See You on Monday, January 3rd

The blog e-publishing, etc. will now take a break until Monday morning. Let's hope the year 2011 is a good one for all of us.

Borders: The Fat Lady Begins to Sing

Trachtenberg, WSJ:

In an ominous turn of events for the book business, Borders Group Inc. said Thursday it is delaying payments to some publishers, a sign that its financial troubles are worsening.

The nation's second-largest bookstore chain by revenue, behind Barnes & Noble Inc., said the delays were part of its efforts to refinance its debt and that it had notified the publishers with which it is seeking to restructure payments.

The retailer also said "there can be no assurance" that its larger refinancing efforts will be successful. The company reiterated an earlier disclosure that without refinancing, it could violate its existing credit agreements in the first quarter of 2011 and "experience a liquidity shortfall."

The book retailing business is going through a significant transformation as the ease of Internet shopping has lured many customers away from traditional chain book stores, creating pressure on revenue and profits. At the same time, digital books continue to gain market share, now estimated at 8% to 10% of revenue for some major publishing houses. ...

In early December, Borders announced dismal results for the quarter ended Oct. 30. It reported a loss of $74.4 million, or $1.03 a share, compared with a year-earlier loss of $37.7 million, or 63 cents a share.

Revenue dropped 18% to $475.6 million as same-store sales fell 13%, and gross margin fell to 15.4% from 18.5%. Borders Chief Executive Mike Edwards said he was "disappointed" with the performance. ...

Digital Reader: Amazon’s New Lending Feature will Probably Anger Some Publishers

Not this publisher. The program has controls, and increases the appeal of eBooks generally. Besides, there is an op-out option for those who want to do so. And hell, B&N already has a lending program in place.

eBooks Outsell Paper Books On Barnes & Noble's Online Store

Riggio & colleagues better enjoy themselves and get the most out of the moment, now that the Nook Color has been rooted to run Android apps, including Kindle for Android. They could not foresee this? HuffPost: "The New York company said its Nookcolor e-reader, which launched eight weeks before Christmas, was its top-selling gift of the holiday season. Barnes & Noble also said it now sells more digital books than physical books on its Web site. Nearly 1 million e-books were purchased on Christmas Day alone, the company said, with popular titles including James Patterson's Cross Fire and Stieg Larsson's The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo." Wow, what great results. But imagine how many more books they would have sold on Christmas day if their servers hadn't crashed.

iPad Not a Savior of Magazines - Digital Sales Continue to Fall

ReadWriteWeb via NY Times: "If publishers are looking to the iPad to help revive (or extend) magazine sales, recent figures released by the Audit Bureau of Circulation (ABC) aren't good news. While not all magazines that are available on the iPad release their digital single-issue sales to the ABC, those that do all show a significant year-end drop. WWD reports that Vanity Fair sold 8,700 digital editions of its November issue, down from an average of about 10,500 for the previous three months. Glamour sold 4,300 digital copies in September, but sales fell by 20% in October and then another 20% to 2,775 in November. GQ's November edition sold 11,000 copies, its worst sales figures since the iPad was released. ... "

My analysis: Most of the implementations just … suck. There’s little or no value added to the content. The technology is not leveraged to produce a truly enhanced publication. This is the trend. Half-assed efforts result in half-assed results ... and thus lousy consumer response.

Also, many of the magazines in question make all or most of their content available for free on the web. So, in the absence of significant enhancements to the iPad editions, why on earth would someone pay for content one can otherwise easily (and legally) access without charge? And do so right from the iPad, the same platform upon which the app runs.

Bob Stein and The Future of (Social) Reading

LA Times: "Stein, 64, has a history tied to media innovation. In the early 1980s he worked in Los Angeles on an effort to create a digital encyclopedia for home-computer maker Atari. He then launched Criterion Collection, a video distributor that pioneered the use of interactive features, initially on laserdisc, a predecessor to the DVD. A company he started with some friends and his former wife published multimedia CD-ROMs, such as one on Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, using techniques that since have become commonplace on the Web. ... " Stein's big thing is social reading - a concept I think to be over-rated. In any event, social reading is not for me. I like solitary reading.

How To Run Android Apps, Including Kindle, On A (Rooted) Nook

San Francisco Chronicle: "If you got a Nook Color instead of a Kindle 3 for Christmas and you're feeling left out, have no fear: a simple hack posted by Blog Kindle lets your Nook read books in Amazon's Kindle format...and run just about any other Android application as well. The hack works because the Nook is actually a bare-bones Android tablet that automatically starts the Nook application and doesn't let you run any other Android apps. But users can download a rootkit that overrides the Nook's presets, then enable the Android Market and go to town."

Excellent Profile of Amazon's Jeff Bezos

Portfolio: "Possessed of a startling, open-jawed guffaw, Bezos is described by those who know him as 'geeky,' taking an intense, detailed interest in gadgets as well as movies and media — a Star Trek fan who does a dead-on imitation of Captain Jean-Luc Picard. Bezos applies that intensity to Amazon as a hands-on consultant to new and emerging technologies, while setting overall strategic direction. While Bezos is described as approachable and egalitarian in some respects — one person remembers the billionaire picking up empty coffee cups after a meeting — he is clearly Amazon’s central, dominating figure. ... "

From the Sorcerer's Mouth: Amazon's Kindle Plans

LA Times: Russ Grandinetti, Amazon's head of Kindle content, talks about the firm's eBook strategy going forward.

Spring Design Suit Against B&N Goes Forward

PWxyz: "The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California has declined to dismiss a lawsuit filed against Barnes & Noble that claims the bookseller stole the design of the original Nook digital reading device. U.S. District Court Judge James Ware ruled that Spring Design, which produces the Alex eReader, a dual screen digital reader much like the original Nook, can pursue a suit charging B&N with misappropriating trade secrets, breach of contract and unfair competition. ... "

Tim O'Reilly Looks to Publishing's Future

O'Reilly Radar: Tim O'Reilly on why ebooks represent an opportunity for a change in form.

Santa Brings Random House Record E-Book Sales

PW: "December 25 and 26 were the two biggest e-book sales days ever for Random House, the publisher reported today. Combined e-book sales across e-retailers on those two days rose more than 300% over last year's sales for the same two-day period, which had been Random's best two-day e-book sales period ever. ... " Note that Random House does not make its content available via iBooks, yet nevertheless seems to be surviving.

Bezos Discounts Kindle-Tablet Competition

Digits - WSJ:

Some industry watchers like to argue about whether one kind of gadget will kill another. Others insist that–just like TV did not kill radio–most new product categories are simply additive, creating more consumer choices. Jeff Bezos seems firmly in the latter camp.

In trumpeting Amazon’s latest sales successes Monday, the e-tailer’s CEO argued that the much-discussed battle between e-readers and tablet computers is a non-issue, because many shoppers are choosing both. ...

“Customers report using their LCD tablets for games, movies, and Web browsing and their Kindles for reading sessions,” Bezos said in a press release, citing the low weight, long battery life and easy-on-the-eye displays of Amazon’s popular gadget. The current price of the Kindle–which now starts at $139, compared to $499 for the least-expensive iPad–means “people don’t have to choose.”

Forrester analyst James McQuivey says Bezos’s pronouncement isn’t such a stretch. According to the research firm’s surveys, roughly a third of iPad buyers also have or intend to buy a Kindle, he says.

“Kindle prices are so cheap now, that it’s not hard to envision buying both devices,” McQuivey says. The iPad, he says, “is a great multi-purpose device that can also read books but is not optimized to do so, leaving plenty of room for Amazon to sell Kindles to iPad owners.” ...

Kobo Suffers Server Woes Over Holiday Weekend

Kobo seems to have taken a page out of B&N's playbook. Record-breaking demand only counts if you can service it. Winnipeg Free Press: "TORONTO - Kobo says it had record-setting ebook sales this holiday weekend, which explains why many readers were left disappointed after unwrapping their gift and finding it wouldn't download any content. Complaints about Kobo's 'server too busy' errors started appearing on Twitter on Christmas Day but customers were left in the dark for hours as Kobo didn't post anything about the problem on its blog or Twitter page. ... "

Book Publishers See Their Role as Gatekeepers Shrink

Los Angeles Times: "Writers are bypassing the traditional route to bookstore shelves and self-publishing their works online. By selling directly to readers, authors get a larger slice of the sale price. ... "

iFlow Reader Takes Reading Down the Wrong Path

The Digital Reader: "iFlow Reader is getting a lot of attention today. This is a new reading app for iOS, with different versions for iPhone and iPad. While it comes with a good set of reading options, iFlow’s one big pitch point is that it abandons page turns in favor of scrolling. This is so not a good idea. ... "

Amazon: Third-Gen Kindle is All-Time Bestseller

The Digital Home - CNET News: "The online retailer announced today that its third-generation Kindle, which features a version boasting both Wi-Fi and 3G connectivity and another offering only Wi-Fi, is now the bestselling product of all time on Amazon. It bested Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Book 7). On Christmas Day, 'more people turned on new Kindles for the first time, downloaded more Kindle Buy Once, Read Everywhere apps, and purchased more Kindle books than on any other day in history,' Amazon reported. ... "

B&N’s Nook Servers Crash Christmas Day

The Digital Reader: "Interesting story today. B&N didn’t bother to keep track how many Nooks they sold this holiday season. The B&N servers that are supposed to support downloading eBooks and Nook activation crashed on Christmas ... How could they have allowed this to happen? Seriously, folks, they should have seen it coming months ago. Count how many Nooks are sold, and subtract the number that get activated right away. You’ll be left with an approximate number of Nooks that will be activated right after Christmas. It’s not rocket science. ... "

E-Readers Under Christmas Trees Prepare Way for Increased Sales

NYTimes: "eBooks now make up 9 to 10 percent of trade-book sales, a rate that grew hugely this year, after accounting for less than half that percentage by the end of last year. Publishers are predicting that digital sales will be 50 percent higher or even double in 2011 what they were in 2010. January could be the biggest month ever for e-book sales, as possibly hundreds of thousands of people are expected to download books on the e-readers that they receive as Christmas gifts. ... "

Hadley Grimble

The blog e-publishing, etc. will rest until Monday, December 27th. Now dash away, dash away, dash away ... Hadley Grimble to all, and to all a goodnight.

S&S Will Hit Profit, But Not Revenue, Targets

The way you hit profit targets without hitting revenue targets is to cut expenses. S&S has developed expertise in cutting expenses, with numerous rounds of layoffs over recent years. Too much of this, however, and you wind up in a death spiral. PW: "In a year-end letter to employees that dealt heavily with digital developments and its impact on the industry and Simon & Schuster, company CEO Carolyn Reidy thanked the publisher’s worldwide staff for their efforts in helping the company achieve its profit targets, despite revenues falling below expectations. Reidy said sales were 'lower than we'd like them to be' primarily because of a soft bricks-and-mortar bookselling environment that offset digital gains. ... "

Amazon Kindle Sales Said to be 8 Million, Exceeding Estimates

BusinessWeek:

Dec. 21 (Bloomberg) -- Amazon.com Inc. is likely to sell more than 8 million Kindle electronic-book readers this year, at least 60 percent more than analysts have predicted, according to two people who are aware of the company’s sales projections.

Analysts surveyed by Bloomberg estimated, on average, that the company would sell 5 million Kindles in 2010. Last year, Amazon sold about 2.4 million Kindles, said one of the people, who asked to remain anonymous because the company doesn’t disclose Kindle sales figures. ...

Analysts at Citigroup, Barclays Capital, BGC Partners LP and ThinkEquity LLC have estimated that Amazon will sell about 5 million Kindles this year. Caris & Co. predicted 4.8 million, while Goldman Sachs Group Inc. projected 4 million to 5 million.

Amazon’s sales demonstrate that the market for stand-alone e-readers is growing even as Apple Inc. builds demand for the iPad tablet, which lets users read books, watch videos and carry out computing tasks. Apple, based in Cupertino, California, sold 7.46 million iPads from their April debut through September. ...

iBooks: No iTunes When It Comes to Dominating the Market

PW: "Want an e-book version of the nation’s bestselling nonfiction hardcovers? Don’t bother looking on the iBookstore. Apple still hasn’t struck a deal with Random House, publisher of George W. Bush’s Decision Points and Laura Hillenbrand’s Unbroken. For now, iPad users who want to get any of Random House’s bestsellers -- which also include John Grisham’s The Confession and Stieg Larsson’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo -- need to visit Apple’s App Store and download the free application for the Kindle or the Nook. ... "

UK Retail Book Sales Pick Up in Final Week Before Xmas

The Bookseller: "The last full week of sales before Christmas shows the book trade coming out ahead of the general retail trend, and raises hope for the last few days of the year. Spending at UK booksellers jumped 12.3% week-on-week last week, despite widespread reports that the big freeze had badly affected footfall at retailers and a Synovate footfall estimate of a 20% drop in shoppers. ... "

Publishers Shoot Selves in Feet with High eBook Prices

Arielle Ford @ Huffpost: "Recently Amazon.co.uk eliminated their discounts on ebooks within 24 hours of being notified by big publishers (Penguin, Hachette and HarperCollins) that retailers would no longer set the selling price of books; publishers would now dictate the terms. As a result, the pricing of many ebooks were marked up to equal or even higher than the printed versions. This led to a revolt by readers ..."

Random House to Release "Ebook Insider" Sampler in Time for Christmas

The Digital Reader:

Random House are planning ahead for all the e-reader that people are going to be giving for Christmas. They’ve released an ebook sampler with a selection of all their latest titles. It’s called The Ebook Insider, and you can find it here.

For some reason it’s an 5″x8″ PDF. I wonder why they didn’t just make it a website? It’s already unusable on most e-readers; it needs a 9″ screen. Oh, they’re blinkered by the iPad, aren’t they? (I had to write the screen size before I realized it, actually.)

I’m beginning to get the feeling that the RH marketing department came up with this without consulting the ebook geeks. ...

Kno Says Its New Tablet is the Answer for Students

Digits - WSJ: "Any startup going up against both Apple and Amazon.com is going to face tough questions. Kno thinks its unusual tablet computer answers them all. [The Silicon Valley company's] hardware ... is tailored for a specific purpose–letting students read and annotate electronic versions of textbooks. Among its distinguishing features is a larger screen than the iPad–nearly 14 inches diagonally, versus about 10 inches for Apple’s hit device–and the option to double that with a two-screen model that can be held vertically, like an open book. ... "

Random Housel eBook Sales Jump 250% Over 2009

And they've done it WITHOUT iBooks. Hmmm. The Bookseller: "Random House's global e-book sales are up 250% year-on-year according to chief executive Markus Dohle. In his end of year letter to staff Dohle also said that in the US this autumn for some of its lead titles nearly half of the overall first-week sales have been in the e-book format. Dohle added that he expected this growth would continue into 2011: 'With the coming proliferation of e-reading devices and e-bookstores in Germany, the UK, Spain, and Latin America, we expect digital sales increases to resound globally.'"

Crovitz: E-Seuss–Be Glad, Not Sad or Mad - WSJ.com

WSJ: "To predict the future of books in this digital era, the best place to start is with the simplest books. When the iPad launched, most of the top 10 books were picture e-books designed for children, with a customized version of The Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss topping the list. This focus on children's books continues, with Dr. Seuss e-books last week released for Android devices. The leading role for children's e-books is good news for parents worried about literacy in a world of decreasing print. Indeed, this is the second time that Dr. Seuss has reinvented the idea of the children's book. ... "

UK Trade Booksellers Confront their Worst Xmas Since 2005

The Bookseller: "Poor weather, a sluggish economy and higher levels of discounting than in 2009 could lead to this Christmas being the worst festive period for [UK] booksellers since the middle of the last decade, short of a last-minute flurry of sales. ... According to projected figures, this poor year could see the trade shrink to its 2005 size, about £1.65bn. Currently, the market is down 3.8% year on year, while sales last week were down 4.5% year on year. If sales over the coming fortnight were to perform at a similar rate, sales at year-end could total around £1.68bn, down 4% or £70.1m year on year. Volume sales would be down 5% year on year to £223.9m and the average selling price will be down 0.6% to £7.39."

iPad Drives Big Spike in Last-Minute Christmas Shopping

Electronista: "iPads and e-readers were the key factors in holiday sales this year, comScore found on Monday. The computer hardware category jumped 25 percent compared to last year owed chiefly to Apple as well as a mix of e-paper devices like the Kindle and Nook; notebooks may also have played a role. ... Much of the turnabout may have come from many retailers offering a free shipping day this past Friday, December 17. Sales between November 1 and Friday were only up 12 percent as a whole, but Friday's sales were up 61 percent to $942 million. The spike rivaled the $1.03 billion in Cyber Monday and suggested that some may have been waiting until the last minute for iPads and other devices. Apple has been offering free next-day shipping towards the end of the season from its own store and may have been matched by others. Researchers didn't break down tablets or other individual categories, including by manufacturer, but it's believed the iPad will have taken the vast majority of tablet sales this year. ..."

Blow-by-Blow: Emerging Technologies Debated at French Book Fair

PW: "The Salon du livre et de la presse jeunesse is an annual children's book fair for both publishers and young readers held just outside of Paris in Montreuil, this year from December 1–6. It is, of course, a haven of book perusal, book buying, and author and illustrator signings. However, a conference that occurred on the last day of the fair delved into that precarious territory beyond the pages: new media. ... "

Bowker Study: eBooks Continue Robust Expansion While Paper Editions Continue Decline

PW:

With holiday shopping in full swing comes more evidence that e-book sales should enjoy a big bump over the next few weeks. According to an analysis of consumer book-buying behavior conducted by Bowker's PubTrack Consumer service, 20% of readers reported in October that they are likely to buy an e-reader compared to just 10% in the 2009 holiday season. Moreover, just over 10% of readers in September and October said they read e-books on a daily or weekly basis compared to only about 3% a year ago. That combination, the report says, indicates that a spike in e-book purchases could be coming soon. ...

The data also show that e-book readers are becoming increasingly loyal to the format. Comparing e-book buyers' book purchases, 64% bought e-books in the third quarter of 2010, up from 56.6% in the comparable period in 2009. The decline in e-book buyers in purchasing other formats, not surprisingly, mirrored that of the overall market, with meaningful declines of hardcover and mass market paperbacks ...

News Corp's "Daily" iPad Newspaper Set For January Launch

Peter Kafka, MediaMemo, AllThingsD:

News Corp. plans to launch the publication the week of January 17, multiple sources tell me.

The caveat here is that launch plans have moved around a couple of times in the past few months; until recently, lots of folks expected to see this thing in December. But this latest date looks like a much safer bet. ...

Given that News Corp. has hired dozens of blabby journalists for the Daily, and interviewed many more, lots of other details about the app/service have leaked out already: It will come out daily, it will sell for 99 cents a week, it will use lots of video and it will have cool multimedia bells and whistles, including some kind of 3-D effect that lots of people are very excited about. And Apple CEO Steve Jobs may or may not participate in a launch event.

Most important for other media companies: The Daily is supposed to use a new “push” subscription feature from Apple, where iTunes automatically bills customers on a weekly or monthly basis, and a new edition shows up on customers’ iPads every morning.

If we do see that on the Daily next month, expect to see several other new iPad apps using the same feature shortly afterward.

That offering won’t resolve Apple’s dispute with conventional publishers, who want to be able to control their subscriptions–or at least get access to subscriber data–for iTunes app versions of their print products. But for new, digital-only products like the Daily, that data isn’t as crucial, and the ability to set up a recurring subscription would be a big step forward.

An Argument Against Tech Complacency on the Part of Traditional Publishers

The Observer:

[The emergence of iPad apps] ought to serve as a wake-up call for the print publishing industry. The success of Amazon's Kindle has, I think, lulled print publishers into a false sense of security. After all, they're thinking, the stuff that goes on the Kindle is just text. It may not be created by squeezing dyes on to processed wood-pulp, but it's still text. And that's something we're good at. So no need to panic. Amazon may be a pain to deal with, but the Kindle and its ilk will see us through. ...

If that's really what publishers are thinking, then they're in for some nasty surprises. The concept of a "book" will change under the pressure of iPad-type devices, just as concepts of what constitutes a magazine or a newspaper are already changing. ... print publishers who wish to thrive in the new environment will not just have to learn new tricks but will also have to tool up. In particular, they will have to add serious in-house technological competencies to their publishing skills.

If they don't do it, then someone else will.

Google eBooks: Is That All There Is?

Jon Evans, Techcrunch: "Two weeks ago the Google eBookstore finally launched, and the world was briefly amazed. Google Editions, as it was known until launch, was the book world’s Duke Nukem Forever vaporware for seven years, depending on how you count. Its actual emergence was like the birth of a unicorn. A mewling, misshapen, half-baked unicorn. ... A ridiculous amount of ado has been made about the eBookstore’s one innovative feature: they’re allowing independent bookstores to sell Google eBooks through their own web sites. I don’t know what it is about indie bookstores that makes otherwise hard-headed analysts go all misty-eyed and misty-minded, but anyone who thinks this is a game-changer is on crack. 'A middleman’s business is to make himself a necessary evil,' quoth William Gibson, and love ‘em or hate ‘em, bookstores are to ebooks what travel agents are to online travel; unnecessary and irrelevant. Leaving that distraction aside, when you compare Amazon’s ebook ecosystem to Google’s, the latter finds itself in the unfamiliar position of inferior copycat. ... "

B&N and Borders Nearing the End of Their Shelf Life

msnbc: "Investors are skeptical about both retailers' long-term prospects. Borders shares trade around $1.18, down nearly two-thirds since April and a fraction of their all-time high of $41.75 in 1998. Barnes & Noble shares have fallen 22 percent this year, to about $14.44, a far cry from a peak of $48.41 in 2006."

Kindle eBook Reader Named as Cnet Editor's Choice for Favorite eReader

Reviews Of Electronics: "Despite the fact that its not full color like the Nook Color, and its missing more than a few key features offered by the iPad, the Amazon Kindle eBook Reader can strut the catwalk with its head held high thanks to the nice, big, fat, techno stamp of approval from the Cnet editorial team. The savvy little Kindle 3 ereader has taken the electronic book reader industry by storm, and shows no signs of slowing down anytime soon."

Apple Disses eBook Developers at its Peril

Liz Castro @ Pigs, Gourds, and Wikis: "I'm feeling really grumpy today, and I've traced it back to a Twitter conversation last night in which I discovered that Apple has been giving support and information on how to create their new fixed-layout ebooks for iBooks 1.2 only to a select group of ebook producers, and under non-disclosure agreements (NDA). ..."

Database of Google Books Shows the Half-Life of Celebrity

arstechnica: "Is it possible to study something as ill-defined as culture in a quantitative manner? Researchers from Harvard have collaborated with Google and some traditional publishers to answer that question with a qualified 'yes.' By leveraging a portion of Google's massive library of digitized books, the team has created what they call a 'culturome,' with which they can track the use of language and terms across hundreds of years. This lets them track not only trends in language and usage, but the rise and fall of celebrities and historic events in the books of many eras. And, thanks to Google, the underlying data has been exposed via a Web interface, allowing others to perform their own analysis."

Waterstone's Looks to Cloud for Digital Growth

The Bookseller: "Waterstone's managing director Dominic Myers has revealed the bookseller is working on its own cloud-based system for reading e-books ... He said Waterstone's would follow Google and Amazon's lead by developing a cloud-based solution for reading e-books across different devices. He said: 'Cloud-based content will become a reality and we are conscious about how we get there ourselves.'"

David L. Ulin: eBooks are Good News for the Literary World

LA Times: "The great debate of the last several years — whether readers would read book-length material onscreen — appears to have been settled with a resounding 'yes.' What does this mean for reading? It's too early to tell, but I see a lot of cause for optimism as the e-book experience becomes more sophisticated and more and more of us explore the world of digital literature. ... "

Hit and Miss and More: MediaBistro’s eBook Summit, Round 2

PW: "The second annual Mediabistro E-book Summit was a little like the e-book market itself: some of it hit, some of it missed and some of the day’s presentations were decidedly mixed ... "

Barnes & Noble to Upgrade Nook Color with Android 2.2 in Early 2011

Techlogg.com: "Barnes & Noble’s Nook Color has already been hacked to handle Linux but it looks as though the book retailer plans a modification of its own. According to a report on Digitimes.com, the Nook Color will receive an upgrade early in 2011 to receive Google’s Android 2.2 operating system. The color e-book reader, manufactured by Invantec, is expected to hit one million units shipped by the end of 2011 according to the report. The operating system upgrade will firmly push the Nook Color into tablet PC territory ... "

Kindle Free Super Saver Shipping Deadline Extended to December 19th

Reviews Of Electronics: "A Kindle here, a Kindle there, a Kindle for everyone everywhere!! No, this is not a Dr. Seuss excerpt, but we are enthusiastically giving a shout out to all Kindle fans and fans to be that its time to think about placing that Amazon Kindle order for the beloved book worms on you Christmas shopping list, and one for yourself, because you know you deserve it!! In order to for your shipment to receive Free Super Saver Shipping and arrive before Christmas, your Kindle order must be placed by Sunday, December 19th."

Kindle for Android 2.0 Brings Magazines, Newspapers, Install to SD

Android Phone Fans: "Amazon Kindle for Android 2.0 is out and it now brings more than just books to your Android device. Magazines and newspapers will now be available for purchasing and viewing, and to get them, you are no longer kicked to your default browser. (But the purchasing mechanism is still HTML-based. Amazon’s just added a WebView-based front-end inside the app.) You’ll also get the ability to update your social networks on what you’re reading and how far you are, the ability to zoom in to images, check which chapter you’re on in the status bar, and the option to use volume rockers for turning pages. Not bad."

Kindle: Now for Some Light Christmas Reading

Judith Woods in The Telegraph (UK):

What to make of the 2010 Christmas must-have, the Kindle? A philistine gimmick or the most revolutionary development in reading since Gutenberg mass-produced moveable type?

John Lewis has already sold out of this much-hyped £109 electronic reader, the waiting lists are longer than War and Peace and Amazon, which makes this sleek gadget du jour, is cock-a-hoop. All of which makes me rather dig my heels in.

Instinctively, I belong in the anti-Kindle camp. Not because I'm a technophobic Luddite. In fact, I already own an iPad (ooh, get me). But I only use it for surfing the net and emailing, which is the IT equivalent of harnessing the Derby winner to a milk float.

I even have the iBook app up on my screen as I write, but have never downloaded anything because – well, why would I? ...

Apple Updates iBooks - Adds AirPrint, Collections

iPad Atlas - CNET Reviews: "Apple has updated its popular digital-book reader iOS App, iBooks, now version 1.2, to include support for AirPrint, PDF and notes printing, Collections, and new fully illustrated children's books and art books available for download in the iBookstore. Apple's iBooks allows you to download digital versions of your favorite books directly to your iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch. iBooks 1.2 includes the ability to print notes or PDFs using Apple's newly released AirPrint functionality. With everything going digital, it's nice to see you can still get your notes back on paper. iBooks 1.2 also includes new functionality (must have iOS 4.2.1 installed) to allow more words per page by automatically hyphenating text."

Software Update Turns WikiReader into an eBook Reader

liliputing: "Openmoko has released an update that lets you download not just the latest version of Wikipedia to the [WikiReader] handheld device. You can also access the complete Project Gutenberg library of 33,000 eBooks. Project Gutenberg has been digitizing public domain books since long before the Kindle was a gleam in, well… anyone’s eye. The collection includes thousands of titles in dozens of languages. If you want to store the entire text of Wikipedia and the entire Project Gutenberg library, you’ll need a 16GB memory card, but you can reportedly hold just the Gutenberg books on a 4GB SD card. The WikiReader costs $99 and comes with 2 AAA batteries. Current users can download the latest update from thewikireader.com/update."

Big Surprise: Google Undercuts Its Indie "Partners" on Price

eBookNewser gives an example: "... for the popular title The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot, prices vary a lot among different Google eBook vendors. Google sells the eBook for $9.99, down from the list price of $26.00. Bay area independent bookstore Alibris has the eBook listed at $16.90. And Politics and Prose, an independent bookstore based in Washington DC, is selling the eBook for $18.20. The eBook is $9.99 in the Kindle store. If Google is going to match Amazon for extremely low pricing, then indie booksellers are going to have a tough time competing."

Eight Great Kindle Books for the Christmas Season (Alphabetically)

I've made this list and I've checked it twice - everything from John Mortimer and Agatha Christie to David Baldacci and John Grisham.

A CHRISTMAS CAROL retold in the manner of ERNEST HEMINGWAY, $4.95

A RUMPOLE CHRISTMAS: STORIES by John Mortimer, $9.99

AN IRISH COUNTRY CHRISTMAS by Patrick Taylor, $7.99

HERCULE POIROT'S CHRISTMAS: HERCULE POIROT INVESTIGATES by Agatha Christie, $6.99

I'M DREAMING OF A BLACK CHRISTMAS by Lewis Black, $10.99

SKIPPING CHRISTMAS by John Grisham, $7.59

THE CHRISTMAS THIEF by Mary Higgins Clark and Carol Higgins Clark, $7.99

THE CHRISTMAS TRAIN by David Baldacci, $6.99

Japanese Publishers Threaten to Bite Apple

Digits - WSJ: "A Japanese consortium of book, e-book, magazine and digital comic publishers issued a stern rebuke of Apple’s enforcement of copyrights on its App Store. The group said certain works by renowned Japanese authors Haruki Murakami and Keigo Higashino have been illegally scanned and distributed over the App Store. In a joint press release on Tuesday, the Japan Book Publishers Association, the Japan Magazine Publishers Association, The Electronic Book Publishers Association of Japan, and Digital Comic Association said Apple’s distribution of content that clearly infringes copyright is 'illegal.'"

Color E-Readers Open Way for Picture Books

NYTimes: " ... publishers are making headway in converting their enormous libraries of illustrated titles to e-books, hoping to capitalize on the growing popularity of the Apple iPad and the Nook Color and their ability to showcase books with color photographs and illustrations. Apple said Tuesday that it was set to make a major push into illustrated books on Wednesday, introducing more than 100 titles to its iBookstore, an assortment of children’s books, photography books and cookbooks."

Apple Approved for iBookstore in Canada

The news comes per this self important statement from The Honourable James Moore, Minister of Canadian Heritage and Official Languages, who "today announced that Apple Canada has been granted approval under the Investment Canada Act to establish iBookstore Canada. 'Our Government is committed to strengthening Canada's economy through all its sectors, especially arts and culture,' said Minister Moore. 'Apple has demonstrated how iBookstore Canada represents new opportunities for Canadian authors and publishers, and I have determined that this investment will be of net benefit to Canada.'" The Honourable Mr. Moore has evidently been pondering this complex question since July, when Apple made its initial application. Good work if you can get it.

France Delays eBook VAT Cut to 2012

The Bookseller: "The cut in VAT on unenriched ebooks from 19.6% to 5.5% in France will almost certainly be postponed for a year from 1st January 2011 to 2012. An all party committee of members of parliament from both houses agreed during a meeting on Monday to iron out differences over the 2011 budget that the rate would be lowered, but not immedately. The National Assembly and Senate will both vote on the agreement today (15th). The pact came just hours after the French Publishers Association, Syndicat National de l’Edition (SNE), had released a statement welcoming the VAT reduction next year to avoid distortions of competition and to widen the choice of titles for legal download."

October Bookstore Sales Drop 2.5%

PW: "Bookstore sales fell 2.5% in October to an even $1 billion, according to estimates released by the U.S. Census Bureau. The decline was less severe than the declines in August and September when bookstore sales fell by more than 6% in both months. For the first 10 months of 2010, bookstore sales were also down 2.5%, to $13.32 billion. For the retail segment in general, October sales rose 5.7% and sales in the year to date were ahead 6.2%."

Kinstant Makes Kindle Browser Useful, at Last

Gadget Lab, Wired: "One thing the otherwise excellent Kindle is not is a great web-browser. Even with a hardware keyboard to type urls, the process of visiting even one site is painful. If you’re like most people, you’ll try once or twice and then give up, forever. Which is a shame, as the little e-reader has a free, life-long 3G connection, perfect for quickly checking your mail or the news. Which is where Kinstant comes in. Kinstant is a customizable home-page (remember those?) which has just been updated with some fancy new features. ... "

Berkman Center Announces Digital Public Library Planning Initiative

Berkman Center Press Release: "The Berkman Center for Internet and Society today announced that it will host a research and planning initiative for a 'Digital Public Library of America.' With funding from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Berkman will convene a large and diverse group of stakeholders in a planning program to define the scope, architecture, costs and administration for a proposed Digital Public Library of America. ... "

Brill: 2011 Will Bring eBook Battles, Paywall Successes, and a New Model for Long-Form Articles

The Nieman Journalism Lab presents predictions from Journalism Online co-founder and long-time journalism entrepreneur Steve Brill.

Now That We Have the Web, Do We Need the Associated Press?

Matthew Ingram, gigaom: "Media analyst Clay Shirky, author of Here Comes Everybody, says that the list of things that the Internet has killed — or is in the process of killing — includes media syndication of the kind that the Associated Press and other newswires are built on. In a look at what 2011 will bring for media, written for the Nieman Journalism Lab, Shirky says this process, which is 'a key part of the economic structure of the news business,' is next in line for widespread disruption, because it no longer makes sense in the age of the Internet, when anyone can syndicate content by pushing a button."

DK Lauches Its Own App Store

PW: "DK has launched its own app store at www.dkappshop.com, making it, according to the Bookseller, the first publisher to launch such a store of its own. The site sells DK-branded apps for an array of devices. The store is managed by Handago and launched simultaneously in the US and UK."

Amazon: 'Millions' of Kindles Sold this Quarter

CNET: " ... the little nugget of info was embedded in a thank you to customers for helping Amazon sell millions of Kindles and a reminder that the device is offering the latest, 'most advanced' E Ink Pearl display (which the e-ink Nook doesn't have). 'Thanks to you, in just the first 73 days of this holiday quarter, we've already sold millions of our all-new Kindles with the latest E Ink Pearl display,' the post reads. 'In fact, in the last 73 days, readers have purchased more Kindles than we sold during all of 2009.'"

Joe Wikert: Underwhelmed by Google's eBookstore

Publishing 2020 Blog: "For the past 18 months or so, like many of you, I've been anxiously awaiting Google's ebookstore launch. Originally referred to as Google Editions, the service finally arrived this week with the name Google eBookstore. Now that I've had some time to tour the store and download some sample content, I have one question: Why did it take this long to launch a service that offers nothing new? Seriously, I was figuring there would be some groundbreaking functionality but this is basically the Kindle's bookstore with fewer bells and whistles."

E-books Entice as New Frontier for Ads

WSJ: "Marketers are exploring a variety of formats, including sponsorships that give readers free books. Videos, graphics or text with an advertiser's message that appear when a person first starts a book or along the border of the digital pages are also in the works. Ads can be targeted based on the book's content and the demographic and profile information of the reader. The advertising business has dabbled with books before without much success as authors howled and revenues proved skimpy. It's not clear that readers and authors would be more accepting now."

Global Ebook Reader Sales May Be Up By 79.3%: Gartner Estimates 6.6 Million Sales in 2010

Buzzle: "People might romanticize about the love of reading books in hard cover and paperback, but the rising trend in ebook reader sales tells another story. The leading information technology analyst firm, Gartner has predicted that the global sale of electronic ebook readers will reach up to 6.6 million units by the end of 2010. This will be a stupendous 79.3% rise from the earlier sales figures of 2009, which saw a sale of 3.6 million units worldwide."

Minnesota Indies Succumb to Economy/Publishing Paradigm Shift

StarTribune: "No more Biermaier's Books in Minneapolis, for 60 years among the largest used bookstores in Minnesota. No more J. O'Donoghue Books in Anoka, serving the north metro for four decades. No more Northern Lights Books & Gifts in Duluth, calling it quits after 17 years. And no more Cummings Books in Dinkytown, which papered over its windows last month. Others such as the Bookcase of Wayzata -- the oldest independent bookseller in the Twin Cities with roots in the 1950s -- are hanging on by their book jackets as e-books gain popularity in the booming online market. 'We have lost a lot of regular customers to the e-book revolution,' said owner Charlie Leonard."

Ebooks in India

NDTV: "With more than 15,000 publishing houses generating content in more than 24 regional languages, experts feel India has huge potential for ebooks, specially post the IT boom but lack of cheap ereaders and technological awareness among the people is hampering their growth here."

Kindle Carries 47% of Ebook Reader Market Even With iPad Cutting In

Reviews Of Electronics: "Yes, The Amazon Kindle did feel the impact of the iPad release this year as Apple cut into their profits, taking their market share down to 47% at its lowest, which is still nearly half of all ebook reader sales and no small potatoes. The iPad may be more dazzling, and yes its features do surpass that of the Kindle, but it is afterall a tablet, designed to perform on a higher level than an ebook reader device. The Kindle has the iPad beat on one very significant detail, the price. The Kindle pricing starts at a very reasonable $139, while the Apple iPad starts out closer to $500, quite a price gap there. In tough economic times, more often than not, the pricing comparison makes the sale."

LA Times: Why is Len Riggio Publishers Weekly's Man of the Year?

Carolyn Kellogg | Jacket Copy:

I have to admit, I find the choice a bit baffling. Maybe it's because I'm on the West Coast; maybe it's because I don't have the first inkling of how to run a massive corporation like Barnes & Noble. But Riggio seems to me to be holding on, rather that blazing a way forward.

Riggio is certainly a survivor. After Amazon's entry into bookselling challenged brick-and-mortar book retailers, Barnes & Noble has reamined the most viable chain retail bookstore. Its one-time rival Border's has been in steady decline -- the Wall Street Journal described its earnings report this week as "dismal." Nevertheless, one of Border's investors recently raised the possibility of purchasing Barnes & Noble.

Could Riggio survive a buyout move? Sure. He did that already this year when he defeated investor Ron Burkle and his Yuciapa Co., major stockholders, who made moves to take control of the company. Clearly, Riggio is an able boardroom manueverer and dedicated to holding onto the company he's been with for decades. But if he's focused on maintaining control over Barnes & Noble, how can be be looking toward the future of publishing as a whole? Is surviving a skirmish the same thing as leading the charge over the hill?

Yes, Barnes & Noble now has an e-reader, and its Nook has been getting strong reviews. But Barnes & Noble's e-reader came two years after Amazon's Kindle, and although it was intended to be out in time for Christmas last year, was plagued by delays and postponements that meant some customers didn't see it until January. Before that month was out, Apple announced its long-awaited tablet -- the iPad, complete with e-reader -- which swiftly pulled away much attention the Nook might have received.

By the time people could buy ebooks from Barnes & Noble's website, Amazon had a two-year head start, and had captured enormous mindshare. ...

Borders Sales Disappoint, Falling 17.6% - Loss Soars

PW: "Borders third quarter results, released just after the market closed Thursday afternoon, provided little sign that the company is turning around as total revenue fell 17.6%, to $470.9 million and comparable store sales dropped 12.6%. The loss from continuing operations was $74.4 million compared to a loss of $37.7 million a year ago. CEO Michael Edwards called the results disappointing, adding they reflect “the business challenges facing Borders and the industry at large.”"

New Survey on E-book Trends

PW: "A survey of 600 publishers from across the industry spectrum found 64% now offering e-books with 74% of trade houses producing titles in that format. The trade and STM segments had the biggest gain in number of publishers producing e-books in the survey, the second one conducted by the conversion and technology services company Aptara. There was no dominant factor among the publishers that don’t produce e-books about why they haven’t entered the market, with 71% giving no particular reason for staying out of the business."

Amazon Now Giving Authors Bookscan Numbers For Free

Of course, these statistics - once pure gold - reflect for the most part only the withering vine of brick and mortar sales. And that's worth remembering. Techcrunch: "What does this mean for authors? Well, it shows authors how few – or how many – copies they’re selling. That’s a huge deal. Second, it lifts the veil on the secretive world of publishing and book distribution. It also shows how few books really sell through the physical distribution chain any more and proves how much of a gamble the book business really is. Regardless, it’s a step in the right direction in terms of transparency – until, of course, Nielsen releases Bookscan Plus or something equally expensive."

Google eBooks Has Its Own Fail Whale

Gearlog: "As far as whales go, the Twitter Fail Whale is pretty well known. Now even Google wants some of the whale action of its own. The new Google eBooks' error page takes a literary spin on the Fail Whale with its 'Whale Fail,' featuring the classic Captain Ahab and infamous Moby Dick. Poor Ahab can relate to the frustration and anger you feel when a error page pops-up, which you can clearly see from his disappointed, down-turned head and frustrated shoulders. With this little error page graphic, Google was clearly trying to appeal to both techies and bookworms." Of course, the last time I checked, old Moby was white. He seems to have gone through some changes. - EJR

Don't Believe the Rhetoric Behind Google's New "Open" eBook Store

Farhad Manjoo - Slate Magazine: "Google's e-books are 'open' in the same way that politicians are 'bipartisan' and oil companies are 'green'—the claim makes for good marketing, even if it lacks substance. Buying from Google rather than Amazon will give you no greater control over your books. You're not likely to get any practical benefit from going with Google, either. In fact, Amazon's 'closed' books will soon work on more devices than Google's 'open' books."

E-Book Growth Slows (To a Gallup) in October

PW: "Facing some harder comparisons, e-book sales posted their slowest growth rates in 2010 in October. Still, sales jumped 112.4%, to $40.7 million, from the 14 publishers who reported results to the AAP’s monthly sales program. For the first 10 months of the year, e-book sales from the 14 houses rose 171.3%, to $345.3%, 8.7% of the trade sales of reporting publishers. The three adult categories all had declines in October and for the 10 months of 2010 adult hardcover sales from 17 reporting houses fell 7.7%, and sales from 9 mass market houses were down 14.3%. Sales of trade paperbacks from 19 publishers were flat."

EFF: Free eBook Buyer's Guide to eBook Privacy, 2010 Edition

Electronic Frontier Foundation blog: "With the 2010 holidays upon us, it's time to update EFF's eBook Buyer's Guide to E-Book Privacy, which summarizes and comments on the privacy-related policies of several e-readers. ... "

Amazon Kindle, Other E-Reader Sales Will Only Increase: Gartner

eWeek: "In Gartner’s estimation, worldwide e-reader sales will total 6.6 million units in 2010, a 79.8 percent increase from 2009. Moreover, the research firm predicts that e-reader sales will increase 68.3 percent in 2011, to more than 11 million units."

Seth Godin to Lead Amazon’s New Publishing Imprint

Press Release via The Digital Reader: "International-bestselling author Seth Godin and Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) today announced that Godin’s new publishing imprint “The Domino Project” will publish an initial list of six titles using Amazon’s new “Powered By Amazon” publishing program. Powered by Amazon enables authors to use Amazon’s global distribution, multiple format production capabilities, including print, audio and digital, as well as Amazon’s personalized, targeted marketing reach."

Elsevier Enables its e-Books to Read Aloud, Increasing Access for People With Visual Disabilities

PRNewswire-FirstCall: "Elsevier, the world-leading publisher of scientific, technical and medical information products and solutions, announced today that it has enabled the text-to-speech option on all of its ePub book titles."

Amazon Debuts Kindle for Web, While Google Brings Knife to a Gunfight

VentureBeat:

Signaling renewed competition in the e-reading space, Amazon today debuted a web-based extension to their existing Kindle platform with a new product called Kindle for the Web, which is nearly identical to a product Google announced yesterday dubbed Google eBooks, which is also a cloud-based ebookstore and reading webapp that lives within the browser.

Unlike Google’s dearth of reading devices, Amazon’s new service snaps into the same “buy once, read everywhere” experience that the existing line-up has successfully offered: last-page read, bookmarks, notes, and highlights synced and automatically archived across all Kindle hardware and applications for third-party platforms such as iOS, Android, Blackberry and the like.

Kindle for the Web affords a few extra features too: since whole books can now be read in an embeddable reader applet, independent third-party publishers and authors can now preview and sell content directly on their own sites, earning them referral fees through Amazon’s Associates Program.

These fees are in fact the only thing that really separate Kindle for the Web from Google eBooks, which has not yet developed a third-party seller model in their product.

It’s actually hard to see why Google would enter the e-reading market without disruptive new distribution and revenue models, facing up against entrenched competition from Amazon and Barnes and Noble, which can clearly afford to experiment. ...

Indie Bookstores Participating with Google eBooks DON'T AS YET KNOW What Percentage of Sales $ They Will Get to Keep

So says Michael Tucker, president of the American Booksellers Association in Tarrytown, NY. CSMonitor: "About 220 ABA member stores are already selling Google eBooks through the ABA’s IndieCommerce website, and many more are expected to join, says Tucker. A list of participating ABA member stores that have opted in to sell Google eBooks online can be found here. It’s not yet clear how Google will share eBook revenues with independent sellers. Most book sales involve a 70-30 split, with publishers getting 70 percent of revenues and sellers 30 percent. Google will take a percentage of that 30 percent share, says Tucker, though it’s not yet known how much. 'It will be very reasonable,' he says."

First Espresso Book Machine in Continental Europe

Note from Ed: Espresso Book Machine = Desperation move by brick and mortar outlets. PW: "On Demand Books, the company behind the Espresso Book Machine, continues to extend its reach. Late last month it installed its first machine in continental Europe at the American Book Center in Amsterdam. The machine is currently being tested and will be up and running and able to print books in multiple languages at the beginning of 2011. ... " I looked at this technology about eight months ago at the Harvard Bookstore, and was dramatically underwhelmed. Plus, just 56 machines installed worldwide after all this time since the launch? Not exactly catching on like wildfire.

Big Hiccups in Google eBooks

The Washington Post notes numerous problems:

Google's Web-based reader application will be able to show a book's original fonts and graphics, but it won't support offline reading at the start.

Other promised features didn't make the cut for the launch. The company held up support for copy-and-paste and printing, for example, after too many publishers balked. Highlighting and annotation features won't happen until later. The same goes for text-to-speech capabilities that would allow Google's reader programs to read a book aloud. ...

It's important to remember that although this is the seemingly unstoppable Google we're talking about, the Mountain View, Calif., company doesn't have that much experience selling directly to consumers. One of its few earlier ventures in that category - an online video store it launched in 2006 - lasted about a year and a half before Google shuttered it.

After trying out Google eBooks in two Web browsers, three mobile devices (an iPad 3G, an iPhone 4 and a Samsung Galaxy Tab) and one e-book reader (Barnes & Noble's NookColor), I can only think this store could use another run through the typewriter.

Browsing and searching through Google's e-book store is no problem, and it seems to stock the same new titles at the same prices as elsewhere. But its pricing and selection didn't beat the Kindle store's in a search for three older, Washington-related books.

Christopher Buckley's "Thank You for Smoking" costs $9.99 from Google but $8.69 on Amazon. My friend Robert Schlesinger's "White House Ghosts" goes for $13.99, the same as Amazon's Kindle price - and $1.30 more than what Amazon charges for a hardcover copy. Zachary Schrag's excellent history of the Washington Metro, "The Great Society Subway," is overpriced for the Kindle at $16.50, but Google asks $17.60 for a version, optimistically labeled "Better for larger screens," that offers only scanned-in images of pages.

When I switched to Google's iOS and Android apps, I was puzzled to see that the former offer more features. The Android program offered fewer font choices (four, compared with seven) than the iPad and iPhone apps and - of all the things for Google to leave out - lacked the iOS release's search function.

Finally, I downloaded PDF and ePub-format copies of "Alice in Wonderland," one of the three public-domain titles that every Google Books buyer gets for free, to inspect on a Barnes & Noble NookColor. The PDF was unreadable - I couldn't even flip from page to page, and its illustrations were replaced by empty red squares - but the ePub looked fine, aside from too-large images.

Had I bought a title off Google to move to the B&N device, I would have been subjected to a fussy file-transfer procedure, required by Google's Adobe-supplied DRM, that involves installing a copy of Adobe Digital Editions, opening the book in that free program, then employing that program to sideload the book on the Nook.

No, thanks. If I wanted to be reminded about why users justifiably resent DRM, I'd rather read a book about the record labels' failed adoption of it. And, given the issues I see in Google eBooks, I might be happier getting that book at a library.

Adobe's eBook DRM Adopted By Google

RTTnews: "Adobe Systems Inc. (ADBE: News ), Monday said Google (GOOG: News ) would use Adobe's Content Server 4 software Google eBooks' content protection, joining over 200 other publishers and distributors who use the Adobe's Digital Rights Management, or DRM, solution."

Alibris and Google Set Up eBook Deal

San Francisco Business Times: "Book search site Alibris made a deal with giant Google Inc. to sell electronic books. Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) has been scanning and digitizing books for years, and offers many for free and for sale on its site. Now users at Alibris, an Emeryville business that started as a rare and out-of-print book search engine, will be able to peruse and purchase ebooks from the Google system."

How Online Reading Habits Have Changed Over 2010

Macmanus, NYTimes: "One of the more subtle trends of 2010 has been the way that our reading habits have changed, due to a convergence of other Web trends: mobile apps, real-time Web (mostly Twitter), and social networking as a way to track news (mostly Facebook). In the previous era of the Web, the so-called Web 2.0, RSS Readers and start pages were all the rage. Over 2010, though, more people used tools like Twitter, Facebook, Instapaper, Flipboard, LazyWeb, Feedly and TweetDeck, to track news. Nowadays I'm more likely to find stories to read via a vertical aggregator (the media-focused Mediagazer is my current favorite) and save them to Instapaper for later reading via my iPhone or iPad. I still use Google Reader, but in all honesty I now use it more to scan than to read. ... "

Amazon Bouncing Public Domain eBooks from the Kindle Store

This is a good thing. There's no good reason for commercial editions of PD eBooks to even exist, when quality free editions are available from Project Gutenberg, etc. The Digital Reader: "Do you recall that big story last week about Amazon charging for public domain ebooks? Did you notice how much publicity it got? Well, apparently Amazon notieced, and according to Morris Rosenthal of Foner Books, Amazon have started bouncing pd ebooks from the Kindle Store."

Amazon to Demo Kindle for the Web on Tuesday

Computerworld: "Amazon plans to demonstrate a new version of Kindle for the Web on Tuesday, one day after Google launched its Google eBooks and eBookstore strategy. An Amazon spokeswoman said via an e-mail to Computerworld late Monday that the new Kindle for the Web will 'enable users to read full books in the browser and [enable] any Website to become a bookstore offering Kindle books.'"

French Publishers Fight Back With a Communal Digital Newsstand

NYTimes: "PARIS — With sales of newspapers and magazines flagging at the ornate kiosks that adorn the boulevards of Paris, French publishers hope that a planned 'digital kiosk' can help revive their fortunes. The publishers, representing eight of the leading dailies and weeklies in France, said last week that they had formed a consortium to manage the project, which aims to create a single online portal to sell the publications’ contents via the Web, mobile phones and tablet computers like the Apple iPad. Consumers could buy articles or subscriptions with a single click of a mouse once they had created an account. 'The idea is to put a value on online content,' said Frédéric Filloux, a former newspaper editor who is heading the project. 'It’s a matter of survival for us.' ..."

The Google eBookstore is Not a Serious Threat to Kindle (and Why I’m Not Shopping There) - Nate the Great

As usual, the Digital Reader gets it right: "I decided to get a head start on all the pundits that tomorrow are going to post stories with titles like “GE will Kill the Kindle”. I’m not going to discuss the obvious format issue (I don’t think it’s that important). But I did find a problem. I’ve been looking over GE since it launched this morning, and I think it’s missing a critical component. Customer service. ... "

Google Finally Opens Its E-Bookstore

NYTimes: "The Google eBookstore could be a significant benefit to independent bookstores like Powell’s Books in Portland, Ore., that have signed on to sell Google e-books on their Web sites through Google — the first significant entry for independents into the e-book business." Could be? No. Won't be. Mark my words.

More Insight re: Borders' Buyout Bid for Barnes & Noble

DailyFinance:

... even though it's Ackman in the news as the leading figure in the buyout, the tactics have Borders chairman and CEO Bennett LeBow written all over them. LeBow muscled his way into Borders' top position by acquiring a considerable amount of stock and warrants that, when they came due, gave him a 35% stake in the company.

Past precedent shows that LeBow's modus operandi with companies is to buy his way into one, use it in an attempt to buy a bigger company, and sink both businesses in the process. In fact, the potential B&N-Borders merger echoes another M&A disaster from the late 1980s: The LeBow-controlled MAI Basic Four attempted to buy larger competitor Prime Computer in a hostile takeover bid. Things didn't end up so well for either company, as they both ended up filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, and LeBow was out of the computer business entirely by 1995.

The timing of Ackman's announcement is also noteworthy. On Dec. 9 -- the last day possible before the SEC starts asking uncomfortable questions about the company's financial status -- Borders will report its third quarter earnings. They're expected to be anemic, certainly much more so than Barnes and Noble's quarterly earnings, which were reported last week and weren't exactly fabulous either. Talk of a merger would certainly wake up otherwise sleepy investors who need all the help they can get to be excited about Borders' future, which even a spectacular holiday season won't be able to turn around. (And indeed, the merger talk has awakened investors: Barnes & Noble shares were trading Monday morning at $2.39, up 18%, at $15.60. BGP stock is up 19 cents, or 18%, at $1.27.) ...

Just Nuts: Titanic Rushing to Join Forces with the Andrea Doria - Borders to Buy Barnes & Noble?

The Dividend Daily: "Book retailer Barnes & Noble, Inc. (BKS) on Monday saw its shares soar in premarket trading following the news that Bill Ackman’s Pershing Square Capital hedge fund is willing to finance a $16 per-share cash bid for the company from rival Borders Group (BGP). That $16 bid would represent a 20% premium to BKS’ Friday closing price of $13.28. Ackman also noted he would finance a cash/stock combination offer for BKS from BGP, should both parties prefer to go that route. Barnes & Noble shares soared $2.27, or 17%, in premarket trading Monday."

Sigil eBook Editor = Well Worth a Try

After several weeks of experimenting and kicking the tires, I really must recommend the Sigil eBook editor. Check it out.

• Free and open source software under GPLv3
• Multi-platform: runs on Windows, Linux and Mac
• Full Unicode support: everything you see in Sigil is in UTF-16
• Full EPUB spec support
• WYSIWYG editing
• Multiple Views: Book View, Code View and Split View
• Metadata editor with full support for all possible metadata entries (more than 200) with full descriptions for each
• Table Of Contents editor
• Multi-level TOC support
• Book View fully supports the display of any XHTML document possible under the OPS spec
• SVG support
• Basic XPGT support
• Advanced automatic conversion of all imported documents to Unicode
• Currently imports TXT, HTML and EPUB files; more will be added with time
• Embedded HTML Tidy; all imported documents are thoroughly cleaned; changing views cleans the document so no matter how much you screw up your code, it will fix it (usually)
• An actually usable user interface
• Native C++ application

Cory Doctorow on the Purpose of Copyright

via Andrew Sullivan's Daily Dish: "In my world, copyright’s purpose is to encourage the widest participation in culture that we can manage – that is, it should be a system that encourages the most diverse set of creators, creating the most diverse set of works, to reach the most diverse audiences as is practical ..."

Figment Aims for Young Readers and Writers

NYTimes:

When Jacob Lewis helped create the beta version of the Web site Figment with Dana Goodyear, a staff writer at The New Yorker, Mr. Lewis envisioned it as a sort of literary Facebook for the teenage set.

“I really went into it and thought, ‘We’ll be the social network for young-adult fiction,’ ” said Mr. Lewis, a former managing editor of The New Yorker. “But it became clear early on that people didn’t want a new Facebook.”

The young people on the site weren’t much interested in “friending” one another. What they did want, he said, “was to read and write and discover new content, but around the content itself.”

Figment.com will be unveiled on Monday as an experiment in online literature, a free platform for young people to read and write fiction, both on their computers and on their cellphones. Users are invited to write novels, short stories and poems, collaborate with other writers and give and receive feedback on the work posted on the site ...

Len Riggio: PW's Person of the Year

PW: "By any standard, the past 15 months have been eventful for Barnes & Noble. In September 2009, the company completed its purchase of Barnes & Noble College Booksellers and two months later introduced the Nook, its entry into the e-reader wars. This spring, B&N appointed William Lynch as CEO and announced a $140 million investment to upgrade its digital capabilities. In late summer, the retailer emerged victorious in a proxy battle (while announcing that it was exploring the possible sale of the company), and in the fall surprised the industry with the launch of Nookcolor. The man behind all these events, who is leading the nation's largest bookseller through an unprecedented transformation, is Len Riggio, PW's Person of the Year."

Nook Color Hacked into a Cheap Tablet

Techtree: "... considering the open source origins of the underlying Android platform, the dormant power of Nook Color's hardware didn't lay unutilised for long. Users had already started rooting, that is gaining Super User privileges to override the Nook UI, their Nook Color to eke out full functionality. In a latest development, the e-reader has been hacked to run Android 2.2.1. What that means is your Nook Color now gets a home screen and the ability to launch Android applications right off the bat. It also gets the phone icon in the process, but that's moot considering it lacks the communication hardware to make and receive calls. ..."

Excellent Interview/Joi Ito of Creative Commons

The Observer: "Joi Ito, 44, an entrepreneur and venture capitalist with a particular interest in the world wide web, was an early investor in Twitter, Technorati, Flickr and Last.fm. He grew up in Japan and the US; he once owned a nightclub in Tokyo and worked as a DJ in Chicago. Time magazine hailed him as a member of the 'cyber-elite' in 1997 and two years ago Businessweek named him 'one of the 25 most influential people on the web'. Ito has a special interest in issues of copyright in the digital sphere and is CEO of the organization Creative Commons. ... "

UK: Agency Pricing Questioned by Waterstone's

The Bookseller:

Waterstone's has publicly queried the agency model, saying its adoption in the UK has 'not been great for anyone' and pricing has not always been fair on consumers.

E-books buyer Alex Ingram was speaking at FutureBook 2010, The Bookseller's digital conference. ...

Ingram said: "No one can judge the success or failure of the agency model just yet, but in the short term it has not been great for anyone. . . What matters most is getting a fair price onto the market, and I don't think that every agency price is fair."

Kieron Smith, managing director of The Book Depository, which has declined to accept agency terms, said: "We do a lot of 'couponing' and the agency model makes it very difficult to do any general discounting. We have a strong customer position that we do not want to change." ...

Conde Nast Digital Chief: Murdoch’s iPad Newspaper “Doesn’t Make any Sense”

VentureBeat: "News Corp mogul Rupert Murdoch is making a big bet on the iPad by hiring big-name (read: expensive) reporters for a new 'iPad newspaper' called The Daily. And other media organizations are skeptical. For example, publisher Conde Nast has made a big deal about iPad versions of its magazines like Wired and the New Yorker, but when Conde Nast Digital president Sarah Chubb was asked about The Daily today at the Ignition conference, she said, 'It doesn’t make any sense.' She noted that Conde Nast was able to revive Gourmet Magazine on the iPad, but that’s because Conde Nast only 'put a little bit of money into Gourmet Live, and we’ve gotten our money back.'" In other words, they did not have to finance original content, which Murdoch plans to do as part of The Daily business plan.

A Concise History of eBooks

This timeline from the Telegraph omits the old Voyager Toolkit (early nineties) - a Hypercard stack approach that I, at the time, thought exceptionally cool.

DRM ala Google

The Guardian: "A greater concern may be over how the content is protected: publishers are fearful that widespread adoption of ebooks could lead to spiraling piracy mirroring that seen in the music business. But Google says in the page about security for Editions that 'once a Google Edition is purchased and is added to a consumer's bookshelf, it can only be accessed when the consumer logs into his or her Google account. When Google Editions are purchased on our site, a Google account is needed to access the content, reducing the likelihood that consumers will share their login information with others'. It adds: 'Each consumer's Google Edition has a unique coding that caches the book when it is accessed through a browser (as opposed to a digital download) ... This means that the Google Edition is broken down into fragments and temporarily stored in – and accessed through – the browser window. The Google Editions web experience, therefore, is not that of a file download – it is an experience that is optimized for reading in the browser. This allows Google to detect and protect against abuse of each Google Edition.'"

Smashwords Adopts Agency Model

Smashwords blog: "Our authors and publishers spoke (and some wrote, screamed, begged and politely asked), and we listened. Effective today, all Smashwords retailers are pricing Smashwords books at the price set by the author or publisher. No more discounting. It also means we have significantly increased the royalties we pay our authors and publishers. ..."

CBS Publishing Unit: E-Books Are The Future

CBS Statement: "While the company is doing well on most fronts, its publishing division Simon & Schuster continues to see softening sales. The publishing revenues have declined from close to $900 million in 2007 to close to $800 million in 2009, and are further expected to decline in 2010. In our forecast, we estimate that Simon & Schuster and CNet together account for around 8% of our stock price estimate. The bright side is that the growth in digital publishing is offsetting the decline in traditional publishing and could well drive revenue growth in the near future given the increased adoption of e-books and greater use of tablets as e-reading devices."

Inventec to Ship a Million Nook Colors Before Year's End

TechEye: "It appears that Inventec’s Nook Color touch controlled e-book readers have been something of a success, with over a million expected to have shipped to Barnes & Noble in 2010. It was only released in mid November, having been announced in late October, but apparently the pester power of over a million kids has paid off, or perhaps parents are trying to attempting to purchase an educational Christmas present rather than Call of Duty Black Ops for their wee'uns. Inventec is also expected to land orders for 6-7 million Palm WebOS-based tablet telecommunication devices from HP next year, according to sources close to Digitimes."

The Nook Color has been Rooted

Geek *dot* com: "While everyone waits for the procession of good Android tablets to arrive, Barnes & Noble had one already on the market in the form of the Nook Color, but limited it to only being a color e-reader. That is until someone figured out to root it, unlocking the full potential of this now tablet device. With an ARM Cortex A8 800MHz processor at its heart, the Nook Color certainly has the power to become a great tablet. As Matt Miller has already shown, it’s great for playing video, so why not for playing games? Well, as you’d expect, one of the first things those applying this rooting solution did was to get Angry Birds running."

Google Set to Launch E-Book Venture

Trachtenberg, Wall Street Journal:

Google Inc. is in the final stages of launching its long-awaited e-book retailing venture, Google Editions, a move that could shake up the way digital books are sold.

The long-delayed venture—Google executives had said they hoped to launch this summer—recently has cleared several technical and legal hurdles, people close to the company say. It is set to debut in the U.S. by the end of the year and internationally in the first quarter of next year, said Scott Dougall, a Google product management director.

In recent weeks, independent booksellers, which are expected to play a big role in Google Editions, began receiving contracts from their trade group. Several publishers said they were exchanging files with Google—a sign that it is close to launch, publishers say. "Because of the complexity of this project, we didn't want to come out with something that wasn't thorough," Mr. Dougall said.

Google Editions hopes to upend the existing e-book market by offering an open, "read anywhere" model that is different from many competitors. Users will be able to buy books directly from Google or from multiple online retailers—including independent bookstores—and add them to an online library tied to a Google account. They will be able to access their Google accounts on most devices with a Web browser, including personal computers, smartphones and tablets.

... Key details of Google's e-book project remain unanswered. Foremost is what percentage of revenue Google will share with independent bookstores and other retailers. It also isn't clear how many bookselling partners it has lined up and who they are. More than 200 independent booksellers in the U.S. could sign up, according to the American Booksellers Association. ...