(for those who don’t get the image, here is the Wikipedia entry) The subject of the future of bookstores is one that always hovers at the edge of the ebook conversation. The demise of Borders bookstore may have cast a long, ominous shadow on physical retailers, but not all bookstores are struggling. While I have [...]
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Writing, Self-Publishing, and Self-Editing
Self-publishing has been the great equalizer in writing. Suddenly authors who weren’t getting the time of day from traditional publishing could package their books and other collected works without a middleman, and sell right to the masses. However, as anyone who has shopped around for ebooks has noticed, self published titles are a mixed bag. [...]
Should eBooks and Privacy Be a Concern for Us?
Here’s another reason for eBook haters to complain about the digitization of the written word — your reading habits are no longer secret. While it is not surprising to assume Amazon, B&N and Kobo are watching what you read, the Wall Street Journal has a very detailed account of just how much is being watched. [...]
Will The Nexus 7 Tablet Impact the Kindle Fire and NOOK Tablet?
When Google announced the Nexus tablet, I was surprised to see they didn’t seem to be aiming for the iPad. With a $199 starting price and a 7 inch form factor, Google is clearly taking aim at the devices that have defined the Android tablet market thus far; e-reading based tablets like the Kindle Fire and [...]
Geoff Morrison’s “Undersea” Only .99 On Kindle!
I am always on the hunt for a good book, especially during the summertime. Once on a week’s vacation to the beach I blew through 12 books! Needless to say, I try to bargain hunt for new titles. So Geoffrey Morrison’s book “Undersea”, for only .99 on Kindle, has caught my eye! Here’s the description: [...]
Extra, Extra! Zinio To Sell Themselves Instead of Magazines!
If you are a regular reader of Gear Diary, you probably know about Zinio, the digital magazine people. If you do, you might be surprised to hear they are for sale; and if you haven’t, you probably buy digital magazines from B&N or Amazon, if you buy any at all. CNN has the scoop on [...]
Microsoft Surface: The Trojan Tablet For Digital Textbooks?
(image courtesy Wikipedia) Just about two months ago, Barnes and Noble and Microsoft announced that B&N would spin off their NOOK and college bookstore businesses into “Newco”, to be jointly owned by both companies. Obviously this has been good news for B&N’s finances, but aside from the press release both sides have been very quiet. [...]
The Worst Solution Ever for “Show Rooming”
(image courtesy TimesRecordNews) If you listen to traditional retailers, online websites like Amazon are hurting them through what’s called “show rooming”, where the retail store becomes a place for consumers to check out items, but buy them online instead. There’s a lot of debate over the solutions (Target pulled all their Kindles, for example) but [...]
Barnes and Noble Woos Kids with New NOOK Deal
B&N has a new strategy to lure loyal NOOK users…get them when they’re young! They are offering free young adult titles with a NOOKTablet this summer, as a way to encourage kids to read (and of course, buy NOOKs). They’re going to be offering these in three different promotions, each one geared towards different age [...]
Search and Replace Meets the Kindle, the NOOK, and Tolstoy
Public domain titles are a tricky area for ebooks. On the one hand, a bit of digging can get you a free copy of a title easily. But paying a nominal amount sometimes means a better quality copy, with typos and other issues properly corrected. Unless, of course, you bought “War and Peace” for your [...]
RIP Author Ray Bradbury at 91
Late last year Ray Bradbury reluctantly allowed his classic novel Fahrenheit 451 to be published in ebook form, which was initially problematic but later resolved nicely. Today we learn that the famed author has died at age 91 after decades of creating amazing stories and characters and visions of potential futures based on the human-technology [...]
Kobo Hits a Growth Spurt!
If you doubt there’s a three horse race for dominance in ebooks, look no further than Kobo’s big announcement this morning. They are crowing about “triple digit growth” in downloads, sales, and eReaders. Now, they are still trailing B&N and Amazon, especially in the USA, but they are likely pulling lots of sales from Sony, [...]
Speck FitFolio Case for Kindle Fire Review
I love my Kindle Fire and use it regularly, nestled in the Oberon ‘Celtic Hounds’ design case. I am very happy with the feel and utility of that case, so anything else has a tough road against the incumbent. Speck recently sent us a FitFolio case to review for the Kindle Fire, so let’s have [...]
Where Is the Future for Bookstores?
I was at a wedding over the weekend, and I tried making small talk with the gentleman seated next to me. As it turned out, he was from Chicago; we started chatting about the last time I was there for a work conference, which was held above a Barnes and Noble. He laughed, and told [...]
Warren Buffett Sees a Profitable Future for Local News
(image courtesy Spencer Jardine) Think books have a cloud of doom over them? It is a beautiful sunshine-y day compared to the forecast for newspapers. AOL’s local news experiment Patch is imploding, and newspapers are struggling badly to convert free online readers to subscribers via paywall and other means. Despite all the ugly news, [...]
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