The largest retail bookseller in the US acquired Fictionwise, the largest indie outlet for ebooks, this according to this article at Publishers Weekly. This move effectively throws B&N into the ebook game and probably into direct competition with Amazon and its Kindle 2.

However, beyond the news of this transaction is both praise and criticism. Critics say that they admired Fictionwise for being an independent force in ebook retailing. According to one post on the Teleread blog, Fictionwise was also admired for being more willing to work with small publishers:

Not everyone sees full positives here. "Fictionwise was the big independent in the industry, and also the company most willing to work with small publishers and non-DRM," Rob Preece of BooksForABuck.com, a small e-publisher, said in a TeleRead comment. "I’m sorry to see them go as an independent force, and not especially happy that BN made the purchase as they haven’t traditionally been especially friendly to small publishing.

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An article from Computerworld is already making waves across the blogosphere (especially those of us ebook evangelists), and I first read about it here and here. The article talks about the upcoming ebook revolution, which is being spurred not just by the iPhone or the Amazon Kindle, but an entire host of conditions that are coming together to form the perfect storm.

Instead of rehashing the entire article and discussing all the reasons for an ebook revolution, I’m only going to discuss one of them. Out of a list of 6 reasons, here is number 3:

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I make no secret about how much I love my iPhone, and how that love has only grown since I loaded it with the eReader application from Fictionwise (which I reviewed in detail here). But last night I decided to give the Stanza ebook reader a try as well. I have read a lot of good things about Stanza, so I thought, why not see what all the excitement is about?

While I haven’t read any ebooks using Stanza yet (I have read several on eReader, however), I’m already seeing just how powerful an application Stanza is. Here are a few things that really stand out for me:

1. Stanza allows you to download ebooks directly on the iPhone, without using a computer.

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Online retailing giant Amazon.com will stop selling ebooks in PDF and Microsoft Reader formats, according to this article from Publishers Weekly. This means that all ebooks sold by Amazon will be either in its proprietary Kindle format, or the Mobipocket format.

Amazon.com has notified its publisher and author clients that it plans to cease offering e-books in the Microsoft Reader and Adobe e-book formats. In the future, the online retailer says it plans to offer only e-books in the Kindle format (for wireless download to its Kindle reading device) and the Mobipocket format, both of which are owned by Amazon.

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Note: Don’t forget to read my updated post about J.K. Rowling’s Rejection of Ebooks and how J.K. Rowling is STILL Resisting Ebooks. And if you want to learn more about ebooks, check out my Ebooks Category Page.

Sometimes the irony in life is so funny, it’s almost sad. Here’s one for you: I’ve been reading across the internet (first read on this post) today that pirated copies of J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter books were briefly up on Amazon’s website in digital format for the Kindle. The books have since been taken down. Here’s the ironic part: Rowling has been firmly against her books going digital, because she’s afraid of piracy.

As it turns out, each new Harry Potter book has been pirated into digital copies within hours of being released. That means that the younger generation the books appeal to (the same generation more open to using technology to consume books – more irony) are forced to turn to pirated copies of the ebooks when the author and publisher refuse to do it themselves.

A strong argument could be made that when no official ebook version of a novel is made available, it encourages piracy. I came across this post from the Dear Author blog that says:

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One facet of ebooks that still mystifies me (and many others, I assume) is how ebooks are priced. When I’m shopping around for a good book to read on my trusty iPhone or Sony Reader, I’m always amazed at the large span of ebook pricing – from free for public domain works, to around the same price as a hardcover for a new release and/or bestseller, and everything in between.

I find it interesting to see what others think of this problem as well. I came across this interesting post from a blog called Brave New World. Here’s a brief snippet:

Some may say that publishers are trying to reduce the digital margin given to resellers and using this to offset their digital costs. Others would argue that there is a reluctance to get dragged into the current discounting fiasco on physical books that is rife in markets such as the UK. However, given that the ebook is often a carbon copy of the physical book with no extras what is the price comparison with it and the price to the consumer?

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There’s really nothing surprising about this article from today’s NYT. It mentions what I, and others, have been discussing for a while now – that ebooks are becoming more popular and are on the cusp of becoming mainstream.

That’s not to say that the article was totally void of some interesting points. Here’s one bit about the Amazon Kindle that took me by surprise:

Many Kindle buyers appear to be outside the usual gadget-hound demographic. Almost as many women as men are buying it, Mr. Hildick-Smith said, and the device is most popular among 55- to 64-year-olds.

That the Kindle is about divided equally between women and men is about what I expected. However, I didn’t expect the popular age demographic to be…well…so old (please, no offense is meant here). My vision of Kindle users involves young, technologically savvy, hip professionals who enjoy carrying around several novels at once – not to mention the younger generation appears to have more environmental concerns over the amount of trees killed to produce all the books we consume.

Another surprise: More mainstream popular fiction authors (you know, the ones who sell mountains of books and have their own sections in bookstores), are starting to embrace ebooks as a viable means of selling their novels to the reading public:

Even authors who were once wary of selling their work in bits and bytes are coming around. After some initial hesitation, authors like Danielle Steel and John Grisham are soon expected to add their titles to the e-book catalog, their agents say.

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As excited as I get about electronic books and all things digital, not everyone feels the same way. When I talk to fellow bookworms, especially those who are middle-aged or so, they merely shrug off ebooks and make up some silly excuse that the screens are too small or they can’t imagine reading so much on a screen (yet they have no problems reading emails, articles, blogs, etc on their computers).

So when I read all these different articles about the Amazon Kindle, and whether the iPhone is a "Kindle-killer" or whether or not the Sony Reader will surpass the Kindle in sales, I secretly think that the Kindle’s biggest competitor is still the print book.

Ebook lovers still have a lot of work to do in convincing skeptics that ebooks aren’t just some elitist alternative to traditional publishing, rather, ebooks are the future of traditional publishing. Yes, ebooks take a little getting used to and publishers cannot yet agree on a standardized format, but that’s just the nature of emerging technology.

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A few days ago I was feeling pretty optimistic when I wrote this post about two large publishers taking steps in the right direction regarding digital content and realizing that "Free" can be profitable in the long run. Even though the economy is taking its toll on just about every industry, including publishing, I began to feel like maybe there might be a light at the end of the tunnel.

I shouldn’t have held my breath.

Sometimes it feels like we take 3 steps forward, and 2 steps back. And when I read a post about an ebook "tax" some publishers feel is necessary, I knew we still had a lot of work to do. It’s actually not even a tax, even though it kinda feels that way. Rather, some publishers are trying to find a standard price-point for ebooks. While I applaud a standard price-point for ebooks, I think this idea totally moves in the wrong direction. Here’s a little clarification:

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I have been using eReader on my iPhone since August now and have read a handful of books. All the books I have read are from the Fictionwise website. Thus, I decided to write this post that will give you a few of my impressions about reading ebooks. This will mostly apply to reading on the iPhone specifically, but I have also used Sony’s Reader device as well, so I’ll make some general observations.

I love reading ebooks on my iPhone! It’s easy, convenient and I think I actually read them faster than I would a regular print book (if anyone has any theories about why this is, please enlighten me). With that said, here are a few general impressions I have about ebooks:

- There is still a "novelty" factor. This means I still am thinking "Hey! I’m reading a book on my iPhone" while I’m reading, rather than being totally engrossed in the story as I would be with a print book. As ebooks become more common and I read more of them, I’m sure this will go away.

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