tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-872447660964013545.post1530555613271537712..comments2024-03-18T22:39:50.137-07:00Comments on A Kindle World blog: Kindle gets praise. State of e-ink color, Book sales vs Ebook sales. Publishers vs library remote-lending. Amazon e-book furorAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05109282436243758435noreply@blogger.comBlogger12125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-872447660964013545.post-39264524073277902012010-11-13T12:25:57.469-08:002010-11-13T12:25:57.469-08:00CNN and MSNBC seem to want to keep the flames goin...CNN and MSNBC seem to want to keep the flames going too, as both are down in traffic share and it's like sharks and blood. Note that FoxNews of all places pointed out that the other bookstores carry the same books many are now insisting be tossed out. <br /><br /> I see that some cooler heads seemed (yesterday) to be holding sway. We'll see.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05109282436243758435noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-872447660964013545.post-9366108085491597652010-11-13T04:44:37.248-08:002010-11-13T04:44:37.248-08:00yup, there are now calls all over the forums to ba...yup, there are now calls all over the forums to ban books ranging from President Bush' memoirs to various versions of the Bible.<br /><br />The bookburners have found they can force Amazon to do their bidding, the cat is now out of the bag, and I don't see how it's going to be curtailed.jwentinghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03231225414960320582noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-872447660964013545.post-55901909241123145972010-11-12T05:21:53.008-08:002010-11-12T05:21:53.008-08:00Tom,
Re how anyone would know how many books wer...Tom,<br /> Re how anyone would know how many books were sold, a TechCrunch article (they are bragging about forcing this issue and now are looking for other books, the latter dynamic reminding me of witch hunts in the name of Traffic), it turns out that the 'author' (if one can use that word appropriately here) said he had sold only one copy until the brouhaha. <br /><br /> Also, the book had climbed to #80 when I was reading about it yesterday morning. Now people are looking at many other books carried on Amazon in hopes they can get rid of them as well while ignoring that others have found the same books at other online stores.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05109282436243758435noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-872447660964013545.post-80730438777458414082010-11-11T17:51:11.275-08:002010-11-11T17:51:11.275-08:00On the other hand, Tom,
the library could still ...On the other hand, Tom,<br /> the library could still set a limit of how many out at a time in a month etc.<br /><br /> Also, as it is now, people are reporting on the forums that they've been waiting for a book to be free on Overdrive since January to April, and it's now November. It depends on which library system you're on of course.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05109282436243758435noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-872447660964013545.post-68465552927026260132010-11-11T17:18:24.600-08:002010-11-11T17:18:24.600-08:00The Fujitsu looks like reflective LCD or something...The Fujitsu looks like reflective LCD or something. I know there are a lot of people with high hopes for Mirasol, but we'll have to see about that.Tom Semplehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05127272649086914117noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-872447660964013545.post-26421805205806365862010-11-11T17:08:45.910-08:002010-11-11T17:08:45.910-08:00Mike's idea is interesting, even rational, but...Mike's idea is interesting, even rational, but I'm not able to see how it could work. <br /><br />Libraries have budgets. So just as they have a limit on the number of books they can purchase, they'd have to have a limit on the number of ebook loans they allow. Unfortunately this means that when demand is high, they may run out of loans completely, and patrons would have to get wait-listed to check out any ebook (even if they just 'returned' one). <br /><br />By contrast, physical books (and Overdrive digital media) are never all checked out at once, and as they are returned, are available for the next patron almost immediately. So there's always 'something' that can be borrowed, even if it isn't the first choice.<br /><br />I don't think a system where you often have to wait a few days or weeks to be able to check out a book is very appealing, even if it is 'free'. <br /><br />You could pass on the fee to patrons, but at that point, they may not see the point of libraries and stop voting to fund them. (in our small town, we will have to vote new taxes to keep our library open...)<br /><br />And from a publisher's perspective, they'd rather get paid up front for each title, because they profit on books that are not even loaned out. An efficient system is not in their interest. <br /><br />A Netflix-like subscription model might work. Publishers would have to agree to it, of course, and most of them still seem stuck in old thinking.Tom Semplehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05127272649086914117noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-872447660964013545.post-87004620984911725032010-11-11T16:47:47.654-08:002010-11-11T16:47:47.654-08:00Tom,
Good point re the e-book sales calculation ...Tom,<br /> Good point re the e-book sales calculation that can put you lower than 700,000th place.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05109282436243758435noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-872447660964013545.post-20109455078069393432010-11-11T16:45:40.864-08:002010-11-11T16:45:40.864-08:00Tom,
As you may have guessed, I don't think...Tom, <br /> As you may have guessed, I don't think Hanvon (and here is another picture found by Nate, this time of <a href="http://tech.qq.com/a/20101110/000408.htm" rel="nofollow">two Hanvons</a> being held and shown, in which you can barely make out any color) will be selling many in March if they look like this.<br /><br /> On the other hand <a href="http://bit.ly/flepia-apr2010" rel="nofollow">Fujitsu's Flepia</a>, as late as April 2010, looked like this and was reported as "cool" by ubergizmo. The Flepia, before and then sold at $1,000+ in Japan!<br /><br /> I saw a demo on YouTube of the first one and it it drew across on the screen very slowly, in 3 different stages. It showed me that some people REALLY want color. <br /><br /> By the way, went to check on <a href="http://bit.ly/tomsemple" rel="nofollow">your blog's Kindle software experiments</a>, which have been interesting, and saw you've taken a rest from that? Maybe you'll have more to try soon, I hope.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05109282436243758435noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-872447660964013545.post-3669478869668432492010-11-11T16:12:56.158-08:002010-11-11T16:12:56.158-08:00Mike,
Your proposal makes a lot of sense to ME, ...Mike,<br /> Your proposal makes a lot of sense to ME, but I don't know if 'sense' plays a role in any of this these days. <br /><br /> Have bookmarked your <a href="http://bit.ly/inklingbooks" rel="nofollow">Inkling Books</a> page for especially the Google Settlement links.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05109282436243758435noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-872447660964013545.post-15127740871712295132010-11-11T15:41:32.269-08:002010-11-11T15:41:32.269-08:00Just an observation: 158,221 is not a very high sa...Just an observation: 158,221 is not a very high sales ranking. Based on my own experiments (purchasing a single copy of my wife's book after getting it in Kindle store), a single sale can get you up to 200,000 or so, and so this may only represent a couple of sales, presumably to reporters working on the story. The majority of books offered at Amazon don't have any sales at all in any given 24 hour period.<br /><br />It's also not clear how someone could assert that a book has sold only 1 copy, since that information is not published, and Amazon doesn't say how they compute sales rank. For example lets say a book sells 500 copies, then stops selling for a day, will immediately be outranked by a book that sells one copy. It's a 24 hour sliding window, but how non-selling books are ranked relative to each other is anybody's guess.Tom Semplehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05127272649086914117noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-872447660964013545.post-43806480144506200352010-11-11T14:19:01.725-08:002010-11-11T14:19:01.725-08:00I don't give Havlon much chance of success.
T...I don't give Havlon much chance of success.<br /><br />The Triton eink in particular seems weak: 800x600 spread out over an area more than twice that of a 6" screen, and the additional color filter layer can only mush the B&W clarity and contrast, while providing only washed out color. I don't see how the color filter layer can be bistable, seems like it must draw some additional power when displaying color, despite the claims of zero impact. More nails in the coffin are that published refresh rates for color are up to 8 times slower than eink Pearl, and of course it will cost more.<br /><br />But it is coming to market, apparently, so we'll see how it does.Tom Semplehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05127272649086914117noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-872447660964013545.post-26611400234859394452010-11-11T09:09:50.912-08:002010-11-11T09:09:50.912-08:00Is the UK's Publisher's Association really...Is the UK's Publisher's Association really as clueless as their remarks seem to indicate? They don't seem to realize that digital books aren't subject to the same restrictions as physical ones. Going to a library to pick up an ebook isn't necessary nor is a library restricted to having one loan copy linked to owning only one physical copy.<br /><br />A much better idea would be for publishers to supply every library with every book they have, serving the files from some remote location through a third-party service. The library wouldn't pay to own a copy (the traditional model). They'd pay a smaller fee each time a book is checked out, with no limit as to the number of checkouts at one time. <br /><br />Done that way, the publisher wouldn't need to get into the business of policing who could check these digital copies out. If a library wants to have a loose policy on membership, that's their problem since they're the ones paying the checkout fees. And publishers wouldn't be restricted to income from books only when they keep it in print. Books out of print twenty years or more would still earn money for publishers and authors.<br /><br />I also suspect digital books would save money for library systems with more than one location. Computerized catalogs have resulted in an enormous increase in the number of books being pulled from one branch, shipped to another, and shelved on hold there. That's a lot of expense for something that could be done in an instant digitally and from one's home.<br /><br />Digital loans paid for per loan would also mean that libraries don't need to buy a 100+ copies of some hot new title simply to cover the first few months of demand. They'd have in their collection as many or as few copies as they need and the collections of even small town libraries would be world class.<br /><br />And yes, some of the problem is that Overdrive, which should be technically savvy, seems equally stuck in their old ways of doing things.Mike Perryhttp://www.inklingbooks.com/noreply@blogger.com