In another sign that ebooks are becoming a formidable force in the publishing world, Hachette Book Group says that ebook sales grew 138% in 2010, according to Mediabistro. Yet Lagardere Publishing, the owner of Hachette Book Group, saw an overall decline in sales.

A big reason for the boost in ebook sales, aside from their growing popularity, is that Hachette is bundling different ebook titles together from the same genre or author (via Wall Street Journal):

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I just want thank everyone who submitted a new tagline for Brad’s Reader in last week’s contest. I’m currently reviewing the submissions and will make a decision shortly. The winner will receive a $25 Amazon gift card.

I love doing contests like this because it allows me to connect with readers and allows you to become an active part of the blog. I hope to have more contests in the future.

Brad’s Reader is evolving and moving forward. As I mentioned in an earlier post, this blog is going to concentrate on technology as it relates to reading, writing and publishing.

I don’t even know why I respond to superficial criticism of ebooks anymore. Yet I still feel the need to defend ebooks against petty arguments against them.

Ebooks are changing the way we write, publish and read. Whether people like it or not, ebooks are here to stay. In the technological world we live in, progress is inevitable.

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Apple gave their eReading app iBooks an update today. There’s really nothing exciting about this particular update (not that I could find).

The most important part of the update is in the stability and performance areas. A post on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) says that books load faster and there’s no lag when turning pages.

I have updated my iBooks app but haven’t taken it for a spin around the block yet. If I notice anymore improvements, I’ll mention them here. Stay tuned…

Less than two months after getting my iPad, it’s already obsolete. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the iPad 2 is in production. The new iPad will sport the following new features:

The new iPad will be thinner and lighter than the first model, these people said. It will have at least one camera on the front of the device for features like video-conferencing, but the resolution of the display will be similar to the first iPad, these people said. It will also have more memory and a more powerful graphics processor, they said.

The new iPad will initially be available through Verizon Wireless and AT&T Inc., but not Sprint Nextel Corp. or T-Mobile USA in the U.S., according to some of the people familiar with the matter.

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When digital music became mainstream, people were ripping all their CDs to their computers so they could make them part of their digital collection. Now it appears that people in Japan are doing the same, only with their print books.

To help them convert print to digital are several start-up companies that take the time-consuming task of scanning those books for their customers.

An article from the Sydney Morning Herald explains that publishers aren’t keeping up with consumer demand:

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Borders just can’t get a break. The latest misfortune to hit the bookseller came last Thursday, when the New York Stock Exchange threatened to delist Borders if they can’t get their stock price above $1 per share.

But don’t start feeling bad for Borders quite yet. A long series of missteps, poor management and lagging behind the rest of the industry is the cause of their current troubles. In fact, the roots of Borders’ problems can be traced as far back as the 1990s.

An article on Crain’s Detroit Business website chronicles the bad decisions Borders has made throughout the years. One of their earliest mistakes, according to the article, was concentrating on mall ’boutique’ stores when Barnes & Noble was moving to standalone superstores.

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I don’t know how many times I’ve repeated this here on Brad’s Reader, but it’s worth repeating again: Ebook piracy is not the problem, it’s a symptom of the problem.

What is the problem? I think it’s high ebook prices, publishers/authors refusing to release titles as ebooks and to a lesser extent, strict DRM. If you give consumers the ebooks they want at a fair price (i.e. $9.99 or below) without trying to lock them down, piracy will become less of an issue.

Yes, there will always be piracy. There will always be a small group of people who will refuse to pay for ebooks. Same goes with music and movies.

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A new study from the Yankee Group, experts in global connectivity, says that ebook prices are expected to drop. Furthermore, unit sales of ebooks are going to rise dramatically.

E-book unit sales will skyrocket. By 2013, U.S. consumers will purchase 381 million e-books, roughly four times the amount they purchased in 2010.

Average selling prices of e-books will plummet. By 2013, the average e-book retail price will fall to $7, down from an average of more than $9 in 2009.

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When News Corp unveiled their iPad-only publication ‘The Daily’, I was excited. There was a lot of hype surrounding the app’s release. But after one day, my excitement disappeared.

The app is well designed with great pictures and video. That’s where the positives end.