Mark Coker, the founder of ebook publisher Smashwords, believes that ebook prices will drop. In an interview with eBookNewser Mark discusses the current ebook market, what publishers are doing wrong and where he sees ebook prices heading. He also heavily criticizes the new ‘agency model’ that publishers are seeking to implement.

The biggest unknown in the ebook world right now is the question of pricing. How much is too much? And how low can ebook prices go before the author and publisher lose money? Publishers continue to give the common line that ebooks still cost a lot of money to produce, therefore justifying a higher price:

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Amazon.com recently announced the Amazon Singles, ebooks that are between 30 and 90 pages that will be priced much lower than Amazon’s usual $9.99 ebook price point.

The new program allows authors who have not yet written a full-length novel to get their work out on Amazon’s huge publishing platform. In other words, it lets them test the waters. It also lets authors publish their shorter works which might not fit into any other category.

While authors will benefit greatly, Amazon will benefit the most in increased revenue and ebook market share.

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Ebook prices are still very fluid. There’s no industry standard, or even a consensus, on how much an ebook should cost. Only one thing is for sure, ebook consumers like prices low. Author Ken Follett and his publisher are learning that the hard way. His publisher raised the price of a Follett book from $7.99 to $9.99. The result? Sales of the ebook fell by 48%.

Hopefully this will be a wake-up call to other publishers and authors that higher ebook prices will only hurt sales. This also shows that the agency model, when publishers are allowed to set their own prices, doesn’t work. A recent post on J.A. Konrath’s blog says:

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In a 4th quarter earnings press release published today by the largest online retailer, Amazon.com, the company reports that they have sold “millions” of their 3rd generation Kindles in the last fiscal quarter. CEO Jeff Bezos released this statement:

“Thanks to our customers, we achieved two big milestones,” said Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon.com. “We had our first $10 billion quarter, and after selling millions of third-generation Kindles with the new Pearl e-ink display during the quarter, Kindle books have now overtaken paperback books as the most popular format on Amazon.com. Last July we announced that Kindle books had passed hardcovers and predicted that Kindle would surpass paperbacks in the second quarter of this year, so this milestone has come even sooner than we expected – and it’s on top of continued growth in paperback sales.”

Amazon is notoriously tight-lipped about their Kindle sales numbers. Estimates are all over the place, but all appear to be above the 5 million mark for 2010.

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Barnes & Noble, the nation’s largest bookseller, updated the firmware to their NookColor eReader to version 1.1.0. This is the first firmware update since the NookColor was released late last year.

According to the B&N website, here are the updates 1.1.0 brings:

• Improved performance of Wi-Fi connectivity, Home and Shop.
• Ability to pinch and zoom in browser.
• Enhanced reading experience for magazines and children’s books.
• Access helpful NOOKcolor related information and support tips on the new default browser home page.
• Reduce mistyped passwords with “show password” option during registration and Wi-Fi set up.
• Easily identify NOOK kids Read To Me
  

As much as I love Apple and my iPad, I’m not impressed with iBooks. I’ve been putting the ebook reading app through it’s paces by reading Elin Hilderbrand’s

After owning the iPad for over a month now, I’m not surprised that iPad sales are so high. What I am a little surprised at is that more iPad owners are buying their ebooks from Amazon than Apple’s own iBooks. Publishers Weekly reported on a survey recently taken by the Codex Group.

I’ve been using the Kindle app and I will admit, it’s pretty impressive. Combined with the sheer volume of ebooks that Amazon offers, it’s a force to be reckoned with.

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Publishers, treading cautiously, have only recently began letting consumers share ebooks. The Kindle and Nook allow for sharing, but with a lot of restrictions: Ebooks can only be lent out once, for 2 weeks and not all ebooks are available for lending.

Ebook fans are taking matters into their own hands. A few websites have popped up allowing users to swap ebooks with each other. According to Publishers Weekly, BookSwim launched a site called ebooktoss.com:

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I’ve had my iPad for a month now and put it through its paces, including a trip across the country. I can only say one thing: I’m loving it! The device is versatile, has a decent battery life and the display is crisp and clear. Furthermore, compared to my 1st gen iPhone, the iPad is speedy. It’s just an all around great device.

But I haven’t forgotten about dismissing the iPad, especially as an ebook reader in an earlier post. My views have evolved since then as they usually do when it comes to cool tech toys. However, in my own defense, I did mention in that post that I would love to have an iPad.

Here are the 3 reasons why I love the iPad:

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A short article from Publishers Weekly reports that Scholastic Books is digitizing their True Books non-fiction series. According to PW, the books will be greatly enhanced with a lot of different resources to help kids get excited about learning and making the subjects more accessible:

The site has enhanced e-books, videos, articles, images, and related media, and is aimed at students in grades 3 to 5, focusing on science and social studies.

The article continues:

For each topic, students can watch a video, read a flipbook version of the book (with page-turning and read-along features, chapter tabs, and vocabulary terms identified and defined), and read related content such as primary source documents and articles from Grolier Online.

Once again ebooks are showing their versatility and how they can enhance learning. Back when I was reading Scholastic books (I feel old saying that), we read the book and that was pretty much it. If we didn’t understand something, we could ask someone like a teacher or parent, or maybe even dust off the old Encyclopedia Britannica.