If there is one thing I’ve learned about the world of ebooks, it’s that you can’t always predict what publishers will do. Back in May I wrote this post ‘Will book publishers learn from music  and newspaper industries‘. In it, I gave a fairly harsh critique of Simon & Schuster CEO Carolyn Reidy for arguing that ebooks should not be priced lower than their print counterparts, because you’re paying for the content, not the format.

I’m not going to re-hash how loony her reasoning is (read my early post for that). But you can imagine I was surprised when I read in this New York Times article ‘Simon & Schuster to sell digital books on Scribd.com‘. Apparently, someone over at S&S has some idea of how to integrate digital books into the traditional publishing model.

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Today felt a lot like Christmas for me, especially as I sat and watched the liveblogging of Apple’s World Wide Developer Conference (WWDC) keynote presentation. The excitement peaked when Apple unveiled the next generation iPhone – the 3GS (the ‘S’ stands for ‘Speed’).

The newest version of the popular mobile device is packed with new features – like auto-zoom camera, video recording, digital compass, longer battery life, etc. There are plenty of places where you can read all the juicy details about the 3GS, so I’m not going to go into much detail here. But there are a few things I found interesting.

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Since mega-book retailer Barnes & Noble acquired Fictionwise, the online retailer of ebooks, I’m very anxious to know what B&N plans to do with the website and their service. In the last year, a majority of the ebooks I have bought have been from Fictionwise, giving me even more interest in the outcome of this acquisition.

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In a move to try and drum up foot traffic at bookstores across the country, Publishers Weekly is announcing the first ever National Bookselling Day, according to this article from their website. PW has partnered with several publishers, various literary publications and different bookselling associations across the country to help promote the event.

While in theory this sounds like a great idea, I wonder how they are going to get Joe Average Reader on board to actually visit his local store on November 7. I’m not saying it can’t be done, but if they are not careful, it can easily turn into an event that only PW and the involved parties care about – not the readers who are the ones who shell out cash to actually buy books.

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I’m always on the lookout for authors who not only embrace ebooks but use them to compliment their print book sales. The most interesting way of doing this, I think, is by giving ebooks away for free. Science fiction writer Cory Doctorow does it and I’m sure a lot of other writers do to.

Last night I came across the blog of writer JA Konrath (who goes by the pen name Jack Kilborn) via this Enriched by Words blog post. As I side note, I’d like to mention that I had the pleasure of seeing Konrath in my local bookstore when he stopped by to sign a few copies of his book. He happens to also live in the Chicago area like I do.

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I’ll admit that I wasn’t very surprsied when I read Declining Sales Cast Gloom at an Expo on the New York Times website yesterday. Unless you’ve been living in a cave, cut off from all civilization and news, then it’s hard to ignore the news about how this deep recession we are in is hurting a lot of industries – publishing included.

This weekend BookExpo America, the book industry’s annual convention, is taking place in New York City. Also not surprising is that attendance at the convention is down as well.

Normally I’m not a numbers guy. I don’t like math and I failed remedial math in college (embarrassing, I know). But sometimes you have to let the numbers speak for themselves.

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The online self ebook publisher Smashwords has announced the beginning of their affiliate program, which will let bloggers, publishers, authors, and website owners promote ebooks sold on Smashwords in exchange for a commission on each sale. Here’s an excerpt from their press release:

“Our mission at Smashwords is to help authors and publishers publish, promote and sell their ebooks,” said Mark Coker, founder of Smashwords. “The Smashwords Affiliate Marketing Program will help authors and publishers expand their digital shelf space while providing affiliate marketers the opportunity to profit from the rapid rise of electronic books.”

According to the Association of American Publishers(AAP), ebooks are the fastest growing segment of book publishing today. Ebooks experienced a compound annual growth rate of 58 percent per year for the last six years, versus an overall industry growth rate of 1.6 percent. In recent months, the growth of ebooks has accelerated to over 100 percent while print books have declined, according to the AAP (source: http://www.publishers.org).

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Sometimes I lose all faith in the world of book publishing. And after I read the article Steal This Book from the New York Times, I just wanted to bang my head against my desk until I stop caring what publishers do. The article details Amazon’s $9.99 price point for a majority of ebooks and the consequences it might have on the publishing industry.

For one, publishers (and a few authors) fear that if us readers get too comfortable with lower prices for ebooks, it might be the end of literature as we know it. Well, not really, but that’s how they make it sound. And the sheer stubbornness that some publishers and authors view ebooks with is frustrating. But what gets me the most is that some in the book industry have not really learned a single lesson from the music industry, or even our county’s dying print newspapers. Here’s an example:

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The publishing world is at a crossroads when it comes to ebooks: Publishers/authors can either embrace ebooks, trash all this DRM non-sense and reap the rewards (i.e. profits), or they can take the route of the music industry and fight against the rising tide of ebooks, slap draconian DRM on everything and watch the industry get taken over by pirates. If the latter happens, then it’s only a matter of time before we start seeing RIAA-style lawsuits.

Surprisingly, even among authors, digital distribution is a point of contention. Here are 2 authors that represent two opposite sides of the digital spectrum:

The author who sues his own readers

First is Harlan Ellison who, according to this NYT article, doesn’t take lightly to pirates of his work:

Nine years ago, Mr. Ellison sued Internet service providers for failing to stop a user from posting four of his stories to an online newsgroup. Since settling that suit, he has pursued more than 240 people who have posted his work to the Internet without permission. "If you put your hand in my pocket, you’ll drag back six inches of bloody stump," he said.

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The Kindle DX has officially "been out" for a few hours now (though not shipping until summer), which has been just enough time for me to think about it a little since writing this previous post. I’ll start off by saying that, despite all my criticism, I do like the Kindle and I even like Amazon. My beef with both is when it comes to DRM.

As for the Kindle DX, I think it is definitely taking a step in the right direction. Amazon is spot on to develop and release a device that can be very well suited to help college students lighten their loads, maybe help a struggling newspaper industry, and even give those with vision problems the ability to enjoy reading.

Let’s break it down one item at a time!

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