Why I won’t be buying ebooks for a while
When I finished my last ebook the other day, i went to my bookshelf. Mainly it was to save a little money, I read fast when I read fiction, so I was consuming about 2-3 books a month, not a cheap hobby.
So I picked up a trusty paperback I’ve read 3 times previous but not recently (the last 4 years or s0).
I had forgotten how nice a book feels. No I’m not suddenly an anti paper luddite, but real books are nice, the feel of paper (in this books case) the degrading spine (mass market paperbacks sadly aren’t designed to last) requiring kid gloves to read it, etc.
But that nostalgia aside, i’m still a big proponent of eBooks, but I’m reconsidering my opinion that they’ve ‘arrived’
Not only does Amazon cow towing to McMillan bother me, but in general the trend of Amazon and the publishers.
I had hoped after what? 2 years of Kindle sales, stats like every Kindle owner on average buys 2.7 or something more books than non Kindle owning Amazon users, etc. That the publishers would get onboard the clue train.
But that doesn’t seem to have happened.
eBooks unprofitable at 9.99? I call Shenanigans
I came across this on Tele-Read, and had to voice my irritation.
Not only do I think it’s BS that a $9.99 eBook isn’t profitable I think it’s outrageous that Steve Haber sucks for thinking consumers are a bunch of idiots that don’t understand profit margins.
Perhaps $9.99 isn’t profitable for Sony (Why is sony profiting at all on eBook sales?) because Sony is a huge bloated company with (I’d guess) more middle management than it needs. Profit margins have to be high for bloated inefficient companies to survive. That’s not the consumers fault, or the competition.
It’s an ebook, very little work goes into it’s creation, distribution, etc beyond the initial writing/editing process. Unless publishers are so backwards they’re still mailing manuscripts around in big envelopes, the work is already digital. Translate to ePub, and that’s it.
WTF, you can’t make money on $9.99 when you’re doing nothing more than taking the finished digital work, and converting to ePub? Really? eBook sales should be icing. You’re already marketing the book (or should be), already pitching it to brick and mortors, etc. the eBook is the “Oh yeah it’s also available on your eReader”
NaNoWriMo 2009
It’s almost November! Which means it’s almost National Novel Writing Month! (NaNoWriMo)
I’ve participated the last 2 years. I’ve never completed, and only once came to and slightly past the halfway mark (Which is about where that store is still at, IIRC).
I’ll be trying again this year, not that I have a whole lot of time, but it’s just too much fun!
If you’re a writer, a budding writer, a wannabe writer, or just someone who likes to put words to page, give it a shot, it’s a great time, you’re not alone, and if there’s a chance you can knock out “your novel” this could be it.
You’ll get tons of support from all over the place, and there’s plenty of local meetups to help get you thru the month.
Go on! Give it a shot!
Happy National Comic Sans Day!
Hope everyone has big plans for National Comic Sans day! I know I do.
Join in, it’s fun, educational, and American :)
Sony Ditching Proprietary eBook Format! Huzza!
I’m really glad there’s some consolidation shaking out (finally). I’m really shocked it was Sony of all company’s that backed down on proprietary. I mean, it’s Sony, I don’t think they’ve ever released hardware that didn’t have an accompanying proprietary memory stick, or file format. ATRAC anyone?
This is big. ePub is a great format, i’ve not complaints about it. I’d love to see Amazon put their pipe down long enough to see the forest for the trees. The Kindle is (sadly because I own one) approaching flash in the pan status. Amazon’s own practices are going to marginalize it as a device.
My Friend wrote a book, buy it.
Last week I was at a book reading/signing for a new friend in Denver, Ron Lewis.
His book ‘Stick it to the Man: How to Skirt the Law, Scam Your Enemies , and Screw Big, Fat, Stupid, Lazy Corporations…for Fun and Profit!’ launched last week, and the party was at a the Barnes & Noble downtown.
Ron is a great guy, truly interested in meeting people and doing what he can to help them succeed. When I first met Ron, I was blown away by his genuineness, he proposed we meet for coffee and was not just looking for one more person to talk about his book to. We talked about 360|Conferences, my Kindle (which I brought with him and showed him).
How John Birmingham lost a reader
I stumbled across John Birmingham’s “Axis of Time series” because book 1 was free in the Kindle store (Great idea, Amazon or John or his publisher).
After thoroughly enjoying ‘Weapons of Choice’ at the gym and while folding clothes in the Kindle’s robot voice, at the car wash, etc. I bought book 2, and added 3 to my Universal Wishlist.
Sunday morning I was getting ready to fold some clothes, so I grabbed my Kindle, went into the menu for ‘Designated Targets’ and what do I see? Start Text to Speach, is grayed out.
WTF?
Why eContent should NEVER cost the same as printed
Beyond the ridiculously obvious “you get nothing physical” there’s a lot of reasons why an eBook shouldn’t cost as much as any printed version.
Let’s look at what goes into the price of a printed book vs. an eBook.
Writing: well yeah that happens for both, kinda a requirement.
editing: ditto, even Steven King has a type-O from time to time.
marketing: sure, though it’s value is varied, depending on your outlook.
printing: not for eBooks.
distribution: only for the dead tree versions.
shelf space, depreciation, discount selling: eBooks don’t suffer that.
The Kindle needs an iTunes app
kindle.amazon.com comes close, allowing you to manage your Kindle library (except you can only see it, not control/change anything) and see your annotations… on purchased content only. Content you’ve put on the device is notably missing. Meaning annotations you’ve placed on ebooks you loaded yourself are still tricky to retrieve/make use of and only available on the Kindle itself.
Guess we’re lucky we have cars and electricity
The Kindle is, as I’ce said before, a game changer for publishing. The wall of books, to impress your friends, will be gone in another 20 years or less. Just like the enormous display of CDs and (largely) DVDs on display near your TV and home entertainment center is already gone. picture-4That’s just how it works. There’s also not a stable in my back yard, not a store room of candles, or a cellar with huge blocks of ice.
keep looking »
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