tagged w/ e-books
-
David Wild, a contributing editor for Rolling Stone magazine, helped write last weekend's Grammy telecast as he has for the past 12 years. He joins us to discuss how the show was put together, working with host LL Cool J and why performing on the Grammys has become so important to a musician's career. Wild even reveals John Mayer’s secret life as a joke writer.David Wild, a contributing editor for Rolling Stone magazine, helped write last... more
-
-
Despite strong opposition from authors, publishers, retailers and the public, the U.S. Department of Justice settled their anti-trust case with three major publishers over e-book price fixing. Some industry analysts argue that the ruling will enable Amazon to take over the market. Not all involved parties have settled, however, as Apple, Macmillan and Penguin await trial on the charges.Despite strong opposition from authors, publishers, retailers and the public, the U.S.... more
-
-
Doug Freeman, a music critic for the Austin Chronicle, says that Sean Adams, the founder of Drowned In Sound, may be correct about music blogs losing their influence.
Freeman explains that if blogs were simply gateways to new music discovery, then the streaming playlister is the new music blogger. New influencers and kingmakers will emerge in a shifting editorial landscape.Doug Freeman, a music critic for the Austin Chronicle, says that Sean Adams, the... more
-
-
Veteran Studio Executive Ellen Pittleman talks about a recent court case involving publishers and what it means for filmmakers.Veteran Studio Executive Ellen Pittleman talks about a recent court case involving... more
-
-
This post is designed to give you a concise, yet comprehensive preview of most important free tools you can pick up to publish and promote your e-books. I hope it will help you discover the ones, which in a best possible way fit your author profile and personal needs. The most obvious choices like blogging platforms or social media networks are not included. I wanted to focus on less popular tools. Even so, I’m aware the list is not complete. It will never be, as new tools take off every day. http://www.makeahistory.com/index.php/tutorials/42942-40-free-tools-for-publish-and-promote-your-e-booksThis post is designed to give you a concise, yet comprehensive preview of most... more
-
-
worrg
-
added this
-
2 years ago
- |
-
Amazons Kindle is being updated with real page numbers along with a few other enhancements.Amazons Kindle is being updated with real page numbers along with a few other... more
-
-
-
Amazon’s new Kindle, the fastest selling Kindle yet, has started shipping two days earlier than its expected release date. Who got one?Amazon’s new Kindle, the fastest selling Kindle yet, has started shipping two... more
-
-
In a bit of a surprise, Amazon has announced a new Kindle called Kindle. Seriously. It will be available starting August 27th.In a bit of a surprise, Amazon has announced a new Kindle called Kindle. Seriously. It... more
-
-
Ray Kurzweil is well known in the accessibility field. He has been inventing reading machines and devices used by people with visual- and reading disabilities for 35 years. His latest acheivement is Blio, an e-reader software platform unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas...
http://www.disabled-world.com/assistivedevices/computer/blio.phpRay Kurzweil is well known in the accessibility field. He has been inventing reading... more
-
-
Apple has apparently added 30,000 free e-book titles to the upcoming iBook Store for the iPad courtesy of Project Gutenberg.Apple has apparently added 30,000 free e-book titles to the upcoming iBook Store for... more
-
-
Books were pulled from Amazon this week in a dispute with publishers over the price of e-books. Why the book industry is making the same mistake as the record labels.
A long-running dispute between Amazon.com and the publishing industry turned into all-out corporate war this week, complete with boycott threats, irritated authors, and the hasty removal of a publisher's entire catalog from Amazon's shelves. The matter at hand: e-book pricing.
The ugly chain of events followed Apple's announcement of its own e-book store for the iPad on January 27. After partnering with Apple, major publishers descended upon Amazon's Seattle headquarters to demand a big concession from the online retailer: the ability to set their own prices for e-books. For new releases, the publishers plan to raise those prices to $12.99 or $14.99, a hefty increase from the $9.99 Amazon presently charges for most books.
For many people who buy e-books for their convenience, though, the choice isn't between buying an e-book or a physical book, but rather between buying an e-book or no book at all.
While the issue is a fairly mundane pricing disagreement, its results will be felt by anyone who buys an e-book, including both future iPad owners and the projected 3 million consumers who will purchase Amazon's e-book reader, the Kindle, this year.
The skirmish has also revealed the publishing industry's grand strategy for e-books: discourage people from buying them. With physical book sales declining and e-books going gangbusters, publishers worry that Amazon's $9.99 e-books are cutting into sales of new hardcovers. The industry's latest maneuver, then, is a move expressly intended to protect its traditional business. Whether it will also evolve into an actual strategy for e-books remains to be seen.Books were pulled from Amazon this week in a dispute with publishers over the price of... more
-
-
Looks like the switch to digital reading is more official than ever. Amazon reports that on Christmas day, for the first time in its history, it sold more digital books than physical books. Amazon also reports that the Kindle is "the most gifted item in Amazon's history." Not surprising considering it was on track to do just that as of November. But according to Forrester Research estimates, this is just the tip of the iceberg for next year.Looks like the switch to digital reading is more official than ever. Amazon reports... more
-
-
Bookseller Barnes & Noble announced a new electronic-reading device, adding a new device to a sector that is seeing stiff competition. Omar Gallaga, who covers technology culture for the Austin American-Statesman, says 3 million e-book readers could be sold this year.Bookseller Barnes & Noble announced a new electronic-reading device, adding a new... more
-
-
Part of what's making digital readers like the Amazon Kindle and the Sony Reader popular is that they're easy to read. The technology that makes that possible, basically a digital version of ink and paper, is now being added to other electronic accessories.
For many of these devices, a Massachusetts company called E Ink is behind that technology. It aims to marry the readability and attractiveness of traditional print materials with the changeability of electronics. E Ink is also making displays for cell phone keypads that can morph from numbers to letters, wristwatch faces that can change content, and a credit card anti-fraud device that could constantly change the security code on the back of the card.Part of what's making digital readers like the Amazon Kindle and the Sony Reader... more
-
-
E-books: Depending on your point of view, they're either the savior or the destroyer of the publishing business.
So far, Amazon has dominated the market. Its first Kindle electronic reading device debuted two years ago, and the company just announced that its third-quarter profits surged almost 70 percent, thanks largely to sales of new Kindle models.
Sony and a few other companies have also launched e-readers, but this week saw the debut of what could be the Kindle's first serious competitor: the Nook. It's made by the other giant of book-selling: Barnes & Noble.
Gizmodo's Matt Buchanan has been playing with both the Nook and the Kindle. He says what stands out about Barnes & Noble's new reader is the color LCD touch screen at the bottom of the device that allows users to browse book covers. It's similar, he says, to the "cover flow" feature familiar to Apple customers who flip through album covers on iTunes or with their iPhones.
And there's one big advantage that Barnes & Noble has over its competitor, Buchanan says. "Barnes & Noble has stores you can go to. Every Barnes & Noble will carry Nooks, whereas, you know, Amazon, you have to go online, order it and wait for it to come in. You can't play with [the Kindle] beforehand unless your friend has one."
In addition, he says, "One really cool thing with the Nook is ... every Barnes & Noble has free Wi-Fi, and if you go into a Barnes & Noble with a Nook and get on their network, you can browse any e-book there for free."
The Nook won't be available for sale until the end of November, but Buchanan says Barnes & Noble has the best chance of any competitor to Amazon so far.E-books: Depending on your point of view, they're either the savior or the... more
-
-
I ordered a Kindle 2 from Amazon. How could I not? There were banner ads for it all over the Web. Whenever I went to the Amazon Web site, I was urged to buy one. "Say Hello to Kindle 2," it said, in tall letters on the main page. If I looked up a particular writer on Amazon—Mary Higgins Clark, say—and then reached the page for her knuckle-gnawer of a novel "Moonlight Becomes You," the top line on the page said, "'Moonlight Becomes You’ and over 270,000 other books are available for Amazon Kindle—Amazon’s new wireless reading device. Learn more." Below the picture of Clark’s physical paperback ($7.99) was another teaser: "Start reading 'Moonlight Becomes You' on your Kindle in under a minute. Don't have a Kindle? Get yours here.” If I went to the Kindle page for the digital download of "Moonlight Becomes You" ($6.39), it wouldn’t offer me a link back to the print version. I was being steered.
Everybody was saying that the new Kindle was terribly important—that it was an alpenhorn blast of post-Gutenbergian revalorization. In the Wall Street Journal, the cultural critic Steven Johnson wrote that he’d been alone one day in a restaurant in Austin, Texas, when he was seized by the urge to read a novel. Within minutes, thanks to Kindle’s free 3G hookup with Sprint wireless—they call it Whispernet—he was well into Chapter 1 of Zadie Smith’s “On Beauty” ($9.99 for the e-book, $10.20 for the paperback). Writing and publishing, he believed, would never be the same. In Newsweek, Jacob Weisberg, the editor-in-chief of the Slate Group, confided that for weeks he’d been doing all his recreational reading on the Kindle 2, and he claimed that it offered a "fundamentally better experience" than inked paper did. "Jeff Bezos"—Amazon’s founder and C.E.O.—"has built a machine that marks a cultural revolution," Weisberg said. "Printed books, the most important artifacts of human civilization, are going to join newspapers and magazines on the road to obsolescence."
Lots of ordinary people were excited about the Kindle 2, too—there were then about fifteen hundred five-star customer reviews at the Kindle Store, saying "I love my Kindle" over and over, and only a few hundred bitter one-stars. Kindle books were clean. "I've always been creeped out by library books and used books," one visitor, Christine Ring, wrote on the Amazon Web site. "You never know where they’ve been!" "It has reinvigorated my interest in reading," another reviewer said. "I'm hooked," another said. "If I dropped my kindle down a sewer, I would buy another one immediately."
And the unit was selling: in April, tech blogs had rumors that three hundred thousand Kindle 2s had shipped since the release date of February 24th. Bezos wrote a letter to shareholders: "Kindle sales have exceeded our most optimistic expectations." He went on "The Daily Show" and laughed. (See the YouTube video called "Jeff Bezos Laughing Freakishly Loud on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.")
---------------------------------------------------------------
I have a Kindle and really like it, but I still read paper books sometimes. Where do you stand on the Kindle debate? Do you have one? Want one? Are they the end of books as we know it, the future of reading, or both?I ordered a Kindle 2 from Amazon. How could I not? There were banner ads for it all... more
-
-
our months after acquiring an e-book retailer, Barnes & Noble, the world's largest chain of bookstores, is starting its own mega e-bookstore on its Web site, BN.com.
In an announcement on Monday, Barnes & Noble said that it would offer more than 700,000 books that could be read on a wide range of devices, including Apple's iPhone, the BlackBerry and various laptop or desktop computers. When Barnes & Noble acquired Fictionwise in March, that online retailer had about 60,000 books in its catalog.
More than 500,000 of the books now offered electronically on BN.com can be downloaded free, through an agreement with Google to provide electronic versions of public domain books that Google has scanned from university libraries. Sony announced a similar deal in March to offer the public domain books on its Reader device.
Barnes & Noble is promoting its e-bookstore as the world's largest, an implicit stab at Amazon.com, which offers about 330,000 for its Kindle device. Currently, Google’s public domain books cannot be read on a Kindle.
The number of e-books available on BN.com compares with 1.2 million in stock that can be bought in print form from the company’s Web site.
A further one million books can be ordered from BN.com in the print-on-demand format.
William J. Lynch, president of Barnes & Noble.com, said the company would continue to sell e-book versions of best sellers and new releases — defined as a new e-book for the first six months of its availability — for $9.99. That charge has become the de facto e-book price since Amazon.com set it for Kindle sales.our months after acquiring an e-book retailer, Barnes & Noble, the world's... more
-
-
If you thought the news for Amazon and the Kindle couldn’t get any worse. Think again.If you thought the news for Amazon and the Kindle couldn’t get any worse. Think... more
-
-
Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos displayed the Kindle 2 at a recent New York press conference. The device has a 6-inch, 600 x 800 pixel display that provides 16 shades of gray, an upgrade from its predecessor that only displayed four. The company claims that pages refresh 20 percent faster in the new version of the device, and the Kindle 2 is available for preorder and costs about $360.Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos displayed the Kindle 2 at a recent New York press... more
-
-
b2r
-
added this
-
4 years ago
- |
