London light years

London in the UK is light years ahead of the rest of the world in encouraging ereading. Through the London Evening Standard, Barnes and Noble agreed to donate 1,000 Nooks to a charity (Beanstalk) and now major publishers are donating their books on those Nooks to make this cause — called Get London Reading — a success for schoolchildren. What a wonderful combination of collaborators — ereader-maker for the devices, newspaper for the promotion, and publishers for the content. It's a win—win-win for students. According to The Bookseller story: "Hachette UK, HarperCollins, Penguin and Random House have signed up to donate titles from bestselling children’s authors, including Michael Morpurgo’s A Medal for Leroy (HarperCollins) and Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Penguin).

I went to see Baz Luhrmann's The Great Gatsby on opening day. Oddly enough, my parents who are halfway across the country from me did the same exact thing, and we both had no idea until the next day. While comparing our experiences, we came to a couple of realizations. My dad noted that his movie theatre was packed, and he realized that every single person in the theatre had probably been forced required to read F. Scott Fitzgerald's, The Great Gatsby, in high school. Heck, I had to read it in high school and college (much more enjoyable read in college). So, you have to love Luhrmann's emphasis on "visual splendor" as RottenTomatoes.com puts it, as well the addition of his interpretation of what was really happening with Gatsby and Daisy between the lines. It's Luhrmann's creation inspired by F. Scott Fitzgerald's book, "old sport".
The other realization we came to, is that Nick Carraway can be a great metaphor for where we are between the physical and digital world right now. Nick is a man who is both inside and outside everyone's world. He is not fully in Gatsby's new money world, nor is he in Daisy and Tom's old money world. Just like we are flirting with our love of the physical book, and enticed by the glamour and laid back style of the new digital world. What is going to happen?

Bookless in San Antonio

I first blogged about a bookless library in San Antonio last January 17, 2013. Now it's getting closer. Bibliotech in Bexar County should be live in August, according to Goodereader. Update: "The publicly funded library has raised over $200,000 to finance its new digital library and will feature 48 computers, 300 e-readers, and three Discovery Terminals via 3M." This is a first in the world as far as I know.

Google's World Brain

I've often wondered how Google convinces libraries, such as Harvard, to allow the super-rich company to digitize books for free. Now I know. A new documentary "Google and the World Brain", which, by the way, is described by TechCrunch as a very anti-Google movie, explains: "They pitch it as a way to avert disasters like the burning of Alexandria or the flooding of Tulane University’s library during Hurricane Katrina." Of course, any librarian worth his or her salt would want to avoid a disaster. But authors, in particular the Author's Guild, have objected and asked the courts for $3 billion from Google for scanning copyrighted books. However the Guild settled for $125 million; but then a District Court judge dismissed the settlement. So we are unresolved. The bottom line to understand about all this is that Google is not interested in making books available for reading as much wanting to mine the data for all its worth.

Africa as in tiny

We've all seen people read novels on a tiny cellphone screen. Maybe we should realize that they obviously really wanted to read that title. That's called motivation and we often underestimate the value of motivation, or just plain need. So here comes Africa where cellphones are "a huge component of how consumption is happening," says Angela Wachuka, executive director of Kenya’s Kwani Trust, which publishes the popular Kwani? literary journal. Ms. Wachuka notes, in a Christian Science Monitor story, that she's seen Kenyans devour hundreds of pages of text on their tiny screens, plowing through tell-all memoirs and other accounts of the country's recent political turmoil. In the U.S. we are obsessed with the newest trend in e-reader devices (of which the newest is Microsoft buying Nook) as if the perfect device will render the perfect reading experience, as opposed to the perfect content rendering the perfect reading experience, the device be damned. Even here in the U.S. though things are changing: Microsoft, rumor has it, will use Nook to develop apps for somebody else's device. Mmmm.

Asia as in mobile

No surprise that when you look at ebook adoption in Asia it is mobile generated and not ereader-centric. Check out this report from Publishing Perspectives. that deals with Korea (see earlier post), Vietnam, Thailand and Indonesia. Korea -- meaning South Korea, of course -- clearly is the growth center, but to put things in perspective in those four countries ebook sales remain less than 2% of the local book market. I would summarize: Just as in the Western culture, there is not enough time for people to enjoy long-form blogging; in the East there are not enough devices for people to enjoy long-from anything.

library brouhaha

The controversial PEW report on libraries, has the information I deem most important: The report shows that parents are largely in support of expanding both e-book offerings (62 percent) and interactive experiences (54 percent). That information has just been ignored because of the so-called much larger brouhaha caused by whether libraries should focus on reading or other services to the community.

Change no more?

Hard to believe that there will no longer be a Tools of Change conference. Although I never attended any one of the seven, because I am not really a technologist and am definitely a cheapscate, I had great respect for people who did. And I avidly read everything that I could understand that came out of the Change practice area, as Brian O'Leary described it in Magellan Media. O'Leary is very critical of Tim O'Reilly's decision, but you have to take O'Reilly at his word -- that it may be more important, more satisfying to create tools of change for publishers rather than host the discussion and dissemination of tools of change for publishers. I wish Tim Oreilly continued leadership.

Will Kobo coop the lead?

Now comes the real battle. Who really builds the best ereader over the long haul? Not who has the best marketing, or who leverages best that first-to-market advantage. Wired weighs in with its choice: Kobo. Now that is surprising. How many of us have even considered buying a Kobo? Think back to cars. Was Ford an early apostle? Who had a Ford in the 1880's when the first cars were built by Benz and Daimler and Maybach. Absolutely noone. The first truly successful, longlasting automotive device (that was to force the replacement of horses and carriages) was Ford's Model T nearly 30 years later. So how does the venerable Wired.com come to its quick conclusion:"the (Kobo) Aura HD has the best screen on the e-reader market today. The display — a 6.8-inch, 1440 x 1080 screen with a density of 265 ppi — knocks the Kindle Paperwhite off its throne as e-ink emperor. Text appears crisper on the Aura’s display than on any of the other e-readers I’ve tested, not just the Paperwhite." And that's just for starters. Read all about the Kobo Aura HD.

Reading, out of our minds

"Out of Print", a documentary to be seen in a few film festivals this summer, casts doubt on a successful future for reading, believing the internet has changed the practice forever. Calling "digital natives" "digital doofuses" pretty much sums up part of the movies' message: young people's brains are being Googled into nonexistance. Not so fast, I say. How do we know? My very upbeat feeling is that electronic reading is more public than private, as in the past (wonderfully designed to be shared in smaller chunks). And any electronic book today is like abstract art, to be defined more completely by the viewer (reader) than the painter (author). That's not bad, or dumb, or disappointing -- its just different. “Out of Print” screened at the Newport Beach Film Festival May 1, and now moves on to the Seattle International Film Festival on May 22 and 23, and the New Hope Film Festival in July. Odd to see a film about the revolution in reading. But then again, how else to capture the revolution, when the revolution in reading is all in people's heads. We've got to get out of our minds, which is hard to do.

Striding into China

Take a deep breath because ebooks may soon be hitting their stride globally. Amazon, according to The Digital Reader, has just added another country to the supported list for their Android app store: China. As you know, China holds 20 percent of the world's population. That's one out of every five people live in China. If they get hooked on the Amazon Appstore, Amazon, and then the Kindle and ebooks, the sky is the limit. Of course offering the appstore is only a small step in that direction. But, right now the Amazon Appstore is only available in the US, a handful of countries in Europe, and Japan, and the same goes for the Kindle Fire. But according to a press release Amazon will soon be selling Android apps in “nearly 200 countries” around the world, including India, South Africa, South Korea, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Mexico, and even Vatican City. Today’s news is leading some to speculate that Amazon is just about ready to launch the Kindle Fire in China.

Shatzkin's South America shake and bake

The blog The Shatzkin Files tackles one of the most difficult predictions imaginable -- what will happen with ebooks globally in the next 10 or 20 years. I am fascinated because I try to follow this subject and prior to reading Shatzkin's blog would not have ventured any of his observations: #1 What happened in America was unique -- unified audience meets effectively innovative company, Amazon -- and will NOT happen that way globally #2 The consequent destruction of bookstores (in America) by the ebook revolution will be replicated globally #3 “Enhancements”, like video or interactivity, will not pay off in bigger ebook sales or make it easier to command higher prices. Mike Shatzkin, in his shake and bake speech to the Buenos Aires Book Fair -- reinterpreted in his blog -- has confirmed the Tower of Babel as the old legend to explain the new phenomenon. And what is the primary cause of the old legend in South America: the lack of a credit card culture (which makes online purchases, i.e. ebook purchases, very difficult).

Magically Making Books

Ingram is the biggest book distribution company there is. Jeremy Greenfield, for Digital Book World, recently took a tour of Nashville plants that Ingram uses for print on demand distribution, i.e. distribution of books directly to retailers, libraries, schools and other partners. Interesting what he wrote: "I’ve never been on the floor of a real manufacturing or major shipping facility and I was completely wowed. The level of complexity and sophistication in the operations is mind-boggling. The size and scale of what’s being done there blew me away. And it was almost magical to see books being made, packed and shipped from this one place to points around the country, to know that the few books I touched in the process would soon be read and maybe loved by someone I’ll never meet." I assume the books that are being "magically" made are softcover books. Hardcover books, with special sewing and foil stamps, need to be made in a less automated way. So, what product do you think will be commoditized in the future and what product do you think will have true value?

Brazil's surprise

In Brazil, you'll need a dance card to keep track of the contestants. In the ebook world, Kobo, Google and Amazon opened their virtual doors in December 2012. The opposition, one would think, would be Saraiva, and digital distributor Xeriph. But seven of the largest publishers had banded together in April 2012 -- in anticipation of Amazon's arrival -- to create Distribuidora de Livros Digitais (DLD). According to Publishing Perspectives: "It looks like the DLD gamble has paid off. According to research by PublishNews Brazil’s Carlo Carrenho presented last week at the Digital Minds Conference during the London Book Fair, sales through DLD — which is believed to account for about 30% of ebook market in Brazil — more than doubled, reaching 39,210 ebooks in December."

Let's also print

Smashwords has been the leader for indie, ebook publishing for several years. Now Draft2Digital wants to end that, and, Good Reader puts some perspective on the development. Visit the Draft2digital website and see what you think. Draft2Digital is a free service and only when a new ebook sells on one of the online retailer sites does Draft2Digital make money, approximately 10 percent. It's unclear whether you can also print these books? If the new author can't also print, the new author is leaving money on the table.

Need? Resell digital

The overriding reason that people say they prefer printed books to electronic books -- anecdotally, that is -- is that the opportunity to give the printed book as a gift after reading is unsatisfying to nonexistant, with electronic books. I think this is the reason, that as EContent reports about a WorldPay survey: "Over half of UK and US consumers would like to have the option to resell the digital content they have purchased. . ." Remember we've already reported that Amazon has patented a process of being able to resell (give) epubs. Amazon may be one step ahead of us once again.

The flying Dutch

You've got to love the Dutch, traders and diplomats and collaborators and innovators extraordinaire. (This has nothing to do with pride in my heritage since my ancestors came from the town of Deventer in Holland, hence my Americanized name "Vandevanter".) Who else but the Dutch would come up with the first multi-platform title. Read Digital Book World's announcement of the title invented by Klaas Weima: "It consists of a hard copy book, a blog, a free iPhone app, an iPad app and social media accounts." What I love most about this is that it ALSO includes a hard copy of "Earned Attention".

Magazines also in the game

We've talked about how natural it is for newspapers to become ebook publishers. Now let's talk about magazines. The same rules apply. After all newspapers, I mean, magazines, have content, talented writers and self-defined audiences. The Atlantic, the magazine, is launching a new line of ebooks, “The Atlantic Books,” which will include “original long-form pieces between 10,000 and 30,000 words." Paid Content also reports content will include "curated archival collections that span the magazine’s 155-year history and feature some of the best-loved voices in American letters.” The Atlantic Books’ first ebook, a memoir called Denial by Jonathan Rauch, is available for $1.99 exclusively through Amazon’s Kindle Singles store, though The Atlantic says it will “soon” also be sold by Nook, the iBookstore and Kobo.

England on the ebook upswing

Digital Book World reports that the share of ebook sales in England continues on its three-year upswing. Digital formats (encompassing ebooks, audiobooks downloads and online subscriptions) accounted for 12% of the total invoiced value of sales of books in 2012, with this share rising from 8% in 2011, and from 5% in 2010. And Barnes and Noble has announced that it has donated 1,000 Nooks (ereaders) through English national charity Beanstalk to school children in the UK. Meanwhile, Peter Hildick-Smith, founder of The Codex Group, a book-publishing data firm, speaking at the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association Leadership Conference in Nashville, predicted that the digital book percentage in the U.S. will be at the 30 percent level in 2013.

Libraries go live

Hachette Book Group has became the fourth major publisher this year to announce it was expanding its digital offerings to libraries, according to Book Business. Hachette, whose authors include Stephenie Meyer and Malcolm Gladwell, will offer its entire e-catalog to libraries simultaneously in paper and e-editions, a policy also recently adapted by Penguin Group (USA). Hachette, Penguin and other publishers had previously restricted newer works out of concern for lost sales. Awesome.

Printing digital first

What many people may have missed in the announcement that HarperCollins continues to add to its digital first offerings is that, as Paid Content reports: "In many cases, the books are eventually released in print; HarperCollins says that to date, more than 60 percent of Impulse titles have a print format, with thousands of printed copies sold for each of those books.” The report goes on to clarify that "in many cases this means print-on-demand books that don’t make it into bookstores". So HarperCollins has now added mystery books to its digital first offerings under the imiprint "Impulse," according to the report. Previously HarperCollins had released teen, romance, and sci-fi/fantasy novels.