Posts tagged ‘Kindle’
Barnes & Noble Launches e-Book Store: Rumors Circulate of Plastic Logic Partnership
This week, Barnes & Noble opened their e-Book Store online. They have hit the ground running with plans to grow aggressively. The word on the Web is that they are going to be partnering with Plastic Logic to distribute content via a device scheduled for release early next year. The device is said to be a big step in the right direction, hopefully minimizing the annoying parts of the Kindle2, Kindle DX and Sony Reader.
It would be logical to assume that Barnes & Noble will be able to establish themselves in a market that they have dominated for so long. They understand books and consumers, which is quite clear when you visit their site. The eBook Store interface is extremely user-friendly. People can download the apps they need in order to interact with the new eBook Store, including options for your computer, iPhone and Blackberry.
Overall, I think that this is a healthy development. While I don’t see any indication yet that there will be an interface such as the Digital Text Platform available to upload content to the Kindle Store, I would be surprised if this is not in the works. The strength that Amazon has brought to the e-book market is a good starting ground and I believe that strong players getting into the game will drive Amazon and any other serious participants to adapt and improve.
Barnes & Noble’s new eBook Store has a clear impact on your ability to sell your book. Familiarize yourself with this new development, so that you can be one step ahead of where your target audience is going.
-1,000 Chimps
Wordclay and Smashwords: E-book Formatting Service in May
That’s right — Wordclay is offering fifty percent off their new Smashwords e-book formatting service, which not only helps authors market their books online, but sell additional copies to all types of gadget lovers who are investing in Kindle devices and Sony Readers.
- Reach new kinds of readers and different audiences.
- Join the growing digital market with your e-book.
- Offer your book in a variety of file formats for everyone.
- Promote your e-book, and earn royalties per download.
Wordclay will take your completed manuscript and format it per the recommended guidelines in the Smashwords Style Guide. Visit Wordclay’s site to view details about the service and frequently asked questions about how valuable e-book formatting can truly be.
Check out the Smashwords blog for more updates>>
Big Money in This Economy: Not Impossible for Book Publishing
Many of you may remember Audrey Niffenegger’s first mega bestseller The Time Traveler’s Wife (also her first book) from 2003. I know that my local bookstores still prominently display the title in a reasonably large volume. It has become part of the bookseller’s backdrop. In the world of Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings, The Time Traveler’s Wife was a welcome addition to the books that people read and talked about. Just this week, rumor has it that Scribner (a division of Simon & Schuster) has paid over four million dollars for the right to print Niffenegger’s new work Her Fearful Symmetry.
Congratulations to her and to everyone involved. It is refreshing to hear about something that will give books a boost. I am sure that we will be watching to compare the sales figures for this and other big releases in the near future, especially to see how the Kindle 2 and e-book world does versus the traditional print model.
News like this is overwhelming at times. As writers, it is easy to feel immeasurably distant from that kind of success or notoriety. I am certain that Niffenegger and any other big name out there felt the same way before they rose to fame. In all likelihood, we all will not experience this level of success, but in reality, some of us will. It is an opportune time for writers to redefine what it means to be big in this digital/physical/economical storm of confusion. One thing’s for sure: whatever medium and business model wins the battle will need content to drive their fortunes.
So keep writing and promoting, and we’ll see who gets the next big check…
Kindle 2: Better, Faster, Stronger, Smaller
This week, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos announced that the Kindle reader’s next generation will ship before the end of the month. He was joined by Stephen King at a show put on for the press and a few lucky guests. King came on stage and read part of a piece that he wrote that will initially be available exclusively for the Kindle. The story features a haunted pink Kindle device. King said that he supports the Kindle and has one himself. Bezos then spoken about short-form reading versus long-form reading.
This new version of the popular little machine is sleeker and smarter than the original Kindle. The memory has been upgraded to 2GB, and there is a function that allows the device to read books to you via electronic male or female voices. The page turn buttons have been repositioned, and there is a smart ‘joystick’ 5-way button taking the place of the less user-friendly controls of Kindle 1.
It seems that Amazon is pushing Kindle 2 at a time when there is soon to be more competition in the market. We have already seen the Sony Reader, which beat the Kindle to market, but didn’t ship with wi-fi functionality. Now, Shortcovers is releasing software and services to make 200,000 chapters, 50,000 full books, magazines, newspapers etc. available on the iPhone and other smart phones.
The Kindle and the Kindle 2 are clearly luxury items in a tough economy. For the retail price of the Kindle, you could afford a good number of paperbacks and lattes. It is good for book people and publishing in general that something such as this has come along to provoke interest in reading. If the major booksellers and other content providers find a way to get a piece of the pie or at least ride the wave of reader interest, perhaps they can help to fortify their own questionable financial statuses.
The future of bookstores could easily be reduced to a vending machine that spits out coffee, e-books, MP3 files and subscriptions to electronic periodicals — perhaps with a built-in print-on-demand paperback printer that could queue up and print out any title in minutes, that is if consumers decide that they prefer that type of interaction.
Announcing Contest for Authors & Readers Hosted by BookRix.com
Win as an author…
…and as a reader!
“Web Your Book” Award
BookRix.com is proud to present readers and writers with their first official writing competition, called “Web Your Book.” Authors as well as readers can enter the competition and win attractive prices.
Visit BookRix.com for Complete Guidelines>>
Timelines and Deadlines
The submission period of the competition runs for eight weeks starting December 9, 2008, which means that authors still have enough time to register one of their BookRix books for the competition. The deadline for entry is February 1st 2009, 6 p.m. (EST). Authors are completely free in the genre: short stories, poems and everything else is welcome. The only requirement is that the book be longer than 20 BookRix pages.
Readers are able to vote for their favorite books on December 9, 2008 and February 15, 2009 the. This vote will ascertain the winners of the competition. The authors who are ranked number one to five the competition charts on February 15, 2009 at 6 p.m. (EST) will win the listed prizes.
Prices for Authors:
First Prize: $2000.00
Second Prize: $1000.00
3rd – 5th Prize: Amazon Kindle E-Book-Reader
Prizes for Readers:
$100.00 each will be given to three readers following a raffle.
BookRix.com provides users with a platform to:
- find other readers and authors
- share thoughts about interests in groups
- discuss books and projects
join author fan clubs
- participate in writing competitions
- Connect within a literary network
- write book reviews
- send your books to friends and family
- find top-rated and new books
Don’t Call It a Comeback: eBooks and the State of the Market (early ‘09)
It’s not a flying surfboard or a cloned beloved pet, but the future of the e-book is something to look at. Some of us have had the inkling that the eventuality of this technology would replace the printed page. That hasn’t quite happened, and it may never happen. We have discussed various angles of the Kindle-Sony Reader growth over the past year. In that time I have personally seen the discussion go from ‘maybe we should try that out’ to ‘how can we do that for all of our titles’ here at Author Solutions.
The early advancers have adopted the machines, and the powers behind the two platforms are working to enhance the means by which publishers can go to market with these titles. Software companies have been working toward perfecting the output of various file-types for the displays, and the manufacturers of the screens and e-ink technology have been working to increase the size and function of the displays. If you keep an eye on the technology tab of your favorite news provider, you will see occasional mentions of the new prototypes, flexible displays, color displays and lower costs. If you put all of that together, it is clear that the people who sell you books believe that you will be buying e-book readers and e-books.
Ask Amazon how much of their overall income for 2008 was related to e-books for their Kindle device, and you might be surprised to find that demand for titles that are available in print or e-book has pivoted to over 12 percent preference for Kindle, a percentage which is only growing. The number of titles currently available compared to the total market is low, but the market share for the Kindle is definitely on the rise.
The discussion is exciting. There are any number of parties out there talking about the next generation Kindle and the possibility that Apple will get in on the game. This massive coalescence is still in its early stages, but it is starting to swirl. I predict that more content which is non-book in origin that will continue to drive the sales of these devices. Newspapers and magazines are getting their feet wet as we speak. In the future will you purchase a book on the Internet that you can then read or listen to or watch on one machine? Will video be a part of the package? How much of the page will need to be ads before the device is free? Will it be in your phone? Will it be flexible and online? Does anyone know for sure???
Angry Villagers Burn Books: E-book Zealots Versus Sentimental Booklovers
Earlier this week, Computerworld Blog posted an article entitled “Clueless book publishers miss huge opportunity,” which adamantly predicts that the growing convenience of e-books and development of e-reader technology like Kindle and the Sony Reader will soon render physical books obsolete.
Undoubtedly, e-books and e-readers have opened new areas of publishing and marketing for all genres of books, but does it necessarily follow that the printing of books is doomed to dust as a result of this digital boom?
For me, the question is not one of the merits and benefits of digital content. Of course online content has given us more convenience learning information and accessing entertainment. In fact, I found the Computerworld article online, but I could have easily read the content on an iPhone as well.
Instead, I believe the question concerns the value of the physical book, whether our hardcover or paperbacks will truly become obsolete, relics of an out-of-print past. In order to look deeper at this issue, however, we’ll need to address a few fundamental questions about the concept of the book itself and the publishing industry at large.
What’s the value of a book?
Of course there’s huge value in the content of books. Otherwise why would you search out and order particular books, by specific authors, talking about the topics or stories that interest you? And obviously, that content translates (and should translate) to a digital format. But is that the end of a book, its content? Why wouldn’t we dispose of them after reading then? Why would they decorate our house? Why would communities like BookCrossing exist if not for the demand and interest in the physical book?
The simple answer is: a book is more than its content.
For starters, a book’s design, especially when it comes to art books, children’s books and novels with nontraditional formatting like House of Leaves, can have unique, experimental layouts that are just as compelling as their content at times. (more…)
Books Stand the Test of Time: Selling Your Book in a Lean Economy
-‘And what have I to give you back, whose worth may counterpoise this rich and precious gift?’- Much Ado About Nothing-Wm. Shakespeare
There seems to be a serious financial crunch going on these days. One thing that you can take comfort in as an author is that reading books is still one of the most cost-effective entertainment options out there.
Most people will devote hours and hours to reading a book. Compared to music, movies and the Internet, books give you good bang for your buck. If you are planning a promotional event, mention this to the people that stop by. The only gasoline they will use is the little bit it takes to get them home, then they can find themselves absorbed for days in your novel. Even if the whole economy collapsed and Y2K came back to rain down ash and cinder upon the modern world as we know it, the last person left could still enjoy your book.
When it comes to investing in the future of your writing, you are the key to selling your book. If you are willing to put the time in, there is no reason why you shouldn’t be able to sell a few copies everywhere you go. It is likely that if you present yourself in a professional manner, people will not even realize that you might be self-published. Admittedly, most Americans still don’t know what it means to be self-published. If you are doing a book-signing at their local bookstore and your book looks good and you are confident about presenting it in its most impactful light, they will probably assume that you are a famous and successful writer, you just don’t happen to be one of the few that they have heard of.
There are high-priced, high-tech text-delivery systems on the market. I encourage all of you to get to know the advancing industry of e-readers and Kindles — if only to make sure that someone who prefers the new technology isn’t left out when it comes to picking up your hot new bestselling title. (Wordclay and many other publishers out there are making it easy to make your book available in the new formats.) But as it stands, the good old printed and bound book rules the market and is likely to do so for the near-term in the least.
-‘To be a well-favored man is the gift of fortune; but to write and read comes by nature.’ – Much Ado About Nothing-Wm. Shakespeare
The Evolution of the Book: E-Ink Technology Activating Content & Cover Images
Inserting typeset letters into a printing press only a few decades ago, who would have dreamed that the simple book would have evolved into devices like Amazon.com’s Kindle and now, with the coming publication of Esquire’s magazine cover equipped with E Ink technology, pages with active content and images that come to life?
If you’ve been reading about the future of print in the past few weeks, you’ve certainly come across the buzz around this new book technology. Can you imagine – tomorrow the images that grace the covers of our books will change, flash and even animate?
So this September, look out for the new issue of Esquire. Because the technology is still quite expensive, only 100,000 of the total 720,000 print run will be assembled by hand before hitting newsstands. Who knows where the E Ink covers will end up? Ironically, this blogger can’t help feeling a little like Charlie from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, searching for the golden ticket.
But should you notice any shifting images jumping out at you from a magazine in the coming months, you might want to snatch a copy before all of them wind up with collectors or housed in the Smithsonian.
Advocating the importance of “electronic print” for more than 11 years, E Ink has recently become popularized by producing the display technology for Amazon.com’s Kindle. Today, with the tiniest of batteries woven into the fabric of a book or magazine, their staff can create pages and covers that rotate, update and even change completely.
Each year, a new technological advance leads to a better engineered book and product package for authors. And I thought the development of print-on-demand technology that saved on paper, virtual inventories that saved space and book trailers that animated scenes from books on the Interest were exciting enough.
But there’s no end! There’s more coming!
We’re entering a whole new era of communication and technology, which will change the very trajectory of the book itself. Picture a newspaper that’s a simple plastic sheet constantly refreshed with new information. Imagine books downloaded instantaneous to your advanced Kindle machine in a wireless Internet café.
Hopefully, in the next few years, as the technology becomes affordable and widespread, more and more authors and editors with experiment with E Ink’s technology and the evolution of the book. And who knows? A few years from now, you may even see Wordclay offering E-Covers in our Services Store.
This is Justin, blogcasting from Wordclay, signing off.
A Publishing Company Planting Trees? It Ain’t Easy Being Green
Justin here, and today I’m announcing that our partnership with Trees for the Future has resulted in more than 500 trees planted in Moja Garena, Ethiopia, an area devastated by deforestation.
As you might recall, we pledged to plant a tree for every Wordclay book published in April, and two trees for books published on Earth Day, April 22. Fortunately, we published quite a few authors last month, and we were to make good on our word.
In honor of this achievement, Wordclay and our authors (notified via e-mail) received a snazzy certificate, but the real satisfaction comes from the locations and the people these trees help. The certificate is posted here, but you can view a copy on the Wordclay Bookstore Spotlight.
Just watch Trees for the Future documentary video with founder, Dave Deppner, if you’re curious about the settings your publication indirectly helped by our donation.
Truth be told, it’s difficult to conceive of an environmentally friendly publishing company without imagining a futuristic coffeehouse, where are the students are reading from their handheld digital books, paper now obsolete. You can definitely see movement toward these paperless technologies with print-on-demand virtual inventories and Amazon’s new wireless reading device Kindle, but we can hardly deny the substantial paper consumption by publishing and printing companies alike.
Wordclay understands its paper consumption and carbon emission shortcomings, but we also want to ensure the future of our planet’s health as well as the future of book publishing. (more…)
