LISNews Librarian And Information Science News

Excerpt from post: I had a front row seat for the last generation of ebooks: In 1999 I was at Softbook (one of the early ebook reader companies), and later I interacted with the folks at Peanut Press (an ebook publisher) after they were bought by Palm. My short summary of the lessons I learned: Although some of the barriers that stopped ebooks in 2000 have been reduced, most of them are still in place. So I think the market isn’t likely to grow as quickly as many optimists are predicting. However, the economics of traditional publishing are very vulnerable to a paradigm change. That change is likely to happen later than most people expect, but once it happens it’ll probably move very quickly indeed. So stay out of the avalanche zone.

Full article here

Rumors swirled today that Amazon (AMZN) could revoke the buy buttons for books by Simon & Schuster, HarperCollins, Penguin, or Hachette if the major publishers can't strike an eBook deal with the online bookseller.

Neither Amazon nor the publishers went on the record about the eBook pricing debate. However, the New York Times has spoken with unnamed publishing executives about the terms of the eBook deal--noting that major publishers are "reluctant" to strike this kind of deal: "Amazon has agreed in principle that the major publishers would be able to set prices in its Kindle store as well. But it is also demanding that they lock into three-year contracts and guarantee that no other competitor will get lower prices or better terms."

Around the Internet, various commentators weighed in. eBookNewser noted that "it's a war out there" also reporting on Amazon's quiet launch of a Kindle App for the Mac.

NYTimes: Amazon.com has threatened to stop directly selling the books of some publishers online unless they agree to a detailed list of concessions regarding the sale of electronic books, according to two industry executives with direct knowledge of the discussions.

The hardball approach comes less than two months after Amazon shocked the publishing world by removing the “buy” buttons from its site for thousands of printed books from Macmillan, one of the country’s six largest publishers, in a dispute over e-book pricing.

It's not 'just a book', it's "enriched". From the AP:

David Baldacci's next thriller, "Deliver Us from Evil," comes out April 20 as a hardcover, an e-book, and in an "enriched" electronic version which will include passages deleted from the final text, research photos, an audio interview and video footage of Baldacci at work.

"I have a pretty cool office, if I do say so myself," the author told The Associated Press during a telephone interview Monday from his office just outside Washington, D.C., where he sets many of his books.

"For a long time it seemed all people were talking about was pricing and the timing of the e-book. And I want to bring it back to the books themselves, to the content, because that's what should matter. I want people to have a great experience and give them a behind-the-scenes look at what I do, the way you would have it on a DVD."

The "enriched" Baldacci release will cost $15.99, according to Maja Thomas, senior vice president for Hachette Book Group's digital and audio publishing. The regular e-book will start at $14.99, then come down to $12.99 once it becomes a top seller, old hat for a Baldacci novel.

Gina Preoteasa: Thought you might be interested in news that Springer has finalized an agreement with OCLC, which means that libraries will no longer receive any invoices from OCLC for MARC 21 (AACR2) records for Springer eBooks delivered via the WorldCat Collections Sets Services. Springer will be covering these delivery costs.

For additional information on MARC Records for the Springer eBook Collection click here.

Morning Edition on NPR

The growing popularity of e-books has raised a difficult question in the publishing marketplace that used to have an easy answer: What's a book worth?

Because they cost less to produce, consumers think e-books should be cheap. But publishers are afraid that if the price goes too low, they may never recover from the diminished expectations.

Some observers wonder if the publishers' pricing strategy is short-sighted. Jason Epstein, a well-known editor, publisher and author who has worked in the business for more than a half-century, says e-books are "the most exciting event, as far as books are concerned, in 500 years."

Full piece

From Poynter.org, New York Times to spin off Book Review for e-readers:

The New York Times is planning to offer its Book Review as a separate digital e-reader product, disaggregated from the rest of the Times content on the mobile devices, according to James Dunn, director of marketing for The New York Times.

Dunn alluded to the plan during an afternoon session at the Digital Publishing Alliance (DPA) and E-Reader Symposium at the University of Missouri's Reynolds Journalism Institute. Following the session, Dunn spoke briefly with Poynter's Bill Mitchell and provided additional details.

Mitchell reports the Times will introduce a separate version of its Book Review for three e-reader platforms, beginning with the Sony e-reader in the next couple of weeks. Versions for Amazon's Kindle and Barnes & Noble's Nook will follow. Dunn declined to say what the price will be for the Book Review on these platforms.

Excerpt from article by Ben Bova:

My novel “Cyberbooks” was science fiction when it was published in 1989. Today it’s coming true.

“Cyberbooks” was a satirical look at how the book-publishing industry will inevitably change from printing books on paper to putting them out electronically. My basic premise was simple: electrons are cheaper than paper.

The hero of my novel was an idealistic young Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) engineer who had invented a workable electronic book reader, a cyberbook.

Full article

Book: Cyberbooks

Ouch! Web designer and cartoonist Brad Colbow calls this strip Why DRM Doesn't Work--but the subtitle reads "How to Download an Audiobook from the Cleveland Public Library." Colbow's not taking a shot at Cleveland Public, but at the frustrating (for him--and, I admit, for me, too, as a patron) experience of trying to use Overdrive...one that ends with the strip's protagonist choosing to "give up on [the] stupid library" and head for BitTorrent.

A recent blog post by Craig Mod, a self-titled computer programmer, book designer and book publisher, offers a thoughtful and distinctive perspective on the move of books from paper to interactive devices like Apple’s iPad.

Mr. Mod summarizes his argument in the subtitle of his post: “Print is dying. Digital is surging. Everyone is confused. Good riddance.”

Mr. Mod divides content broadly into two categories: content where the form is important, such as poetry or text with graphics, and content where form is divorced from layout, which he says applies to most novels and non-fiction.

This kind of thinking makes a key point: instead of arguing about pixels versus paper, as many book lovers tend to do, it is more useful to focus on whether the technology is a good match for the content.

Full article at the NYT Bits Blog