough to fit into your pocket,' the device has a 5-inch black-and-white LCD screen and offers 24 hours of battery life. But prices are just one determinant of success for e-readers, said Stephen Baker, vice president of industry analysis at the NPD Group. Products like the Libre have significantly lower distribution and consumer presence and so are not nearly as meaningful or competitive as the Kindle or Nook. 'I don't think at this point either Amazon, Barnes & Noble or Sony really needs to respond to these lower-profile competitors,' Baker said."

Dismal Barnes & Noble 1st Quarter Results Due Any Moment Now

BusinessWeek: "Barnes & Noble Inc., the nation's largest traditional book seller, reports fiscal first-quarter results before the market opens on Tuesday. ... WHAT'S EXPECTED: Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expect Barnes & Noble to report a loss of 80 cents per share on revenue of $1.42 billion. LAST YEAR'S QUARTER: Barnes & Noble reported a loss of 5 cents per share on revenue of $1.11 billion in the prior-year quarter."

NY Times Bestselling Author Seth Godin to No Longer Publish Books According to "1907" Model

mediabistro.com: GalleyCat: "New York Times bestselling author and marketing guru, Seth Godin vows to never publish traditionally again. After over 12 books with a legacy publisher, Godin says he's had enough. ... "I've decided not to publish any more books in the traditional way. 12 for 12 and I'm done. I like the people, but I can't abide the long wait, the filters, the big push at launch, the nudging to get people to go to a store they don't usually visit to buy something they don't usually buy, to get them to pay for an idea in a form that's hard to spread ... I really don't think the process is worth the effort that it now takes to make it work. I can reach 10 or 50 times as many people electronically. No, it's not 'better', but it's different. So while I'm not sure what format my writing will take, I'm not planning on it being the 1907 version of hardcover publishing any longer."

June eBook Sales Up 119%

PW: "Electronic books continue to show explosive growth in the Association of American Publishers Monthly Sales report. The AAP reports that June 2010 gross e-books sales were $29.9 million, an increase of 118.9% over the $13.7 million in sales reported for the same period in 2009. Gross e-book sales for the first six months of calendar year 2010 are $180 million, a 203.8% increase in sales over the $59.2 million sales reported for the same calendar year date in 2009."

Will Google's Net Neutrality Shift Complicate the Book Settlement?

Publishers Weekly:

With the Google book Settlement still pending approval in Judge Denny Chin's court, observers say that a shift last week in Google's stance on the issue of 'net neutrality' raises new questions about the deal. ...

Now more than six months since the book settlement's final fairness hearing, New York Law School professor James Grimmelmann suggested that the company's retreat on net neutrality principles could complicate the already complex settlement debate. "What I think the [Verizon-Google] proposal sets up in sharp relief is the question of which services under the [book] settlement are optional and which are mandatory," Grimmelmann explained to PW. "Settlement opponents could well use the Verizon-Google proposal as evidence that commitments or options that don't actually bind Google may never happen, and therefore shouldn't be counted in the settlement's favor. ...

PC Mag Review for the Kindle 3: Thumbs Up/Editors' Choice

Dan Costa: "In the gadget business, there's a tendency to continuously add features, functionality, and options with each new version, but you shouldn't expect a drastic revamp from Amazon with its latest Kindle ($189 direct) ebook reader. Although the new Kindle adds Wi-Fi, more capacity, a leaner form factor, and a sharper screen, the functionality is largely the same. But that isn't necessarily a bad thing, in fact given its new low price along with its massive library of ebooks and dead-simple book buying, the Kindle keeps its crown as our Editors' Choice. Simply put, it's the best dedicated ebook reader you can buy. ..."

Telegraph (UK) Kindle 3 Review: Thumbs Up

Matt Warman: " ... the iPad is not a spectre that looms large when using the Kindle – the devices overlap in some respects, but the new Kindle is not a rival. At about 240g, the Kindle is more discrete and is easily held in one hand. Turning pages is faster than on the old version and the library is ever expanding. Its e-Ink technology makes extended reading easy – in short, it’s a relatively inexpensive device for reading books, rather than a kind of computer. Illustrations, too, render with remarkable detail now that contrast has been substantially improved ..."

Are Barnes & Noble Founder Len Riggio and His Nemesis Ron Burkle the Only People Who Still Want to Own a Mega-Bookstore?

New York Magazine: "In mid-June, six weeks before he put his company and his legacy on the block, Leonard Riggio was sitting on the top floor of Barnes & Noble’s Flatiron headquarters, facing down the relentless forces of obsolescence. 'I still like books,' he said, though it didn’t really need saying. All around him, in a conference room that evoked an elegant old library, were shelves lined with hardbound classics. Books had made Riggio a fortune. For decades, he had been delivering them to consumers at monumental scale in his ubiquitous superstores, a strategy that won him more fear than love in the world of publishing but made him arguably its most powerful player. Books had been very good to him, and now they were dissolving into the ether. ..."

Inkling Lands Venture Funding, Launches Digital Textbook Platform for iPad

Digital Media Wire: "San Francisco - Inkling, the developer of a digital textbook platform, on Friday announced the launch of application for Apple's iPad, and said it raised an undisclosed amount in a first round of venture capital financing. Sequoia Capital led the investment round; Kapor Capital, Sherpalo Ventures and Felicis Ventures also participated. San Francisco-based Inkling's digital textbook platform offers students the ability to collaborate and add multimedia content to texts."

MacNN: "A new developer, Inkling, is bringing a variety of high-profile school textbooks to the iPad. The first four are from McGraw-Hill, and described as best-sellers in biology, economics, marketing and psychology; these should be available today, at an early cost of $3 per chapter or $70 for an entire book. In the near future prices should be hiked to $4 and $85, respectively. In digital form the books have been enhanced with a number of multimedia elements, such as quizzes, video lectures and 3D models."

Suddenly Cool to be a Bookworm ... I mean, eBookworm

NYTimes.com:

... Social mores surrounding the act of reading alone in public may be changing along with increased popularity. Suddenly, the lone, unapproachable reader at the corner table seems less alone. Given that some e-readers can display books while connecting online, there’s a chance the erstwhile bookworm is already plugged into a conversation somewhere, said Paul Levinson, professor of communication and media studies at Fordham University.

“I think, historically, there has been a stigma attached to the bookworm, and that actually came from the not-untrue notion that, if you were reading, you weren’t socializing with other people,” Dr. Levinson said. “But the e-reader changes that also because e-readers are intrinsically connected to bigger systems.” For many, e-readers are today’s must-have accessory, eroding old notions of what being bookish might have meant. “Buying literature has become cool again,” he said. ...

For Better or Worse, Children's Books Migrate to iPad Apps

The Independent (UK): "Owners of iPads have been downloading new books at a rate of almost 77,000 a day – and manufacturer Apple already claims the device has won more than a fifth of the ebook market. ... Every major publisher of children's books is developing its titles for the iPad format, enabling children to access their picture books on screen. But, while adults are content with being able to turn pages on their electronic devices, publishers believe younger readers will demand high-quality graphics, traditional technology – including 'lift-the-flap' – and interactive applications. The result is a shift that could revolutionize the way children learn to read and appreciate books – and not always for the better. One publishing executive admitted last week that she feared many of the best-loved books could become more like films, leaving young readers 'more like viewers, rather than active participants in the experience of reading a book'."

Still No Buyer for DC's Famous Politics & Prose Bookstore?

Nope. Not that I've heard. And this is a sign of the times. The place has been up for grabs since the start of June. Seems even this highly-respected indie, with its vibrant author series and other special programs, is not immune to the pessimism that surrounds all brick and mortar bookselling these days.

LG Says Android Optimus Tablet To Be Better Than iPad

NYTimes.com:

LG played the internet like a fiddle today when its VP of marketing, Chang Ma, told the Wall Street Journal that its upcoming Android Optimus tablet “will be better than the iPad."

Clearly, this man is a marketing genius. What better way is there to get the word out about its device — which we initially caught word of in early July — than saying it’ll be better than a highly successful Apple product.

Surely none of the other hardware manufacturers preparing Android tablets — which at this point includes Asus, Acer, Dell, and many others — actually think their devices stand a chance against the iPad. LG, through its complex oratory jiujitsu, has declared itself the next king of tablets — despite the fact that we know practically nothing about the Optimus tablet. ...

A Call for Kindle EPUB Support

Jason Perlow/ZDNet: " ... there is one thing that’s keeping me from whipping out the AMEX and clicking the 'Buy Now' button at Amazon, and that’s the lack of EPUB support. Frankly, I really don’t understand why Amazon would leave this out of their current generation of devices. I can understand why they would want to continue with AZW and their own DRM for content sold on their own store, but frankly, Amazon doesn’t sell every electronic book that you can possibly buy."

Barnes & Noble Proxy Fight/Earnings Announcement Complicating Potential Sale

Reuters: "(Reuters) - The war that has erupted between Barnes & Noble Inc's two largest shareholders over control of the bookseller is putting a wrench in its plans to sell itself and could make the retailer less appealing. The company is expected to report a quarterly loss on Tuesday, and the extent of the damage is likely to affect who shareholders vote for at next month's annual meeting."

Personal Digitization of Books Catching on Across Japan

Home-brew digital editions scanned from print editions. Hmmm. The Mainichi Daily News: "Personal digitization of books is catching on in Japan as people look to move their book collections to portable devices. Referred to in Japan's Internet community as 'jisui,' (literally 'cooking one's own meals'), the process involves feeding pages of a book through a scanner one by one to turn a work into digital form. ..." Copyright issues, certainly. Unauthorized copying/duplication of text. Serious problem for traditional print publishers still emphasizing that medium; not so for those focusing on e-publishing and making books readily available in that format. From the consumer's point of view: why do a crummy scan of a high-priced paper book when a cheaper, clean e-edition is available. Will be interesting to watch what happens with backlists along this line.

Can Augmented Reality Help Save the Print Publishing Industry?

Read Write Web: "There's a memorable scene in the movie Minority Report where a man reads a futuristic newspaper with rich embedded multimedia updating live with breaking news. While we are a long way seeing anything like this in the hands of the general public, a German newspaper has taken a small step in that direction with the release of a special augmented reality (AR) edition of its Friday magazine. ..."

The Many Futures of the Book

Linton Weeks, NPR:

The premise of Lane Smith's new work for children, It’s a Book, is simple: Books are under siege.

On the first page a donkey asks a monkey, "What do you have there?" The monkey replies: "It’s a book."

"How do you scroll down?" the donkey asks. "Do you blog with it?"

Then he asks: "Where’s your mouse? ... Can you make characters fight? ... Can it text? ... Tweet? ... Wi-Fi? ... Can it do this? TOOT!"

No, the monkey repeatedly replies. "It’s a book."

Smith's book, in stores this month, may be an example of a dying breed. A book, published — and meant to be read — on paper.

People have been talking about "the death of the book" for more than a decade. But recent events suggest the end may be imminent for bound-paper books as we have known them for more than 500 years. Hardbound and paperback books may never totally disappear, but they could become scary scarce — like eight-track tapes, typewriters and wooden tennis rackets. ...

Dan Visel, a founder of the appropriately named Institute for the Future of the Book, points out that, first of all, a "book" can mean many things ...It would be a mistake to think that these various forms have a single, unified future,' Visel says. "Rather, I think it's more appropriate to say that there are futures of the book." ...

Pandigital Novel Hampered by Poor Display, Unresponsive Interface

 Whoops. Washington Post: "The Pandigital Novel makes a valiant attempt at being a value-priced, full-color, Android-based e-reader that also doubles as a general-use tablet. Unfortunately, it falls short of its mark. At $175 (price as of August 10, 2010), the Novel is expensive compared with Amazon's newest, $139, single-purpose, E-Ink-based Kindle e-reader. And as a tablet/e-reader combo that tries to compete with Apple's iPad, the Novel is slow and inelegant, and lacks the full versatility that a true tablet user expects."

Shelf Unbound Brings Small Press Coverage to the iPad

Publishers Weekly: "It’s not just books that are going digital—so are magazines about books. Shelf Unbound, a new publication set to launch in September in a digital-only format through the Zinio magazine platform for computer, iPad and other iOS devices, will cover small press books, authors, presses and trends, bringing the rich world of small, independent and university presses—many of which are only now making their books available digitally—to tech savvy readers."

Why iPad 2 Is Coming and What to Expect

Adam Jackson, the AppleBlog: "Competition is non-existent for iPad right now. All the other guys have tablets shipping 'end of the year,' and many more of the more formidable iPad competitors will be out in 2011. Apple’s going to do what it can to get the second revision out this year only for that one liner that Steve loves, 'We’re releasing the next iPad today before our competitors have even caught up with the first generation.'"

Ads in eBooks - Count on It

Wall Street Journal: "Advertising in books will introduce a whole new set of relationships into the publishing ecosystem. Ad agencies will be involved in creating a standard form for digital ads. Technology companies will be crucial to implementation. A new set of contracts will have to be created to manage these new costs, revenue sources and control rights."

Suzanne Fields: Battle of the Books

To what extent does the medium impact the way we comprehend and digest information? Washington Times: "It's much too early to measure the full impact of e-reading on the way we 'process' ideas. Denis Diderot, famous for the encyclopedia he edited in the 18th century, was skeptical of the benefits of technological progress and wondered who ultimately would be the master of content - the reader or the writer. That question remains to be answered - maybe on paper and maybe on the tiny screen."

B&N's Len Riggio Buys a Million B&N Shares

Publishers Weekly: "In what appears to be an effort to strengthen his voting position for a likely proxy fight, B&N founder and Chairman Leonard Riggio has excercised options to buy 990,740 shares of B&N stock for $16.8 Million, or $16.96 a share. Based on the Tuesday closing price of B&N stock, Riggio paid about $1.61 premium per share over the tuesday closing stock price. B&N has put itself up for sale and Riggio is preparing for a likely proxy battle against financier Ron Burkle, who has been pressuring B&N to improve its stock price. B&N’s annual meeting will take place in September."

Nook for iPhone Video

Here's a useful demo showing B&N's new Nook for iPhone app. This was done by Dianna Dilworth of eBookNewser.

Pandigital Novel (Black) Review

Techlicious: "In May, Pandigital came out with the white Novel, the first Android-based ebook reader, which promised to run Android apps at some point in the future. Today, an upgraded model, the black Pandigital Novel, hits store shelves for $199–without apps, but with the promise still intact. The only significant difference between the white and black models is size. ..."

eTextbooks - Follett's CafeScribe

NYTimes.com: "Isabella Hinds is director of digital content at the Follett Higher Education Group, which runs over 800 college bookstores in the USA. It also owns a digital textbook program called CafeScribe, used by over 400 education institutions in the US. I asked Hinds how CafeScribe is used currently. Hinds told us that CafeScribe is mostly used on PCs, Macs and netbooks. She cited pricing issues for iPad (students can't afford them) and the relative lack of functionality in current eReaders. Specifically, she cited color, pagination and illustration as features that the current crop of eReaders don't do well enough for the eTextbook market. This echoes our conclusions from over a year ago, when we analyzed why Kindle wasn't a good choice for eTextbooks."

Barnes & Noble Remaindered

James B. Stewart on WSJ.com: "The giant bookstore chain, whose superstores once struck fear into the hearts of independent booksellers everywhere, put itself up for sale this month, rendering it the corporate equivalent of the remaindered books it sells at a discount. The company said it made the move because its shares are undervalued, but to me there was an air of desperation about it. ..."

Goldman Sachs on Barnes & Noble: "We Don't See Compelling Value in the Business"

Barnes & Noble attempts to stay afloat; releases Nook for iPhone - International Business Times: "Barnes & Noble, the 137-year-old company, recently announced that it is looking for strategic alternatives including putting itself up for sale. 'Sizable investments associated with the transition to digital books' and 'risks to store profitability associated with the digital migration' were primary concerns, Goldman Sachs analyst Mathew Fassler told the Wall Street Journal. 'We don't see compelling value in the business.'"

Apple's Gift to Amazon's Bottom Line: The Agency Model

Electronista: "The launch of the iPad may have ironically helped Amazon improve the business model for the Kindle, Needham analyst Charlie Wolf found today. Amazon had previously insisted on a wholesale model that sold e-books at a loss but made a profit on the Kindle readers, but Apple's insistence on agency model pricing for the iBookstore may have done the online retailer a favor. By creating pressure on Amazon to switch its own deals at the risk of losing publishers, Apple has now forced Amazon to turn an estimated 30 percent profit on each book it sells, Wolf said."

Samsung Galaxy S 7-Inch Android Tablet Coming Soon?

msnbc.com: "Samsung may launch a 7-inch Android tablet based on its new Galaxy S line of phones, early next month at a consumer electronics show in Berlin in early September. The tablet, which may be called the P1000 Galaxy Tab, is reported to have a front-facing camera for video calls, something lacking in Apple's iPad, but available on the iPhone 4. It's not yet clear whether the Samsung tablet will go on sale first in Europe, when it will be available in the United States, and what its cost will be. ..."

7-Inch "iPad Mini" On the Way?

Fast Company: "Apple's iPad is selling about as fast as they can make the things, and it's not even completed its international roll-out yet. It stands to reason, then, that Apple's probably upped its efforts to develop the iPad's successor (given how long it takes for a design to go from concept to reality). This iPad 2 we would notionally have expected to be announced in January 2011, a year after the first device hit, and we still expect this to be the case. But now there's an increasingly real-sounding rumor that Apple has another 7-inch version on the way, and it may even arrive this year. Strangely enough, it's a rumor that makes perfect sense. ..."

French Publisher Tries New eBook Marketing Model

theBookseller.com: "Le Belial Editions, a French sci-fi specialist, is to launch an e-book platform on 1st September. The four-year-old independent will sell all its books at between nine and 11 euros, about half the price of the print versions, according to c.e.o. Olivier Girard, and will offer buyers the possibility of paying more out of solidarity with the author or publisher."

Barnes & Noble Enhances Free eReading Software Offering with NOOK for iPhone, iPad and PC

B&N Press Release: "... the next-generation NOOK for iPhone application delivers the most personalized and easy-to-use eReading experience for iPhone and iPod touch owners. NOOK for iPad adds customer-requested, in-app content rating and other improvements to the company's popular iPad app, and NOOK for PC brings new branding to the company's desktop software. 'Read what you love, anywhere you like' (TM) with the entire family of free NOOK eReading software and apps, which enables mobile device and computer users to shop more than one million digital titles in the Barnes & Noble eBookstore, access eBooks from their personal Barnes & Noble digital library and use the company's breakthrough LendMe(TM) technology to share eBooks with friends." Amazon is supposedly at work on a lending tool/system. I wonder when that will emerge.

Are Bookstores Doomed? - Brett Arends, MarketWatch

The short answer is yes, at least when it comes to the large chain bookstores: "Look at the depressing proxy battle for what remains of Barnes & Noble Inc., the world's largest chain of bookstores. You could hardly dominate an industry more than B&N has dominated the landscape of traditional bookstores. Yet its fortunes have fallen so far that management has hoisted the white flag and put it up for sale. Barnes & Noble stock, which was flying high above $45 five years ago, has plummeted below $15. Wall Street's view of its prospects is so dim that not even the news of a bid battle has set it alight. The only bright spot: The company's e-book sales, which rocketed 51% last quarter. ..."

Lydia Dishman: Why Business as Usual at B&N is the Best Measure Against Burkle’s Proxy Fight

BNET: "When we last checked in with Barnes & Noble (BKS), talks between activist investor Ronald Burkle and majority stakeholder Len Riggio had broken down to the point where Burkle’s now prepared to mount a proxy fight in order to buy up more stock. Yet, while these major players duke it out center stage, B&N’s management team can’t rest. It must continue building market share for both physical stores and its online business as if the drama isn’t playing out. The future of the chain depends on it. ..."

"Pure" Wireless Net Neutrality vs. the Kindle Business Model

PCWorld: "... pure [wireless] Net Neutrality could have a downside ... A case in point may be Amazon's highly successful electronic reader, the Kindle. Content can be delivered to the reader wirelessly, but users don't pay for the wireless service. The tradeoff is that there are strict limitations on what travels down that wireless stream to the Kindle."

Surprising Luddite: Ray Bradbury

When I become a raving, cranky old man, please just turn off my microphone.

Can Apps Save Content Publishers?

mediabistro.com: eBookNewser: "That was a question posed today at the DigiDay: Apps conference in New York." I've got my own question: What other kinds of publishers are there besides "content" publishers?

UK eBook Price Wars

Price Wars Escalate in the UK - mediabistro.com: GalleyCat: "The eBook price wars in the UK took a dramatic turn today as bookseller W H Smith slashed all eBook prices--selling all eBooks for half price. The astounding sale features Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer for 5.10 pounds and Play Dead by Harlan Coben for 2.72 pounds. Both prices represent a 66 percent savings off the original price of the eBook."

1979 Apple Graphics Tablet vs. 2010 Apple iPad

PCWorld: "Apple's release of the iPad was the culmination of fans' long wait for a tablet. But in 1979, an earlier generation of Apple users used a different kind of Apple tablet. The Apple Graphics Tablet was designed by Summagraphics and sold by Apple Computer for the Apple II. This tablet was not a standalone computing device like the iPad, but was an input device for creating images on the Apple II, and predated the Apple II's mouse by six years."

Barnes & Noble Landlords Fret

StarTribune.com: "... fears are creeping in that a new Barnes & Noble owner would seek to shed or downsize the leases of many of its 700-plus stores nationwide. ... The nervousness is understandable in the wake of recent events in the bookselling space. B&N's main competitor, Borders Books, last year announced the closings of 200 of its smaller-format Waldenbooks outlets. B&N itself early this year shut down the last remnants of an iconic Minnesota brand, B. Dalton Booksellers, which in the 1980s numbered 800 stores."

Electrowetting: Not an Android in Diapers

Boston Globe: "... what if an e-book reader could also include color photographs and illustrations, along with color video? This is the promise of a process called electrowetting. It sounds like an android having an accident in a Philip K. Dick novel. But the process, in which electric fields govern the behavior of droplets of colored liquids, might yield brighter reflective screens, wider viewing angles, and faster switching speeds than in current e-paper devices. ... According to engineers at the Nanoelectronics Laboratory at the University of Cincinnati, electrowetting displays produce a higher contrast between text and background than most other e-paper technologies. ... In the spring, a Philips Research Labs spinout called Liquavista (www.liquavista.com) unveiled a development kit that comes with its own 6-inch and 8.5-inch EW displays, for mobile device manufacturers."

Notion Ink Adam: Pricing, Specs, Video

SlashGear: "Four versions of Adam will be launched: each will use NVIDIA’s Tegra 2, but there will be Pixel Qi and LCD models and a choice of WiFi-only or WiFi and 3G. The company has confirmed that all will come in under the cost of a basic iPad; our source tells us that the LCD version will cost $399 for the WiFi-only and $449 for the 3G model, while the Pixel Qi version will cost $449 for the WiFi-only and $498 for the 3G model." Go to Slashgear from complete specs and a video demo. Release likely in the November 2010 to January 2011 window, assuming fairly prompt FCC approval.

Mike Shatzkin Discusses The Printed Book’s Path to Oblivion

The Shatzkin Files: "It seems reasonable to me (although not to every forward-thinking observer of the march of digital events) that by five years from now half of immersive reading — straight text novels and non-fiction — could have moved from paper to devices. But for those who question the idea that the switch from paper to screens will ultimately be just about total, let me offer a way to think about it. .."

Barnes & Noble vs. Burkle Goes Into Round 2

DealBook Blog - NYTimes.com: "The battle for Barnes & Noble is moving ahead with full force. In just one day, settlement talks between the giant bookstore chain and its second-largest shareholder, Ronald W. Burkle, broke down; Mr. Burkle lost a court decision in Delaware, and the billionaire investor then started a proxy fight." Actually from a couple of days ago, but still up-to-date.

Requiem for Traditional Book Publishing in Crain's New York

From Crain's New York Business: Another requiem for dead-tree publishing, paired with a great discussion of Jane Friedman, her Open Road, and another interesting start-up, Dale Peck's Mischief and Mayhem.

... Apple's iPad, Barnes & Noble's Nook and new iterations of the Kindle have accelerated the e-book revolution, which is undermining traditional publishing's economics with lower prices than those for hardcover books. It's also threatening the foundation of the business: the humble brick-and-mortar bookstore.

Several weeks ago, Barnes & Noble, the largest bookstore chain, did the unthinkable and put itself up for sale. Independent bookstores, whose ranks have diminished by about half since 2000, continue to close.
The end of bookstores could be the final nail in the coffin for traditional publishing. The big trade houses rely on acres of shelves to sell their wide-ranging titles, from literary and commercial fiction to nonfiction that doesn't have a news hook or a celebrity's name on the cover.

And the end could come sooner than many people think. E-book sales have tripled in the past year, and now make up 8.5% of publishers' revenue. They'll hit 50% by 2015, according to Mike Shatzkin, chief executive of The Idea Logical Co.

At that point, the few stores left standing will sell just a quarter of all physical books, down from around three-quarters today, and big publishers will “come under threat,” he says. “Their value is based on delivering distribution.

... Through May, overall net sales for hardcover books totaled $713 million—a bump over last year's numbers but a decline of 19% from the same period in 2007, according to the Association of American Publishers.

“The hope is that e-book sales will balance out the decline in physical book sales,” says Jack Perry, a former Random House sales chief who consults on digital issues for publishers. “That hasn't happened yet.” ...

Poor Timing Dooms Asus Eee Pads Before They Launch

PCWorld Business Center: "The price of the Asus tablets, combined with coming late to the party, and poorly timed product releases virtually guarantee the Asus devices will stumble--if not fail completely."

Clash of eBook Titans Collateral Damage on Google Editions, Sony, Others

 Here are two particularly salient observations from Nicholas Kolakowski's current piece in eWeek:

... the longer Google waits to roll out Google Editions (and the longer it neglects to provide details about how the service will work, in order to build the all-important buzz) the harder its eventual battle against Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Apple, all of which have been moving aggressively to draw readers to their respective platforms. In that context, Google’s chances of breaking off a substantial portion of the e-book market seem dimmer and dimmer by the week

And this:

... if Sony plans on using Android as the operating system for its future e-readers, it could be tacit acknowledgment that none of its previous steps have been enough; through Android, Sony could conceivably add software features equivalent to those of the ever-more-advanced Kindle and Nook

That would place Sony smack-dab in the middle of what’s become an extraordinarily competitive space, locking jaws with not only Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and the Apple iPad, but also the upcoming Android-based tablet PCs. If Sony were willing to spend millions of dollars to aggressively assert itself in that position, it could translate into a market-share advantage—but Sony seems reluctant to grow fangs in that regard, with anemic e-reader marketing and a follower’s mentality when it comes to pricing and features.

That Radical New Invention - The Printed Book

Traditionalists despised Gutenberg's technology. Check out Robert Pinsky's consideration of Andrew Pettegree's The Book in the Renaissance (Yale, 421 pages, $40). New York Times Book Review: "The 'fluid, transitional nature of communication' during printing’s first heyday naturally attracted detractors. 'This is what the printing presses do: they corrupt susceptible hearts' wrote the 'dyspeptic Benedictine' Filippo de Strata. Clumsy and unreliable editions led to 'the charge that print had debased the book.' By making book ownership more common, print also 'diminished the lustre of the Renaissance library,' causing many collections to dwindle or dissolve altogether as 'the library as a cultural institution struggled to adapt to the new age.'" Sound familiar?

More Layoffs at Borders

Detroit Free Press:

Borders Group continues to downsize and eliminated an unspecified number of employees at its Ann Arbor headquarters this week.

The bookseller confirmed Friday that it had reduced its workforce, but would not elaborate. The layoff follows a January reduction of more than 160 employees, including 124 corporate jobs.

Borders spokeswoman Mary Davis released this statement: "As we aggressively work to restore the financial health of the company, we have reorganized core areas of our business to ensure that we have the necessary resources in place to support our strategic initiatives. As part of this process, we have made changes to our staffing levels ... "

Ken Dalto, a Farmington Hills-based turnaround expert, said the difficulty in operating a brick-and-mortar book chain today is highlighted by Borders' problems and Barnes & Noble putting itself up for sale last week. ...

Alex eReader Enters Tough Market

The [Louisville] Courier-Journal: "Amazon says it's now selling more e-books than hardcovers. The company stepped up its price war with Sony and Barnes & Noble by reducing the cost of its lowest-priced Kindle reader to $139. There are free versions of the Kindle reader available for iPhones and Android mobile phones. And sales are booming for Apple's iPad, which comes with its own well-designed e-book reader. None of that is good news for Spring Design, the California company that makes a new e-book reader called the Alex. ..."

Comparing Displays: iPad vs. Kindle at 400x Magnification

Geek.com: "If you’ve ever used an e-reader with an E Ink display, and then compared it to an LCD panel, there is a noticeable difference. The E Ink display is geared up for reading for long periods of time — it’s as close to paper as a screen gets at the moment. LCD offers up great motion, a bright display, and is perfect for watching movies. However, reading off of one can get tiring. Well-known Flash developer Keith Peters owns both an iPad and a Kindle, he also recently got a Veho VMS004 DELUXE USB-powered microscope. He then did what any geek worth his salt would do–looked at the iPad and Kindle displays close up. And we mean really close up ..."

Rumor: Sony Prepping PRS-350 & PRS-650 Readers - May Feature More Internal Storage, Wi-Fi & 3G

TFTS – Technology, Gadgets & Curiosities: "Both the PRS-350 and the PRS-650 are said to be 'extremely thin' coming in at under 10mm in thickness. As for the display, the PRS-350 will be 5 inches and the PRS-650 will be 6 inches, both of which should also come with faster page turns and improved contrast. In terms of storage, they are expected to see an increase over previous Reader devices and could go as high as 2GB of internal storage, though it was unclear if that was for both models or just the higher end PRS-650. Furthermore, the PRS-650 is also expected to have Wi-Fi and possibly 3G connectivity while the PRS-350 remains wireless free. Both models should also arrive sporting an updated Sony Reader user interface with a new home screen and note taking software."

News Corp. Plans National Newspaper for Tablet Computers and Cellphones

Count on it being a rag. LaTimes.com: "It's the latest bid by a major media company to build readership using new devices such as the iPad. The new publication would offer short, snappy stories and operate under the auspices of the New York Post."

Past Six Months: Broad Retail Trends Higher While Bookstores Trend Lower

Publishers Weekly: "Bookstore sales slipped again in June, falling 0.8%, to $1.10 billion, according to preliminary estimates released this morning by the U.S. Census Bureau. After posting modest gains in the first quarter, bookstore sales were sluggish in the second period and for the first half of 2010, sales were down 0.5% compared to the first half of 2009, to $7.42 billion. Compared to the first half of 2008, just before the recession kicked into high gear, bookstore sales in the first six months of 2010 were down 3.6%. For the entire retail market, sales rose 5.4% in June and were up 6.6% for the first half of 2010."

And what of eBook sales. They are, of course, exploding.

GooReader - New Reading App for GoogleBooks Released Today

Here is Google's somewhat boring promotional video demonstrating the interface.

Web Site Launch - CourseSmart for Digital College Textbooks

Just in time for the autumn semester. CourseSmart designed to help college students instantly access digital editions of assigned textbooks.

Lonely Planet Interactve "Discover" Guidebooks for the iPad

The books include direct links to relevant web content (hotel sites, restaurant websites, etc.), the ability to search in Google or Wikipedia, etc. Currently available: Great Britain, Ireland, Spain, Italy and France. More on the way.

Huawei’s T62W eBook Reader Hits the FCC

Wireless Goodness: "It looks like there will be another competitor entering the already crowded eBook reader market. Chinese telecom equipment supplier Huawei passed the T62W eBook reader through the FCC today. The eInk-based eBook reader features 3G support on WCDMA networks, 802.11 b/g WiFi and Bluetooth."

Kindle's Days Are Numbered -- Long Live Kindle

The author of this piece misses something. There's a large slice of the market that simply does not wish to do its book-reading on a bulky tablet. There will always be a need for a compact dedicated eReader, and Amazon will be well-advised (from a media sales point of view) to service the hardware needs of that base, even if it does so at cost, in addition to owning the software ecosystem.

Ron Adner: Kindle's Days Are Numbered -- Long Live Kindle: "Ultimately it matters little to Apple's bottom line if their bookstore effort fails. The company still makes the majority of its profit on hardware, not media, sales. But Amazon, which started off as a bookstore, still retains strong roots in the sector. With Amazon.com Jeff Bezos introduced online bookselling to the mainstream; the Kindle app is on track to do the same for digital bookselling. Now that other companies are entering the digital reader space, it would be a mark of success, not weakness, if Amazon can exit the hardware business entirely."

Prediction: Kindle WiFi Under $100 for Xmas

Farhad Manjoo, Slate Magazine: "Why am I so confident that the Amazon will slide under the $100 threshold? For one thing, because it probably can. Last year, the research firm iSuppli estimated that it cost Amazon $185 to produce a 3G Kindle, an estimate that covered the price of the materials and manufacturing, but didn't include the large costs associated with providing 3G service, customer support, marketing, and developing the device. After tearing open the Kindle, iSuppli reported that the two most expensive components are its E Ink display module (which costs Amazon about $60) and the 3G chip ($30). Why can the Wi-Fi version sell for so much less? For one thing, it doesn't have the 3G chip, nor will Amazon have to pay for 3G coverage for the device."

Why Nobody Will Buy a Color E-Ink Ebook Reader

Fast Company: "LCD and other, more modern displays (including Pixel Qi, LED, AMOLED, and countless other acronymic display types) will advance to the point where they offer a reading experience at least comparable to e-ink. Some have already been made--the iPad's IPS LCD display is better than expected in outdoor use, for example--and that's the wave of the future. And at that point, e-ink will die. E-ink will die mostly because it fundamentally can't compete with tablets. That's why announcements like today's, in which E-Ink (it's a company as well as that company's main--or only?--product) claimed it will release both a color and a touchscreen version by early 2011, is so confusing. But color and interface are hardly the only obstacles e-ink has to overcome to compete with tablets: its refresh rates make video largely impossible, it can't cram in enough pixels to make still photos look any more crisp than a day-old McDonald's french fry, and, most damnably, it's still extremely expensive."

Barnes & Noble, Burkle Talks Collapse

Publishers Weekly: "Negotiations between Barnes & Noble and its largest shareholder, Ron Burkle’s Yucaipa Companies, ended this afternoon without reaching an agreement that would end the dispute between the two parties. 'Barnes & Noble and Yucaipa were unable to conclude an agreement on mutually acceptable terms,' B&N said in a briefly worded statement. The collapse of the talks means a proxy fight between Burkle and B&N remains a possibility at the B&N annual meeting set for September 28. The discussions between B&N and Burkle were aimed at settling Burkle’s lawsuit against B&N’s poison pill provision by giving Burkle representation on the retailer’s board. A decision in the case is expected soon. Resolving the B&N-Burkle battle is seen as key before serious negotiations for the sale of B&N can begin."

Video Introduction to NOMAD

Check this video.

To Launch: NOMAD EDITIONS - A Magazine for Mobile

NYTimes.com: "A small group of former magazine journalists and editors, including a former president of Newsweek, plan to publish a weekly digital magazine this fall, seeking to create content specifically for mobile technology. The magazine, called Nomad Editions and created by a New York start-up of the same name, will feature the work of freelance journalists with expertise in a specific area, like surfing or movies. Every Friday, starting in October, subscribers will receive through a mobile application what amounts to a mini-magazine, focused on their area of interest. Each edition is expected to each take 20 to 30 minutes to read."

Project Gutenberg on Task to Digitize 1 Billion Books

Los Angeles Times: "Johannes Gutenberg may have invented modern printing, but Michael Hart invented the e-book. At least that's what Hart's e-mail signature says. Indeed, Hart is considered by many in technology and literary circles to be the creator of the electronic book. As founder of the Gutenberg Project, named for the 15th century printer credited with inventing movable type, Hart began transcribing and scanning books on July 4, 1971 -- 'technically July 5,' Hart corrected himself in an e-mail; 'it was all night.'"

New Android-based Sony Readers?

Mobility Site: "The way I see it, despite a lot of tough talk about refusing to drop the price of their ebook readers further so as to not compromise their quality, the powers that be at Sony have realized there may not be room in the Ebook Reader market for more than three players…and right now that would be Amazon, Apple and Barnes & Noble. Sony and their Reader line would be fourth right now…and that may not be good enough. They need to do something to find something to make their devices unusual or to at least add value. Now, if they made the Sony Touch Reader run Android 2.2 or 3 like a full fledged tablet….that could do it."

Pete Hamill, Print Holdout, Goes Direct to E-Book

NYTimes.com: "It makes perfect sense that Pete Hamill, 75 years old, chronicler of vintage New York City and newspaper tabloids and boozy Greenwich Village literary haunts, prefers print books to electronic." But his next volume, "They Are Us" - about immigration in the United States - will be published only as an eBook.

As E-Books Gain, Barnes and Noble Tries to Stay Ahead

NYTimes.com: "For readers, e-books have meant a transformation not just of the reading experience, but of the book-buying tradition of strolling aisles, perusing covers and being able to hold books in their hands. Many publishers have been astounded by the pace of the e-book popularity and the threat to print book sales that it represents. If the number of brick-and-mortar stores drops, publishers fear that sales will go along with it. Some worry that large bookstores will go the way of the record stores that shut down when the music business went digital."

Follow e-publishing, etc. on Twitter

Effective immediately, you may follow e-publishing, etc. on Twitter.

John Kilcullen, "For Dummies" Creator, Joins FastPencil Board

Congrats to my old friend and colleague John Kilcullen; and congrats also to FastPencil.

mediabistro.com: eBookNewser: "Publishing veteran John Kilcullen has joined FastPencil's Board of Directors. Kilcullen is best known as the creator and publisher of the 'For Dummies' brand of how-to books that he created through his company of IDG Books Worldwide. He also founded and runs Brand Revolution, a brand consulting company based in California. Kicullen also has a resume of experience working in magazine publishing. He served as president and publisher of Billboard, the Bookseller and Kirkus Reviews and senior vice president and group publisher of The Hollywood Reporter and Backstage."