eBooks

Hey Amazon, Can You PLEASE Let Me Change the Paragraph Justification in Your Apps?

Image courtesy of (believe it or not!) furnitureconsignment.com So as you’ve probably heard–Michael posted about it, for example–J.K. Rowling’s latest cash cow, the Pottermore web site, finally went live today (a mere 6-9 months after it was originally promised, but that’s a whole different ranty post).  For me what this meant was that, finally, I would be able to actually buy the eBook version of the Potter books.   Yay! There was a catch, though:  the books aren’t available via iBooks, but only through the Pottermore web site for Kindle, Nook, or straight ePub format.  Which is okay, I guess…


Pottermore Store Now Open, Harry Potter eBooks on ‘Sale’!

In what is a huge surprise (as it isn’t yet April), the Pottermore Store opened up today to the public including ebook versions of all seven Harry Potter books. As noted at the WSJ, the ebooks will spread to the Kindle, Nook, Sony and Google Play shops (but not Apple): By selling the e-books on her own site, Ms. Rowling will keep most of the revenue, rather than sharing much of it with her publishers as is usually the case. Several major retailers will have the opportunity to participate. Mr. Redmayne said that Harry Potter fans will be able to…


Einstein’s Life Goes Digital!

I was fascinated by Albert Einstein as a kid. I didn’t really grasp the details of his work, and to this day my grasp of physics is a bit shaky, but I still thought he was awesome. Call it nerd hero-worship. Learning more about what made him so awesome involves learning more about the man behind the math, and that’s why I am excited that the Hebrew University of Jerusalem is digitizing his correspondence and creating a portal where you can read and browse their archives. It’s certainly cheaper to read it online than hop a flight to Israel to…


Does B&N Have an International Strategy?

B&N confuses me greatly. There are moments when it appears they have a master plan, with a clear strategy and vision, such as the release of the NOOK Simple Touch. Then they completely ignore the international markets, only to hold a “Hey, we’re…here…but not” meeting like they did this week in London. Techcrunch had some insight into B&N’s bizarre non-event: In packed room of app makers, Barnes & Noble’s director of developer relations, Claudia Romanini, took the audience through some of the basics of developing apps for the Nook tablet. In attendance, a lot of Android developers. We caught up…


Prepare for The Hunger Games With the Book Trailer for … The Hunger Pains!

If your family is like mine, everyone has read the Hunger Games trilogy and is anticipating the film release next week. Perhaps you have even re-read the first book more recently to refresh your memory (though you also likely skipped the last book to leave the memory of THAT rushed mess out of your mind), but were you aware that the Harvard Lampoon had just released a parody book? Released just a few weeks ago, my son got it for his birthday and both my boys have already torn through it and thoroughly enjoyed it. If you have checked out…


The End of a 244-Year Era As Encyclopedia Britannica Goes Out of Print!

For anyone under the age of 30, the concept of needing a set of encyclopedias in your home is at best archaic. I remember consulting the books as a regular part of doing homework in social studies and geography classes in particular, but also to feed curiosity for dinosaurs, biology, space, physics and more. Well, Britannica has just announced that they will not be producing a 2012 edition and that the 2010 version will be their last print volume. Britannica president Jorge Cauz said the move is a natural part of his company’s evolution. “Everyone will want to call this…


The Agency Model Is Under Fire, but the Author’s Guild Is Fiddling As It Burns

Last week, news broke that the Department of Justice is pursuing legal action against publishers and Apple for their “agency model” pricing structure. Under the Agency Model, books are not sold wholesale but at a fixed price with a set amount going to the retailer and the publisher. No retailer has pricing flexibility, and they are barred from offering coupons, discounts, and other ways to undercut the competition. This is, to put it bluntly, incredibly anti-consumer. Imagine shopping for eggs, and the grocery store has to offer eggs at the same price as Target, 7-11, and the gas station because…



Staples Asks, ‘How Fast Can You Read?’

It’s no secret that I love to read. Even as a kid I was an avid reader, and my parents had trouble finding books to keep me occupied for long periods of time. When I was in 5th grade my mom gave me “Gone With the Wind”, and I finished it in three days. Basically, I read a lot, and very quickly. Still, when Staples sent their “Speed Reading” test, I was surprised to see my results:


How To Replace a Kindle Keyboard Battery

On a recent game day, I charged up my Kindle in anticipation for the long trip since it was not my turn to drive. I planned on staying relaxed before we played while following the adventures of Katniss Everdeen fighting to survive in the arena, but when I laid back with my neck pillow, the Kindle refused to let me into the depths of the Hunger Games. It would be another long, boring ride without the comforts of the Kindle Keyboard. Upon arriving at home, I plugged it back in and once again charged overnight only to discover it would…


B&N Is Hungry for the Hunger Games

Looking to buy a NOOK this spring? The odds are suddenly in your favor that you’ll get a good deal! If you want to read The Hunger Games on your new NOOK device that is! Buy a NOOK between March 10th and 20th and receive a free copy of the first Hunger Games book! Moreover, if you live in New York, LA, or a few other cities (check out the specific ones here) you can also see the movie for free at your local B&N! And there’s more! B&N will be hosting cast appearances and other assorted goodies are planned…


Penguin Books Rips the Carpet out from eBook Library Patrons

It’s no secret that publishers hate library ebooks. Essentially they are everything publishers hate about ebooks in one place; the cost is zero (once you have an ebook reader), and libraries don’t have to replace them due to wear and tear. According to The Verge, Penguin previously pulled all their support for Overdrive-powered library lending, and it looks like any books they are making available have an extra requirement-you must download them to a computer, then sideload them to a Kindle (or NOOK, or Kobo, etc.) It doesn’t sound too terrible until you read this email from a Gear Diary…


Should PayPal Be Allowed to Dictate eBookstore Content?

Now here’s a slightly unusual, and extra sticky, case of censorship. Smashwords sells all sorts of self-published works, from regular old fiction to instructional works, to erotica. It’s that last category that has Paypal’s metaphorical undies in a bunch, and in a really upsetting turn, they’re using their position as a payment processor to force Smashwords to pull titles. (Warning: Some of the links below are NSFW) According to The Digital Reader, Smashwords made this announcement over the weekend:


Amazon’s Ban Hammer Gets Itchy

Despite my spirited defense of Amazon a few days ago, I go back and forth about supporting them sometimes. It’s not that I feel guilty, it’s just that they tend to lean on the same tactics to get what they want, mainly their leverage based on market share. That’s what’s happened this week with Independent Publishers Group. Amazon and IPG had a contract dispute, and Amazon pulled their ebooks from the Kindle Store. There are two sides to every story, and Amazon is being typically tight-lipped, so all we have to go on is the IPG account (via Teleread and…


Is Amazon Evil, or Is It Just Business?

With all the upheaval in bookselling, there seems to be a growing distrust and backlash towards Amazon. Borders imploded, B&N is struggling with their physical stores, independent bookstores are disappearing, and Amazon is waiting with open arms for any lost consumers. The anti-Amazon discussions boil down to two main arguments; the idea that as convenient as Amazon is, buying “local” is worth the higher costs, and the idea that Amazon is just plain evil. I understand the “buy local” argument, but the “Amazon as an evil entity sent to suck the life from the competition” argument is, to put it…


Kno, Cengage, and Why Digital Textbooks Are Failing

Digital textbooks are a bit like alchemy. Everyone wants to find the magic formula, but the experiments just come out as useless lumps, rather than shiny bits of gold. Even iBooks 2 has many skeptics, despite Apple’s deep pockets and impressive publishing contacts. But the best illustration of how tangled and inefficient the eTextbook market is can be seen in the fight between Cengage (a publisher) and Kno (one of the 49,000 services trying to cash in on digital learning).


Amazon Makes Good On Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451

In my review of the ebook version of Fahrenheit 451 I was sharply critical of the massive amount of typos and mistakes in the text. It was suggested that I take my complaint to Amazon, which I did … but honestly never expected anything. It wasn’t the first time I had complained, but I had never heard anything back in the past. But last night I got a happy surprise – an email from Amazon’s Kindle Store that an update had been made to Fahrenheit 451, and I could download it from my account. So I headed to the link,…


Has Apple Jumped the Shark with iBooks Author?

Image courtesy of Carrypad I’m a huge fan of eBooks.  I’ve been reading them since the Peanut Press days, I have gone on at length about the strengths and weaknesses that I’ve found in the various software eBook readers currently available, and I’ve reviewed a number of “enhanced books” right here for y’all. I haven’t read more than one or two hardcopy books per year in the last several years.  I love eBooks. I think Apple’s iBooks app is pretty decent, all things considered.  As I ranted on at length about, I think there’s a lot of things to be modified,…


Has iBooks 2 Cracked the Textbook Puzzle?

After Apple’s big iBooks 2 announcement, I went hunting for more info on prior digital textbooks; it occurred to me that most of the pilot programs and digital textbook stuff are aimed at college level students and up, with the most famous/infamous being Amazon’s Kindle DX experiment with several universities. This makes sense since college kids foot their own bill for hardware. So why is Apple targeting high schools? Did no one point out that schools are so poor they are firing teachers left and right? A class of 500 freshmen starting high school would cost a district $250,000 before…


If an eBookstore Falls in the Internet and No One Hears It…

eBooknewser reported today that Amazon quietly shut down Mobipocket, an ebook store that those of us with PDA roots probably remember fondly. Amazon purchased Mobipocket and still uses their format as the basis for Kindle books. After reading the post, I headed over to Mobipocket and found what appears to be the internet equivalent of a broken, abandoned storefront. There’s no announcement that Mobipocket is gone, but the files appear to have all disappeared. Bestsellers, fiction, non-fiction, everything is just gone, with the exception of a handful of classics that appear on the main page. Meanwhile, things aren’t exactly hopping…


Does Anyone Buy eBook Readers for the Hardware Anymore?

There’s an interesting (and honestly, inevitable) trend in the book world lately: no one’s talking hardware anymore. Yes, there’s new devices, and sales are touted when they’re impressive. But the big announcements that come up again and again are “ebook sales are increasing by these triple digits/these authors are making this much money through ebooks/we have this many free ebooks, etc”. Plus, all those lovely ebooks are available on tablets, computers, smartphones and dedicated ebook readers…so does it pay for a company to offer the hardware without the ebooks anymore? In my view, the answer is no, and I think…