Updated: Penguin Restores Library Lending To Kindle, But Not For New Ebooks
Penguin is once again making its e-books available to libraries through Kindle, OverDrive reports. New Penguin e-books, however, remain unav… Read more at paidContent »
The Morning Lowdown 11-23-11
» Nokia (NYSE: NOK) Siemens to Cut 17,000 Jobs (WSJ; Press release)
» James Murdoch quits the boards of Sun and Times… Read more at paidContent »
Why Might A Publisher Pull Its E-Books From Libraries?
Following yesterday’s news that Penguin, citing security concerns, is pulling its new e-books from libraries–and making none of them availa… Read more at paidContent »
The Morning Lowdown 11-22-11
» Penguin pulls e-books from libraries across the land, citing “security concerns” (paidContent)
» Oh, HP: Firm’s Q4… Read more at paidContent »
With The Kindle Yet To Hit China, ZTE And China Unicom Grow E-Book Venture
Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN) has a substantial operation in China, but it has yet to take its Kindle e-reader into that market. That has left the doo… Read more at paidContent »
Penguin Pulls New E-Books From Libraries
photo: Flickr / Ian Barbour
Citing unspecified “concerns about the security of our digital editions,” Penguin Group USA is pulling new e-books from libraries; in additi… Read more at paidContent »
Report: Amazon Taps Self-Published Authors For Kindle Lending Library
The much-discussed Kindle Owners’ Lending Library has been limited to books from traditional publishers up to this point, but Amazon (NSDQ:… Read more at paidContent »
Subscriber Content
Themes for a connected world: GigaOM RoadMap review
The GigaOM RoadMap conference on Nov. 10 gathered leaders and visionaries to discuss how, thanks to technological and generational shifts, society as a whole is becoming more connected — not only in the media we consume and the social networks we use but also in the way we interact with devices and manage our resources. This research note takes a look back on the event in order to analyze this new era of connectivity across various industries, from Jack Dorsey’s idea of becoming “more human,” not less, to the concept of “invisible technology” and data, the fuel of the new century. Companies mentioned in this report include Airbnb, Netflix and Twitter. For a full list of companies, and to read the full report, sign up for a free trial. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Self-Published Authors Sharply Criticize Penguin's Book Country
Many popular self-published authors are coming down hard on the self-publishing services that Penguin added to community writing site Book C… Read more at paidContent »
5 reasons e-reader sales will nearly triple by 2016
Dedicated e-reader sales aren’t growing as fast as those of tablets, but are still expected to nearly triple in the next five years, reaching 67 million sales by 2016, according to Juniper Research. Even with the growth of tablets, I agree with Juniper for several reasons. Read more »
The book is great technology, but it’s not good for everything
Printed books may have been groundbreaking technology 500 years ago, and they still have plenty of value as an information-distribution platform — but they are no longer good for every purpose, Matt MacInnis of digital textbook publisher Inkling told the GigaOM RoadMap conference on Thursday. Read more »
Subscriber Content
Connected world: the consumer technology revolution
Connectivity changes everything. That’s the credo driving just about every corner of our day-to-day lives. As human beings, we are now connected to one another through not just our social networks but also our cars, the books we read, the albums we download and even our own health and wellness habits (to name just a few areas). With that in mind, GigaOM Pro has singled out certain areas in the technology industry where we see this shift to constant connectivity taking place most drastically. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
What happens to ownership as the world goes digital?
The launch of Amazon’s new “Kindle lending” feature means another form of content is becoming something that we rent, Netflix-style, rather than owning. But moving to a rental rather than an ownership model changes our relationship to content, and not always in a good way. Read more »
Kindle lending: Book publishers still not getting it
photo: Flickr user Marya
The fact that none of the six major book publishers are taking part in the “Netflix for books” lending program that Amazon just launched for the Kindle is another sign that the industry is more interested in retaining power than adapting to a changing business model. Read more »
Our relationship with e-books: It’s too complicated
photo: Flickr user Marcus Hansson
The fact that books are digital now means it should be easy to share our favorite books or passages, but competing rights, standards and platforms mean these features are available on a tiny fraction of books, and that keeps most readers inside proprietary corporate silos. Read more »
On the death of book publishers and other middlemen
As Amazon and other e-book distributors like Kobo transform themselves into publishers, does that mean traditional publishers are extinct? No. But it does mean they have to work harder to try and add value for authors, who now have more ways to reach their readers directly. Read more »
Sony Reader Wi-Fi review: One Reader to rule them all?
Sony’s new Wi-Fi Reader is the only e-reader it introduced this year. It’s good that Sony is streamlining what was an unnecessarily complicated product line, but now that all the eggs are in one basket, how does the device stand up to the competition? Read more »
Inkling takes iPad textbooks mainstream with cookbook launch
Inkling, the company that makes interactive, digital versions of textbooks for the iPad, is set to release its version of The Professional Chef, the official textbook of The Culinary Institute of America. It’s the first Inkling title that could have major appeal beyond the classroom. Read more »
Books are like the news — it’s better when they are social
Are books just packages for ideas, or physical souvenirs designed to market an author, or can they become social in the same way the news is becoming social? Everyone from Amazon to new startups like Subtext and Findings are trying to come up with the answer. Read more »
Next e-reader innovation: scrolling E-Ink web pages
Amazon’s Kindle has lit a fire under the e-book market, but don’t count out the smaller players. Bookeen, an e-book company since 1998, has a new high-speed E-Ink technology that supports scrolling menus and web pages. Is the e-book market ready for more innovation? Bring it! Read more »
Publishers: What are you doing while Amazon eats your lunch?
Just as it did with book retailing, Amazon has its sights set on lowering the barriers between authors and readers, both via the Kindle and through its own publishing deals — and in many cases, the biggest barrier between authors and readers is a traditional publisher. Read more »
Planning a paywall? Maybe you should sell some e-books instead
While the number of newspapers and other media entities that are erecting paywalls or launching subscription-based apps continues to grow, other content publishers such as The New Yorker are looking at different ways of monetizing their existing content, including e-books and one-off feature packages. Read more »
Amazon to book publishers: Welcome to the jungle, baby
photo: Flickr user Marya
Amazon is continuing to disrupt the publishing industry by signing deals with popular authors, and the latest is thriller writer Barry Eisler. After turning down a $500,000 advance from a traditional publisher, he says Amazon offered him a deal that was “the best of both worlds.” Read more »
The Next Batch Of Election E-Books
As election season approaches, Random House’s Crown Publishing is teaming up with political website RealClearPolitics to publish a four-book… Read more at paidContent »
What happens to books when the Kindle is free?
photo: Flickr user Marcus Hansson
In addition to launching its new color tablet the Kindle Fire last week, Amazon also announced another price drop for the original Kindle, which is now just $79. Could the e-reader eventually become free, and if it did, what would that mean for the e-book industry? Read more »
The new Kindle: Hands-on and first impressions
Amazon unveiled its new Kindle lineup Wednesday, and the first one available, the basic, simply named “Kindle,” reached my doorstep Thursday morning. Here’s what I think about Amazon’s latest reader, and how it stacks up so far to previous Kindles and other similar devices. Read more »
Kindle Fire: Meet the new boss, same as the old boss
It’s nice for media companies to have a strong alternative like Amazon’s Kindle Fire when it comes to the tablet market, but the bottom line is the same as with Apple: They provide the content, but the platform owner is in control of the relationship. Read more »
Amazon wants to reinvent the electronic library
photo: Flickr user Marcus Hansson
Amazon has launched a program that allows Kindle users to borrow e-books from 11,000 libraries across the U.S. This and the recent news that it plans to launch a “Netflix for books” service make it clear Amazon is stepping up its disruption of the book industry. Read more »
Another nail in the coffin of Google’s global library
photo: Flickr user Marcus Hansson
Since 2004, Google has been trying to scan the world’s books but has run into opposition from authors and publishers. Now a lawsuit has been launched against the universities who were its partners. Is this the final nail in the coffin of the global library? Read more »
Buoyed by Russian cash, Plastic Logic turns from U.S.
After years of development, mountains of cash and a false start or two, Plastic Logic says its first e-reader is ready for the market. But even if you want one, your chances are slim: It’s only going to be sold to Russian schoolchildren. Read more »
Why the idea of a Netflix for e-books makes sense
photo: Flickr user Marya
Amazon is allegedly planning to launch a Netflix-style subscription service for books. While this idea is bound to get some criticism from book lovers — not to mention book publishers — it seems like a natural step in the ongoing evolution of the book. Read more »
Union Square backs Wattpad to make reading more social
Union Square Ventures partner Albert Wenger says that while Amazon has revolutionized the traditional book industry with the Kindle, digital storytelling still isn’t really social — which is why his firm has led a $3.5M Series A financing round for Toronto-based social-reading startup Wattpad. Read more »
Amazon continues on its mission to disintermediate publishers
Amazon has launched a new feature that allows readers to ask questions of authors from their Kindle e-book readers — which looks like yet another step in the online bookseller’s ongoing quest to cut publishers out of the equation and build relationships directly with authors. Read more »
Balance of power continues to shift in the e-book wars
In the latest sign of the disruption of the book-publishing business, John Locke — who earlier this year became the first self-published author to sell a million e-books — has signed a deal with Simon & Schuster that shows how the industry is having to adapt. Read more »
Did Apple conspire with publishers to keep e-book prices high?
photo: Flickr user Mark Strozier
A class-action lawsuit alleges that Apple conspired with the book industry to implement the “agency model” of pricing, which has kept e-book prices high. But was this an actual conspiracy, or just an attempt by Apple and publishers to compete with Amazon’s dominance in the market? Read more »
Amazon shows media companies the future of the web
Amazon’s new browser-based version of its Kindle e-book app is designed to get around Apple’s restrictions on in-app purchasing, but it is also a great example of how media companies should be looking beyond the world of apps to the future of the browser-based web. Read more »
Hands on with Kindle Cloud Reader for iPad
Apple no longer allows e-book sellers to link out to their stores, which is likely why Amazon introduced a new web-based app that works outside of Apple’s official software distribution channel on Wednesday. Here’s a look at the new Kindle Cloud Reader, and its integrated store. Read more »
Inkling nabs $17M to bring textbooks to the iPad
Inkling, the digital textbook software startup, has closed on $17 million in new funding to expand its software for converting college textbooks for use on the iPad. Inkling CEO Matt MacInnis says the money will be put toward meeting the “effectively unlimited demand” for its platform. Read more »
Facebook snaps up e-book startup Push Pop Press
Facebook has acquired Push Pop Press, a San Francisco-based digital publishing platform startup in a move likely aimed at building out its forthcoming iPad app and strengthening its HTML5 development team. Read more »
College kids hate textbooks. Can e-books really help?
It’s no secret that most college students aren’t crazy about textbooks. But will moving required reading materials to an e-book format really change all that? Recent market research indicates that it just might — and that college students are demanding to go digital more than ever before. Read more »
