Germans Wait Until Late for Erotic E-Books

Want to buy an erotic e-book? If you’re in Germany, you’ll have to wait until after 10 PM. Good-E-Reader has the story:

The German Publishers & Booksellers Association have mandated that all e-books that aimed at adult audiences cannot be sold until after 10 PM. This includes romance, erotica and any e-book whose metadata classifies it as not being suitable for minors.

The full piece is here.

Speed Reading With A High Tech Twist

Wish you could read more quickly? There’s an app for that. From Quill & Quire:

Boston-based tech company Spritz has developed a technology that replaces digital pages with quick-streaming text, thereby eliminating time-consuming “inefficient eye movements.” According to the company’s website, some test subjects were tracked reading 900 words per minute, thanks to a process referred to as “spritzing.” At that pace, the company claims Atlas Shrugged could be read in a day.

Read the full story here.

How “Book Porn” Has Saved the Book

Despite increasingly strident warnings over the last decade that the physical book is taking a dive, signs that the opposite is true continue to rise. The latest of these voices comes from PolicyMic with an article by Shan Wang called “How Book Porn is Actually Revolutionizing the Book World.” If you’re one of those who are tired of hearing all the doom and gloom around books and reading, this is one you’ll want to peek at:

Now more than ever, we are revering physical books and the places that carry them in what should be the unlikeliest of places — through websites with titles like "Book Porn" and "Library Porn," or through unusual mixed-media sites like "Fuck Yeah, Book Arts!" Want book-shaped bookends or boxers patterned with the spines of books? The "Book Fetish" section of Book Riot has you covered.

Truly, Wang reminds us, there’s lots of news about books and reading. And most of it is good:

These sites are also a welcome turn away from "saving" books to celebrating the very experience of reading, from browsing spines to discarding finished copies. And they're helping us read more.

The full piece is here.

Signing an Electronic Book? There’s An App for That… Soon

PatentlyApple.com reports that the US Patent & Trademark Office published a patent application from Apple Computers on September 26th that “reveals a new iBook autographing system and more specifically to techniques and systems for embedding autographs in electronic books.” From PatentlyApple:

Book signing is the affixing of a signature to the title page or flyleaf of a book by its author. A book signing is an event, usually at a bookstore or library where an author sits and signs books for a period. Book signing is popular because an author's signature increases the value of books for collectors. The author may add a short message to the reader, called a dedication, to each book, which may be personalized with the recipient's name upon request. Book signings provide more than a just a chance to obtain signatures. Authors and bookstores are benefited by the fact that many copies of the book being promoted are sold. Signings also increase public goodwill and allow authors to connect with their fans. For fans, signings give them a chance to see and meet a favorite author and ask them questions. In order for this process to have value in the digital world, Apple has invented this new advanced autographing system.

The challenge of getting author signatures into electronic books, or across the world digitally has been looked at before. Author Margaret Atwood began developing her Longpen system in 2004. The Longpen is now being developed by the Syngrafii Corporation of Toronto, where Atwood is on the board of directors.

Self-Published Books “Terrible”

How could this headline in Good E-Reader not catch your eye?

“The Overwhelming Majority of Self-Published eBooks Are Terrible”

In a piece about the lack of gatekeepers in the current self-publishing model, Michael Kozlowski writes:

At the Writing in a Digital Conference in London, Andrew Franklin, founder and managing director of Profile Books, blasted authors who self-publish. “The overwhelming majority of self-published books are terrible—unutterable rubbish, they don’t enhance anything in the world.”

Franklin went on a verbal tirade against the vast majority of self-published authors saying, “These books come out and are met with a deathly silence, so the principle experience of self-publishing is one of disappointment.” He went on to voice his increasingly disparaging remarks by saying “I was very shocked to learn you can buy Facebook friends and likes on social media. That is what passes for affirmation in what I think is the deeply corrupt world of self-publishing.”

You can read the full piece here.

E-Book? Just Say “No”

It’s interesting that, even though he was a pioneer in getting his books to market electronically, Stephen King has actively delayed e-book versions of his new book, Joyland, from shipping on the book’s June 2013 publication date. From Slashgear:

Stephen King is shunning ebooks in favor of traditional print runs for his new novel, Joyland, the outspoken author has revealed, confirming he has “no plans for a digital version.” King – whose new book is released in the US from June 4, though as a printed title only – specifically retained the digital publication rights so that physical copies could be prioritized. 

“Maybe at some point [there'll be an ebook]” King told the WSJ, “but in the meantime, let people stir their sticks and go to an actual bookstore rather than a digital one.”

Meanwhile, the e-book edition of Doctor Sleep, the long-awaited sequel to The Shining, is scheduled to go on sale the same September 2013 day as the hardcover.

The Death of the ISBN?

It’s news to just about no one at all that digital publishing has taken a heavy toll on many aspects of traditional publishing, but here’s one we hadn’t thought of before. The Economist looks at what may be a death knell for the ISBN:

Look inside any book published since 1970 and you will find a number. But perhaps not for much longer. The International Standard Book Number (ISBN), invented in Britain in 1965, took off rapidly as an international system for classifying books, with 150 agencies (one per country, with two for bilingual Canada) now issuing the codes. Set up by retailers to ease their distribution and sales, it increasingly hampers new, small and individual publishers. Yet digital publishing is weakening its monopoly.

The full piece is here.

Libraries Without Books

Ever since e-books began to assert their dominance, people have been talking about the library of the future: a bookless place about books. And as ill-conceived as the idea will appear to booklovers nearly everywhere, Bexar County, Texas is about to lead the way to a brave yet strangely bookless new library. This coming fall they will open Bibliotech, the first completely digital public library in the United States. From My San Antonio:

Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff is an unabashed book lover with 1,000 first editions in his private collection, but even he sees the writing on the wall.

Paper books have lost their allure, and future generations may have little use for them, Wolff contends. 

So when he embarked on a mission to create a countywide library system, he decided it should be bookless from the start.

Wolff credits late Apple founder Steve Jobs and the Apple Store or inspiring Bibliotech.

Inspired while reading Apple founder Steve Jobs' biography, Wolff said he envisions several bookless libraries around the county, including in far-flung suburbs. 

“It's not a replacement for the (city) library system, it's an enhancement,” Wolff said.“People are always going to want books, but we won't be doing that in ours,” Wolff said.

You can read more here.

Big Six Find E-Books Profitable

Big publishers are finding that electronic books are generally more profitable than their print counterparts, according to Paid Content.

Here’s the thing, though: since production costs on e-books are fixed and distribution costs pretty much nonexistent on what planet is this news? Especially since, in many cases, they’ve been able to hang onto electronic rights that a more prepared marketplace would not have allowed them to hoard. The fat lady has not sung yet, but the piece in question is here.

The Merging of Books and the Internet: Go Hard or Go Home

We live in a time when only the largest assertions get any attention. Go hard or go home. It may be silly, but it’s true. And you can make those big assertions and they can be empty because, a year from now? Pretty much no one besides Jon Stewart will remember what you said. So when Hugh McGuire of Pressbooks released the part of an upcoming book that says that books and the Internet will merge, he got a fair amount of attention. Even The Guardian sat up and quoted which is always a big, hairy deal.

McGuire’s rationale is not imperfect, but it is fatally flawed (sez me). It all began with a tweet McGuire made a year ago: “The distinction between ‘the internet’ & ‘books’ is totally totally arbitrary, and will disappear in 5 years. Start adjusting now.”

In Book: A Futurist’s Manifesto, to be published by O’Reilly (print) and Pressbooks (electronic) on March 22, McGuire explains further:

If you think about “books”—which are, more or less, collections of words, sentences, and images arranged in a particular way—and compare them to, say, websites—which are, more or less, collections of words, sentences, images, audio, and video, arranged in a particular way—there is a jarring distinction that presents itself. We have decided, for mostly historical reasons, that collections of words and sentences of one kind go into a “book” and collections of words and sentences of another kind go onto the “Internet.”

And while I get what he’s saying here, it isn’t quite as true as he makes it sound. Think, for instance, of people tooling around Stuttgart in Daimlers in the late 1800s. And someone says, “the ‘car’ and the ‘bicycle’ are the exact same thing: mark my words. The distinction between them will soon disappear.”

On one level, all of that is true. Both cars and bicycles have wheels. And you use both of them to get from one place to another. An argument could even be made for the mechanical skill involved in creating/building/maintaining them. And in both cases, you have to know what you’re doing, at least a little bit: you can’t just hop on.

But see, here we are, more than a century later and though there have been times when the technology has blended, we still have cars. We still have bikes. They are distinct. Unique. Separately important. And you can store them in the same place and think about them in the same way but they’re not ever going to be the same thing. And some of us? We need them both. ◊

Linda L. Richards is the editor of January Magazine and the author of several books.

E-Books: The Sky is Falling. Again.

Are e-books a bubble? And, if the answer is yes, when is it going to burst? That’s what novelist turned technology naysayer Ewan Morrison asks in The Guardian today, preparing us for a brave new world where the whole e-book thing blows up in our faces:

The internet is full of ironies. I, for one, could never have guessed that writing about the end of books would generate more income for me than actually publishing the damn things. I've been on an End of Books reading tour since August and it turns out that what the internet gurus say about consumers being more willing to pay for events, speeches and gigs, rather than buying cultural objects, is now becoming true.

Morrison connects what he sees as the current e-book boom with the booms that accompanied huge and shaky periods of growth in the stock market and real estate and other boom-prone mediums.

The resulting piece, while interesting, is actually pretty silly. Morrison brings us a new, more nuanced shade of the sky is falling. While, certainly, there are aspects of the current e-book publishing climate that won’t survive the long term, the fact is -- Chicken Little-like assertions aside -- the publishing industry has been overdue for change for a long time. More: a lot of people actually like reading electronically. That means that thousands -- and if Amazon is to be believed, growing millions -- of people with shiny new e-reading devices are creating a bump in the market. With that kind of power, the market is falling over itself to respond. Will there be fallout? Of course. But there is also excitement about reading. New discussion about books. And a long stagnant system is reevaluating itself. Is all of that bad? I think not. But saying it is does make for more interesting reading than otherwise. It’s always journalistically healthy to piss people off.

Meanwhile, same paper, different page, Jonathan Franzen has his own Chicken Little-style observations of electronic books:

For serious readers, Franzen said, "a sense of permanence has always been part of the experience". "Everything else in your life is fluid, but here is this text that doesn't change," he continued. "Will there still be readers 50 years from now who feel that way? Who have that hunger for something permanent and unalterable? I don't have a crystal ball. But I do fear that it's going to be very hard to make the world work if there's no permanence like that. That kind of radical contingency is not compatible with a system of justice or responsible self-government."

Here’s the thing: over the long haul, we will come to realize that books are books. You can dress them up in gorgeous letterpress editions or you can share them electronically but the core of the book -- the soul, if you will -- is untouched by the method of delivery.

The industry will change. Let’s face it, it must. And some of the things that we think are true right now will prove not to be. But when the dust settles we will still have stories. We will still have authors. We will still have books.

Print vs. Electronic: Enter the Golden Age

Not long ago we were arguing for or against reading electronically. In an interesting piece for the Guardian, writer and editor Robert McCrum points out that the battle now is complete and, in some ways, there are no winners or losers: just a redistribution of priority.

If the ebook is all about ease, and short attention spans, the ink and paper book must satisfy not just the thrill of reading, but the deep aesthetic pleasure associated with owning, holding and even scenting a favourite text. Already, there are signs that some publishers have cottoned on to this.

These aren’t new thoughts. In fact, just last month we reported on the idea that one of the things the e-book revolution would give us back is the beautiful book. But McCrum -- being McCrum -- takes things a bit further:

From the outside, the book trade looks staid, static and conservative, but inside the publishing jungle there's a life-and-death struggle between E and P. This competition has begun to sponsor a literary bonanza. If ever there was a golden age of reading, this is it.

The e-publisher's riposte to beautiful books has time and technology on its side. This is also the age of the book app. 2011 was a milestone year in lots of ways (Arab spring, death of Bin Laden, English cricket revival), but never more so than with Faber's launch of TS Eliot's The Waste Land as a book app.

Even the most devout print-conscious bibliophile could hardly fail to be impressed by the possibilities of reading, and listening to, this great poem in many different formats, including two recordings by the poet himself. Agreed: this treatment works especially well with a long poem, but Jamie Oliver also understands, and is profiting from, the market for the book app.

You can read the full piece here. And if you love the image above, you can see more (and more and more!) on the microblog walls & walls of books here.

Amazon Selling One Million Kindles Per Week

Wondering is the whole e-book thing is going to catch on or have we just been going through some kind of phase? Wonder no more. Amazon has announced that their Kindle devices are flying “out of the warehouse in dizzying numbers.” From CNet:

"For the third week in a row, customers are purchasing well over 1 million Kindle devices per week, and Kindle Fire remains the #1 bestselling, most gifted, and most wished for product across the millions of items available on Amazon.com since its introduction 11 weeks ago," the company said.

Short Story Form Makes Comeback

It wasn’t very long ago that people who love them despaired over the near-death of the short story. Writers kept writing them, but it seemed that -- for the most part -- readers had stopped reading. And then the e-book revolution happened and all of that changed. Writing for Good E Reader, teacher and YA author Mercy Pilkington writes:

More than one traditional publishing house has decided to experiment with meeting the needs of the reading consumer in a time-strapped and financially weakened economy. Publishers are bringing more short story content to publishing markets everywhere and they are relying on the popularity of digital reading to make it possible.

There’s more to Pilkington’s story and it’s here.

Which are Better: E-Books or the Printed Kind?

The question is both complicated and astonishingly simple. We maintain that it’s also deeply personal. Which might be true for me may not hold true for you. Mashable doesn’t agree:

Ever wonder which method of reading is better for you -- electronic screen or printed text?

The answer: There is no difference.

Well, that’s a bit of an oversimplification. For one thing, it’s not the same. For another, it’s different. The experts would not agree:

“There are no disadvantages to reading from electronic reading devices compared with reading printed texts,” according to a study by Research Unit Media Convergence of Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) in cooperation with MVB Marketing- und Verlagsservice des Buchhandels GmbH, operator of the ebook platform Libreka!.

Study or no, I’m holding fast on this one. What’s “better” in this instance is likely situational. Am I at my desk? In bed? On a beach? In the bath? And it’s personal. What do you like? What do you need?

In a classroom, I think the electronic version would always rock: give me random access so I can find what I need in haste! On vacation, e-books are clearly better: you can haul a whole library around the world with you if you want. But when I’m reading outside, under my favorite tree and a sudden rainshower shows up, I want don’t want to have to worry about delicate electronic parts. But, see? These things are personal, as well.

In the end, none of it matters. (And what if it did?) Here’s what does: we’re talking about reading. We’re talking about books. That’s the important thing. And the rest of it? That’s like Purolator or UPS: the method of delivery is clearly up to you, what matters is getting the package home in the way that makes the most sense to you.

Is the Kindle on Fire?

It is not. But if Amazon gets its way, their new Kindle Fire will burn up all the other e-book kids on the block. From Techcrunch:

On Wednesday morning in New York City, Amazon will unveil the Kindle Fire. Yes, this is the name Amazon has settled on, to help differentiate the product from the e-ink Kindles, which will still be very much alive and for sale. And while Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos will show off the Fire on stage, it won’t be ready to ship until the second week of November, we’ve learned.

I guess they’re hoping to set their Christmas sales on fire. Sorry: couldn’t resist.

The Day the Paperback Died

Never mind the death of the book, it’s the death of the paperback we’re most concerned with right now. From an interesting piece by Julie Bosman in the New York Times’ business section:

Fading away is a format that was both inexpensive and widely accessible — thrillers and mysteries and romances by authors like James Patterson, Stephen King, Clive Cussler and Nora Roberts that were purchased not to be proudly displayed on a living room shelf (and never read), but to be addictively devoured by devoted readers.

“In those days, you could easily ship out a million copies of a book,” said Beth de Guzman, the editor in chief of paperbacks for Grand Central Publishing, part of the Hachette Book Group. “Then shelf space started decreasing and decreasing for mass market, and it has especially declined in the last several years.”

What’s behind this latest death knell? Why the e-book, of course. Quickly replacing the checkout impulse buy with a cheaper and perhaps more environmentally friendly alternative. One of the saddest losses, though, might not be immediately apparent.

The prices of print formats are typically separated by at least a few dollars. Michael Connelly, the best-selling mystery writer best known for “The Lincoln Lawyer,” said he worried that book buyers would not be able to discover new authors very easily if mass-market paperbacks continued to be phased out.

“Growing up and reading primarily inexpensive mass-market novels, it allows you to explore,” he said. “I bought countless novels based on the cover or based on the title, not knowing what was inside.”

I’m with Connelly on this one. When I was a kid, that was how I navigated my way through the myriad reading possibilities available to me. Not recommendations from friends -- they seldom liked what I did in the first place. Ditto book reviews. How was some stodgy old newspaper writer going to understand what my 12-year-old heart wanted? But standing in front of the colorful displays in the supermarket could get that heart thumping. And, at the time, it seemed that everything I wanted could be supplied by a medium-to-large Safeway books section. I’d examine the covers, read the jackets, perhaps sample a few paragraphs. That was how I found Stephen King, Mordecai Richler (yes, really), James Michener and James Clavell along with the regrettable VC Andrews.

All of that is going fast. What are kids expected to do in the electronic age? Sure you can sample, but it won’t be the same. But I guess we’re dealing with a lot of that now. Things do change and not all change is bad. Some things are lost but, at the same time, some things are gained. Would I be a less well-rounded reader had I not found Flowers in the Attic waiting for me at the check-out? I certainly feel I would be had I not been so entranced by the dark and dangerous-looking paperback cover of Solomon Gursky Was Here.

What’s gone is gone, though. Bowker’s Kelly Gallagher says he doesn’t figure the mass market paperback will be making a comeback any time soon:

“You can’t list a single thing that has caused its demise,” he said. “But as e-books become more affordable and better aligned to the mass-market reader, I would have to say that I don’t think there are encouraging signs that print mass-market books will rise again. When all these things align against a certain format or category, it’s hard to recover.”

Stockett and Evanovich Join Amazon’s Million Sellers Kindle Club

Kathryn Stockett (The Help) and Janet Evanovich (Smokin’ Seventeen) have become the latest authors to enter Amazon’s million-sellers group. According to the Los Angeles Times:

So far, it's a pretty small club. Steig Larsson was the first to cross the 1-million Kindle ebook mark first, followed by thriller-writer James Patterson and romance maven Nora Roberts. Then came Charlaine Harris, author of the Sookie Stackhouse books, which are the basis for the HBO vampire series "True Blood." Lee Child, Suzanne Collins and Michael Connelly are also million-sellers. Independent author John Locke was the first to become a Kindle million-seller without the support of a major publisher.

Interestingly enough, these latest entries are possibly both fueled at least in part by sales due to film tie-ins. As the Times points out with The Help, “Last week, the film adaptation was released; the movie came in second at the box office over the weekend and, apparently, sparked the interest of Kindle owners who hadn't yet purchased the book.”

Evanovich, of course, has a long publishing history and a terrific sales record with her Stephanie Plum books. Even so, the fact that a film version of the first of the Plum books, One for the Money, is due in theaters in January may be contributing.

The Julie Anne Robinson-directed movie looks as though it may do justice to Evanovich’s popular books, too. Starring Katherine Heigl, John Leguizamo, Daniel Sunjata, Jason O’Mara (Ranger and Joe Morelli respectively) and with Debbie Reynolds as Grandma Mazur the film sounds terrific, though it isn’t the first time One For the Money has made it to the screen. A TV movie starring Lynn Collins and directed by David Grossman, didn’t exactly wow audiences when it was released back in 2002.

One for the Money will be released on January 27th.

Floating the E-Book Boat

Earlier this summer, outside of an Apple store in Southern California, I was charmed to see an off-duty Apple Genius reading a book. Made of paper. A non-e-book. It seemed disloyal of him somehow. And it also seemed honest. Yes, he might as well have been saying, the world is changing. And me? I’m part of that change. But the sun is shining and I’ve got this half hour and I just wanna sit here and enjoy my book.

Despite the fact that I’ve been an early e-book adopter in almost every way (I teach courses in making them and my own backlist is becoming increasingly available in electronic formats) there are still times -- many, many times -- when I want to be just like that Apple Genius: I want to just be left alone to read a book.

Now all that said, it’s unsurprising, particularly in these dodgy financial times, that an increasing number of readers are purchasing their new reading material in electronic formats. Not only are e-books splendidly uncomplicated to buy, in most cases, they’re also cheaper, something that consumers are noticing and cashing in on. According to Techcrunch’s Paul Carr, “People who weren’t reading for pleasure, now are. This is good.”

Once upon a time, hardcover books were the only way that book lovers could read new titles. This allowed publishers to charge a premium for a product — a big, shiny hardback book — that actually isn’t much more expensive to produce than a paperback. Today, most publishers release the ebook edition of a new title at the same time as a hardback. Ebooks are a cheaper, more portable, quicker way for fans to get hold of their favourite author’s latest work so it’s absolutely unremarkable that hardcore book buyers are migrating to that format. Sure enough, hardback sales have dipped in the past 12 months but, in the same period, ebook sales have soared. In terms of both unit sales (up 4.1% from 2008) and revenue (up 5.6% from 2008), American publishers experienced a bumper year last year.sales have soared. In terms of both unit sales (up 4.1% from 2008) and revenue (up 5.6% from 2008), American publishers experienced a bumper year last year.

And now, finally, with some significant (partially e-book generated) shifts in the market, independent bookstores are finding ways to hit back. From PopMatters:

So how are the survivors coping? There seems to be no single secret, although each of the remaining local independents has found a way to offer enough extra value and a sense of community — book club meetings, appearances by bestselling authors, discounted books for students — to convince customers they’re worth the trip.

Some independents are even finding ways to float their own version of the e-book boat:

In some cases, the independent booksellers are even flirting with the enemy in hopes of keeping a share of the book market. Both Next Chapter in Mequon and Boswell Book Company in Milwaukee, another former Harry W. Schwartz location, have started selling e-books that can be used on certain e-readers, including the Barnes & Noble Nook. They can’t sell for the popular Kindle because it’s a proprietary device connected to Amazon’s own online store.

“I never thought I’d be selling a Barnes & Noble product,” said Daniel Goldin, Boswell’s owner.

Increasingly what all of us have to remember is this: the only battle to be fought here is for reading. As Carr reminds us, “measuring the state of ‘books’ based on the number of hardcover sales is like measuring the popularity of ‘music’ based on how many people are buying cassettes.”

As I’ve said so often: in the end, the format does not matter. It’s nothing more than a delivery method. Just give me my story and let it take me away.

Waterproof Paperback Available Next Summer

This would have been a good idea a decade ago: a book so waterproof it can be be left out in the rain or dropped into the tub. Now it just feels a little too little too late. From The Telegraph:

A clear wax sealant will prevent running ink and stop pages from becoming soggy and tearing when wet.

The tough polymer coating is tear-resistant and promises to increase a title's shelf-life by up to 200 per cent.

Since all the exciting news right now is around electronic books, maybe we don’t need a paperback that will last longer and be better, maybe we need an e-reader that can be dropped from a diving board or withstand a monsoon. After all, paperback sales are down across the board, and it’s not because books aren’t waterproof; it’s because a lot of the kind of readers who buy paperbacks are now buying books electronically and popping them onto readers. So maybe a special polymer coating for your iPhone? Or a waterproof cocoon for your Kindle or Kobo? Something, anyway, that will lift current in-demand technology beyond the place where it now hovers.