Ebooks

BooksonBoard Stops Selling Books, Asks Customers to Download their Purchased eBooks

Mon, 06 May 2013 14:21:25 GMT

Posted by: boundbooks

Just a heads-up for anyone who hasn't heard the news:

Bookson Board: Limited Access - BooksonBoard

Indie eBookstore BooksOnBoard Shuts Down Amid Cries From Publishers of Non-Payment - The Digital Reader

Indie E-Book Retailer Books On Board Halts E-book Sales - Publisher's Weekly

Books On Board Ceased Operations - mobileread

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Read an E-Book Week

Mon, 04 Mar 2013 23:45:27 GMT

Posted by: elf

It's Read an E-Book Week March 3-9. Some authors are giving away free or discounted ebooks (mostly free), and several publishers also have deals.

The site also has links to news articles about ebooks, ebook meta, and promo banners.

Now's a great time to post links to free/bargain ebooks you know about, or promo-discounts, or just recs for ebooks you think more people should be reading.

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Paypal's New Policies Regarding eBooks

Wed, 14 Mar 2012 08:28:26 GMT

Posted by: jumpuphigh

Part of PayPal's statement:

First and foremost, we are going to focus this policy only on e-books that contain potentially illegal images, not e-books that are limited to just text. The policy will prohibit use of PayPal for the sale of e-books that contain child pornography, or e-books with text and obscene images of rape, bestiality or incest (as defined by the U.S. legal standard for obscenity: material that appeals to the prurient interest, depicts sexual conduct in a patently offensive way, and lacks serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value).

In addition, the policy will be focused on individual books, not on entire “classes” of books. Instead of demanding that e-book publishers remove all books in a category, we will provide notice to the seller of the specific e-books, if any, that we believe violate our policy. We are working with e-book publishers on a process that will provide any affected site operator or author the opportunity to respond to and challenge a notice that an e-book violates the policy.

You can see Smashwords' response here.

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Paypal may be backing off

Tue, 13 Mar 2012 01:11:25 GMT

Posted by: elf

Paypal, getting pressured from many sides, is reconsidering their ban on certain kinds of erotica. Reps from several ebook publishing companies, including Mark Coker from Smashwords, have contacted them to say (1) "WTF? I mean, well, um... WTF?" and (2) "how exactly do you define these terms, because once you shift from 'incest' which has kinda-sorta a legal definition to 'pseudo-incest,' how are we supposed to know if a book fits that or not?" and also (3) "Do you have any idea how many historical novels smash into multiple areas of your new ban?" and then (4) "also, WTF?"

PayPal attempted to say it was the credit card companies demanding these changes. ( Apparently, that ain't so. )

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Something To Keep an Eye On

Mon, 12 Mar 2012 05:06:49 GMT

Posted by: jumpuphigh

It looks like there may be another major player in the library ebook market.

Baker & Taylor (B&T) is one of the oldest print book distributors, but it only recently entered the ebook market with its own fully fledged digital media platform, Axis 360. Since its launch in June 2011, the platform has gained some traction, with 107 libraries having signed contracts as of March 5 (38 sites are live).

This article is very encouraging. I'm interested to see how it shakes out. I really would like my library to offer ebooks from someone other than Overdrive. I think the fact that Axis 360 doesn't yet offer epub is a real detriment so until they offer more common formats, I think they are going to have a struggle.

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Lawsuit Over eBook Prices?

Mon, 12 Mar 2012 03:05:51 GMT

Posted by: jumpuphigh

According to the Wall Street Journal:

The Justice Department has warned Apple Inc. and five of the biggest U.S. publishers that it plans to sue them for allegedly colluding to raise the price of electronic books, according to people familiar with the matter.

This could possibly be very, very good for consumers. Now, we just need something to be done about DRM.

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Apple wants to do e-textbooks

Sun, 22 Jan 2012 05:29:42 GMT

Posted by: elf

Apple's announced it's going to reinvent textbooks by turning them into multimedia extravaganzas that only work on an iPad. Setting aside, for the moment, the idea of textbooks only for those students whose families can afford a $400-600 device to read them (and the risk of sending said device to school with a teenager), and that the Terms of Use may not work for minors, who can't enter legally binding agreements. Assume we're living in Perfect Apple-land, where everyone can afford an iPad for every child and parents happily assume full liability for all actions their kids might commit with unrestricted internet access.

Okay then. On to the textbooks. Apple's big slide on the screen says they'll have

Gorgeous, fullscreen books
Interactive animations, diagrams, photos, videos
Fast, fluid navigation
Highlighting and note-taking
Searching and definitions
Lesson reviews and study cards

( Why that isn't going to work )

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Preaching to the Choir

Sat, 17 Dec 2011 01:37:55 GMT

Posted by: elf

Roundup of news & blog links, several of which are just confirming what most avid ebook readers already know. I've wasted far too much time in the "bookery" section of my Google feed, and I'm inflicting some of the results on the rest of you.

Publishers Desperately Trying To Protect Print Sales, And Failing
Despite all the breathless talk of “transmedia” and “metadata” and the furious rate of backlist digitization, the overarching strategy was clear: protect print sales at all costs, and pray that e-books will plateau soon (and that international markets won’t take to them with quite the same relish).

Paying authors more might be the best economics for publishers in the long run
If the stores and other intermediaries they rely on go away, they have to find other ways to sell their books. That’s a challenge, no doubt.
But if the authors don’t play along, they have nothing to sell. Making deals with authors is the publishers’ price of admission to the game.

( More links! More quotes! )

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Stanza updated!

Fri, 11 Nov 2011 17:26:50 GMT

Posted by: sprat

Just in case you hadn't seen it: there's now an update available for Stanza that fixes iOS5 compatibility issues! I had never found a satsfactory replacement, so it was amazing to have the app back and working properly again.

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Ebook Industry Changes (linkspam)

Tue, 04 Oct 2011 17:47:43 GMT

Posted by: elf

Five things make a linkspam? Lots of changes in the ebookery world:

Overdrive stops supporting Mobipocket--a side effect of the new Kindle library ebooks. Most of those older ebooks will be converted to Kindle (which is Mobipocket format with different DRM setup); some will be lost entirely. Overdrive is planning to refund library purchases of those books.
CONCLUSION: Digital purchases are not intended to be forever; they're "until the company that manages the servers decides they're not worth supporting anymore."

( 4 more links: Vookbooks, privacy, Kindle Fire, & agency pricing lawsuit )

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Pottermore: Rowling tells ebook retailers to get lost

Fri, 24 Jun 2011 19:05:17 GMT

Posted by: elf

Rowling has finally decided to release the Potter books as DRM-free ebooks* and even physical bookstores are freaking out. (They've been "banned from selling" the ebook editions. This is a problem, because, of course, brick-and-mortar stores sell so *many* ebooks now; this will be a major blow to them. WTF?) Publishers are quick to insist that this is not a game-changer, not a major shift in publishing habits. (I'm with Wired: I think this is book publishing's Radiohead moment.)

Konrath is crowing that he was right a year ago when he said that authors, not publishers, would eventually destroy the publishing industry, if publishers didn't figure out what they actually had to offer. The WSJ says that other authors could be inspired "to self-publish when their deals come up for renewal or demand higher royalty rates than the 25% of net sales that most publishers offer today on digital editions."

Aww. Authors might notice that they have the right to set the terms for their work. Publishers might have to figure out what they've got that's worth 75% of the sticker price for the life of the book (or the life of the author + 70 years, twitch). And we'll get to actually find out if the last several years' of unauthorized ebooks** prevent the legit ones from selling.

* Current info is that the ebooks will be watermarked somehow, probably with buyer's name & either acct # or purchase order # like DriveThruRPG; I assume this'll mean they're locked PDFs.

** If anyone didn't realize there are Harry Potter ebooks already, the rock you're using for an umbrella is too big.

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Amazon to support Epub?

Thu, 19 May 2011 15:02:40 GMT

Posted by: cavocorax

I don't know if this is just an unverified rumour, or if there's fact behind it, but the folks at ereader.com have posted that Amazon will soon support the ePub format. As a new Kindle owner I'm pretty excited by this. I'm hoping this will make it easier to get even more books on the Amazon store, and it should make it easier for me to buy books from other retailers without having to run it through Calibre first. And obviously this will be great for everyone else as it'll open the market up further for competition (you know what book you want: do you buy it from B&N, Amazon, Kobo, etc?).

I wonder if this is how they were planning to add library support?

I really hope this is true as I think it would simplify the whole industry. We'd have a lot less "what books will my device support" if epub truly becomes the industry standard.

( My introduction to this group! )

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Ebook link roundup: pricing commentary

Mon, 09 May 2011 02:40:03 GMT

Posted by: elf

While I don't think we'll be seeing lower prices in the mainstream ebook market soon (because publishing is an industry that moves with the speed of snails on valium), we are seeing more talk about how the pricing is ... odd. Including, in some cases, from publishers.

( Link roundup of news & commentary posts. )

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Blast from the past

Sun, 03 Apr 2011 01:43:19 GMT

Posted by: elf

Got caught up reading Making Light recently, where they're talking about ebook scams and piracy (the real kind, where people sell authors' works w/o permission, not the unauthorized-free-copy kind that's harder to prove damage from), and I wound up looking for Rowling's reasons for not releasing ebooks.

Her two stated reasons were "piracy concerns" and something about wanting people to experience "real" books, which I couldn't find a decent quote about; I know it exists somewhere. What I did find instead, from USA Today in 2005:

J.K. Rowling has not permitted any of the six Potter books to be released in electronic form, not even during the peak of the e-book craze a few years ago.

Emphasis added. Oh, my sides hurt. The peak of the ebook craze: 2001-2003. Damn, the web is bringin' the funny today. I am tempted to send Konrath a link so he can share the giggle over the short-sightedness of mainstream publishing.

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Boycott Dorchester/Leisure ebooks

Fri, 25 Mar 2011 05:14:53 GMT

Posted by: elf

Dorchester/Leisure Press is near bankruptcy, has been not paying its authors, and several of them are calling for a boycott. They've also been putting up ebooks that they don't have the rights to--this is the real book piracy, the kind that copyright law was designed to counteract. Brian Keene says:

Since January of this year, unauthorized digital editions of my work have been sold via Kindle, Nook, iBooks, and Sony. These digital editions were not made available for sale until well after the rights had reverted back to me. Dorchester’s response, in each case, has been to blame someone else and assure me that “they are looking into it” and that I would be “financially compensated” and that “it wouldn’t happen again”. Except that I haven’t been financially compensated and it keeps happening again.

His post goes into details and the history of the problems, with links to more posts and a list of authors, editors & others who are supporting the boycott. He's been asked why he hasn't taken legal action--and pointed out it's hard to hire a lawyer when you haven't been paid in a year. He's reclaimed his rights and will be able to start collecting money on new sales soon, but Dorchester is still selling his books without the legal right to do so, and isn't paying several of its other authors, and is ignoring their demands to reclaim their rights.

They're running a contest to decide which 20 books they'll next convert to digital, and Montilee Stormer says,
How about any 20 titles where the author actually receives compensation per their contract? How about 20 titles you actually own the rights to publish and distribute?

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Court rejects Google books agreement

Tue, 22 Mar 2011 23:46:56 GMT

Posted by: elf

Detailed writeup at CNET, with lots of links explaining the background; another writeup at Teleread with quotes from the ruling.

Scribd.com copy of ruling; I'll look around later for a spot that doesn't require registration. (US Gov't documents are public domain; anyone can copy & share them.)

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Amazon shuts down Lendle

Tue, 22 Mar 2011 04:41:16 GMT

Posted by: elf

Lendle.me, a site for connecting with people to lend those Kindle books that allow lending (1x per book, for two weeks only) has been effectively shut down by Amazon. (They shut off the API that allows for easy listing of what's available. Lendle could still help people find each other, but it'd have to build its own database of ebooks.) CNET seems to have the most details, including the mention that "According to Amazon, Lendle does not 'serve the principal purpose of driving sales of products and services on the Amazon site.'"

(Insert rant: because of course, people who got to read a book for free would never buy one later--not to get a permanent copy of that book, nor other books by the same author.)

Several other ebook lending sites for Kindle & Nook, have sprung up recently, and they've got to be wondering what's in store for them. Since loaning books seems like a fairly obvious connection to selling books, readwriteweb speculates that Lendle ran afoul of some other aspect of Amazon's Terms of Service.

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If You Use a Kindle...

Mon, 07 Mar 2011 17:07:39 GMT

Posted by: jumpuphigh

Something to watch out for:

A class-action lawsuit filed Wednesday alleges Amazon.com fraudulently circumvents users' Web-browser privacy settings to collect personal information without permission and share it with other companies.

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HarperCollins Anti-Library Ways

Fri, 25 Feb 2011 23:39:35 GMT

Posted by: jumpuphigh

So, has everybody heard about HarperCollins gouging libraries for ebooks?

Library Journal:

In the first significant revision to lending terms for ebook circulation, HarperCollins has announced that new titles licensed from library ebook vendors will be able to circulate only 26 times before the license expires.

Smart Bitches blog:

In other words, the publisher sets a limit to the number of times a digital book can be lent, then when that limit is reached, that library must purchase another copy.

But wait! There’s more! That mysterious “publishers” referred to in the OverDrive email also says they want access to patron information.
[emphasis mine]

Cory Doctorow @ BoingBoing:

I've talked to a lot of librarians about why they buy DRM books for their collections, and they generally emphasize that buying ebooks with DRM works pretty well, generates few complaints, and gets the books their patrons want on the devices their patrons use. And it's absolutely true: on the whole, DRM ebooks, like DRM movies and DRM games work pretty well.

But they fail really badly. No matter how crappy a library's relationship with a print publisher might be, the publisher couldn't force them to destroy the books in their collections after 26 checkouts. DRM is like the Ford Pinto: it's a smooth ride, right up the point at which it explodes and ruins your day.

Twitter:

Hashtag #hcod
HarperCollins tweet regarding the mess: We're reading your posts-and listening to our authors. If you want to share longer thoughts with us, email library.ebook@harpercollins.com

Feel free to post additional links in the comments.

ETA: Courtney Milan, author, "On Eating Your Seed Corn":

Publishers, if you make it impossible for young people–those in the “under 25″ category–to support a good reading habit on their own dime, these people are not going to start magically spending money on books when they start making a decent income. No; at that point, they’ll already have started spending their time haunting hulu instead, where they can actually get free entertainment. And when they start making money, they’ll be buying iTunes streams of those shows they watched for free.

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Ebooks for Charity

Thu, 24 Feb 2011 02:57:36 GMT

Posted by: jumpuphigh

If you are into RPG's, RPGNOW has organized a charity event in response to the NZ earthquake. You can get almost $340 worth of RPG books for $20. The books are all watermarked PDFs and they don't indicate how much goes to the Red Cross but if this is the same group who has done this in the past, I believe 100% goes to charity.

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Shane Jiraiya Cummings' Grand Conversation

Thu, 03 Feb 2011 18:12:38 GMT

Posted by: elf

Australian author Shane Jiraiya Cummings is having a Grand Experiment, releasing several DRM-free ebooks on various platforms, and is hosting a Grand Conversation on his blog, with guest posts from several authors and

editors, publishers, literary agents, booksellers, and readers from around the world.
...
Experts such as Smashwords founder Mark Coker, Queensland Writers Centre and if:book Australia CEO Kate Eltham, Angry Robot editor Lee Harris, anthologist Ellen Datlow, bestselling authors Scott Nicholson and Joseph Nassise (and time permitting, Aussie self publishing success story Vicki Tyley), and many many others will be participating. Will you? Please help spread the word!

He's open to more participants, including from people who aren't "names" in the ebook world (like me, heh), and encourages people to read the conversation and spread the word. The conversation already has a few posts, and they're packed with crunchy meta (professional-flavored meta, so I feel like I should describe them by saying they "contain substantial well-considered information"). Definitely worth reading.

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Google ebooks

Wed, 08 Dec 2010 03:44:20 GMT

Posted by: elf

Someone has to say something about it specifically, right? Google ebooks went live yesterday.

Google's ebook store has gone live. It has an app you can use to read its books on a desktop/laptop, and apps for many mobile devices. It works with Adobe's Digital Editions DRM. Some of the books are read-online only; some are downloadable as PDF/epub. Some of the epubs are just raw OCR (optical character recognition) of the scanned PDFs, which means they're loaded with typos (if that's the word... OCRos?) and the formatting is atrocious.

pir8fancier posted a link (and most of the text) to an article at salon.com: Is Google leading an e-book revolution? (My answer? Hell no. When you enter a marketplace 10+ years after it's been established, you are not "leading" anything. Google may add new twists to the commercial ebook game, and I look forward to seeing what they come up with, but when an elephant joins the dog-and-pony show, that's not "leading a revolution." Not even if it's a second elephant.)

Still, they'll bring ebooks to people who hadn't tried them before, because they're readable RIGHT THERE IN YOUR BROWSER, no special downloads required. And most of those people will scratch their heads and wonder what all the fuss is about, because book pages displayed in a browser aren't actually much fun to read. Oh, and non-US people? Pretty much screwed. Googlebooks are very limited for them.

I'm not unhappy with the store, but I'm not bouncing with glee, either. I am *sharply* interested in the results of the lawsuit, which are still pending. (I suspect that nothing available in the store is covered by the contentious parts of the lawsuit.)

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I Got Cranky

Tue, 07 Dec 2010 22:03:58 GMT

Posted by: jumpuphigh

So, I read a blog called Get Rich Slowly which I generally enjoy. However, today, he made a post entitled "Are E-Books Cost Effective? The Pros and Cons of E-Books". It made me cranky because he wasn't reviewing the cost-effectiveness of ebooks. He was reviewing the cost-effectiveness of Amazon's ebooks and using a Kindle. He didn't look at any of the other ereaders out there nor did he examine how people might be getting their ebooks if they hadn't been buying them at Amazon's prices. I have yet to spend a total of $20US on ebooks. Of course, I've only had my ereader since October and I don't tend to read new books that show up on the NYT Bestsellers list but I expect that I will eventually spend more than $20 on ebooks. However, that is going to take a while. Baen has hooked me up. Not only through their free library but they also give ebooks to disabled readers for free and I was approved for that program. Plus, the number of books that I've read and loved that are now in the public domain is quite large.

So, I've gone from "ereaders - meh" to writing long missives when someone tries to generalize the entire ebook experience based on Kindle.

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Yahoo's current topic: The future of (e)books

Sun, 25 Jul 2010 15:14:44 GMT

Posted by: elf

Yahoo!News blog has a regular topic (I'm guessing it lasts a week or so, but I really have no idea), which is currently about The Future of Books. They'd like comments; the post went up on Wednesday, and there are a few more than 180 comments at the moment. As is normal for these things, there are plenty of "smell of books/feel of leather" comments, but also a high number of comments from people with ebook devices. I can't see a way to show more than 10 comments at a time, which is annoying. From the article:

Is the ability to carry a bookcase’s worth of literature in a thin electronic tablet jeopardizing the future of paper books?

Stanford University's library director, Michael Keller, seems to think so. The shelves of Stanford University's new engineering library will hold just an eighth of the books the old library stored, NPR reports, and Keller expects that eventually shelves will hold no books. Librarians now encourage engineering students to access periodicals from a laptop or mobile phone, for instance.

( My comment )

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Not to be undercut

Mon, 21 Jun 2010 22:02:08 GMT

Posted by: babaca

Seems like Amazon has dropped the price of Kindle 2 to $189 to undercut the Nook.

The ebook reader wars begins.....

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