Scribd’s New Social Dashboard for Reading

Technologizer: "Reading, writing, and publishing is morphing like crazy thanks to the Web’s evolution along with social media innovations such as news feeds, “likes” and sharing. Word that an iPad-only newspaper from Apple and News Corp. is on its way further amplifies just how much things are changing for digital content. But perhaps an even more transformative development, albeit lesser noticed, is already here. Scribd Stats, which quietly began rolling out last week, is an analytics tool– a social dashboard–built specifically for reading. ... "

Once Tossed Aside, a Homecoming for Sony's E-Reader

WSJ: "Sony Corp.’s digital e-book reader, which will go on sale in Japan on Dec. 10, is the rare example of a consumer product being reintroduced in Japan after an initial flop at home and then finding success abroad. The homecoming for a Sony e-reader also maps out the convoluted twists and turns a product can take through the electronics conglomerate’s labyrinth of markets and business divisions. ... "

Eight Great Kindle Books for the Christmas Season

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

Waterstone's Starts Selling Hachette eBooks Again

theBookseller: "Waterstone's is now selling Hachette titles as e-books after removing them two months ago when the publisher switched to agency terms. The move means Waterstone's is on agency terms with both HarperCollins and Hachette, though has yet to the new terms with Penguin. However, the retailer has now stopped offering Card points on all of its e-books, paving the way for agency terms across its entire range of e-book titles."

French Senate Votes to Reduce VAT on eBooks

theBookseller: "The French Senate has adopted an amendment to the 2011 draft budget to reduce VAT on e-books from 19.6% to the reduced rate of 5.5% that applies to print. ... Dismissing advice from the government that the amendment violated European law, senator Catherine Morin-Desailly said that the lower rate would help develop legal downloads and should be introduced for all cultural products sold online. The Senate had already voted unanimously in favour of the cut rate for e-books when it adopted a bill on prices, she noted. 'We must show coherence,' she said. Budget minister François Baroin was reported to have pleaded for the amendment to be rejected, and to have reiterated that the government is working towards a consensus in the 27-member European Union to reduce VAT on e-books. ..."

Sony Expanding Reader Store eBooks to iPhone and Android

FierceMobileContent: "Sony Corporation will extend its Reader Store ebook effort to iOS and Android smartphones beginning next month. A teaser page posted on the Reader Store website confirms the move--according to Sony, consumers will be able to access digital titles purchased via the Reader Store across iPhone and Android handsets as well as PCs and Sony's own touchscreen Reader devices. In addition to new releases and New York Times bestsellers, Reader Store boasts more than a million free public domain titles from Google Books as well as links to borrow ebooks from public libraries. ... "

Copia Goes Live But Questions Remain

PW:

Copia, DMC Worldwide’s much anticipated book retail and social networking platform, officially launched yesterday. But while the Copia launch offers consumers an iPad app as well as client software for desktop and laptop computers that will allow consumers to buy and read books as well as connect with like-minded readers, Copia’s debut seems to have raised more questions than it answers.

Copia executives Ben Lowinger and Mike Lundgren held a conference call to kick off the launch of Copia and outlined the potential as well as the functionality of the Copia platform. ...

However, the presentation did not answer questions about the seemingly abrupt departure last week of Copia executive Anthony Antolino, the executive most closely identified with bringing Copia to market. In addition, there is Copia’s seemingly abrupt cancellation of a long planned and aggressively priced line of Copia branded digital readers; and now a lack of specific information on the devices (and when they’ll be available) and the OEM and device manufacturing partners. Copia now says it plans to bundle and place its software. ...

Nook Color Commercial

Barnes & Noble has released a new television ad for the Nook Color.

Libraries Urge CCC to Reconsider its Funding of E-Reserve Copyright Case

PW: "A contentious copyright case over e-reserves in university libraries has grown a little more tense. PW has learned that the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) has sent a letter to the Copyright Clearance Center protesting its role in funding an ongoing publisher lawsuit against four individuals at Georgia State University over the use of electronic course content. In a letter addressed to CCC CEO Tracey Armstrong, ARL director Charles Lowry expressed “deep disappointment with the decision by the Copyright Clearance Center (CCC) to underwrite 50% of the plaintiffs’ costs in the litigation.”"

Sony Reader Coming to Android in December

Android Community: "Nothing revolutionary here but another option for eBooks is always welcome. You can make bookmarks, notes and adjust font size as you read and new books will be purchased through the Reader Store. Looks like Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Borders and the countless other eReader apps just got another source of competition."

How Not to Price an eBook

Colette Martin writing for the Forbes "Work in Progress" blog: " ... market dynamics have clearly shown that e-books should be priced lower than print books."

The Year in Digital Publishing

From The Literary Platform, an interesting round-up of opinion from industry insiders, such as:

Michael Bhaskar, Digital Publishing Manager, Profile Books:

In the next twelve months the relationship between book content, online content, marketing materials, ad campaigns and experimentation will continue to break down, seeing the development of a new style of work that exists somewhere between them all.

This is material that is at once integral to a book, central to the story or idea, but also apart from it, working as something to draw readers in. This isn’t just an abstract idea of transmedia or the like, but a hard headed marketing calculation in an environment where attention is at a premium."

Tim Berners-Lee: Long Live the Web - A Call for Continued Open Standards and Neutrality

Scientific American, December issue:

The world wide web went live, on my physical desktop in Geneva, Switzerland, in December 1990. It consisted of one Web site and one browser, which happened to be on the same computer. The simple setup demonstrated a profound concept: that any person could share information with anyone else, anywhere. In this spirit, the Web spread quickly from the grassroots up. Today, at its 20th anniversary, the Web is thoroughly integrated into our daily lives. We take it for granted, expecting it to “be there” at any instant, like electricity.

The Web evolved into a powerful, ubiquitous tool because it was built on egalitarian principles and because thousands of individuals, universities and companies have worked, both independently and together as part of the World Wide Web Consortium, to expand its capabilities based on those principles.

The Web as we know it, however, is being threatened in different ways. Some of its most successful inhabitants have begun to chip away at its principles. Large social-networking sites are walling off information posted by their users from the rest of the Web. Wireless Internet providers are being tempted to slow traffic to sites with which they have not made deals. Governments—totalitarian and democratic alike—are monitoring people’s online habits, endangering important human rights. ...

From News Corp. - "The Daily" - An iPad-Only Newspaper

David Carr @ NYTimes: "Rupert Murdoch, an old-timey newspaper romantic, has nonetheless deputized himself as the digital savior of paid content. Mr. Murdoch is currently leading the charge to build The Daily, an iPad-centered newspaper under construction in the News Corporation’s Manhattan offices that is scheduled to appear at the beginning of next year. With an investment of $30 million and a staff of around 100, The Daily will be the first of a kind — a 'newspaper' with rich media and photography built especially for the iPad." Note one more article referenced below.

What Should Murdoch's new iPad-Only Newspaper Look Like?

Erick Shonfeld @ TechCrunch: "News Corp is taking the iPad very seriously as a new way to distribute the news. The media giant is taking it so seriously that it is developing a new publication called the Daily which will only be available on the iPad (no print edition, no Website). News Corp is hiring 100 journalists for this iPad newspaper and is reportedly working with engineers on loan from Apple to make it shine. ... the fact that News Corp. is putting so many resources into this project raises a basic question that has yet to be answered satisfactorily: What should an iPad newspaper look like? Well, I am not sure it should look like a newspaper at all. The nice thing about starting from scratch is that the Daily won’t have to feel familiar in the same way that an iPad app for the Wall Street Journal or New York Times does. I fear that even the Daily will be too parochial, showing only news and content produced by its staff. But people no longer limit their news consumption to one publication, even within a single reading session."

Plenty of Kindles Still Available (Both Models)

Goodereader has facts wrong in reporting Amazon is out of Kindles till after Holidays. So don't worry; be happy.

Interesting (Albeit Sexist) "Take" on eReader Demographics, Although These Specific to Europe

Seer Press: "Finance chief for Lagardère, which owns book publisher Hachette Livre, said young wealthy men, mainly investment bankers, support the ebook market, while 50 something woman with average income account for a substantial amount of paperback book customers. Dominique D’Hinnin’s comments follow conclusion of a deal between Hachette and Google which will let the search engine giant scan and sell its out of print books online. D’Hinnin spoke about the ebook market at the Morgan Stanley TMT conference in Barcelona, explaining, 'We don’t talk about the mass market yet. Most e-book buyers are males, 35 years old, with a lot of money. Basically, it’s investment bankers'. He said advertizing rates for magazine applications are also increasing because of purchases by well-to-do iPad owners. E-book prices are about 20% lower than prices for new hard back books, and profits are better because there are no marketing or distributing costs."

Rowing a Lifeboat Away from Copia

The Digital Reader: "Anthony Antolino, Senior VP at DMC Wordwide (Copia’s corp. parent), has abruptly left his position only days after the launch of Copia. ... Question: was he fired because he screwed up (Copia was supposed to launch in April [and was supposed to include hardware]), or is he simply the first to leave the sinking ship?" Italicized comment comes from me. - EJR

Amazon Announces Direct eBook Gifting (or, "In Your Face, Kobo")

VentureBeat: "I’m not sure what took so long, but Amazon today finally announced the ability to gift Kindle ebooks to anyone — just as you would any other product or service from Amazon’s online store. The company says that the Kindle is 'the most gifted item in the history of Amazon.com' but is still mum on specific sales numbers. While this announcement may help Amazon sell even more Kindles, the company stresses that no Kindle is required to enjoy its ebooks. If anything, the feature is a reminder to consumers that they can read Kindle Books on a variety of platforms — including the iPhone, iPad, Android and BlackBerry phones, as well as on Macs and Windows PCs. To gift a Kindle Book, you simply need to choose the 'Give as a Gift' option for any book in the Kindle Store, and then send the gift to anyone with an email address."

In other words, Kobo held on to this advantage for all of 12 hours or so.

Reviews are in for "A CHRISTMAS CAROL Retold in the Manner of Ernest Hemingway"

"Better than the original!" - Charles Dickens

"The best parody of A CHRISTMAS CAROL Hemingway never wrote." - F. Scott Fitzgerald

"I strenuously object to having been revised. I deny all these allegations. I've never dallied with whores in Havana, although London is quite another story." - Jacob Marley

"I never realized I was so macho!" - Ebenezer Scrooge

A CHRISTMAS CAROL Retold in the Manner of Ernest Hemingway
Published November 2010 by New Street Communications, LLC

French Government Dubious of Hachette Livre/Google Deal

The Bookseller: "French Culture Minister Frederic Mitterrand has reacted extremely cautiously to the memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed yesterday for Google to scan French-language out-of-print books for Hachette Livre. The minister said he regrets that France's largest publisher acted unilaterally before the French book business adopts a common strategy on the issue."

Google in 'Notional' Talks with UK Publishers After French Deal

The Bookseller: "Google is in 'notional' talks with UK publishers about a digitisation deal, the internet company has said. Speaking at the press conference to announce its agreement with Hachette Livre over book digitisation, the business also reiterated its view that its e-book platform would launch 'shortly' with hopes it would be up and running across Europe by Easter. Google said Hachette had already signed up with Google Editions for the US."

Campus Bookstore = Dinosaur?

The Chronicle of Higher Education: "As students cut costs by buying books from cheaper online retailers or by downloading e-textbooks, campus bookstores sell fewer and fewer textbooks. That's triggering an identity crisis for one of the oldest institutions on campus and leading some college officials to ask: If textbooks go digital, does the campus even need a bookstore?"

B&N Announces Spanish-Language eBookstore for the U.S. Market

Press Release via The Digital Reader: "Barnes & Noble today announced NOOKbooks en espanol, the first-ever Spanish language digital bookstore in the United States, and the best – and growing – selection of Spanish titles, including bestsellers, new releases, classics, works in translation and more. With NOOKbooks en espanol, Barnes & Noble customers now have nearly instant access to thousands of popular Spanish language titles, including thousands of free works, to be enjoyed across a wide range of platforms, including NOOKcolor, NOOK 3G and NOOK Wi-Fi, and the company’s free software available for iPad, iPhone, iPod touch, Android, BlackBerry, PC, and Mac."

On The Certain Economics Of Relegating Paper Books To The Margins Of The Business

A "must read" analysis from James McQuivey | Forrester Blogs: "Time to get my hands a bit dirty. Last week I posted an eBook forecast with a brief explanation of why the book business may complete its digital revolution more quickly than other media businesses have. Turns out this assertion was more difficult to hear than I anticipated and I got some very insistent (and worth reading) comments. The discussion that ensued both on the blog and outside of it was very complex, this is not a simple matter. However, there are parts of it that are very simple that I have to clarify, even though it means rolling up my sleeves a bit. Allow me to draw into this discussion John Thompson of Cambridge University who gave a very worthwhile interview to the Brooklyn Rail this month to discuss his recently published analysis of the book industry, Merchants of Culture. ... "

Ironically, Merchants of Culture seems not to be available as an ebook. At least not from Amazon.

Are Magazine iPad Apps Profitable in the Long Haul?

MediaShift | PBS: "Magazine editors and publishers are excited about tablet devices like the iPad. In them, they see a chance to give consumers the best that digital media can offer -- and to be able to charge them for the content. But does the profit from the apps justify the expense of building and marketing them? And even when the apps are profitable on their own, can they ever bring in enough revenue to sustain a sizable portion of the business? Conde Nast, Meredith, Hearst and other leading magazine publishers have all been experimenting with the iPad. They are touting their successes, while acknowledging it's too soon to tell what the ultimate business will be."

Google Strikes Deal With French Publisher

NYTimes: "PARIS — Google said Wednesday that it had reached a deal with the publisher Hachette Livre, which has broken ranks with its French rivals and agreed to allow Google to scan thousands of out-of-print books for its digital library project. Under the agreement, which follows a landmark settlement with U.S. publishers last year, Google will be allowed to sell the books it scans as e-books or in other electronic formats. But there is one important difference between the U.S. settlement and the deal with Hachette, the largest publisher in France and the No.2 trade publisher by sales worldwide, after Pearson. Hachette, not Google, will determine which of the books covered by the deal — those that remain under copyright but are no longer commercially available — can be scanned."

Copia Released from Beta

Per the Digital Reader: "The long awaited social reading platform Copia has finally ended beta testing, and is now available to the general public. You can sign up at www.TheCopia.com. Right now you can download the Windows or OSX desktops or you can get the iPad app in iTunes. But before you do anything be sure to go to the site and register (you can’t do it from inside the app)."

Asus "Kindle-Killer" (Tee-Hee) Eee Tablet Delayed to Q1 2011

TomsGuide: "Although Asus is currently working on its line of Eee Pads featuring Windows 7 and Google Android, the company is also working on a separate Linux-based tablet currently dubbed as the Eee Tablet. The tablet made an appearance at Computex back in June, a completely different device from Asus' line of Eee Pads and originally slated for a September release. But with the projected release date come and gone, the company is currently still trying to decide on a proper name--Digital Note and Eee Note are reportedly potential choices. As seen back in June, the tablet will focus on note-taking, eBook reading and Internet browsing, sporting an 8-inch 1024 x 768 pixel grayscale touchscreen display (which doesn't use a backlight). ..."

New Street's "A CHRISTMAS CAROL Retold in the Manner of Ernest Hemingway" Launched for Kindle and Nook

"Papa" and Charles Dickens announce the debut of their new collaboration, just in time for the Holidaze.