Is the Digital Book Market Catching Up to the Print Market?

Three months ago Sourcebooks publisher and CEO Dominique Raccah announced a bold plan to withhold the ebook release of a major YA novel. My understanding of her rationale is that a market for $25+ new release hardcover books still exists (upon which much of the traditional publishing business model is built), and if the digital market is setting the value for content below ten dollars (a la Amazon and B&N's $9.99 ebook editions), then a digital edition deserves a place in the life cycle of a book, probably somewhere between the $15 paperback and $7 mass market edition.

Initially there was quite a bit of blow back from outraged digital book enthusiasts, while other publishers had "no comment" in the moment, refusing to say if they would follow Dominique's bold and innovative lead. Still, it touched off great discussion and debate over the pricing and release strategy of ebooks--my favorite being a fluid price for a digital edition that starts at a premium price and is available before any other editions, with prices decreasing with demand, eventually all the way down to free. (I forget where I read that suggestion so if it is yours please email me so I can give a link and proper attribution.)

Not surprising now, however, we see that the major corporate publishers are following independent Sourcebook's lead. Hachette paid a widely reported $8 million advance for the Ted Kennedy memoir True Compass that released September 14 with a $35 price tag--and they are still holding the ebook release. Publisher's Weekly reported yesterday that Simon & Schuster will hold the ebook release of Stephen King's new novel, Under the Dome, Random House will hold the ebook release of the new John Grisham book, Ford County, and Harper is holding the ebook release of Sarah Palin's book, Going Rogue.

The grand irony of course is that while publishers are holding ebooks hostage to keep from undermining hardcover sales, the mass market price war is raging between Wal-Mart, Amazon, and now Target with these same titles being sold IN HARDCOVER for $8.98. In just 3 months since the Sourcebooks announcement it appears the digital market has caught up to the hardcover market. As I listened to a price war story on NPR I heard one more death knell ring out for the traditional publishing business model, multi-million dollar advances, and overpriced hardcover books that offer almost no consumer value over less expensive formats.

The market is telling us that a good read is worth about ten bucks, while Publishers Weekly reported today that Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos, in a statement about their 3rd quarter earnings, said that “[the Kindle] has become the #1 bestselling item by both unit sales and dollars – not just in our electronics store but across all product categories on Amazon.com. It’s also the most wished for and the most gifted.”

What? Did I read that right? The world's largest book retailer just announced that sales from digital readers and books overtook ALL other products?

The other big announcement from Amazon is the release of a PC desktop reader for Kindle. Why is this a big deal? Earlier this year the Kindle 2 (2/24/09) and Kindle for iPhone (3/4/09) released within a week of each other. From February to March 2009 sales of B&H Kindle titles more than DOUBLED, jumping 148% in one month, and sales continue to climb. If we saw that kind of increase with the Kindle going to the universe of 30 million iPhones and iTouches, imagine the impact when the Kindle is released to the universe of more than one billion PCs.

Here come the ebooks!

Answering the Call of the IBPA with Our Amazon Kindle Statistics

Earlier today a ripple went through the ebook Twittersphere as the Independent Book Publishers Association put out a call for information about ebooks: "If the e-books knowledge level matched the e-books noise level, publishers could proceed with confidence, devoting resources to e-books ­ or not ­ and managing the format to maximize profitability. The fact is, though, that very little is known." True.

If you are a publisher, I hope you will follow this link, answer whatever questions you can and get your information submitted by the August 3 deadline. And, please share any data you have in a comment on this post.

Not content to wait for the survey to be published, I am going to share my answers here (in interview form to entertain myself) in hopes that if I show you mine... well, you know.

At B&H we are putting a big push on our digital publishing initiatives. For the last 13 months we've published a handful of ebooks almost exclusively for Amazon Kindle but in fewer than 8 weeks we will have 70% of our active backlist and all new releases into full distribution to ebook retail, library, and academic channels. Given our aggressive posture, I've spent a fair amount of time analyzing Kindle sales data to build the business case for the work we are doing.

E-book/p-book ratios
IBPA: How many print-on-paper titles do you have?
PM: More than 700 active titles.

IBPA: How many e-book titles?
PM: 166 as of today. We will have more than 500 by end of September.

IBPA: What percentages of your annual revenue come from p-books vs. e-books?
PM: Less than 1%, but we are conservatively projecting 1000% growth next year.

Extent of experience
IBPA: How long have you been publishing e-books?
PM: 13 months

IBPA: What trends have you noticed?
PM: I have been tracking industry news stories about ebooks and digital publishing since last October when Oprah declared the Kindle her new favorite gadget. When I started there was one or two stories a week, now it is unusual to have a day without some piece of digital publishing news, and typically three or four stories--every day!

We are very encouraged by the growth patterns we've seen with Kindle sales but market conditions are changing so rapidly it is almost impossible to attribute trends. Excluding the anomaly of our NYT bestseller (The Love Dare), in one year of Kindle sales from June 08 to June 09, copies per title sales increased: 11% Q2 over Q1, 71% Q3 over Q2, 86% Q4 over Q3, and revenue per title increased 27% Q2 over Q1, 65% Q3 over Q2, 78% Q4 over Q3.

Market factors include selection and universe. The number of our titles for Kindle grew from 2 to 135, while Amazon released the Kindle 2, the Kindle iPhone app, and Kindle DX significantly increasing the number of devices in the market in the same 12 month period.

Relationships between formats

IBPA: Are your e-books versions of your p-books? If so, sometimes or always?
PM: Always, so far. We've also released some enhanced ebooks (marrying book and Bible content) and derivatives (checklist, quotes) as iPhone apps.

IBPA: Which version usually or always appears first?
PM: Print first or simultaneous, though we are looking at a couple of projects that may be digital first or digital only.

IBPA: What is the time period between versions? Or do you publish in both formats simultaneously?
PM: Currently we are doing simultaneous release of ebooks and print editions on new releases, though we are watching closely the current discussions related to pricing and timing.

IBPA: If your e-books are not versions of p-books, why did you decide to issue these titles only in electronic form?
PM: One product we are considering would be most used as a digital product, the other is going to be very expensive to print so we are considering digital to build the audience.

Pricing
IBPA: What are your e-book pricing policies?
PM: We match what is currently available in print.

IBPA: What are your e-book prices?
PM: $5.99 and up, matching print, though we are about to test $.99 essays and $4.99 sections from a nonfiction title on our Web site. The complete book is still the best value for $31.99 in print or digital, but some readers will only be interested in specific essays that are well worth $.99, but would not pay $32 for the complete book.

IBPA: What guidelines do you use in setting prices?
PM: Honoring our commitments to our retail partners, authors, and readers (not necessarily in that order), and watching the market like a hawk.

IBPA: Have you noticed price sensitivity?
PM: Can you still have a pulse and not notice? What drives me bananas is the misconception that ebook publishing is free, or even cheap. It is true (today) that print still pays the bills and digital is incremental revenue, but there is a lot of cost in developing, distributing, and retailing ebooks--everybody takes a piece. It will be very interesting to see how the supply chain changes when there's not enough to go around at $9.99. (More on the pricing debate here.)

Reaching readers
IBPA How are your e-books distributed?

PM: Through major e-book retailers, and we currently in negotiations with more retailers and distributors.

IBPA: Which reading devices do you publish for?
PM: Kindle, MobiPocket, iPhone, B&N eReader, Sony, Adobe Digital Editions, many others to come in the very near future.

Insights, lessons, tips and plans
IBPA: What have you learned from your e-book experiences so far?
PM: Pay attention.

IBPA: What e-book plans do you have for the future?
PM: Enhancing the reader experience with the content and connectivity. We are counting on the device manufacturers to enhance the reading experience, and the retailers to enhance the shopping and purchasing experience, but we've got to deliver the content.

Would You Participate in a Virtual Trade Show?

This is the first summer in nearly fifteen years I have not attended one summer book show. No BEA, no ALA, no PLA, no ICRS, no RWA, nothing. I really missed getting out of town, seeing friends, and the energy and ideas I usually pick up from a crowded exhibit hall and days filled with 20 minute meetings, but am I any further behind with my business or relationships because I missed the shows? I don't think so. In fact, thanks to Twitter and my favorite industry enewsletters and blogs, I probably know more about what happened at each of those shows than if I attended. I am certainly more connected and aware of what is happening in our industry than ever before. Which got me thinking...

Why doesn't one of industry associations (or heck, why not Ingram or Baker & Taylor or Levy) host a virtual trade show next year? Plan a full schedule of online seminars for retailers and publishers. Allow publishers to host online author events. Set up a virtual exhibit floor where publishers pay for size of their "booth" by the number of titles they feature and location. (If you think location doesn't matter online, explain to me how that stupid Evolution of Dance video remains the most viewed YouTube video of all time). Put a reception desk in each booth where industry people can schedule meetings, drop off business cards, and pick up digital schwag. Provide "meeting space" in each booth for live chats. (In many ways, publisher Web sites should act the same way I suggest for virtual exhibit booths.)

To be really effective, everything would have to be concentrated over two or three days, including a couple marquise events to generate awareness and buzz for getting people to participate within a specific window of time. Yet, one great benefit for exhibitors and attendees (association members) is that the exhibit environment could be accessed or updated any time. As with trade shows now, the bigger or more creative, proactive, and interactive a publisher gets with their exhibit space and products, the more attention they will draw.

I just Googled virtual trade show and a lot of people much smarter and more foward-thinking than me have been doing this for a long time, but who is doing it effectively in the book industry?

If you are a retailer, do you go online to get information about upcoming releases? Where do you go? Where do you go for advice about your business or industry news?

If you are a publisher, would you participate in an online trade show? What creative online events, products, or schwag do you offer now or would want to offer at a virtual trade show?

Would it change how you use your Web site?

Opportunities for Publishers in the eBook Discussion

The following post comes to us courtesy of Douglas Johnson, owner of Live Model Books, a company that produces reference material for figurative artists. It originally appeared as part of an ongoing LinkedIn discussion. If you are on LinkedIn and interested in this topic, I strongly suggest you join the group: Ebooks, Ebook Readers, Digital Books and Digital Content Publishing and get in on the discussion. Things are really heating up now with Barnes & Noble's new eBook push.

E-book price resistance comes from people outside the publishing industry—which, of course, is 99.99% of our customers—who don't understand that there are costs in developing books, marketing them, and maintaining a business to support them. They think e-books somehow cost nothing to publish. I've repeatedly seen people write "Publishers are greedy, there is no cost in publishing an e-book and yet publishers want to charge full price." At the same time, they frequently argue that the book should be available in their preferred format; e.g. "I spent $250 for a Kindle, I darn well want all books to be available for it as soon as they are published." In other words, customers want us to make it convenient for them while also making it cheap. Our response should be "we'll give you the format you want, but it has to be at a reasonably high price."

There are several opportunities here for publishers.

1) People have made an investment in their reading device and they need content to make that investment worthwhile. Therefore, there is a demand for e-books and we as publishers control the supply. That suggests we should set reasonably high prices for e-books, before the $9.99 expectation sets in permanently (if it hasn't already). In my own business, we've been selling e-books from our websites for years at $19.95, the softcover version is $24.95, and rarely get a complaint about price.

2) Publishers do not get any of the $250 or more initially paid for the e-reader and yet customers are factoring that in to what they are willing to pay for the books. As a result, they demand a lower price. The result is, publishers are subsidizing Amazon.com and other e-reader retailers by accepting the idea that we need to price our books lower. Furthermore, we're making it possible for them to develop and grow new businesses while we are forced to radically adapt ours and to accept a lower cover price. That's one reason Amazon.com is pushing hard for a $9.99 price point. At the same time, we are lowering their warehouse and handling costs.

Why should all of the cost savings go to the retailer? Yes, publishers have no print costs for the e-book, but that's a huge oversimplification. We still need to do large print runs to supply the print books. If those runs get smaller, the cost per book goes up. If we print the same amount and sales go down, then we have more waste and again the cost per book goes up. And, there is all the development costs of getting the book prepared plus all of the fixed costs associated with running a business.

Retailers of e-readers are making more money while publishers continually make less. I think we should strenuously resist the $9.99 or less price point by setting much higher suggested retail prices (in non-fiction, at least). After all, without us supplying e-books, where would the e-reader device be? In an ideal world, higher e-book list prices would force e-reader retailers to lower the price for their devices. If e-readers were nearly free, publishers could maintain higher prices for their books. The retailers would make more money on each book sold but more money would also go to the authors, who spend years developing the books. That would be fair. Another option would be a much, much lower discount so that publishers keep, say, 80% of list price. What discount does Amazon.com get for e-books?

Perhaps some publishers should develop a Kindle-like device that they give away at or below cost. If that sounds far-fetched, consider Audible.com which now dominates online audio books. Early on, a low cost subscription to their site included a refund for a listening device. Once people had the free device, they were willing to pay relatively high prices for the content. That's a much closer model for us than the usual comparison to the movie and music industries. And, it is a model in which publishers can thrive!

3) Customers seem to think all of the cost of a book is in the printing and shipping. Unfortunately, I rarely, if ever, see a publisher step in to one of these "publishers are greedy" discussions and explain that finding and developing authors and books is expensive. Publishers should all make a point of explaining the true cost of publishing every time we can. Perhaps we can chip away at the perception of e-books costing nothing to develop.

4) There is greater value in e-books than print books in some respects. One device can hold hundreds or even thousands of books, which makes the books incredibly portable for reading anytime and anywhere. An e-book will never wear out, it will never get lost (if the reading device is lost, it can be replaced and all the books downloaded again). An e-book is available instantly anywhere in the world that has an internet connection. That's an incredible advantage. There's no shipping cost to the customer for an e-book. Unlike print books, a customer can buy one book now and another one ten minutes later, without worrying about aggregating their order to save on shipping.

As publishers, we should be talking about these benefits, and the reality of who is really making money on e-books, every chance we get.

Dominique Raccah responds to WSJ piece

Dominique Raccah, Publisher and CEO of Sourcebooks, wrote the following post in response to last week's Wall Street Journal piece. This post originally appeared at BookSquare, and is being published here with Dominique's permission.

What are words worth, I wonder?
by Dominique Raccah, Publisher and CEO of Sourcebooks

Given responses to the Wall Street Journal article on Monday, I thought it might be useful to explain some of the thinking that went into the decision to delay the ebook release of our very hot upcoming children’s book, Bran Hambric.

And that includes this background: We need a sustainable author/publisher model, and it’s probably not the model of old. But the new music model of low-priced content and sales of concerts and ancillaries is probably not a viable model for book publishing. Authors, unlike musicians, don’t typically have paid live performances (and t-shirt sales are usually few). They have words. And we need to have a real conversation about what those words are worth (and that’s what the pricing issue is actually about) and how do we keep them worth enough to support authors, authorship and publishers. And yes, we can (and I suspect will) have a conversation about whether that last piece is worth supporting and at what level.

But here’s the thinking:

• I agree wholeheartedly that digital formats should be readily available, immediately (you can see from other decisions we’ve made how important digital is to us).
  
• We are being told (repeatedly) that ebooks are inherently less valuable—they are not physical; they are not easily ported; they can disappear at any time; etc. The value issues of ebooks are not issues that can be solved by a single publisher.
  
• Eretailers are suggesting that the “right” price point for an ebook is maximally $9.99. And they are proselytizing the price $9.99.
  
• We can’t control what retailers charge for books or ebooks. The choices book publishers have are:
  - To make the product available, and when
  - To have a relationship with that retailer
  So that’s the fundamental decision we get to make. It’s not, what’s the right price for this author…or for a book that he’s worked 10 years on (yes, Michael Malone’s new hardcover The Four Corners of the Sky is also not available as an ebook)…it’s just do we make it available and when?
  
• Formats have windows. We know when we (book publishers) put out different formats in the lifecycle of a book. So we shouldn’t be releasing ebooks at the same time that we release a hardcover book. We should be releasing ebooks when we release the trade paper or mass market of the hardcover and can then price appropriately to that. To me the decision is analogous to a new release in movie theatres; we don’t expect that movie to be immediately available on DVD.
  
• There are some who say, digital and print don’t cannibalize and you’re going to miss sales. But isn’t this the same as people (myself included) who say I’ll wait until it comes out in paperback or I’ll wait to see the DVD? And don’t those people sometimes forget and not buy or rent? So yes, there’s a risk that sales will be missed, but isn’t that a risk that has always existed in format choices?
  
• If you continue with the lifecycle concept, the vast majority of the books we (Sourcebooks) publish will release in e-formats at the same time as p-formats because we are primarily a trade and mass paperback publisher. And in fact our xml workflow structures towards simultaneous release in multiple ebook/ereader formats.

I would also argue that music is absolutely not the right model to compare books and book publishing to. And newspapers are even less appropriate. However, that’s a really long conversation, and I’m a publisher not a pundit. We should make the choices that are right for our authors and their readers.

We are at the beginning of model building. If hot frontlist titles are to be available in e-formats, they need to be priced by the publisher, at a reasonable discount from the hardcover retail price (to take into account the devaluation of eformats). I am totally open to that. But that’s not an option currently available. I think people may be willing to pay the premium to have the new new thing, or they may want to wait until the price falls with the trade paper edition, at which point the e-book price should be adjusted and $9.99 may make perfect sense.

I agree with Kassia that it’s dangerous to expect consumers to play by the rules of last year’s business model. I’ve taken action in this one situation and I certainly wonder if there are other options that are neither mine nor the $9.99 option. And I also agree that we need to experiment, and I see our industry beginning to do that. But this pricing and release-date situation doesn’t feel like an experiment. This actually seems more like a dictate that could have enormous ramifications, perhaps not today, perhaps not tomorrow, but certainly long-term on the future of authors and books. And I think all I’m saying is, let’s think about this. It’s too important. As a publisher, we have to be strategic, book by book (and it’s important to remember that we’re talking about 1 book; Sourcebooks has 850 ebooks available). These are big decisions for our authors and ourselves. So in situations where the e-format release could hurt the author’s launch, what if we were to wait?

The New York Times enters the ebook strategy discussion

Dominique Raccah took a very brave and unpopular stand to launch a very necessary and important conversation for the publishing industry. It is interesting that none of the "big guys" seem willing to take a stand, and a shame that the WSJ and NYT zeroed in on the "cannibalization" issue instead of the pricing issue. The real story here is what Amazon has done to establish customer expectations and cement their dominant market share position, not to mention how publishers have just played along. Until now.

Amazon pays publishers a percent of the digital LIST price for ebook sales, often sale pricing books at a loss. Amazon even encouraged publishers to set their digital list prices to match highest available print edition to help reinforce the value position for the consumer getting a $25 book for just $9.99, for example. Publishers gladly went along, realizing greater revenue as a percent of the higher list price. Amazon also cornered the pricing game by insisting that publishers’ digital list prices be the same across all channels. Sony, for example, sells most ebooks at 10% off the digital list price. So, an ebook with a $25 digital list price might be on sale for $9.99 at Amazon and $22.50 at Sony, and generally $25 (no sale pricing) at ebooks.com, booksonboard.com, deiselebooks.com, etc. If the publisher lowers the digital list price so the other retailers can be more competitive, Amazon reserves the right to match the lowest digital list price in the market. Publishers don’t dare lower digital list prices on the risk of losing revenue with the one retailer who is selling the most books.

Amazon’s willingness to take a loss on ebook sales these first few years has established a consumer expectation to buy ebooks for $9.99 or less and cemented their dominant market share position. Now Barnes & Noble says it will follow a similar pricing strategy but they won’t be paying publishers according to the digital list price, and so starts the slippery slope. $9.99 is not a sustainable price for retailers or publishers but the customer expectation is already established. And, as a consumer, I get it. I'm not paying more than $9.99 for an ebook. I've wanted to buy What Would Google Do? for at least three months and it still hasn't gone on sale for less than $14.99, so I wait.

Raccah is the first of the publisher sheep marching toward the ebook slaughterhouse to stand up and suggest that we don’t have to keep going the direction we’re heading. In fact, to survive we have to establish a different value paradigm. Her suggestion to preserve the value of content is to put it on a time line the same way books are released in hardcover before paperback—the content is available to everyone but only in a certain format for a certain price at a certain time. In other words, if you want it in paperback you wait. If you want it in ebook, you wait.

Dominique Raccah is smart enough to know the market will determine the value of an ebook and recognizes that asking someone to pay $25 for something they only value at $10 won’t work. So the next most valued currency is time. You can have it for $10 but you have to wait. Will it hold up? I don’t think so, but I don’t have a better idea. And the value of this public discussion in the WSJ, NYT, and countless industry blogs instead of blindly following the sheep in front of us is priceless.

Read more here:
Wall Street Journal
New York Times
Galley Cat
The Business Insider

Thoughts on eBook Pricing, Release Strategies, and FuturePublishing

The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday that leading independent publisher (and my former employer), Sourcebooks, is pushing back against the devaluation of ebooks typically sold on Amazon and B&N for $9.99 by delaying the ebook release of one of its major Fall books for at least six months after the hardcover release. The plan, as I understand it, is a kind of staged release, similar to that of a book going from hardcover to trade paperback to mass market paperback, inserting the ebook release somewhere in between.

"It doesn't make sense for a new book to be valued at $9.99," said Dominique Raccah, CEO of Sourcebooks, which issues 250 to 300 new titles annually. "The argument is that the cheaper the book is, the more people will buy it. But hardcover books have an audience, and we shouldn't cannibalize it."

Dominique is a smart publisher, a great advocate and defender of authors and readers, and she has just ripped the lid off this can of worms. Check out the comments on the WSJ article and you will see that people generally don't have a high regard for publishers who are being demonized like the greedy music industry for destroying the old model. I would contend, though, that there is no bad guy in this story. Publishing is just changing.

Aside: The biggest misconception about ebooks is that there is no or little cost to sell them. It's simply not true. Think about development. Think about distribution and everyone who touches a file in the process and their piece of action. Think about storage fees and transaction fees. As soon as I hear or read a comment that ebooks are free or even cheap to produce and sell, I immediately tune it out because it is clearly an uneducated comment.

Releasing a book in stages may be as a good an approach as any today, especially for high profile books. As one comment on the WSJ article said, "The blockbusters will make a fortune, while the also-rans will be read by friends and family. Hmmm...sounds a tad like the film and music industries, doesn't it?"

It is an interesting and exciting time in publishing. There is a lot of criticism and comparison to the failure of the music industry, but I don't think the music industry failed. The music business just changed. I guess if I had been employed by a record label I might think differently, but the independence fostered by technology we see today is a cleaner business model for artists (and authors) to develop their material and their audience, and market and sell their own products.

In my vision of the future, surviving publishers will become like successful music producers adding value to the content by truly making a better reading experience than the average author can do on their own, and doing it consistently. No longer can we publishers survive on packaging, blowing in air to bulk out a spine width for shelf presence, and adding seven or eight chapters around one or two central ideas. Content must deliver and do so in the way the reader wants, which is going to be very different from most books today, especially for nonfiction.

Reading on devices will be Web-based. Kindles and other e-readers will be replaced with color touch-screen tablets with full Internet access, always-on high speed wireless connectivity, and will be marketed by the wireless service providers. Ebooks will auto sync between a user's mobile phone, tablet, laptop, desktop/TV, but reading will be just one of many info/entertainment features along with video phone, gaming, TV, movies, and more.

Online retailers will become like broadcasters, posting most content for free on ad-supported platforms merging author-generated content with user-generated content, sharing ad revenue by page view with authors and publishers, and offering pay-per-view options for special events, and print-on-demand paperback editions.

Brick and mortar stores will sell mostly used books, as well as collectible first run publisher paperbacks. Only select titles will ever be released in high-priced hardcover editions tricked out with bonus content and the very best in design and print production quality. Think CD box set.

That is not so much a futurist vision as it is already happening in degrees today. While the market is determining the value of ebooks (I for one won't pay more than $10 for an ebook, and now that I own a Kindle don't intend to purchase any more print books), we will see a lot of experimentation and discovery with pricing strategies and release strategies.

Delaying an ebook release will certainly produce some backlash from the early adopters who spent $400+ on a device and cannot get the book for their device when it releases, and for that reason, I don't think this approach will stick. It could work though, if the consumer could get an "advanced copy" of the ebook with the purchase of the hardcover. It feeds the early adopter's need to have something before everyone else, and the author, retailer, and publisher still get the hardcover sale. Even a $25 hardcover might be on sale for $15, which is $5 more than the ebook will be in six months, but the consumer gets the ebook now, before everyone else, and a print edition they can resell or gift, providing a kind of pass-along/word-of-mouth marketing benefit to the publisher. Barnes & Noble and Amazon could launch a program with the Public Library Association and give consumers the option to donate the print edition to a struggling public library.

The Love Dare exceeds 3 million in print, launches iPhone apps

New iPhone Apps based on best-selling book climb the iTunes charts

NASHVILLE, TN (July 7, 2009) – Check today’s most popular books in the iTunes App Store and, amidst teen favorites like Twilight and Transformers, you’ll find a surprising pick. The Love Dare: 40 Dares, an App based on the New York Times #1 best selling book The Love Dare, has climbed steadily on iTunes charts since its release earlier this month.

But then, The Love Dare has shattered expectations in every medium it has touched.

The movie Fireproof surprised Hollywood by becoming the top-grossing independent film of 2008. It tells the story of a firefighter struggling to save his crumbling marriage who is given a book called The Love Dare. The book offers "dares" that become pivotal in rebuilding his marriage. Touched by the story of transformation, Fireproof’s early audiences asked where they could find this life-changing book.

The Love Dare, a book that presents the same 40-day challenge for husbands and wives who want to strengthen their marriage, was released by B&H Publishing Group to coincide with Fireproof’s national theater premiere. The book became a best seller on the New York Times advice list, and has spent 39 weeks to date in the list’s top ten with more than 3 million copies in print.

Now, the same message is brought to an even wider audience with the release of three Love Dare-based "Apps" (software applications) on Apple’s online store, iTunes, that markets specifically to iPhone users. Powered by BibleReader, a mobile Bible study program created by Olive Tree Bible Software, these Apps aim to transfer the complete Love Dare experience to the iPhone for mobile users.

This digital release broadens the unconventional outreach strategy that has brought the faith-based message of The Love Dare to a wide audience using channels, like movie theaters, music stores, online communities, and electronic distribution, that have traditionally been dominated by secular media.

There are three Love Dare Apps available on iTunes. "The Love Dare: eBook + HCSB BibleReader" presents the full text of The Love Dare book, along with live links for each scripture reference and complete access to the full Holman Christian Standard Bible translation. "The Love Dare: 40 Dares" features each of the book’s 40 dares with scripture reference pop-ups, and a place to check off completed dares, along with the complete text of the King James Version Bible. "The Love Dare: Reminders" includes 365 inspiring quotations from the book that users can mark as favorites and email to friends, adding personal notes.

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B&H Sales Conference Reaction to the New Love Dare Apps

4 out 5 PW Daily stories are digital news

Any day now it will be every story. GalleyCat offers three more stories (so far) today with digital implications for the publishing biz.

Hachette Signs with Attributor to Fight Online Piracy PW 6/18/09

Ingram Content Group Gets New Structure PW 6/18/09

Tor Launches Online Bookstore PW 6/18/09

Simon & Schuster Launches Teen Networking Site PW 6/18/09

Audibooks App Nabs Top Spot in Apple App Store GC 6/18/09

Macmillan Digital in the House at #140Conf GC 6/18/09

Publishing Perspectives @ Twitter Boot Camp GC 6/18/09

Click here for a list of all Headlines in Digital Publishing from PW, GalleyCat, and a few from Publisher's Lunch since October 2008.

Love Dare iPhone Apps Launched

B&H Publishing Group has released our first three apps for the iPhone based on the #1 New York Times best seller, The Love Dare (more than 2 million copies sold) from the popular major motion picture, Fireproof. Two of the three have gone live.

As I type this post one of the apps is already ranked #20 of all book apps in the App Store!




The Love Dare: eBook+ contains the full text of the book and the full text of the Holman Christian Standard Bible. All Scripture references in the book have pop-up links to read the verse, and if you click on the pop-up it flips over to that verse in context in the BibleReader. It is an amazing value at $9.99 for the complete book and a complete Bible with a lot of really cool features.
Click here to see a video demo.
Click here to open the iTunes App Store.

The Love Dare: 40 Dares features each of the 40 dares from the book with Scripture reference pop-ups, and a place to check off each completed dare. The app includes the complete text of the King James Version BibleReader; another amazing value for $.99.
Click here to see a video demo.
Click here to open the iTunes App Store.



The Love Dare: Reminders features 365 quotations from the book and Scripture. Each day that you open the app it takes you to the next reminder, or you can scroll through them, or navigate through a table of contents by topic. Users can mark their favorite quotes and/or email any quote, and add their own notes.
Click here to see a video demo.
Click here to open the iTunes App Store.

All three apps have a catalog with links to sites to purchase the books, Bible study, audio book, movie, and links to the Web site, newsletter sign ups, and more.

Special shout out to our development partners, Olive Tree (eBook+ and 40 Dares) and LifeWay Digital (Reminders). Next steps will be launching the Blackberry and Windows Mobile versions.

This accessory is not made to work with iPhone

This message started popping up on my iPhone tonight. Anybody know why or how to turn it off?

I'm not sure what accessory is causing the pop-up. It doesn't seem tied to any particular app.

I've powered off and back on. Didn't matter.

facebook.com/paulmikos

Any thoughts on what enhancements will come with user names or why user names are important to Facebook or to users (besides squatting on names that may be valuable to people or companies later)?

Facebook user names went live at 11:01 Central time last night. 200,000 names claimed in the first three minutes, 500,000 in the first fifteen minutes. Last count I saw is now up to 3 million.

Digital News from PW, Publishers Lunch & GalleyCat:

Google, iPhone, Palm Pre--a good month for ebooks. 28 new stories since June 1.

HC Children's Does Mobile Promotion for Lauren Conrad Novel PW 6/11/09

Author Reveals Personal Kindle Sales GC 6/11/09

Shortcovers Builds Digital Reader for Palm Pre GC 6/11/09

Twitter Boot Camp Discount GC 6/11/09

Susan Orlean's Tempest in the Twitter Teapot GC 6/11/09

Dzanc Books Launches [Online] Literary Journal GC 6/10/09

Bret Easton Ellis' Twitter Review Career GC 6/10/09

Swiss Army Knife of Dictionaries GC 6/10/09

Conan the Digitalist GC 6/10/09

COOL-ER eBook Reader: the Future of Book Publishing? GC 6/10/09

ScrollMotion Bringing One Million Books to iPhone GC 6/10/09

$99 iPhone Rocks E-Book World GC 6/9/09

The New Gatekeepers GC 6/9/09

Book Stock Watch: Google Gains GC 6/5/09

Textnovel Lets Writers Publish Via Cellphone PW 6/5/09

Dave Eggers Sends Soothing Mass Email GC 6/5/09

Worldwide Seizures of Pirated Books GC 6/5/09

OUP Dictionary Team Dissects Twitter GC 6/5/09

How to Build a Literary iPhone App GC 6/3/09

eNews: Indigo to Launch Their Own Device PL 6/3/09

100 Strangers Co-Write and Publish Book GC 6/2/09

How 25 Million Chinese Readers Read Online GC 6/2/09

Showtime Network Develops Digital Tie-In for Amazon Kindle GC 6/2/09

Blogging Evangelist on the Future of Publishing GC 6/2/09

RAND Lowers e-Book Prices PW 6/2/09

Amazon’s Kindle DX Available June 10 PW 6/2/09

HMH Creates Digital Team PL 6/2/09

Google to Sell Digital Books GC 6/1/09

I am so excited about ebooks!

Ever play the game Don't Tip the Waiter or Don't Spill the Beans? Each player adds another piece in turn until the waiter or the bean pot finally reaches a tipping point and all the pieces come raining down. It feels to me like that is the game we are playing with ebooks and this week another big bean got dropped on the waiter's plate when Google announced plans to sell ebooks. This is some of the most exciting news I've heard all year, and another tipping point toward ebooks becoming a larger part of mainstream culture.

As a related aside: Last weekend at the playground with my girls, I saw a mom sitting comfortably under a shade tree in a lawn chair reading with a Kindle. We talked for a minute and I learned she's an avid reader who never thought about buying a Kindle but received it as a gift from her husband and loves it.

Great Video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2a8TRSgzZY

Makes me want to apologize to all my vendor friends, especially the free lance independents. Especially because free lance independent is the future economy for most work (including yours and mine).

Last 150 Days in eBooks

I am enjoying real-time online BookExpo updates and following Tweets (#BEA09, #BEA2009) from people attending the talks I wish I was attending this year, including the talk on piracy by Tim O'Reilly and Neelan Choksi's presentation at Random House yesterday. This is the first year in a long time that I've missed BookExpo (maybe one other in 15 years). Even in the down years I drew a lot of energy and ideas from being among my industry colleagues. Alas, this is my first year to follow on Twitter.

Ten new trade stories added to Headlines in Digital Publishing:

Stanza COO Neelan Choksi on the Last 150 Days in E-Books GC 5/28/09

Baker & Taylor, Donnelley in Print-on-Demand Pact PW 5/28/09

Ingram Survey Finds Half of Respondents Will Use E-Catalogues PW 5/28/09

Piracy Study Results Released GC 5/28/09

Comparing Apples and Kindles GC 5/27/09

Ingram Adds Ingram Digital to Newly Formed Ingram Content Group PW 5/26/09

B&T, OverDrive Ink Digital Distribution Deal PW 5/26/09

FiledBy Expands Online Author Directory PW 5/26/09

Audible Launches BlackBerry E-Book Application GC 5/26/09

New Yorker Cover Drawn on iPhone (Gizmodo) MediaBistro 5/26/09

Interesting tech articles in BusinessWeek

The average Facebook user with 500 friends actively follows the news on only 40 (8%) of them, communicates with 20 (4%), and keeps in close touch with about 10 (2%). Those with smaller networks follow even fewer," according to the June 1, 2009 BusinessWeek cover story, What's a Friend Worth?

Do those stats hold true for you? My monitor rate is much higher, I'd guess closer to 20% of my FB friends' updates I follow, but the communication and keeping in close touch rate is about right for me.

Another fascinating dynamic for managing corporate communications in the Web 2.0 world: Managing the Tweets: Companies are scrambling to silence errant messages while exploiting social networks.

Pandora: Unleashing Mobile Phone Ads

AT&T and Verizon Wireless Bet on Netbooks

Seven new stories at "Headlines in Digital Publishing"

Seven new stories added today at "Headlines in Digital Publishing"

eMusic Adds Audiobooks from Recorded Books and HighBridge 5/22/09 PW

Hachette's Bestselling Promotional iPhone App 5/21/09 GC

U of Mich Signs Expanded Agreement With Google 5/21/09 PW

Viz Media Launches IKKI, New Online Magazine Venture 5/21/09 PW

Amazon Upgrades its Kindle for Iphone App 5/20/09 PW

HarperOne's Little Black Book Now Online 5/20/09 PW

Lit Bloggers Debate Kindle Blog Program 5/20/09 GC

560,626 new titles published in 2008, up 38%

Take just a minute to comprehend that statement. Over half a million new books published just last year by more than 75,000 publishers. That is more than 1500 new books released every day, or 64 books every hour, 24 hours a day. I remember being outraged that the number was approaching 300,000 three years ago. Is it any wonder there's so much discussion about the "long tail" in the publishing business? Yet, the big news for the day is not the volume of titles being produced. It is that for the first time ever on-demand publishing output exceeded that of traditional publishing.

Publishers Lunch: "On Demand Books Overtake Traditional Titles for the First Time"

Publishers Weekly: "Number of On-demand Titles Topped Traditional Books in 2008"

Galley Cat: "On Demand" Books Up 132 Percent"

Bowker press release: "Bowker Reports U.S. Book Production Declines 3% in 2008, but 'On Demand' Publishing More Than Doubles: Traditional Publishing Faces Pivotal Year of Retrenching, While Emergence of New Technologies Leads to Soaring Growth in Short-Run Book Publishing"

Without a doubt, we are going to see the number of titles produced by traditional publishers shrink significantly in 2009, and on-demand and self-published titles grow significantly--again.

Good.

All of this is further evidence that the book is not dead, just changed. What we read, how we read, where we read, when we read are all changing and becoming more digital and convenient in nature. Our culture is placing increased value on user-generated content and technology provides the means to publish instantly (heck, I just published this essay), as well as the ability to take content to print and sell it on demand. I don't believe these shifts and changes eliminate the need for books. I believe it increases a print book's value.

Publisher content needs to be higher quality than user-generated content, and physical product needs to have impeccable production quality. I've quoted Clay Shirky before in a post similar to this one because I think he hits the nail on the head about the value a publishing house must bring to the development of content: "A book isn't just a collection of 80,000 words on paper. A blogger can build that up in a few months. A book is a collection of words that have been obsessed over by people other than the writer. That's what a publisher does, and that process helps a book become a focal point for a conversation or an argument."

More Digital Publishing News

Seven stories added today at "Headlines in Digital Publishing"

On Demand Books Overtake Traditional Titles for the First Time 5/19/09 PL

Mobifusion, Encyclopaedia Britannica Release iPhone Apps 5/19/09 PW

Hyperion to Unveil Kernl 5/19/09 PW

PublicAffairs Founder Defends E-Book Bundling 5/19/09 GC

Literary Blogs on Kindle 5/19/09 GC

Scribd Launches Online Store 5/18/09 PW

OverDrive in Deal with ChineseAll 5/18/09 PW

Headlines in Digital Publishing

Last October I declared Oprah naming the Kindle her favorite gadget as a tipping point for ebooks reaching into mainstream popular culture. Electronic publishing initiatives have been in the news almost every day since. I started collecting the headlines and thankfully Publishers Weekly keeps an active backlog of their daily stories. I wish I could say the same for GalleyCat (which only goes back a couple weeks), Publishers Lunch (which requires a subscription to see more than a handful of stories), or ECPA's Rush to Press (which only show's the current week's headlines). Set against the backdrop of the recession's impact on the publishing industry (those were some dark days in December), the emphasis on digital publishing seems especially poignant. Separately, I also collected the recession stories.


IndieBound Updates Literary iPhone App GC 7/23/09
Amazon.com, Inc. to Acquire Zappos GC 7/23/09
Is This the Bookstore of Tomorrow? GC 7/23/09
USA Today Bestseller List Includes Kindle Sales Data PL 7/23/09
Vonnegut Stories to Be Sold Individually As e-Exclusives Before Print Edition PL 7/23/09
Digital Book Buyer's e-Morse: WSJ On the Limited Rights Readers Get PL 7/23/09
Plastic Logic Strikes AT&T 3G Deal GC 7/22/09
B&N Tops Amazon in App Store GC 7/22/09
BookSurge to Sell 400,000 U of M Library Titles GC 7/22/09
University of Michigan Expands Print on Demand Effort with Amazon's BookSurge PW 7/22/09
IndieBound Updates iPhone App PW 7/22/09
Barnes & Noble Launches e-Book Store PW 7/21/09
Copyright Industries Warn Against Piracy Threat PW 7/21/09
It's Ready: Barnes & Noble Launches eBookstore, Partners with Plastic Logic PL 7/21/09
Class Action Specialists Want to Sue Amazon Over Orwell Removals; Plastic Logic "Fully Funded" PL 7/21/09
Barnes & Noble Launches Vast E-Book Store GC 7/20/09
University Presses Stepping Up e-Book Efforts PW 7/20/09
Industry Begins Debate Over Removal of Kindle Titles PW 7/20/09
Google Book Settlement Webinar Set for July 29 PW 7/20/09
Amazon.com, Inc. and "1984" GC 7/20/09
What We Talk About When We Talk About Amazon PL 7/20/09
Maker of Readius Folding eReader Polymer Vision Is Liquidated PL 7/20/09
Harry Potter and the iPhone Apps GC 7/17/09
Journalists Debate E-Book Pricing GC 7/17/09
Harvard UP to Sell 1,000 Books on Scribd GC 7/17/09
Harvard University Press Selling 1,000 Books on Scribd PL 7/17/09
On-Demand Flash Fiction GC 7/16/09
E-Readers Featured in App Awards GC 7/16/09
Slate Critic Calls for Lower E-Book Prices GC 7/16/09
Sourcebooks CEO Dominique Raccah on Delaying Ebook Releases PL 7/16/09
Amazon Offers Free Replacement for Cracked Kindles PL 7/16/09
Closing In on UK-indle? PL 7/16/09
Dems Want to Give Students 400k Kindles PL 7/16/09
WSJ Survey Student Doubts on eTextbooks PL 7/16/09
Morgan James Selling E-Books on Scribd PW 7/15/09
Amazon.com, Inc. Sued by Kindle Customers GC 7/15/09
Kindle Owner Files Suit Against Amazon Saying Cover Cracks Kindles; Seeks Class Action Status PL 7/15/09
Taiwan Companies Pair for eBook Launch PL 7/15/09
Library of Congress Explores New Rules for Depost of Electronic Works PL 7/15/09
The NYT Follows On eBook Release Timing PL 7/15/09
Taiwan Vendors Appear to Confirm Orders from Apple for October Tablet/Netbook PL 7/15/09 Robert Olen Butler Tweets as The Devil for His New Book 'Hell' PL 7/15/09
Content Explosion: FastPencil.com Joins Online Self-Publishing Crowd PL 7/15/09
Pan Macmillan's View: DRM Is Not Evil PL 7/15/09
It Was the Best of Tweets, It Was the Worst of Tweets GC 7/14/09
Sourcebooks Bucks $9.99 E-Book Price Point GC 7/14/09
Author Is Tweeting His Entire Novel PL 7/14/09
Blackwell, Ingram Ink Pact to Supply e-Books PW 7/14/09
Chinese Show Off Kindle-like e-Reader PW 7/14/09
Stanza Reader Turns One-Year-Old GC 7/13/09
Book Deal for Self-Published Kindle Author GC 7/13/09
Spain's Three Biggest Publishers Form eBook Distribution Company PL 7/13/09
Sourcebooks to Delay Release of eBook Version of Hot New YA Novel PL 7/13/09
Free-For-All: Anderson, "Free" Book, Sparks a Backlash Online and Among Battered Media Industry PW 7/10/09
Sourcebooks Experimenting with DRM-Free e-Books PW 7/10/09
Google Renegotiates Terms with Two More Libraries PL 7/10/09
Pixel Qi Introduces LCD-Based Color/Video Screens for E-Readers PL 7/10/09
Richard Nash on Kindle, Twitter, and E-Books GC 7/10/09
Sourcebooks Sells Digital Titles on Smashwords GC 7/10/09
QR Codes and Publishing GC 7/9/09
Amazon Drops Kindle 2 Price GC 7/9/09
Sourcebooks Tests DRM-Free eBooks with Smashwords 7/9/09
SharedBook Demos On-Demand Customized Book via Espresso at ALA 7/9/09
Amazon Drops Kindle Price to $299 PL 7/9/09
Sony Reader Promises Mac Compatibility By "the end of Summer 2009" PL 7/8/09
Enhanced Editions: A New iPhone Reader PL 7/8/09
Barnes & Noble Tops Amazon in App Store Books Category PW 7/7/09
Ditto Book Digital Reading Device Hits the Market PW 7/7/09
New Hachettte Program Gives Complete Access to Titles PW 7/7/09
Amazon Applies for E-Book Ad Patent GC 7/6/09
What's Apple Building in There? GC 7/2/09
Random Houses Teams with BookGlutton for Promotion PW 7/1/09
Using Social Media to Create Product Evangelists ECPA 7/1/09
Barnes & Noble Follows Amazon's E-Book Pricing Model GC 7/1/09
ScrollMotion Publishes Digital Stephenie Meyer Titles in U.K. GC 6/30/09
Barnes & Noble.com Launches Bookstore iPhone App PW 6/29/09
B&N Faces Amazon in App Store GC 6/29/09
Wattpad Launches Google Android Application GC 6/29/09
Read Your "Texts From Last Night" in a Book GC 6/29/06
Allen Letter Urges Industry to Support Google Deal PW 6/26/09
Alexander Street and Arcadia Publishing Launch Online Local History Collection PW 6/26/09
Quartet Press Launches PL 6/26/09
Transformers Rule iPhone Paid Book Apps GC 6/26/09
Quartet Press Seeks Its First Submissions GC 6/26/09
Espresso Book Machine Coming to McNally Jackson This Fall PL 6/26/09
Barnes & Noble Appoints New Digital Executive PW 6/24/09
Zinio Launches "Digital Bookstore" Section PL 6/24/09
O'Reilly Media Heads to Frankfurt Book Fair GC 6/23/09
Video: Book Talk at #140Conf GC 6/23/09
ScrollMotion Seals LibreDigital iPhone Content Deal GC 6/23/09
ScrollMotion in Deal with LibreDigital PW 6/23/09
LibreDigital Delivers 100k Titles for ScrollMotion's App PL 6/22/09
Stephen King Text Message Promo May Be Horror Story for S&S PW 6/22/09
Springer Lets Library Patrons Buy Paperback Versions of E-books PW 6/22/09
Hippocrene Launches Arabic Dictionary iPhone App PW 6/22/09
Kindle DX: Looks Good, Works Fine, Costs Too Much PW 6/22/09
Book Deal for College Kids' "Twitterature" GC 6/22/09
University Presses Cope with Digital Students GC 6/22/09
New Features on Google Book Search PW 6/19/09
140 Character Confab: Listening To and Learning About Twitter PW 6/19/09
Pearson Answers Schwarzenegger’s Call for E-Textbooks PW 6/19/09
Penguin Group Launches Multimedia Site GC 6/19/09
Amazon.com, Inc. May End Affiliate Program in North Carolina GC 6/19/09
Pearson Promises California Schools Digital Content GC 6/19/09
Hachette Signs with Attributor to Fight Online Piracy PW 6/18/09
Ingram Content Group Gets New Structure PW 6/18/09
Tor Launches Online Bookstore PW 6/18/09
Simon & Schuster Launches Teen Networking Site PW 6/18/09
Audibooks App Nabs Top Spot in Apple App Store GC 6/18/09
Macmillan Digital in the House at #140Conf GC 6/18/09
http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/web_tech/publishing_perspectives_twitter_boot_camp_119256.asp GC 6/18/09
Penguin Launches Online Network PW 6/17/09
Google Mapping the Bible GC 6/17/09
Tor Launches Publisher Agnostic Online Store GC 6/17/09
McGraw-Hill Education Announces Digital Initiative PW 6/16/09
Amazon CEO Knocks Google Books Settlement GC 6/16/09
How to Write a Fictional Twitter Feed GC 6/15/09
Cliffs Notes on Your Telephone GC 6/15/09
Simon & Schuster in Deal with Scribd to Sell e-Books PW 6/12/09
A Tweet Treat? PW 6/12/09
Simon & Schuster to Sell Books on Scribd GC 6/12/09
HC Children's Does Mobile Promotion for Lauren Conrad Novel PW 6/11/09
Author Reveals Personal Kindle Sales GC 6/11/09
Shortcovers Builds Digital Reader for Palm Pre GC 6/11/09
Twitter Boot Camp Discount GC 6/11/09
Susan Orlean's Tempest in the Twitter Teapot GC 6/11/09
Dzanc Books Launches [Online] Literary Journal GC 6/10/09
Bret Easton Ellis' Twitter Review Career GC 6/10/09
Swiss Army Knife of Dictionaries GC 6/10/09
Conan the Digitalist GC 6/10/09
COOL-ER eBook Reader: the Future of Book Publishing? GC 6/10/09
ScrollMotion Bringing One Million Books to iPhone GC 6/10/09
$99 iPhone Rocks E-Book World GC 6/9/09
The New Gatekeepers GC 6/9/09
Book Stock Watch: Google Gains GC 6/5/09
Textnovel Lets Writers Publish Via Cellphone PW 6/5/09
Dave Eggers Sends Soothing Mass Email GC 6/5/09
Worldwide Seizures of Pirated Books GC 6/5/09
OUP Dictionary Team Dissects Twitter GC 6/5/09
How to Build a Literary iPhone App GC 6/3/09
eNews: Indigo to Launch Their Own Device PL 6/3/09
100 Strangers Co-Write and Publish Book GC 6/2/09
How 25 Million Chinese Readers Read Online GC 6/2/09
Showtime Network Develops Digital Tie-In for Amazon Kindle GC 6/2/09
Blogging Evangelist on the Future of Publishing GC 6/2/09
RAND Lowers e-Book Prices PW 6/2/09
Amazon’s Kindle DX Available June 10 PW 6/2/09
HMH Creates Digital Team PL 6/2/09
Google to Sell Digital Books GC 6/1/09
Amazon.com, Inc. Rumors GC 5/29/09
Tina Brown Bashes $9.99 Digital Books GC 5/29/09
GalleyCat Exclusive: $199 EBook Reader GC 5/29/09
How to Catch a Book Pirate GC 5/29/09
BookExpo America 2009: HarperCollins Featuring e-Galleys at BEA PW 5/29/09
Baker & Taylor, Donnelley in Print-on-Demand Pact PW 5/28/09
Ingram Survey Finds Half of Respondents Will Use E-Catalogues PW 5/28/09
Piracy Study Results Released GC 5/28/09
Stanza COO Neelan Choksi on the Last 150 Days in E-Books GC 5/28/09
Comparing Apples and Kindles GC 5/27/09
Ingram Adds Ingram Digital to Newly Formed Ingram Content Group PW 5/26/09
B&T, OverDrive Ink Digital Distribution Deal PW 5/26/09
FiledBy Expands Online Author Directory PW 5/26/09
Audible Launches BlackBerry E-Book Application GC 5/26/09
New Yorker Cover Drawn on iPhone (Gizmodo) MediaBistro 5/26/09
eMusic Adds Audiobooks from Recorded Books and HighBridge 5/22/09 PW
Hachette's Bestselling Promotional iPhone App 5/21/09 GC
U of Mich Signs Expanded Agreement With Google 5/21/09 PW
Viz Media Launches IKKI, New Online Magazine Venture 5/21/09 PW
Amazon Upgrades its Kindle for Iphone App 5/20/09 PW
HarperOne's Little Black Book Now Online 5/20/09 PW
Lit Bloggers Debate Kindle Blog Program 5/20/09 GC
On Demand Books Overtake Traditional Titles for the First Time 5/19/09 PL
Mobifusion, Encyclopaedia Britannica Release iPhone Apps 5/19/09 PW
Hyperion to Unveil Kernl 5/19/09 PW
Scribd Launches Online Store 5/18/09 PW
OverDrive in Deal with ChineseAll 5/18/09 PW
BEA Blogger Signing Schedule 5/17/09 GC
Amazon Opens Kindle to Bloggers 5/14/09 GC
Romance, DRM and the Future of Reading at Digital Book 2009 5/13/09 PW
Amazon and indieBound Top iPhone App Store 5/11/09 GC
The Expensive Art of Digitization 5/11/09 GC
Webcomics, Storytelling and Books from 'Smith' Online Magazine 5/11/09 PW
Amazon Optimizes Kindle Store for Safari on iPhones 5/11/09 PW
Mobifusion Releases New Cellphone Content Viewer 5/11/09 PW
Book Stock Watch: Amazon Unveils Kindle DX 5/8/09 GC
Sterling's Leaver Down on Trade Shows, High on Digital Catalogues 5/7/09 PW
Alloy to Adapt "Private" for Web TV Series 5/7/09 PW
Amazon Launches Kindle DX 5/6/09 PW
IDW Hires Webber to Oversee E-publishing 5/4/09 PW
Michelin Unveils iPhone Apps for New York, San Francisco and More European Cities 5/4/09 PW
Amazon Press Conference Set Amid Rumors of Bigger Screen Kindle 5/4/09 PW
L.A. Times Panel Debates Gatekeepers, Supply Chain and e-Books 4/30/09 PW
SharedBook Partners with Nelson 4/29/09 PW
Google Deadline Delayed Four Months as Steinbeck Motion Granted 4/28/09 PW
Delay Looming for Google Settlement Deadline? 4/27/09 PW
Amazon Acquires Stanza iPhone e-Book App 4/27/09 PW
More Than 100,000 Users in 160 Countries Try Shortcovers 4/27/09 PW
Barnes & Noble Launches Audiobook Store 4/27/09 PW
Judge Rejects Internet Archive Motion to Intervene in Google Settlement 4/24/09 PW
Amazon Sales Jump, Though Media Growth Slower 4/23/09 PW
Scholastic Web Game Show to Test Kids’ Knowledge 4/23/09 PW
Gompertz Named to New Digital Role at Simon & Schuster 4/22/09 PW
In U.K., Sony E-Reader Says Bring It On, Kindle 4/21/09 PW
British Publishers Try to Find the Money in E-books 4/21/09 PW
Big Rollout for DNL Laptop-format e-Books 4/21/09 PW
Using SKYPE, Wiley Holds Virtual Bookstore Talk 4/21/09 PW
S&S, GoSpoken to Offer E-titles for Mobile Phones 4/17/09 PW
Internet Archive Latest to Object to Google Settlement 4/17/09 PW
Lightning Source Launches Espresso Book Machine Pilot 4/16/09 PW
Children’s Book Week Goes Digital 4/16/09 PW
Lulu.com Launches Lulu Poetry, Introduces Contest 4/14/09 PW
Baker & Taylor Signs with LibreDigital for E-Books, Starts Digital Media Services Group 4/10/09 PW
Digital Recipe Reader Demy Hits the Market 4/10/09 PW
Twittergirls: Laurie Halse Anderson on Tour 4/9/09 PW
Amazon Launches App for Blackberry 4/8/09 PW
Disabled Group Protests Removal of Kindle's Text-to-Speech 4/7/09 PW
Consumer Group Protests Google Settlement 4/6/09 PW
Houghton Rolls Out Curious George App 4/6/09 PW
Yen Press Launches Toxic Planet Comic Online 4/6/09 PW
B&N Gives Booksellers Blogs 4/6/09 PW
Fujitsu Launches Color e-Book Reader in Japan 3/26/09 PW
Kiyosaki Site Drawing Lots of Interest to Free Book 3/26/09 PW
Chronicle Finds a Hit Online 3/26/09 PW
New Site Hosts 1.8 Million Author Web Pages 3/25/09 PW
Fictionwise Launches Free eReader E-book App for Blackberry 3/24/09 PW
Workman Gives Away Kindles, Lands Book in Amazon's Top Spot 3/24/09 PW
University of Michigan Switching to Digital Format for Scholarly Monographs 3/24/09 PW
HC Goes Digital With Catalogues 3/23/09 PW
B&N Digital Initiatives Coming, Riggio Promises 3/19/09 PW
Sony Partners with Google for More e-Books 3/19/09 PW
Scribd Signs Deals with Major Houses 3/18/09 PW
Bringing Comics to the Amazon Kindle 3/16/09 PW
ABPA’s Book Building 2.0 Seminar Addresses E-Books, iPhones and More 3/11/09 PW
Drummond Talks Google Settlement at AAP Meeting 3/10/09 PW
Stanza Has 'Read an eBook Week' Freebies; Hunted Pubs in Print, on iPhone 3/10/09 PW
The Kindle for iPhone: Good App with Flaws 3/9/09 PW
Amazon.com Stock Gets Upgrade 3/9/09 PW
B&N Buys Fictionwise; Will Start e-Bookstore 3/5/09 PW Note: Same day Borders cuts 742 jobs.
A Million Kindles by Thanksgiving? 3/4/09 PW
ScrollMotion Offers Graphical ‘Daniel X’ for iPhone 3/4/09 PW
Amazon Joins the iPhone App Market 3/3/09 PW
F+W Offering Free e-Books 3/3/09 PW
Nelson Makes Books Available in All Formats for One Price 3/3/09 PW
Amazon Reverses Stance on Text-to-Speech Feature 3/2/09 PW
Simon & Schuster Launches Crossword iPhone App 2/23/09 PW
Walden Media Moves into Future 2/19/09 PW
Read Will Eisner On Your iPhone 2/17/09 PW
Lexcycle, Plastic Logic, iRex and Others to Integrate New Adobe eBook Technology 2/16/09 PW
Authors Guild and Amazon Disagree Over Kindle's Text-to-Speech Software 2/12/09 PW
TOC: The Digital Future Is Confusing and Inspirational 2/12/09 PW
TOC Conference: Using Social Media to Build Book Audiences 2/11/09 PW
ReadHowYouWant Has Big Ambitions 2/11/09 PW
Plastic Logic Annouces Partnerships for Forthcoming eReader 2/10/09 PW
Kindle2 to Launch February 24 2/9/09 PW
Google Optimizes Book Search for iPhone, Android 2/6/09 PW
Tor.com Offers New Sci-fi and Fantasy Webcomics 2/2/09 PW
HarperCollins’s New Format: Video Books 2/3/09 PW
ReadHowYouWant Launches Online Braille Store 1/30/09 PW
Amazon Has Big Year, Though Media Growth Slowed 1/29/09 PW
Robert Kiyosaki, Business Plus Team-Up for Free, Online Book 1/29/09 PW
Tantor Distributing Playaway 1/28/09 PW
New Kindle Coming? 1/27/09 PW
Amazon To Drop Microsoft, Adobe e-Book Formats 1/26/09 PW
Perseus Partners with Incelligence to Create Mobile Phone Editions 1/21/09 PW
BookSwim.com Partners with BookRenter.com for Textbook Rentals 1/21/09 PW
Wiley Signs with YBP Library Services for Online Book Distribution 1/21/09 PW
iPhone Recipe Apps Surge 1/20/09 PW
Avalon Travel and For Dummies Launch New Web Sites 1/16/09 PW
Simon & Schuster Launches New Web Site 1/14/09 PW
Hachette's Young Touts Benefits of XML 1/13/09 PW
A Cautionary e-Book Tale 1/13/09 PW
Dorchester Signs with LibreDigital for e-Book Distribution 1/12/09 PW
New B&N.com President 1/9/09 PW
OverDrive Digital "Checkouts" Jumped 76% in 2008 1/6/09 PW
Orbit Offers Dollar E-Books 1/5/09 PW
Amazon Launches Author Stores 12/30/08 PW
Melville House Doing "Live Book" on Goose Island 12/11/08 PW
BISG Unveils BookDROP Standard for Digital Book Repositories 12/10/08 PW
uclick Hopes to Roll Out Hundreds of Comics for iPhone 12/9/08 PW
John Wiley and Directory M Enter Internet Content Syndication Partnership 12/9/08 PW
Penguin Launches Penguin 2.0, iPhone App; Stanza Deal with Random House 12/8/08 PW
Joint Venture Takes Control of NetGalley 12/8/08 PW
Fictionwise Partners with Stanza on iPhone 12/4/08 PW
New E-Book Publisher Launches 12/2/08 PW
Amazon Complete AbeBooks Buy 12/2/08 PW
NBN to Offer Digital Services 12/1/08 PW
Pan Macmillan Signs with Lexcycle’s Stanza 11/25/08 PW
Random House Expands E-book Offerings 11/24/08 PW
Tyndale Signs with Global Reader 11/18/09 PW
Google Settlement Gets Initial Approval 11/18/09 PW
Borders.com Goes Live with Google Preview 11/12/08 PW
U.K. Booksellers Say Google Deal Creates Monopoly 11/12/08 PW
SharedBook Teams with Tattered Cover and Capitol Books 11/10/08 PW
DailyLit Launches Book Samplers 11/6/08 PW
Authors, Publishers, Google Embrace Settlement 10/28/08 PW
Google Settles with AAP, Authors Guild 10/28/08 PW
B&N Launches Social Networking Site 10/27/08 PW
Kindle is Oprah’s New “Favorite Gadget” 10/24/08 PW

Bad News in the Book Biz

Perhaps it seems a bit morbid or sadistic, but I've collected stories about these dark days in the book business to show the stark contrast in electronic publishing--the one industry growth area.

CBA Survey Finds Down Market 5/20/09 PW
Writing the Future Depression 5/20/09 GC
Books Flat at Hastings 5/18/09 PW
Quebecor Has Loss, Moves Ahead with Reorg 5/18/09 PW
Bookstore Sales Dipped 4.2 Percent in Q1 of 2009 5/14/09 GC
CBA Industry Report Reveals Volatile 2008 for Christian Stores 5/14/09 ECPA
Donnelley Makes Offer for Quebecor 5/13/09 PW
Bookstore Sales Down 1.3% in March; Off 4.2% for Quarter 5/13/09 PW
First Quarter Loss at Bertelsmann 5/12/09 PW
Episcopal Publisher Halts Trade Acquisitions 5/12/09 PW
Making Information Pay Conference Charts Changes Brought by Recession 5/8/09 PW
Revenue Dips Nearly 20 Percent at Simon & Schuster 5/8/09 GC
Budget Cuts Threaten LSU Press 5/8/09 GC
Simon & Schuster Has Rough First Quarter 5/7/09 PW
Charges Result in $38 Million Loss at HarperCollins 5/6/09 PW
Marvel Publishing Dips in Quarter; Expects Better Second Half 5/5/09 PW
First-Quarter Slip for Quarto 4/29/09 PW
Source Interlink Files Pre-Packaged Bankruptcy 4/28/09 PW
Plug Pulled on Christian Consumer Book Show 4/28/09 PW
Sales Fall at McGraw-Hill Education, but Loss Cut 4/28/09 PW
New Report Sees Dip in 2009 Book Sales 4/27/09 PW
Aperture Cuts Staff, Publishing List 4/24/09 PW
Borders to Overhaul Board, Enhance Book Clubs 4/16/09 PW
Results Down at Courier, Expects Better over the Next Six Months 4/15/09 PW
February Bookstore Sales Plunge 4/14/09 PW
Quebecor Reaches Agreement with Creditors 4/9/09 PW
NavPress Cuts Nine Positions 4/7/09 PW
Amid Changes, Globe Pequot Reducing BEA Presence 4/3/09 PW
Despite Big Loss, Marshall Confident of Borders's Future 3/31/09 PW
Babylon Falling Closing 3/31/09 PW
U of New Mexico Press Downsizes 3/31/09 PW
Book Sales Off 2.8% in 2008, AAP Says 3/31/09 PW
Pershing Extends Borders 3/31/09 PW
Recession Impacts BEA’s Black Professionals Confab 3/31/09 PW
Kensington to Sit Out Smaller BookExpo America 3/30/09 PW
Quebecor Cuts Loss in 2008 3/30/09 PW
Schoenwald Up, Heim Out at Nelson 3/27/09 PW
Books Etc. Closing Old Port Outlet 3/26/09 PW
Pay Freeze for Barnes & Noble Execs 3/24/09 PW
Random Has Down Year; Sees More Challenges 3/23/09 PW
Books-A-Million Results Fall 3/19/09 PW
B&N Confirms Down Year; Bleak Sales Forecast 3/19/09 PW
Baker & Taylor Moving California Warehouse to Indianapolis 3/17/09 PW
Community Acts to Save Shaman Drum 3/17/09 PW
Borders Sets Annual Meeting; Considers Reverse Stock Split 3/12/09 PW
Bookstore Sales Flat in January 3/12/09 PW
Anderson Sues Magazine Publishers & Wholesalers 3/11/09 PW
Currency Issues, U.S. Economy Result in Down Quarter at Wiley 3/9/09 PW
Anderson's Debt May Top $200 Million 3/6/09 PW
Borders Cuts 742 Store Positions 3/5/09 PW
Anderson’s Troubles Mount 3/4/09 PW
HCI Eliminates 35 Positions 3/3/09 PW
Random House Acquires Ten Speed Press 3/2/09 PW
Book Results Flat at Donnelley 3/2/09 PW
Borders Cuts Corporate Workforce 12% 2/19/09 PW
Simon & Schuster Reports 3% Decline in 2008 2/19/09 PW
Anderson Lays Off Employees; Source Sues 2/18/09 PW
Turner Publishing Buys Cumberland Titles 2/13/09 PW
Borders Gets Another Extension 2/13/09 PW
ABA to Reduce Staff, Institutes Salary Freeze 2/13/09 PW
December Store Sales Down; Year Off 0.5% 2/12/09 PW
HarperCollins Closes Bowen Press 2/12/09 PW
S&P Gets More Negative on HMH Parent 2/11/09 PW
HC Closes Bowen Press, Downsizes Rayo; Makes U.K. Cuts 2/10/09 PW
Harper Closing Collins; Other Layoffs Planned 2/10/09 PW
Anderson News Suspends “Normal Business Activity” 2/9/09 PW
Another Bad Quarter at HarperCollins 2/5/09 PW
Rodale Trims Four in Book Group 2/5/09 PW
Armstrong, Harwood Among Those Leaving in Borders Consolidation 2/3/09 PW
Reed Drops Canadian Publishing Events 2/2/09 PW
Simon & Schuster Unites Marketing 2/2/09 PW
Borders Execs Hit New York 2/2/09 PW
Reader’s Digest Cuts 280 Positions 1/29/09 PW
Random Out of BEC Consumer Show 1/29/09 PW
Harper Offers Voluntary Retirement 1/27/09 PW
Weak School Sales Drop Results at McGraw-Hill Education 1/27/09 PW
Amid Changes, Kenney to Lead 'PW' 1/26/09 PW Note: Sara Nelson out. Boo!
Layoffs at Diamond, DC Comics, Top Cow 1/23/09 PW
OUP Cuts 60 Positions 1/21/09 PW
Random Revamps Adult Sales 1/21/09 PW
BookStream to Flow No More 1/19/09 PW
Schwartz Bookshops to Close; Two Will Have New Owners 1/19/09 PW
The NeverEnding Story Reaches an End 1/16/09 PW
O’Reilly Media Eliminates 30 Jobs 1/16/09 PW
Random House Publishing Group Restructured 1/15/09 PW
B&N Cuts 4% at Corporate HQ 1/14/09 PW
Publishing Sales Sink at Courier; Closes Print Plant 1/14/09 PW
Crown Restructuring Completed 1/14/09 PW
November Bookstore Sales Plunge 1/14/09 PW
Knopf Doubleday Reorg Done 1/14/09 PW
Borders Names McGuire Head of the Board 1/13/09 PW
Books-A-Million Has Small Decline 1/9/09 PW
Small Press Sues Borders, B&T Over Returns 1/9/09 PW
B&N Holiday Sales Drop at Stores, Online 1/6/09 PW
More Cuts at McGraw-Hill Education 1/7/09 PW
Kaplan Buys Cleveland Clinic Press Assets 1/5/09 PW
As Sales Fall, Borders Gets New Leadership 1/5/09 PW
Borders Gets More Time 12/23/08 PW
Dohle Urges Random to Rethink, Reformulate Ways of Doing Business 12/18/08 PW
One-Time Charges, Currency Fluctuations Dent Scholastic Results 12/18/08 PW
Macmillan Scales Back BEA Presence 12/16/08 PW
Macmillan Eliminates 64 Positions; Forms Children’s Group 12/15/08 PW
Sourcebooks Buys Cumberland House 12/15/08 PW
October Bookstore Sales Dropped 5.6% 12/12/08 PW
Unit Sales Fall in Early December 12/11/08 PW
Perseus Suspends Raises 12/10/08 PW
Belt-Tightening in Canada 12/10/08 PW
Chronicle Books Makes Cuts 12/10/08 PW
Ten Speed Press Sale Close 12/10/08 PW
Pay Freeze at Macmillan 12/10/08 PW
Penguin Freezes Raises for Those Above $50,000 12/4/08 PW
HMH Lays Off More Staff 12/4/08 PW
Random Waits for Pending Integration 12/4/08 PW
S&S Cuts 35 Jobs 12/3/08 PW
Richter, Pfeffer to Leave S&S Kids 12/3/08 PW
Rubin, Irwyn Applebaum Step Down in RH Reorg 12/3/08 PW
Thomas Nelson Cuts 54 Positions 12/3/08 PW
Becky Saletan Quits HMH 12/2/08 PW
Borders Results Decline; Company Sale Off 11/25/08 PW
Broccoli Books Folds; Publishers Struggle in Tough Economy 11/25/08 PW
Levy Cancels 2009 Sales Conference 11/25/08 PW
HMH Places "Temporary" Halt on Acquisitions 11/24/08 PW
BAM Comps Drop Nearly 10% 11/24/08 PW
Random House Walks from BEC 2009 11/21/08 PW
Broccoli Books to Shut Down 11/21/08 PW
B&N Sales Sink; Sees Gloomy Holiday 11/21/08 PW
Layoffs at B&T 11/19/09 PW
Linda Jones Stepping Down at Borders 11/17/08 PW
September Bookstore Sales Drop 4.5% 11/14/08 PW
BookStream Slows As It Waits for Funding 11/14/08 PW
Reidy: Worse Publishing Environment May Be On the Way 11/11/08 PW
Economic Downturn Shutters Dallas-area Indie 11/7/08 PW
Profits Tumble at HarperCollins 11/5/08 PW
With Big Exception, Trade Sales Slowed in September 11/5/08 PW
Marvel Publishing Sales Slip 11/3/08 PW
Rodale to Cut 10% of its Workforce 11/3/08 PW
B&N Prepares for Terrible Holiday 11/3/08 PW
Indigo Second Quarter Results Down 10/30/08 PW
Doubleday Cuts 16 10/28/08 PW
Results Off at McGraw-Hill Education; Slashes Forecast 10/28/08 PW

Amazon beats "MediaPad" to Market with DX

Wow. For all my recent trash talk about the Kindle, I want a DX. Sure, I still want touch screen navigation, full Web access, color, and a back lighting option, but I really, really want a DX too.

Here's today's official press release from Amazon.com.

Introducing Kindle DX--Amazon's Large Screen Addition to the Kindle Family of Wireless Reading Devices

Large Kindle DX Display and New Features Provide Enhanced Experience for Reading a Wide Range of Professional and Personal Documents

SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May. 6, 2009-- Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) today introduced Amazon Kindle DX, the new purpose-built reading device that offers Kindle’s revolutionary wireless delivery and massive selection of content with a large 9.7-inch electronic paper display, built-in PDF reader, auto-rotate capability, and storage for up to 3,500 books. More than 275,000 books are now available in the Kindle Store, including 107 of 112 current New York Times Best Sellers. New York Times Bestsellers and New Releases are $9.99 unless marked otherwise. Top U.S. and international magazines and newspapers plus more than 1,500 blogs are also available. Kindle DX is available for pre-order starting today for $489 at http://cts.businesswire.com/ct/CT?id=smartlink&url=http%3A%2F%2Famazon.com%2FkindleDX&esheet=5957674&lan=en_US&anchor=http%3A%2F%2Famazon.com%2FkindleDX&index=1and will ship this summer.

“Personal and professional documents look so good on the big Kindle DX display that you’ll find yourself changing ink-toner cartridges less often,” said Jeff Bezos, Amazon.com Founder and CEO. “Cookbooks, computer books, and textbooks – anything highly formatted – also shine on the Kindle DX. Carry all your documents and your whole library in one slender package.”

New Large Display
Kindle DX’s display has 2.5 times the surface area of Kindle’s 6-inch display. The larger electronic paper display with 16 shades of gray has more area for graphic-rich content such as professional and personal documents, newspapers and magazines, and textbooks. Kindle reads like printed words on paper because the screen works using real ink and doesn’t use a backlight, eliminating the eyestrain and glare associated with other electronic displays.

The New York Times Company and Washington Post Company are launching pilots with Kindle DX this summer. The New York Times , The Boston Globe , and The Washington Post will offer the Kindle DX at a reduced price to readers who live in areas where home-delivery is not available and who sign up for a long-term subscription to the Kindle edition of the newspapers.

“At The New York Times Company we are always seeking new ways for our millions of readers to have full and continuing access to our high-quality news and information,” said Arthur Sulzberger, Jr., chairman, The New York Times Company and publisher, The New York Times. "The wireless delivery and new value-added features of the Kindle DX will provide our large, loyal audience, no matter where they live, with an exciting new way to interact with The New York Times and The Boston Globe . Additionally, by offering a subscription through the Kindle DX to readers who live outside of our delivery areas, we will extend our reach to our loyal readers who will be able to more readily enjoy their favorite newspapers. Meanwhile, we are continuing to work with Amazon to make The New York Times and The Boston Globe experiences on Kindle better than ever."

Kindle DX’s large display offers an enhanced reading experience with another category of graphic-rich content—textbooks. With complex images, tables, charts, graphs, and equations, textbooks look best on a large display. Leading textbook publishers Cengage Learning, Pearson, and Wiley, together representing more than 60 percent of the U.S. higher education textbook market, will begin offering textbooks through the Kindle Store beginning this summer. Textbooks under the following brands will be available: Addison-Wesley, Allyn & Bacon, Benjamin Cummings, Longman & Prentice Hall (Pearson); Wadsworth, Brooks/Cole, Course Technology, Delmar, Heinle, Schirmer, South-Western (Cengage); and Wiley Higher Education.

Arizona State University, Case Western Reserve University, Princeton University, Reed College, and Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia will launch trial programs to make Kindle DX devices available to students this fall. The schools will distribute hundreds of Kindle DX devices to students spread across a broad range of academic disciplines. In addition to reading on a considerably larger screen, students will be able to take advantage of popular Kindle features such as the ability to take notes and highlight, search across their library, look up words in a built-in dictionary, and carry all of their books in a lightweight device.

“The Kindle DX holds enormous potential to influence the way students learn,” said Barbara R. Snyder, president of Case Western Reserve University. “We look forward to seeing how the device affects the participation of both students and faculty in the educational experience.”

New Built-In PDF Reader
Kindle DX features a built-in PDF reader using Adobe Reader Mobile technology for reading professional and personal documents. Like other types of documents on Kindle, customers simply email their PDF format documents to their Kindle email address or move them over using a USB connection. With a larger display and built-in PDF reader, Kindle DX customers can read professional and personal documents with more complex layouts without scrolling, panning, or zooming, and without re-flowing, which destroys the original structure of the document. Everything from annual reports with graphs to flight manuals with maps to musical scores can be viewed on a single, crisp screen with Kindle DX.

New Auto-Rotation
Kindle DX’s display content auto-rotates so users can read in portrait or landscape mode, or flip the device to read with either hand. Simply turn Kindle DX and immediately see full-width landscape views of maps, graphs, tables, images, and Web pages.

New 3.3 GB Memory Holds Up To 3,500 Books
With 3.3 GB of available memory, Kindle DX can hold up to 3,500 books, compared with 1,500 with Kindle. And because Amazon automatically backs up a copy of every Kindle book purchased, customers can wirelessly re-download titles from their library at any time.

Incredibly Thin
Kindle DX is just over a third of an inch thin, which is thinner than most magazines.

3G Wireless, No PC, No Hunting for Wi-Fi Hot Spots
Just like Kindle, Kindle DX customers automatically take advantage of Amazon Whispernet to wirelessly shop the Kindle Store, download or receive new content in less than 60 seconds, and read from their library—all without a PC, Wi-Fi hot spot, or syncing. Amazon still pays for the wireless connectivity on Kindle DX so books can be downloaded in less than 60 seconds—with no monthly fees, data plans, or service contracts.

Syncs With Kindle for iPhone and other Kindle Compatible Devices
Just like Kindle, Kindle DX uses Amazon Whispersync technology to automatically sync content across Kindle, Kindle DX, Kindle for iPhone, and other devices in the future. With Whispersync, customers can easily move from device to device and never lose their place in their reading.

Massive Selection of Books—Plus Newspapers, Magazines, and Blogs
The Kindle Store currently offers more than 275,000 books, including popular books like New York Times Bestsellers, New Releases, and fiction and nonfiction released in the past several years. Dozens of newspapers and magazines are also available for subscription or single-edition purchase. BusinessWeek and The New England Journal of Medicine are available in the Kindle Store starting today, and The Economist will be available soon. Subscriptions are auto-delivered wirelessly to Kindle overnight so that the latest edition is waiting for customers when they wake up. Over 1,500 blogs are available on Kindle and updated and downloaded wirelessly throughout the day.

Kindle DX includes all the other features Kindle customers enjoy every day, including:

- Wirelessly send, receive, and read personal documents in a variety of formats such as Microsoft Word and PDF
- Look up words instantly using the built-in 250,000 word New Oxford American Dictionary
- Choose from six text sizes
- Add bookmarks, notes, and highlights
- Text-to-speech technology that converts words on a page to spoken word
- Search Web, Wikipedia.org, Kindle Store, and your library of purchased content
- No setup required—Kindle comes ready to use—no software to load or set up Amazon Kindle is sold through Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
About Amazon.com
Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN), a Fortune 500 company based in Seattle, opened on the World Wide Web in July 1995 and today offers Earth's Biggest Selection. Amazon.com, Inc. seeks to be Earth's most customer-centric company, where customers can find and discover anything they might want to buy online, and endeavors to offer its customers the lowest possible prices. Amazon.com and other sellers offer millions of unique new, refurbished and used items in categories such as Books; Movies, Music & Games; Digital Downloads; Electronics & Computers; Home & Garden; Toys, Kids & Baby; Grocery; Apparel; Shoes & Jewelry; Health & Beauty; Sports & Outdoors; and Tools, Auto & Industrial.
Amazon Web Services provides Amazon’s developer customers with access to in-the-cloud infrastructure services based on Amazon's own back-end technology platform, which developers can use to enable virtually any type of business. Examples of the services offered by Amazon Web Services are Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2), Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3), Amazon SimpleDB, Amazon Simple Queue Service (Amazon SQS), Amazon Flexible Payments Service (Amazon FPS), Amazon Mechanical Turk and Amazon CloudFront.
Amazon and its affiliates operate websites, including www.amazon.com , www.amazon.co.uk , www.amazon.de , www.amazon.co.jp , www.amazon.fr , www.amazon.ca , and www.amazon.cn .
As used herein, “Amazon.com,” “we,” “our” and similar terms include Amazon.com, Inc., and its subsidiaries, unless the context indicates otherwise.
Forward-Looking Statements
This announcement contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Actual results may differ significantly from management's expectations. These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that include, among others, risks related to competition, management of growth, new products, services and technologies, potential fluctuations in operating results, international expansion, outcomes of legal proceedings and claims, fulfillment center optimization, seasonality, commercial agreements, acquisitions and strategic transactions, foreign exchange rates, system interruption, inventory, government regulation and taxation, payments and fraud. More information about factors that potentially could affect Amazon.com's financial results is included in Amazon.com's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and subsequent filings.
Source: Amazon.com, Inc.

Another Tipping Point for eBooks?

Earlier this week, BusinessWeek reported that Apple and Verizon are in talks for the release of a new MediaPad that is described to be about the size of an Amazon Kindle, but with a full surface, color touch screen and all the functionality of an iPhone or iPod Touch. I CAN'T WAIT! Sign me up.

PC World has already declared the MediaPad could be the Kindle Killer. Personally, I have held out on purchasing an ebook reading device, mostly because I didn't want to pay all that money for another device only to read books. Granted, the Kindle allows one to do more than read books, but the little black & white screen with all those little buttons at the bottom: It looks like the offspring of a 1940s television and a Blackberry. There's no back lighting. Weak graphics. And, while I appreciate what Amazon and the Kindle have done for advancing the industry of electronic books, I'm not paying $400 for that experience.

I did pay $400 for my iPhone and I LOVE it. I read on it every day, several times a day. Mostly I read the blogs I follow, but I also read articles, my email, my calendar, Facebook posts, Twitter posts, etc. I love that I can read in the dark before bed without a light and it doesn't disturb my wife. I love the touch screen navigation and zoom. I love the auto portrait-landscape feature. I love being connected to the Internet with (almost) full Web experience (Apple: for Jumping-Jack's sake, please give me Flash, Flash, Flash) and links out to other points of interest while I am reading. And I love that I can jump from my email, to watching a YouTube video, to my favorite blog sites, to Facebook, to my photos, to my voicemail, all while listening to my music.

While the iPhone creates an enjoyable reading experience for "information snacking" (thank you Jeff Bezos), to me it is not a comfortable reading experience for much more than 30 minutes and I have not yet purchased or read an ebook on my iPhone. But, give me the iPhone reading/media/communication experience on a device the size of a trade paperback, and allow me to read my ebook files on my MediaPad, iPhone, and laptop, and I may never buy another print book again. Make it easy for me to post what I am reading to Facebook and comment on it, see what my friends and others have said about it, make new friends, email a passage, join a fan group, watch related video clips...

I'm all atwitter just thinking about it.

Related Posts:

eBook Tipping Point?

More on Electronic Publishing

The Reader is the Boss

Future-Proofing the Book Business with Library Journal

COMMENT

A Return to Blogging

You may notice I've given the blog site a makeover and shifted the focus to digital book publishing.

It's been an interesting few months. In December, Cumberland House was acquired by Sourcebooks. The conversations between the companies really heated up around the time my blog went dark. It proved to be a good transition. I learned a ton walking through the acquisition and helping transition the acquired titles over to Sourcebooks systems.

Today, I'm working for B&H Publishing Group, spearheading digital publishing initiatives, as well as developing backlist and custom books.

The digital arena is a wide-open playing field and I am having a blast.

I'm back! Happy Easter.

How Good is Your Spelling?

Long-time friend of Cumberland House and author, Martin Manser, is a reference-book editor and language trainer & consultant in the UK where he offers courses to writers, companies, and university students. For full details of his open public courses held in London and also details of tailor-made courses, see his Language Trainer and Consultant page: http://www.martinmanser.com/MMTraining.aspx.

Here's a fun little spelling quiz from his December newsletter. I scored a "very good," which was generous.

1 a stupefying/stupifying effect
2 the forword/forward/foreword to the book
3 a forgone/foregone conclusion
4 the troubled period of adolesence/adolescence
5 a stand-up arguement/argument
6 and other miscellaneous/misellanious/miscellanious items
7 I am very loath/loathe to say no
8 the South African system of apartheid/aparthied/apartheit
9 the yoke/yolk of slavery
10 an insurance waver/waiver
11 the rudimentary principles/principals of physics
12 lackered/laquered/laqueured/lacquered wood
13 What impeccible/impeccable behaviour!
14 Yours truly/truely, Freda
15 They’re just good friends/freinds
16 a hypersensitive/hyposensitive personality
17 to canvass/canvas/cannvass public opinion
18 He suffers from agoraphobia/agraphobia
19 the national curriculum/curiculum in education
20 to seek professional/profesional/proffessional advice
21 The economy is not very boyant/buoyant at the moment
22 She complemented/complimented him on his fine appearance
23 Clostrophobia/Claustrophobia is the fear of being in enclosed places
24 He was severely censored/censured/censered for the brutality of the attack
25 in ecstacy/ecstasy/exstacy at the thought.

Answers to spelling quiz (above)
1 stupefying
2 foreword
3 foregone
4 adolescence
5 argument
6 miscellaneous
7 loath
8 apartheid
9 yoke
10 waiver
11 principles
12 lacquered
13 impeccable
14 truly
15 friends
16 hypersensitive
17 canvass
18 agoraphobia
19 curriculum
20 professional
21 buoyant
22 complimented
23 claustrophobia
24 censured
25 ecstasy


25 out of 25: well done! 20-24 very good. 15-20 fair. Below 15: you are relying too much on your spellchecker!

Despite all the advanced points of writing that I am often asked about on courses, I often find participants on my courses need help in basic points of grammar. So, remember, whether you’re looking for a refresher course on the basics or you simply want to increase your confidence in more advanced aspects of writing, email me and I’m be glad to help. mailto:help.mhmanser@aol.com

As ever, don’t forget that if you regularly write for more than an hour a day, you could benefit from brushing up on your skills in writing and editing.

Great Gift Idea for Book People

Opening Lines: The First Sentences from Classic Plays, Poems, and Books is a wonderful gift for book lovers available exclusively at Barnes & Noble. It is a mini book designed to hold a gift card. Gift cards are sold separately so you can include a gift card from B&N or the retailer of your choice. Or, the book alone makes a great client gift with your business card inside instead of a gift card.

If you are in publishing or a book person looking for something special for your staff, clients, family and friends, consider a gift card delivered in a copy of Opening Lines.

Or, if you are a pet person, consider Pet Therapy: Thoughts on Why We Love Our Pets. The two other books in the series, Happy Birthday and The Gift of Friendship are sold out at BN.com but still available in some stores.

Happy Holidays

I'll be taking a brief hiatus from the Publishing Associates blog going into the holidays to spend more time with my family. I may pop in from time to time with a random thought. Otherwise, I'll see you in 2009.

Big Hit for The Military Wives Cookbook!

Cumberland House marketeer Paige Lakin received samples yesterday of a major hit she secured for The Military Wives Cookbook in the December 2008 issue of The American Legion Magazine--circulation: over 2.5 million!

It is a full color, two page spread with a large image of the book cover, sample recipes, and a photo and interview with author Carolyn Quick Tillery. The December 2008 issue isn't posted on their Web site yet but click here, or on the image to read the feature.

Way to go Paige and CQ!

I LOVE Last.fm

Have you heard of Last.fm? I learned about it last week. Joe Wikert wrote a post about his new found admiration for the iPhone. Someone commented on his post that using Last.fm on the G3 network is better than satellite radio. I've had satellite radio-envy for a long time. I've had rental cars with Sirius and I LOVED it. I'm not a talk radio person, it is the targeted, commercial free music I love.

Anyway, last week I downloaded the Last.fm player on my computer and my iPhone. It automatically imported my music list from my iTunes library. I clicked on "recommended" and listened all day long. The program selected songs it thought I would enjoy based on music already in my library. There was no interruption. It did not play any songs from my library. Over the course of about seven hours there was one song I skipped because I didn't like it. And there were dozens of songs and artists I'd never heard before that I want to hear again. As each song plays, the CD cover is displayed with information about it and the opportunity to click to purchase--really brilliant marketing. There are also channels by genre and probably more options to discover. I haven't explored all the features.

The sound quality was great. Again, over the course of about seven hours there were a couple of hiccups, but they were just flickers. I have a first generation iPhone so I have to have high speed wireless access (no G3 for me, yet), but when I have a wi-fi connection, it works great.

Maximize Your Investment in Book Promotion - Every Author Should Read This Post

My friend Rusty Shelton at Phenix & Phenix Literary Publicists gave me a heads-up on this post written by one of their authors, Wendy Kays, who recently appeared on Dr. Phil to promote her book, Game Widow.

The post is about book publicity and her approach is right on! I am amazed at how many authors treat their publicist exactly opposite of what Kays suggests, that is, like the publicist is the author's assistant. I can tell you, that doesn't work. Kays approach is guaranteed to be much more effective. "You can maximize your investment in book promotion by being a valuable assistant to your publicist," Kays writes. You need to read her entire post, but here are the five points.

1. First, gather local press contact information for your publicist.

2. Next, if you haven’t already done this, create alliances with other people who speak on your topic.

3. Third, create events for your publicist to promote.

4. Fourth, try to do everything your publicist recommends.

5. Fifth and finally, put the onus for your success on yourself…not your publicist. As someone once said, when it comes to breakfast, the chicken was involved, but the pig was committed.

One of my favorite quotes from the piece is, "Helping your publicist in small ways not only builds incredible good will, it also protects you from feeling like an ignoramus three months from now when you learn firsthand how hard it is to push into the news & entertainment cycle… and how good at it your publicist really was."

Celebrity Autobiography: In Their Own Words

On the drive home tonight I heard this story on All Things Considered and it cracked me up. It is about a show running at the Triad Theater in New York called Celebrity Autobiography. Every Monday a different cast of comic actors like SNL stars Fred Armison, Will Forte, and SNL alumni Rachel Dratch, Molly Shannon and other stars read passages from celebrity autobiographies. Books read during the radio story included Mr. T: The Man With the Gold: An Autobiography by Mister T, the Motley Crue memoir The Dirt, and Good Morning, I'm Joan Lunden.

Reading the story on the NPR site doesn't do it justice. You've got to listen to it. I have to get my next trip to New York scheduled for a Monday stay over. It sounds like a lot of fun.

In the mean time, maybe we could come up with a list of celebrity autobiographies from the used bookstore, remainder bins (or our own bookshelves) to suggest for the show. Any ideas?

How authors can stay positive through the publishing process

Richard O'Connor, author of Happy at Last: The Thinking Person's Guide to Finding Joy (St. Martin's) wrote the Soapbox feature for the 10/27/2008 issue of Publishers Weekly. It is a nice piece on the search for happiness.

"Humans are wired to be able to feel good when good things happen," he writes, "but the feeling never lasts."

Here are some tips from O'Connor:

Focus on what you can control. Write well, and be proud of that, no matter what.

Chances are your book won't sell as much as you want it to, but don't let that ruin your life.

Behavioral economists have shown that when we get what we want, we'll just want something else. . . You need to find more substantial goals, like getting to work on the next book.

Here's my favorite tip: When you go to bed at night, think of three good things that happened during the day. Little things, like a good grilled cheese sandwich, or bigger things, like how you love someone. Maybe you wrote a great paragraph or learned an interesting fact. Research shows that if you do this, not only will you be in a better mood the next day, but the more often you do this, the happier you'll be.

I really need to get better at doing this--taking stock of the good things every day. Here are my three good things from today:

• The autumn colors and mist rising off the river in the sun this morning.
• Overhearing my daughter tell my wife that she loves her, completely out of the blue.
• Flipping through a photography book called Old Dogs.
  

What good things happened during your day today? Share them here. Maybe what you share will be someone else's good thing.

Do you blog?

Are you actively writing or posting other content for a community of people who tune in regularly to see what you have to say? If so, please post a comment on this post with your blog address.

Since the beginning of the Publishing Associates blog, I've kept a list of other publishing-related blogs I read. In fact, I've recently added a couple new ones: The Endsheet by graphic designer and long time friend of Cumberland House, Bruce Gore, and The Book Design Review authored by Joseph Sullivan. Thanks to Cumberland House editor and frequent commenter, Mary Sanford, for the heads-up on BDR.

You will see on the right side of the page that I am starting a new blog roll of Cumberland House authors. I'd love to add you to the list. Post a comment here.

Election Day Freebies

Well, it's almost over. I must say, as disillusioned and cynical as I am about politics, I've enjoyed the focus in the news the last few days on the final campaign strategies heading into the election. At least I've enjoyed it more than the dismal news of the fallout from the economy that is all we've been hearing the last couple of weeks--closed doors, lost jobs, lost homes. With the Dow up around 1000 points from the low of the last few weeks, maybe we'll get some relief on that front too.

Rallying enthusiasm for election day turnout I've heard of at least three companies making special offers for voters and I am already planning my route from the polling place. Actually I early voted, but I am still going to make good on some of these offers.

Starbucks is offering a free tall cup of brewed coffee all day, November 4.

Krispy Kreme is offering a free star shaped donut with patriotic sprinkles to all retail customers wearing an "I Voted" sticker on November 4. I early voted and my sticker is long gone but I may try for the free donut anyway.

Ben & Jerry's is offering a free scoop of ice cream from 5-8pm, November 4.

Are you aware of any other offers? Post a comment here to share with others.