You’d think a science fiction author would be one of the first to embrace emerging technology, like ebooks, for example. But there are some holdouts. One of them has been famed Sci-Fi author Ray Bradbury.
I wrote about him back in 2009, mostly about how much he loathed the internet. Well finally, Bradbury fans can read his classic Fahrenheit 451 (aff link) as an ebook.
Even the most hardcore ebook enthusiast (like myself) might be putting their Kindle down in favor of a print book. Why? Parents are finding that print books are still the best medium for reading to their little ones.
I fall into this category. My son is a young toddler and he’s still at the age where he likes to explore things by putting them in his mouth. That’s what toddlers seem to do, put stuff in their mouths. They also throw, bang, drool on and have numerous other destructive methods in their arsenal. This means toddlers and eReaders don’t mix.
The Authors Guild isn’t holding anything back in their criticism of Amason’s Lending Library. The library program is available to Amazon Prime members, who pay $79 per year for membership.
The Authors Guild’s main complaint is that Amazon is lending out ebooks for free without the publisher’s permission, or even the author’s permission.
Like it or not, writers are entrepreneurs. This is especially true for indie authors who do it all: Write, publish, market and sell their own books. Indie authors are turning themselves into a small “cottage industry.”
A cottage industry is basically where products are made at home, rather than at a manufacturing plant. I’ve covered this briefly in a 2009 post, but thought it’s worth revisiting. Why now? Because with the economy in the tank people are looking for alternative ways to make a living.
0 comments
Barnes & Noble unveiled their newest Nook iteration: The Nook Tablet. This is the book chain’s answer to Amazon’s Kindle Fire. I speculated in an earlier post how B&N will respond to Amazon’s tablet computer. I only said if they don’t already have something in the pipeline, it could be a bad holiday season for the world’s largest bookseller.
Luckily for them, that’s not the case.
Let’s get down to the nitty gritty. Here are some of the features the new tablet/eReader sports:
0 comments
I should first state that I’m firmly against ebook piracy. The reader should pay the price that is set by the author or publisher. Or, if the option is available, borrow the ebook on the Kindle or Nook from a friend/family member or check it out from the library.
There are a lot of ways to gain access to the ebooks you want to read without pirating them. There have been many times in the past when I purchased an ebook for a price I thought was too high. But I paid it anyway because I really wanted to read the book.
0 comments
As expected, ebook sales were up again in August. This time, sales jumped 116%. Not too shabby. There’s really not much more to add here. I’ll let the Publishers Weekly article speak for itself:
E-book sales from publishers that report to the AAP rose 116.5% in August, to $88.8 million, compared to August 2010. The gain marked an acceleration in e-book growth compared to July when sales of the format increased 105%, the slowest in 2011. All trade print segments had a decline in August sales with the largest coming in mass market paperback where sales from reporting companies fell 36.4%. Sales of digital audio rose 30.2% at 12 digital audio publishers.
For the first eight months of 2011, e-book sales increased 144.4%, to $649.2 million, from 18 reporting publishers to the AAP monthly statistics program. Sales were off by double digits in all trade print segments in the January-August period, although sales in the religion category were up 9% in the year to date at the 22 reporting houses.
0 comments
Steve Jobs really was a genius. And I’m not just saying that because of his recent passing (RIP). The products Apple comes out with are always beautifully designed and surprisingly simple.
But Jobs’ genius didn’t just extend to making great products, he was also a cunning businessman who knew how to give Apple a leg up on the competition.
A great example of this is how Steve Jobs single-handily forced Amazon’s hand when it came to ebook pricing. He looked at how Amazon’s was pricing their ebooks and basically said their business model was stupid.
0 comments
Ebooks are taking libraries by storm. After all, why buy an ebook, read it once and then archive it when you can “rent” an ebook at no cost. And forget about checking out an actual print book. Those things are like dinosaurs.
Okay, I might be exaggerating a little, but not much. According to Mediabistro, ebook checkouts from libraries are up significantly from last year:
0 comments
While ebooks have surged in popularity over the last few years, there’s one group that has adopted ebooks the quickest than any other group: Romance fans.
The romance genre has always sold a lot of books. And the consumers of romance are all too eager to eat up the latest titles. One big reason why, I think, romance sells so many books (aside from the “sex sells” factor) is because so many books are a part of a series. You read one, you have to read more.
1 comment - Latest by: Kari : Well of course they are migrating to ebooks, anything to stop their bookshelves from collapsing under the weight of thousands ... More
I'm available for freelance writing gigs. Head on over to Two Trees Media for more information.
© 2011 Brad's Reader. All Rights Reserved. | Privacy Policy | Contact Me | Subscribe | Site designed by Two Trees Media
