Originally written for eBookGuru - The Digital Magazine Devoted to eBooks

It was just over two months ago when I published a post (The Future of eBooks) that included a chart from Forrester Research Inc. showing the growth drivers for eReaders. It predicted a $199 price point at sometime around mid 2010 to 2011.

The new Cool-er reader (Price Matters…) came out in mid July, right around the same time that Amazon lowered the price of the Kindle 2 by $60, and I stated that I really didn’t expect to see an eReader break the $200 mark before the end of the year.

Well Sony has done it. There have been lots of articles about this but best one so far is this post by Canada’s own Globe & Mail. The ‘Pocket Edition’ of the Sony eReader will be retailing for $199 at the end of August. The Pocket Edition is smaller and a little limited compared to current eReaders. At 5 inches (vs the 6 inch Sony readers , the Cooler, & the Kindle 2), it can’t play music and can ‘only’ hold 350 books but the sub-$200 price point

“breaks an important psychological barrier”

In an ironic twist, the article includes a quote from Sarah Rotman Epps, a media analyst at Forrester Research.

“This is something that is affordable for the holiday season, and I think that you’ll see sales of e-readers outpacing current forecasts”

The current forecast has sales of eReaders doubling this year to 2 million, up from 1 million in 2008.

Sony is also announcing a higher-end eReader, the Touch Edition (note: Sony seems to finally be catching on that names are a lot catchier and easier to remember than model numbers - the Pocket Edition replaces the PRS-50 and the Touch Edition replaces the PRS-700). This model will retain the same 6 inch size and touch screen abilities, losing the built-in light that seemed to cause more trouble than it was worth.

Another major milestone for the new Sony eReaders is their compatibility with both PC’s and Mac’s.

Neither of these readers has the same wireless access that sets the Kindle apart but given the recent furor over Amazon’s bungled book recall, this isn’t such a bad thing. Certainly for those of us outside the US this isn’t a limitation as Amazon’s Whispernet is limited to US states, with the exception of Montana and Alaska. Even in covered states, it has been reported that coverage is often close to non-existent outside of major urban centers.

Sony is apparently working on a wireless eReader but won’t say when it will be available. Hopefully it will be soon as a new eReader from iRex is entering the marketplace. The 8.1 inch eReader with wireless 3G capabilities and a touch screen is slated for fall 2009 and is rumored to be able to connect with a large on-line eBook store.

The eBook market is also progressing with the recent launch of Barnes & Nobles eBook eReader software and eBook store (An Embarrassment of Riches).

The eBook market will change in ways that we can’t foresee but for the moment the future for eBooks is here.

Womenomics.

n. The theory that women play a primary role in economic growth.

You won’t find this word in any dictionaries yet but that is only a matter of time. The definition above is courtesy of Word Spy, The Word Lovers Guide to New Words but Womenomics is already being discussed in serious publications.

A recent op-ed piece in the Washington Post called Fixing the Economy? It’s Women’s Work discusses the role that women can and perhaps should play in terms of business and the economy. The argument is simple and compelling:

“Companies with more women in senior management roles make more money.”

Hard to argue with success.  Admittedly the op-ed piece was written by the authors of a book called Womenomics but there also seems to be a growing consensus that we could have avoided the current financial crisis if there were more women in senior roles. One of the interesting points in the article indicates that we shouldn’t be looking to replace men with women in these senior roles but that the addition of women will result in improved performance.

“By all measures, more women in your company means better performance.”

A BBC article written by Robert Preston, the BBC’s business editor and former financial editor of the Financial Times, refers to the crisis as ‘Men Behaving Badly’.

“The reckless chief executives of banks who went on a borrowing and lending binge: all men.

The financial engineers who packaged up poisonous subprime debt and mis-sold it as AAA solid gold: they were long of Y chromosomes.

The central bankers and regulators who slept while the dangerous financial party was in full swing: blokes.

The finance ministers who didn’t want to recognize that the surge in house prices was perilous, for fear of alienating voters: yup, it’s my gender [men] again.”

A recent article in Foreign Policy magazine predicts the Death of Macho. The opening line states that

“The era of male dominance is coming to an end.”

The article also talks about the impact that the recession is having on men.

“Consider, to start, the almost unbelievably disproportionate impact that the current crisis is having on men—so much so that the recession is now known to some economists and the more plugged-in corners of the blogosphere as the ‘he-cession.’ “

In an article in the NY Times entitled After the Great Recession U.S. President Barack Obama is quoted as saying that

“…what we have to do is to recognize that women are just as likely to be the primary bread earner, if not more likely, than men are today. “

There are some extremely interesting and thought provoking discussions around the roles of men and women in these articles, not just in North America but their impacts worldwide in countries like Russia, China, and Western and Eastern Europe. I encourage you to take the time to read them.

In my novel, The Gender Divide, I postulate a world where women live four times as long as men and have taken control of the business and political world. I didn’t focus on the effects of this, apart from the impact that it had on men. However I’ve been considering a sequel and you can be sure that I’ll incorporate elements of this into it.

In the meantime, let’s hope that women are given the chance to prove themselves on the world stage. Certainly they can’t do any worse then men have done so far and all indications are that they will do better.

Originally written for eBookGuru - The Digital Magazine Devoted to eBooks

I monitor a variety of RSS feeds and I am always on the lookout for news on eBooks and eReaders. This week there seems to be an embarrassment of riches in terms of the number of articles available.

Here is just a sampling of a few of them:

PCMag.com reviews the new Barnes & Noble eReader software for PC, Mac and iPhone and overall rates it 3½ out of 5. It also takes a shot at Amazon and the Kindle, stating that B&N allows you to read titles on devices you already own. It also compares Amazon’s Kindle library (300,000 titles) to B&N’s eBook library (700,000 titles). Overall the B&N appears to be an attractive eBook store alternative to Amazon, and the addition of an eReader from Plastic Logic that promises to start shipping in early 2010 will only make the comparison even easier.

Adding insult to injury to the beleaguered Kindle is a damning article in the New Yorker. The article has some harsh criticism for the device and Amazon’s proprietary format, although to be fair some of the criticism is specific to eInk devices, notably the lack of color and back-lighting. Overall the author does seem positive about eBooks but seems to prefer the Sony eReader for eInk and the Apple iPhone / iPod Touch where color, illustrations, and back-lighting are important.

Another interesting article appeared in IT Canada regarding the EPUB format, which was developed by the Toronto based International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF). It states that the EPUB format

is quickly becoming an e-book industry standard as support from publishers and tech giants such as Adobe Systems Inc., Sony Corp. and Google Inc. continues to grow.

In sharp contrast to Amazons proprietary DRM restricted AZW format, EPUB is an open, non-proprietary, XML based format, in which DRM is optional.

The industry has gone into two camps: Amazon and everyone else … You have Amazon and they’ve got their proprietary, closed standard, DRM, one-source-for-everything (approach) and you’ve got the rest of the world trying to agree on an open standard for which you can have multiple book stores.

There is also the news that Samsung has launched their eBook reader, although it is only available in South Korea for the moment. The device is smaller than a Kindle and will offer some neat features like hand-writing recognition.

Finally there is the possibility of Apple competing against Amazon with the rumored introduction of a Tablet PC. The combination of a Tablet PC and the iTunes store could

blow Amazon and other e-book makers out of the water…

The success of iTunes for music and iPhone applications indicates that there is market potential for eBooks by making eBooks just as easy to download. It goes further to speculate about à-la-carte ordering books, something that already possible through the Shortcovers program from Canada’s very own Indigo Books.

The one thing that none of these articles dispute is that there is a future for eBooks. What this future looks like, how we will be reading eBooks, and what format the eBooks will be available in, are all very good questions. Personally having seen what DRM has done to the music industry, not to mention how Amazon bungled it’s recent recall of illegally published Kindle books, I’m hoping for the success of an open format like EPUB and as many readers as possible.

Originally posted on The Writers Vineyard

That was the title of an article in the Globe and Mail last week. The topic discussed was the marketing of books and the requirement to be online.

The author of the article doesn’t buy into the argument that an online presence is necessary, instead suggesting that old fashioned methods like posters on telephone polls is the way to go. He also states that getting chosen for Oprah’s book club, nominated for the Giller prize or “Canada Reads”, or getting prominently displayed in Costco or Indigo is the way to get on the bestseller lists.

I’m not discounting the impact of posters but I can’t help but think that there isn’t any one thing will result in more book sales but that it is a combination of efforts.

I also think that an online presence ties in very nicely with the concept of eBooks. The very medium lends itself to an online presence, from the posting of excerpts and snippets online to links where people can purchase the eBook. It’s a very effective and efficient medium but it’s not for everybody.

The other fallacy in the article is that the impact of an online presence is limited to people who are actually online. Most people tend to have friends and family both online and offline. If someone enjoys your book, word can spread to people who have never seen your Facebook or MySpace page (and who probably never will) but that won’t stop them from buying your book.

The only portion of the article that I found myself in agreement with were comments made by a colleague of the writer who states that

“As a reader, I’m not that interested in a writer’s life or personality…”

She likens it to the separation of Church and State, this distinction between an author talking about topics of interest versus talking about themselves. It’s an interesting concept and one that I personally adhere to.

I’d love to know what you think. Leave me a comment - if I don’t get back to you right away, I’m probably on hold for Oprah.

Originally written for eBookGuru - The Digital Magazine Devoted to eBooks

Amazon sparked an outcry in the blogosphere late last week when it deleted two books from people’s Kindles. Ironically the eBooks in question were George Orwell’s “1984″ and “Animal Farm”, prompting headlines like

Some E-Books Are More Equal Than Others

Amazon recalled the ebooks because the publisher lacked the rights. As an author, I can appreciate the steps that Amazon took to remedy the problem even if I don’t agree with their methods. No doubt about it, Amazon made a mistake, not in what they did, but in how they went about it. Working for a public relations firm, I’ve gained new appreciation for the value of proper communications, something that Amazon would do well to heed. It also raises disturbing issues regarding ownership and censorship. If Amazon can delete the books in question, there is nothing to say that they can’t replace existing books with ‘edited’ versions. Sounds very ‘Big Brother’ to me.

However, this points to a problem inherent in self-publishing. Where are the checks and balances? Amazon states that the eBooks

… were added to our catalog using our self-service platform by a third-party who did not have the rights to the books…

How does something like that happen in the first place, especially given the titles in question? Surely this should have raised some red flags for someone somewhere? If this had been a traditional publisher, there would have been more steps involved before it was published but even that is no guarantee.

When I was accepted for publication, I provided the publisher with the copyright certificate for my novel but it wasn’t a requirement. The main difference is that there is a relationship inherent in this arrangement so my certifying in the contract that I own the work free and clear is probably sufficient. This relationship doesn’t exist in the self-publishing world. Also the process of editing makes it difficult to obtain a copyright before the contract has been signed. This doesn’t hold true for self-publishing.

The rise of eBooks and blogs has made it easier than ever for people to make their voice heard. It has also made it easier than ever for other people to steal someone else’s work. Perhaps it’s time for companies in the business of self-publishing to reevaluate the requirement for copyright.

Originally written for eBookGuru - The Digital Magazine Devoted to eBooks

A Kindle in Every Backpack. This is the title of a proposal by the Democratic Leadership Council that argues that the government should provide students with Kindles. The proposal argues that this could improve education quality and save money.

It’s an intriguing concept but according the proposal traditional textbooks cost $109 per student, rising to $115 per student in 2016. Currently the Kindle 2 costs significantly more than that for the hardware alone, not to mention the cost of the content. The Kindle DX, which is better suited for use as a textbook replacement, costs almost $200 more than the Kindle 2. Admittedly if a Kindle was provided to every student this would result in lower costs but it’s hard to see the economic benefits.

The proposal states that the costs of eTextbook materials would be about $200 initially and then drop to $80 by 2012. Looking at the proposal here and now however, the comparison is an outlay of $499 ($299 for the Kindle, $200 for the eTextbooks) vs. an existing cost of $109 for a difference of $390. It gets even worse if you propose using the Kindle DX, rising to a difference of $580. That’s anywhere from 3½ to over 5 times more costly per student. Or to put it another way for the same cost as equipping a student with a Kindle, you could equip another 3 - 5 students with traditional textbooks.

Don’t get me wrong, I think this is a great idea. I just think that it’s perhaps a little ahead of its time. eBooks are still a nascent market and we really don’t know where the market is going to end up.

Reports of cracked or frozen Kindle screens don’t inspire a lot of confidence in the proposal either. Even investing in the cover for the Kindle doesn’t seem to help, as a recent class action lawsuit against Amazon attests. Given the high cost of ownership, most Kindle owners are very protective of the devices yet they are still having problems. Somehow I can’t see a group of school students, for whom the device would be essentially free, being more careful.

Flexible screens like the Readius could be the answer to this problem but the recent bankruptcy of Polymer Vision, the company behind the Readius, means that it will probably be a long wait before this technology becomes mainstream.

Given that plans are already underway to make the Kindle DX available to University students, it would seem prudent to wait for the results of this pilot program. The pilot program will

…evaluate the impact of the device on the learning experience, determine if faculty delivered the information in new ways, and determine if students approach their reading and assignments differently.

As much as I would love to see kids with Kindles, I think there are too many unknowns. Advances in technology and lower production costs could change the landscape for eBook readers dramatically as more people start to use them. After all, look how long cell phones have been around and how much they’ve changed today as they morph into smartphones. Perhaps the eTextbook reader of the future will be a touch Netbook. To me this makes more sense for students, who would likely use the device for more than just reading. Given that Netbooks are comparable in terms of cost to a a Kindle DX, it’s hard to argue for a single function device, as good as it is.

Still, the very fact that this was proposed is a good indication of the strength of the eBook market. Regardless of how we end up reading eBooks in the future, it seems pretty clear that eBooks and eTextbooks are the future of reading.

Originally written for eBookGuru - The Digital Magazine Devoted to eBooks

But it isn’t everything. Often usability trumps price. Most Linux based operating systems are free but witness the paucity of Linux desktops compared to Windows and Mac Systems. As of May 2009 Windows commands 88% of the market share for operating systems.

The same applies to eBook readers. The Cool-er eBook reader from Coolreader was the brainchild of Niel Jones who created the Cool-er when he tried to buy an out-of-stock Sony eReader. He immediately saw the market potential of eBooks and decided to capitalize on it.

While I applaud the effort to bring down the price of eBook readers, it only works if you are getting value for your money. While the $249 price of the Cool-er is less than the $299 price of the Kindle, the value isn’t quite as alluring as it was less than a week ago when the Kindle was $359. When you factor in the cost of books that you can use on the Cool-er and other intangibles such as user experience, the Cool-er isn’t really that much of a bargain. In fact Wired magazine states in a product review of the Cool-er that

The up front fee for the Kindle or Sony Reader is greater yes, but they more than make up for it in robust content, extra features, and superior hardware.

One thing is for certain - we are getting closer to the sub $200 price point that I referred to in an earlier post where sales of eReaders will start to really take off. In fact I expect that this will likely occur earlier than the mid 2011 timeframe predicted by Forrester Research. In less than a year and half, the price of the Kindle has dropped by 25% or $100 from it’s original starting price of $399. While I would be pleasantly surprised to see an eBook reader reach this price point before the end of 2009, I really don’t see it happening. If it does, then I would certainly caution potential purchasers to heed that ancient Latin saying caveat emptor or buyer beware.

Originally written for eBookGuru - The Digital Magazine Devoted to eBooks

I recently came across an article on CNET about the shortcomings of the Kindle and how these short comings represent opportunities for competitors to exploit.

“Competitors will attack Amazon’s market position by launching new features, expanding content beyond books, dominating markets outside the U.S., reducing costs, and improving relationships with publishers.”

I’ve long argued that the Kindle was too expensive and the fact that it is currently restricted to the US market is a major limitation. It’s ironic that one of the Kindle’s strengths - it’s on demand link to Amazon.com - is also what is holding it back outside of the US.

It was also interesting to see the projections for the market, both in terms of the # of consumers, and how the eBook reader market will change in response to this growth.

We are already seeing a lot of competition in the eBook reader space, with form friendly products like Readius to traditional ‘booklike’ products from txtr, Plastic Logic, Onyx, and Samsung. With all this competition it won’t be long before we reach the sweet spot for eBook readers, that magic sub $200 price point. Once that happens we’ll really see sales of eBook readers take off.

With all these new devices, the future for eBooks looks bright, and authors and publishers who have already embraced eBooks stand to benefit the most.

Originally posted on The Writers Vineyard

“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet.”

Romeo and Juliet (II, ii, 1-2)

What’s in a name? Good question Shakespeare, thanks for the segue.

When I wrote The Gender Divide*, the title came to me very early on in the process. Thanks to the input of the main characters, the book didn’t turn out exactly as I had originally envisioned but there was never any wavering on the title. It has also gone through two publishers and various test readers along the way and never once did anyone suggest changing the name.

I’ve also written a few other novels that I have to go back and edit before submitting for possible publication and I’ve always been able to come up with a title. I even have a sequel to The Gender Divide* planned with a couple of possible titles already and I haven’t written a word.

However I have a novel that I am almost 40K words into and I still don’t have a title. I don’t even have anything that I don’t like or am so-so about. I have nothing, nada, zip, zero, zilch. Hopefully something will come to me in time but until then I am just going to keep working on ‘Novel template (saved).docx’.

Here’s a little snippet for you in the meantime - if you think of a title, be sure to let me know.

“Open the damn door or so help me God I’ll kill you.”

“I could question just how much you mean that, but instead I’ll focus on the impossibility of that statement.” With that Vaughn stood up and walked through the station commander’s desk.

Stephanie cursed. A bloody hologram. No wonder he was so trusting.

“Before you overreact Princess, I wasn’t lying to you earlier. I really am just around the corner. However it didn’t take a genius to plot this one out. Once Carman calms down, I’ll be more than happy to join you in person.”

Carman continued to glare at both of them for a moment longer and then she sighed heavily.

“Shit, I hate this. I know you’re right Stephanie, and I trust you implicitly. It just hurts that you didn’t trust me in return.”

Stephanie resisted the urge to apologize. “I wanted to but I couldn’t risk it. This is too big.”

“I know, but what I said earlier still holds true. You need to let your father know where you are and what’s happening.”

“I can’t. Then he’ll know where I am and he’ll force me to come home.

Vaughn coughed theatrically. “I have a possible solution for that. I have a small program I’ve written that we can upload to the central communication hub. It will access all major planetary comm systems, each of which will send him a message. By this time tomorrow your father will receive a message from every major system telling him that you are all right and not to worry. If you include the necessary markers and code signals it should provide some reassurance for him without revealing your location.”

“You mean a virus.” Stephanie fought hard to keep the distaste out of her voice.

“Don’t get your knickers in a twist, Princess. It’s benign, as these things go. The ‘virus’ will even bill you for the comm charges. It’s a one-shot deal and will erase itself once it’s done, so no one will know where it came from.”

So much for keeping the distaste out her voice, she thought wryly. Then again Vaughn had always been able to read her better than anyone else, even Carman.

Vaughn glanced around. “There, everyone happy?”

Stephanie looked over at Carman, who nodded grudgingly.

“Good,” he replied. He flickered briefly and then disappeared. Seconds later the door opened and he strolled through. He walked over to Stephanie and pinched her on the butt.

“Ouch,” she exclaimed, slapping his hand away. “What was that for?”

“Just so you know I’m real this time around,” he replied breezily and Stephanie scowled at him. She looked over at Carman, who was struggling to keep a grin off her face.

“You’re not helping matters,” she said grumpily but Carman only shrugged.

“No point fighting the wind,” she replied philosophically.

“Good, now that that’s settled let’s get down to business. Why are you here, and what did you need me for that you went to such lengths to track me down?”

“War,” she replied simply.

Today Amazon launched the Kindle DX. The DX is a widescreen version of the Kindle and was designed to display periodicals and textbooks. At $489 USD it is more expensive that it’s already pricey siblings but that works in the textbook market, where this kind of money is practically a drop in the bucket in terms of what students have to pay for textbooks.

Amazon has struck deals with Pearson, Wiley, and Cengage - the top three textbook publishers - to provide content for the DX. These publishers make up 60 percent of the textbook market and include many major imprints.  Amazon will also be making the device available to students when it launches trial programs with at least five universities (Arizona State University, Case Western Reserve University, Princeton University, Reed College, and Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia) this fall.

In terms of specificiations, the DX has a screen that is 2.5 times the size of the previous Kindles. It also features an accelerometer, which is a fancy way of saying the DX will auto-rotate the display mode between portrait and landscape when the user flips the device around. Anyone who has a Blackberry Storm or an iPhone knows how useful this feature is. The DX also supports PDF files, something that has been a big issue for current Kindle owners and would have likely been a deal breaker for the textbook market.

When you add in all the other features normally found on the Kindle, it seems like the DX has finally found the sweetspot for eBook readers - students:

• Bookmarks and Annotations - perfect for taking notes in class
• Built-in Dictionary With Instant Lookup - need I say more?
• Wireless Access to Wikipedia - a favored research starting point for many students
• Read-to-me - while less than perfect, this feature might make it more likely for students to review the material

Other experimental features - such as a basic web browser and an MP3 / Podcast player - also seemed designed with this target market in mind. Now that Amazon has purchased Lexcycle, the company behind the eBook application for the iPhone, students also have the ability to synchronize Kindle books using Amazon’s Whispersync technology.

In short the Kindle finally makes sense.