"Have publishers already lost the war over agency pricing?"

Are publishers who raised e-book pricing the past year losing the ebook-pricing war?   I'd like to think so.

 The blog article's subject title is from the headline on the article by Philip Jones at Futurebook.net commenting on the higher-priced e-books not appearing very much in Amazon's topmost besteller lists (UK).

  Actually, he's commenting on The Guardian's article by Sam Jordison on "EU anger over ebook deal suggests hard times ahead for publishers."

  Describing again (1) the circumstances leading to the use of Apple's "Agency Plan" by the Big5 (and now Big6) publishers, which raised e-book prices by 30-50% average, this last year, and (2) the raids by the European Commission on publishing houses in the UK to investigate possible anti-trust violations, seizing not only paperwork but also "smart phones and laptops from senior executives," the Guardian's Jordison sides with the publishers against what he describes as a monopolist Amazon against angelic publishers who are just trying "to get a good deal for everyone."

  They do, however, have the sense to see a valid point in the complaint "The only reality we readers know is that we want to buy the book but can't."

  They continue, nevertheless, "But the fact that customers have a distorted view of how much ebooks should cost is hardly the publishers' fault.  Especially since a new breed of "self-published" authors are starting to sell millions of the things at $0.99 or less on Amazon – which casts an interesting light on the recent declarations about ebooks outselling paper books."

  Imagine that!  But then, new technology has been a problem through the ages for those wedded to older technology and unwilling to adjust to it.

Futurebook's article
Philip Jones thinks that Sam Jordison is an advocate of publishers setting of bookseller prices "but he is concerned that publishers may lose the battle legally, and that they have already lost the battle in the hearts of the consumers."  

Yes, and Jordison might do a bit more wondering about why that is so, and it's not just about pricing.  It also says a lot about what publishers think of their reading customers.  I've seen publisher statements (and reprinted them) that anyone well-off enough to buy an e-reader can afford the high book prices.  (Thanks to Joe Besser for the correction.)

 In marking books up by almost 50% when new, and also OVER the price of their paper back copies too often, they display a real disdain for e-book customers who are expected to spend almost as much OR MORE on a product that cannot be resold, and in most cases still cannot be lent to anyone.

  This goes against the traditional attitude toward books.  The publishers prohibit, for the most part, lending as is normal with paper books, and prohibit entirely re-selling the books.  Yet they price them higher than paperback books, and often only a few dollars less than a hardcover.  And now they're targeting libraries, with e-books to be disabled after x number of loans.  And the latter is with publishers willing to lend e-books at all to public libraries.  Macmillian and Simon & Schuster won't.  Jones points out:

'... publishers such as Hachette, Harper, Penguin, and Simon & Schuster, should be getting their titles into the Kindle charts, even at higher prices.  But I just checked the hourly Kindle chart, and there are no agency priced books in the top 20.  The highest placed title is David Nicholls' One Day (Hodder/Hachette), which also happens to be the fourth most expensive Kindle Edition in the current top 50.

Furthermore, and this is even more worrying.  The average price of paid-for books in Amazon's Kindle top 50 chart today is £1.79.  It is little wonder Guardian commentators [people commenting on the article] think e-books should cost less than agency publishers are making them available: they do.

Read some of the reviews appended to those self-published titles in the Kindle chart, and we could be forgiven for thinking that price has superceded quality in the minds of Kindle users.  This is not just worrying it is tragic.  Agency publishers have a limited period of time to prove Amazon wrong by getting their titles up the Kindle bestseller chart, before the OFT rules one way or another. The concern must be that by then, the war may already have been lost. '

His numbers are from the Amazon UK Kindle store, but in the U.S. the UK site's Kindle book pricing is not displayed except in the Bestseller listings.

Actually, there ARE e-reader customers who give cost a very high weight in the economy we're in today.  Many are also finding quality writing although they may have to dig deep and wide, but when they find it, word of mouth is a huge factor in online book sales.

  The online community is important for those not wanting to wade through it all, and there is actually a way to find quality writing without depending on large publishing houses and publicity machines, to the extent that some writers discovered by price-conscious readers have been offered contracts by large publishing houses; an important trend now is seen in authors who are hesitating to go with the contracts offered, as it may be more beneficial for them to continue to 'self-publish' because the large publishers have not had a reputation for paying the authors/creators what they are due.

  For the Amazon UK customers' rather raw feelings on all this (and publishers should really pay more attention to what is said), see the Agency pricing thread on their Kindle forums.  It's similar to what is seen on the U.S. forums but UK customers are even more angry about it because the increases by the Big5 publishers have been quite outrageous in the UK where general e-book pricing had been lower than it had been Amazon US's Kindlestore.

BESTSELLER E-BOOK listings for UK and US stores
  Here is the current Bestseller listing (paid and free) for Amazon UK,
  and here's the current Bestseller listing for for Amazon US.



Kindle 3's   (UK: Kindle 3's),   DX Graphite

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Check often: Temporarily-free late-listed non-classics or recently published ones
  Guide to finding Free Kindle books and Sources.  Top 100 free bestsellers.
UK-Only: recently published non-classics, bestsellers, or highest-rated ones
    Also, UK customers should see the UK store's Top 100 free bestsellers. Below are ways to Share this post if you'd like others to see it.
-- The Send to Kindle button works well only on Firefox currently.

Send to Kindle

(Older posts have older Kindle model info. For latest models, see CURRENT KINDLES page. )
If interested, you can also follow my add'l blog-related news at Facebook and Twitter
Questions & feedback are welcome in the Comment areas (tho' spam is deleted). Thanks!

New Kindle exclusive - 7 books by Albert Einstein

FOR THE HEADIER AMONG US :-)

Amazon announced yesterday that they have another Kindle Exclusive, this time seven books by Albert Einstein, coinciding with the 132nd anniversary of his birth and published by Open Road Integrated Media LLC.

  These are being called "enhanced" editions in that they've added "new photographs and biographical information from experts at the Hebrew University Einstein Archives, introductions written by Neil Berger and new covers to previously published print editions (a portion of which have been available digitally in the public domain) to create new Albert Einstein Archives Authorized Editions of the works. These books are available starting today for download exclusively in the (Kindle store (the link goes to the Einstein-release page).  There's also a general Albert Einstein page.

  Jane Friedman, CEO and Cofounder of Open Road Integrated Media LLC, said that they're "digitally publishing the authorized ebooks of a selection of Albert Einstein's most important writings" and that "In partnership with Philosophical Library and Hebrew University, we have curated fascinating material about Einstein’s life that will both attract new readers and appeal to diehard fans."

  Since this is a public-relations release, meant for wide distribution, here is the the rest of it that relates to the Einstein Exclusive specifically:

“Albert Einstein is one of our most important thinkers,” said Russ Grandinetti, Vice President of Kindle Content. “These books cover everything from the Theory of Relativity to Einstein’s own letters chronicling his thoughts on life. We’re excited to make these books available for Kindle device owners (UK: K3) and app users, and think readers will enjoy them.”

Albert Einstein (1879–1955) was born in Germany and became an American citizen in 1940. A world-famous theoretical physicist, he was awarded the 1921 Nobel Prize for Physics and is renowned for his Theory of Relativity. In addition to his scientific work, Einstein was an influential humanist who spoke widely about politics, ethics and social causes. After leaving Europe, Einstein taught at Princeton University. His theories were instrumental in shaping the Atomic Age.

This selection of Einstein books was designed for readers interested in Einstein’s seminal works in physics, his collaborations with colleagues, and his broader philosophy. The seven digital works that will be exclusive to the Kindle Store are:

* “Essays in Humanism”: An inspiring collection of the great thinker’s views on a rapidly changing world;
* “Essays in Science”: An homage to the men and women of science, and an exposition of Einstein’s place in scientific history;
* “Letters on Wave Mechanics: Correspondence with H. A. Lorentz, Max Planck, and Erwin Schrödinger”: A lively collection of Einstein’s groundbreaking scientific correspondence on modern physics with other contemporary giants in his field: Schrödinger, Planck and Lorentz;
* “Letters to Solovine: 1906-1955”: A provocative collection of letters to his longtime friend and translator that spans Einstein’s career and reveals the inner thoughts and daily life of a transformative genius;
* “Out of My Later Years: The Scientist, Philosopher, and Man Portrayed Through His Own Words”: An inspiring collection of essays in which Einstein addresses the topics that fascinated him as a scientist, philosopher and humanitarian;
* “The Theory of Relativity and Other Essays”: E=mc2: It may be Einstein’s most well-known contribution to modern science, but how many people understand the thought process or physics behind this famous equation?
* “The World As I See It”: A fascinating collection of Einstein’s observations about life, religion, nationalism, and a host of personal topics that engaged the genius’s intellect.

Open Road has digitally published these titles as part of its ongoing publishing partnership with Philosophical Library.

About Open Road Integrated Media
Open Road Integrated Media LLC (www.openroadmedia.com) is a digital content company that publishes and markets ebooks by creating connections between authors and their audiences. The company’s ebooks offer a 360-degree world of existing and originally produced premium content that is marketed through a new proprietary platform.

Open Road’s Author Brand Program focuses on extensive backlist catalogues, while its Publishing Partner Program is based on co-marketing of ebooks with originating publishers. Open Road publishes new titles that are “born digital” in the company's E-riginals program. '

Kindle 3's   (UK: Kindle 3's),   DX Graphite

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Check often: Temporarily-free late-listed non-classics or recently published ones
  Guide to finding Free Kindle books and Sources.  Top 100 free bestsellers.
UK-Only: recently published non-classics, bestsellers, or highest-rated ones
    Also, UK customers should see the UK store's Top 100 free bestsellers. Below are ways to Share this post if you'd like others to see it.
-- The Send to Kindle button works well only on Firefox currently.

Send to Kindle

(Older posts have older Kindle model info. For latest models, see CURRENT KINDLES page. )
If interested, you can also follow my add'l blog-related news at Facebook and Twitter
Questions & feedback are welcome in the Comment areas (tho' spam is deleted). Thanks!

Librarians and the Kindle - The librarian boycott of HarperCollins

The Unquiet Librarian and her Kindle program
High school teacher Guven Witteveen wrote me about a terrific blog (The Unquiet Librarian) by Buffy Hamilton, media specialist/teacher-librarian at Creekview High School in Canton, Georgia.

  On March 6, I did a blog article featuring Hamilton's Creekville High School's Kindle program along with an upbeat photo of the students and Hamilton holding up their Kindles.

  Her blog article on their Kindle program is an update with FAQs.  They're about 4 months into the Kindle circulation program and, so far, it's a success, she writes.  She shares what is working well and challenges they've encountered.  Most of this was covered in the March 6 blog article here but is in her own words, and she adds a FAQ section for Librarians and Teachers that details the oft-asked questions about how it all works, with very thorough answers.
  Librarians and Teachers should definitely read the FAQ.

Librarians and the boycott against HarperCollins' new library-loan limit.
Kate Sheehan gives "A Librarian's Take On E-book Lending," explaining to HarperCollins that librarians are for the publishers and not against them.

This is in connection with the boycott joined by many librarians against HarperCollins' new policy that any HarperCollins e-book may be loaned by a public library only 26 times and then the e-book is disabled and the library will need to buy a new copy.  As mentioned here in late February, both Simon & Schuster and Macmillan do not allow libraries to loan their e-books at all and this new rule that went into effect March 7 isn't economically tenable for libraries in these strapped times with so many budget cuts affecting them.

On the boycott site's "Explanation" page, the boycotters ask:

' Until this policy is revoked, join us by not buying any new books or ebooks published by HarperCollins or any of its imprints: Amistad, Avon, Avon A, Avon Inspire, Avon Red, Balzer + Bray, Caedmon, Collins, Ecco, Eos, Greenwillow Books, Harper, Harper Business, Harper Design, Harper Paperbacks, Harper Perennial, Harper Perennial Modern Classics, HarperAudio, HarperBibles, HarperCollins Children's Audio, HarperCollins Children's Books, HarperCollins e-Books, HarperFestival, HarperLuxe, HarperOne, HarperTeen, ItBooks, Katherine Tegen Books, Rayo, Walden Pond Press, and William Morrow.

In addition, support your local library if it chooses to participate in the boycott and write a letter to HarperCollins explaining your actions. '

 Quite a bit more is explained on that page.  Librarians worry that other publishers will follow HarperCollins' lead if libraries agree to the policy.  As Sheehan explains, "If HarperCollins sets the bar for other publishers, libraries will be unable to start or grow their e-book collections."

Read much more at the story by Sheehan at Publisher Weekly.

A retirement gift for a creative librarian
At her retirement party, Visalia librarian Judy Wood was given (can you guess?) a Kindle :-).  She's about to open it in the photo at the right.  But although my interest began with the fact that this was chosen as a retirement gift for a librarian, it's the way she's lived her life that really struck me.  Most reaching this age are looking forward to just stepping back from 'work' and having more time for themselves, relaxing, etc.

  Instead she's going to be busy doing more of what she's done, as a volunteer.  Here's a description of what she's done. I'm going to quote most of it, because it's from a local paper and most would not see it, but it's such a change from the usual today:

' Wood has a way of bringing people together and making things happen.

She brought to Tulare County eight Dust Bowl immigrants who had made successes out of their lives. She put them on a panel and invited the community to attend an educational program on "The Grapes of Wrath."  Her first program filled the library.
  "It was my first shining moment," the 68-year-old Wood said.  "Doing programs has been a ball."

Her World War II program, called "Years of Valor, Years of Hope: Tulare County and the Years 1941-1946," can still be found on the Tulare County Library website.  From 2003-04, more than 100 Tulare County residents were interviewed by 20 people who learned how to take oral histories for the project.

Wood said she would return to the Tulare County Library as a volunteer, do more programs and help the Friends of the Library reach out to home-bound seniors.
. . .
Being a librarian was a second career for her. For many years, she worked as an accountant.
But her real dream was always to become a librarian, she said.
Ever since she was in the third grade, Wood said she wanted to be a librarian.

Finally, in her mid-50s, after raising two children and returning to college to finish her bachelor's degree in business and her master's degree in library science, she was hired at the Tulare County Library in January 1999.
. .
She's also a cancer survivor.  Following her retirement, she is going to have radiation treatment for six weeks at City of Hope in the Los Angeles area. '

She IS looking forward to spending time with her husband, planning a trip to Europe in the Fall.  I imagine she'll be enjoying her gift there.  She's an inspiration.


Kindle 3's   (UK: Kindle 3's),   DX Graphite

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Check often: Temporarily-free late-listed non-classics or recently published ones
  Guide to finding Free Kindle books and Sources.  Top 100 free bestsellers.
UK-Only: recently published non-classics, bestsellers, or highest-rated ones
    Also, UK customers should see the UK store's Top 100 free bestsellers. Below are ways to Share this post if you'd like others to see it.
-- The Send to Kindle button works well only on Firefox currently.

Send to Kindle

(Older posts have older Kindle model info. For latest models, see CURRENT KINDLES page. )
If interested, you can also follow my add'l blog-related news at Facebook and Twitter
Questions & feedback are welcome in the Comment areas (tho' spam is deleted). Thanks!

Google's Person Finder (Japan) + the Kindle 3G lookup for emergencies. UPDATE

At the left is Google's new Person-Finder: 2011 Japan Earthquake tool.   Like others, I added it in the top area of the webpage yesterday, and Google already has a database of over 40,000 names in it.

 You enter the  name of the person you're looking for or the name of someone you have information about.

  In connection with that, I saw a story last night about a Melbourne family looking for their son/nephew, Jason, who was visiting Sendai and had called his mother to say he was fine, after the earthquake, but then the tsunami hit and they didn't hear from him after that.  Disconcerting.

  There are several stories included but that's all there was about him, so I put his name into the Person Finder web form and found information from someone about Jason -- that he was okay, and it also let the family know where he was staying.  Phones weren't working on Sendai of course.  You can click on the image at the right to see the web page result.

That was offtopic.  What about the Kindle?
   It was hard to think about the Kindle last night but someone sent me a story from the Instapundit.com site that does involve the use of the Kindle's free 3G cellular wireless capability, which often comes in handy.  Glenn Reynolds's article was about reader Mary Forman's note "in praise of the Kindle":

' “We have been unable to reach our daughter in Morioka, Iwate Prefecture, since the earthquake struck almost 20 hours ago.  We just received an email from her (she’s fine) which she sent from a friend’s 3G Kindle!  Put that on your disaster list!”

  Noted.  As a test, I blogged from my Kindle once. It worked, but it wasn’t easy with that tiny keyboard. . . .

  UPDATE: Reader Matt Potter emails: “Just a follow up to the Kindle email comms. My friend’s daughter was a missionary in Haiti at the time of the earthquake.  They primarily used text messages to arrange evacuation.  The layering of communications in the modern world now offers these kind of capabilities.” Yes, text-messaging often works when regular calls won’t get through. '

That was actually done via email with the experimental free 3G web-access feature, in its 4th year, included in the purchase-price of the Kindle (UK: K3).  And I agree with Reynolds -- I wouldn't want to blog on the Kindle, but it's great for needed web lookups wherever you happen to be.

UPDATE
Web-lookups you can do almost anywhere
  . Get step by step directions to drive, walk or bicycle to your destination (when lost).
  . Free, downloadable Kindle Bookmarks or WebLinks file for sites optmized for the Kindle.  In book form, this has workarounds for various oddities you might encounter when using gmail and other Google features and includes good links to mobile-device optimized sites, with some links that are to menu trees of many good links.

On this Kindleworld website, I also have links, near the top, to BBC's very informative live reports and constant video of the situation in Japan, as the situation is overwhelming.

 HuffPo also has aggregated news updates and video at the bottom of their Japan earthquake page.  Amazon has Red Cross donation boxes on their pages if you'd like to help in that way.


Kindle 3's   (UK: Kindle 3's),   DX Graphite

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Check often: Temporarily-free late-listed non-classics or recently published ones
  Guide to finding Free Kindle books and Sources.  Top 100 free bestsellers.
UK-Only: recently published non-classics, bestsellers, or highest-rated ones
    Also, UK customers should see the UK store's Top 100 free bestsellers. Below are ways to Share this post if you'd like others to see it.
-- The Send to Kindle button works well only on Firefox currently.

Send to Kindle

(Older posts have older Kindle model info. For latest models, see CURRENT KINDLES page. )
If interested, you can also follow my add'l blog-related news at Facebook and Twitter
Questions & feedback are welcome in the Comment areas (tho' spam is deleted). Thanks!

IDC's Quarterly tablet and ereader tracker. Also, comic strip for the day

IDC, International Data Corporation, just released its latest Worldwide Quarterly Media Tablet and eReader Tracker analysis.

Out of 10.1 million media tablets* shipped in the fourth quarter of 2010, which was more than double the 4.5 million shipped in the third quarter.

  Apple's share, with the iPad, decreased from 93% in the 3rd quarter to 73% in the 4th qtr, which is still a strong showing, obviously.  I was surprised it dropped down almost 20% though.

  * "Media tablets" - per IDC - are tablet form factor devices with color displays larger than 5 in. and smaller than 14 in. running lightweight operating systems.  This is in contrast to "tablet PC's" that run full PC operating systems.

Samsung's Galaxy Tab captured more than 17% share during the holiday season.

ArsTechnica's Chris Foresman Forrester reports that:

' Forrester researcher Sarah Rotman believes Amazon is best poised to give Apple the most credible threat to its dominating market position, assuming it could assemble a more general purpose tablet with a color screen" '

According to The Tracker analysis, the eReader market "picked up significantly in the fourth quarter" led by "strong sales of Amazon's Kindle" with significant gains from "competitors such as Pandigital, Barnes & Noble, Hanvon, and Sony among others."

In the 4th quarter (4Q10), the eReader market "more than doubled from the 3Q10, with 12.8 million units shipped, and eReader shipments were up more than 325% from 2009" when roughly 3 million units shipped."

IDC expects Apple to maintain a 70-80% share of the market.

Other media tablets
  "The recently launched Motorola Xoom is a worthy competitor in function, although the relatively high price is expected to be a barrier to gaining significant share."

  The Galaxy, with 32 gigs of storage and 3G cellular wireless access is available for $600 on a 2-year data plan of $20/mo. (for 1 gig of data used) and $30/mo. (for up to 5 gigs). The current Galaxy doesn't offer WiFi access.

  The iPad, with 32 gigs of storage and 3G access has been available for $730 with option of a monthly data plan at $15/mo. for 250 Megs or $25 for the first 2 gigs.

  Many more tablets are appearing on the scene.  Android tablets are not as restricted (in what software apps you can use) but currently are somewhat crash-prone while the iPad is restricted but more stable.

eReaders

' Amazon continued to lead the eReader market holding just over 48% share in 4Q10 and 2010 overall.  Amazon's share recovered in 4Q10 with shipments of the refreshed Kindle (3) (UK: K3)after dipping under 40% in 3Q10. '

They say the Pandigital edged out Barnes and Noble for the 2nd spot in 4Q10 (another surprise). Barnes and Noble's NOOKcolor, LCD-based, is more expensive than e-Ink ereaders but offers fewer features than a full-fledged media tablet.

Worldwide, Sony Reader shipments grew 80.7% during 4Q10 and exceeded 800,000 units for 2010.  They're not much discussed in U.S. ereader forums though, due to higher pricing and no wireless features except in the highest-priced model.

COMIC STRIP of the day - from grimmy.com - Thanks to James of the Lake.
Enjoy it here.


Kindle 3's   (UK: Kindle 3's),   DX Graphite

---

Check often: Temporarily-free late-listed non-classics or recently published ones
  Guide to finding Free Kindle books and Sources.  Top 100 free bestsellers.
UK-Only: recently published non-classics, bestsellers, or highest-rated ones
    Also, UK customers should see the UK store's Top 100 free bestsellers.

Below are ways to Share this post if you'd like others to see it.
-- The Send to Kindle button works well only on Firefox currently.

Send to Kindle

(Older posts have older Kindle model info. For latest models, see CURRENT KINDLES page. )
If interested, you can also follow my add'l blog-related news at Facebook and Twitter
Questions & feedback are welcome in the Comment areas (tho' spam is deleted). Thanks!

Math Flashcards for Kindle - Peter Darbyshire's 'Please' - Lights for Kindle

These were released yesterday and may be useful for families but of course there are no reviews yet.  Remember that Amazon has a 7-day return policy on most e-products if they're found to be unsatisfactory.

  These include conversions and, as usual, there are ascending levels of difficulty.

' You can use the cards as a study guide to introduce a concept, practice with multiple-choice answers, and progress to fill in the answer directly.
  To give students timely feedback, correct answers are acknowledged and incorrect answers are corrected immediately upon submitting an answer. A high score table tracks your ten highest scores to help you track your progress and improvement. '

Peter Darbyshire's Please (also, in the UK).  I just read Darbyshire's article in Province about the reaction of friends and colleagues to his decision to self-publish Please, his first novel, originally published by Raincoat Press in paperback a few years ago.

  It went on to win the ReLit prize for Canada's best alternative novel.  When it went out of print, instead of having it republished he decided to go the Kindle route.  In the article he mentions other authors who have been doing unexpectedly well with self-published e-books, which sell considerably better for them than their print versions do.

His Kindle book has 4-1/2 stars from 3 reviews.  Here are editorial review blurbs on the Kindle page for his book:

' "Hilarious social satire of daily life among the young and nihilistic ... a winner of a debut" -- Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"It's like an episode of Seinfeld in which all the characters are George ... it's must-read TV" -- CTV

"a consummate critique of the human weaknesses, counterfeit values and trend-driven desires that erode our hopes for meaning and purpose" -- The Globe and Mail '

Budding e-authors should also take a look at the very detailed article in TheNextWeb (TNW) on The Economics of Self-Publishing.


The information below is repeated for new Kindle owners (originally blogged in October 2010), as I have been asked often about lights I recommend for Kindle reading.

VIDEO OF LIGHTED COVER
On the left is an excellent video on the Amazon cover with light. (Kindle-Edition e-ink blogs can't display videos, however.)

BEAM N READ 3-Led light, made by ASF Lightware Solutions.


  I'm including a couple of photos below to show light coverage on my Kindle 3 with the Amazon cover with built-in light and when using my new favorite light for the Kindle, by BEAM N READ.

This is worn around the neck and has a light, adjustable strap.  The light is said to last about 120 hours, and I've been using it for weeks and it's still going.  The 3 leds are the type that will likely go for forever, as long as there are batteries powering them.

  It comes with 4 standard alkaline AA batteries and a clip-on red filter to minimize night blindness and soften the light if needed, they say (I've never needed that).  Really lightweight and flexible with a patented flip-up design, reflector, and the adjustable strap, I now usually have it on when I'm home.  Going downstairs at night or to a darkened room, or when I just can't see something well enough, I can save on lights by just turning this on, which is done by flipping up the hood/reflector.

For reading a book or an e-book reader, you can also reverse it if you prefer (as I do) to hold the book higher than on your lap, and then flip the reflector down instead, so that the light angles up.  But if someone is sitting across from you that may not be very comfortable for that person, as the Led lamps would be directed at their eyes too.

 I love that it's always available when I need extra light.  No, I'm not associated with the company that makes them.  I was just tired of clipping on a light and adjusting it, as much as I love the ease of the Mighty Bright Xtraflex 2 which has the little foam pad where the clip-on meets the top of the Kindle's bezel.  The Beam N Read is pretty good at keeping the light from reaching the other person for night reading in bed.  There are times that I would like a somewhat brighter light, and when I do:

The 6-led version
 They also have a 6-led version that is VERY bright and probably overkill for reading a Kindle 6" reader, though I sometimes use it for situations where the light is just dim.  I am trying one for other uses, and for my DX in Landscape mode.  The batteries for this will last, they say, about 48 hours.  This one doesn't come with batteries included but has a magnifier for short-session, detailed craft work, but I found the texture quite hard to see through and I don't do crafts and probably wouldn't use the magnifier.

  I DO use both Beam N Read units for piano music though.

  I had bought a head lamp for a trip I took last October since we needed to go into some unlit places, but I don't like wearing something around my head just to read so I wondered if there was anything like this.  Amazon doesn't make this easy to find, but it is extremely useful, in my view, for any e-reader.

Clip-on lights
My favorite Kindle clip-on light has been the Mighty Bright XtraFlex2 Clip-On (Black, Kindle Version) for which they added a foam pad where the top clamp meets the Kindle's bezel and protects it from scratches from that clamp.  That's been $20 at Amazon (you might be able to get it elsewhere at $13), and I like that I can clip it right onto the Kindle instead of having to use the cover while reading, and the neck is very flexible so that I can bend it to avoid glare on the screen.  Some find it too bright for those sharing a bed at night although there is a 2nd, lower setting which is bright enough and maybe not as bothersome for another person nearby.  I did use it on a 10-hour airplane flight and needed to be careful it wasn't shining onto other people's areas.  It requires 3 AAA batteries,

A few months ago I actually bought also the "Travelflex" by Mighty Bright because it uses only one Led lamp and one AAA battery (vs the XtraFlex2's 3 AAA batteries), is extremely light and clips onto a pocket in my purse for use with the cover for the Kindle if needed, when I'm out.  That was before I got the Amazon case with light, which I've loaned to someone who really likes it.  It of course is less bright than the XtraFlex2, preferred by some for that reason, and takes almost no room in a purse or briefcase.

Screen coverage
Here are some pictures of the effect of some of these lights on my Kindles.

Lit by the Amazon cover with light, the upper right hand corner is lit more than the lower-left of course, and the light isn't as bright as I like but it's useful if you're out and need a light for reading.  The light needs no batteries but runs off the Kindle's own battery, and it shuts off automatically if the Kindle goes into sleep mode after about 10 minutes.

Lit by the Beam N Read, the lighting is even and brighter overall than the one built into the cover, but one would seldom wear the Beam N Read when out, probably, though I've done it :-).



It's worth remembering that the Amazon case alone is $35 and the one with the built-in light costs an additional $25.  Clamp-ons usually run $10 to $20.


This is an older shot of a silver Mighty Bright Xtraflex2 used on my Kindle DX - now sold only in Graphite color and with the new Pearl screen also used in the Kindle 3   (also, UK: K3).

Click on any of these three images to get the larger versions.

I hope that this article and the photos help some who are looking for good lights to use with the Kindle; the choice of a light is one of the most discussed items on the Kindle forums.

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US: Kindle Fire  7" tablet - $199 Kindle NoTouch ("Kindle") - $79/$109 Kindle Touch, WiFi - $99/$139 Kindle Touch, 3G/WiFi - $149/$189 Kindle Keybd 3G - $189, Free, slow web Kindle DX - $379, Free, slow 3G web

UK: Kindle Basic, NoTouch - £89 Kindle Touch WiFi, UK - £109 Kindle Touch 3G/WiFi, UK - £169 Kindle Keyboard 3G, UK - £149   Keybd: w/ Free, slow 3G WEB

OTHER International Kindle NoTouch Basic - $109 Kindle Touch WiFi - $139 Kindle Touch 3G/WiFi - $189 Kindle Keybd 3G - $189   Keybd: w/ Free, slow 3G WEB

Check often: Temporarily-free recently published Kindle books
  Guide to finding Free Kindle books and Sources.  Top 100 free bestsellers.  Liked-books under $1
UK-Only: recently published free books, bestsellers, or £5 Max ones
  Also, UK customers should see the UK store's Top 100 free bestsellers.

  *Click* to Return to the HOME PAGE.  Or click on the web browser's BACK button

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-- The Send to Kindle button works well only on Firefox currently.

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Newer tutorial and other apps + unusual e-books

FOREIGN LANGUAGE VOCABULARY TUTORIALS AND OTHER NEWER KINDLE APPS
  Apologies to those outside the U.S. who can't access these yet.

  Italian, French, Spanish

Brain Bump is the middle game seen at the left - a "Literature Trivia Game" 'for book lovers.'



I'll also note Jumble 200 because though I mentioned this earlier in a Kindle-games article, this one has 200 puzzles rather than 10 or 50, and I was struck that, with 13 customers reviewing it, Jumble 200 has 4-1/2 stars out of 5.

  On that page you should see, in case you'd missed them earlier, a few free popular Kindle games just before the reviews.

WHILE browsing these, I ran across an interesting edition of a the ESV Study Bible, which has 287 customer reviews and an average customer rating of 4-1/2 stars out of 5.

  "[It] combines the best and most recent evangelical Christian scholarship with the highly regarded ESV Bible text.  The result is the most comprehensive study Bible ever published--with 2,752 pages of extensive, accessible Bible resources."
  As one with an interest in historical sites, I noticed the unusually detailed illustrations such as the one on the right.  Here's the enlargement with readable text.

App Savvy.  This one caught my eye because it is a marketing-programming guide to creating apps and has 5 full stars, with 13 reviews.  The one review not rated with 5 stars has 3 stars and says, "Interesting book that is written for the non-programmer and the programmer, who has the technical abilities but lacks the marketing skill to peddle his wares..." and headlines his review with "A good book for a new Mobile Noob."

Earlier articles on Kindle Games
Chess, Word Search, Panda Poet
Every Word, Shuffled Row (both free)
Flip it! and Tic Tac Toe (ratings increased)


Kindle 3's   (UK: Kindle 3's),   DX Graphite

---

Check often: Temporarily-free late-listed non-classics or recently published ones
  Guide to finding Free Kindle books and Sources.  Top 100 free bestsellers.
UK-Only: recently published non-classics, bestsellers, or highest-rated ones
    Also, UK customers should see the UK store's Top 100 free bestsellers.

Below are ways to Share this post if you'd like others to see it.
-- The Send to Kindle button works well only on Firefox currently.

Send to Kindle

(Older posts have older Kindle model info. For latest models, see CURRENT KINDLES page. )
If interested, you can also follow my add'l blog-related news at Facebook and Twitter
Questions & feedback are welcome in the Comment areas (tho' spam is deleted). Thanks!

The Kindles go to school in a big way this month

ARTICLES IN THE LAST WEEK ABOUT KINDLES IN SCHOOLS

"The Kindles Are Coming: Ereaders and tablets are springing up in schools—and librarians are leading the way"
  That's the headline from The School Library Journal March 1.  It's a very long, detailed article, by Lauren Barack.

  She mentions what she calls "the three P's of librarianship -- participation, portability, and personalization" -- and says they are bundled "into one magical package."

  “The students can participate in saying what they want to read, the Kindles (UK: K3's) are portable, and there’s a personalized element,” says [Buffy Hamilton], the Canton, GA-based media specialist. “It’s going really well.”  Here's an excerpt from the article, which opens with a waiting list of students for five Kindles she bought for Creekview High School:

' Commonly spearheaded by librarians, Kindle pilot programs are springing up in schools around the country, bringing ereaders to K–12 students, who are cracking the spine, so to speak, on these alternative learning tools.  From full adoption of the devices at Clearwater High School in Florida to tentative beta projects such as Hamilton’s, educators are exploring how Kindles and other ereaders can mesh with curricula and enhance learning.
. . .
“That’s the most exciting part for me, seeing kids excited about reading,” says Hamilton, who launched her program in November 2010 after learning about librarian Kathy Parker’s Kindle project at Seneca (IL) Grade School...

Hamilton suggests ideas for funding of such programs, as well as detailing how she runs the program and improvements she'd like to see.  Also, she has contacted Amazon about getting better device limits and more school-friendly policies overall but Amazon has offered no exceptions, which is no surprise since by contract, publishers set the limits.

  The article also includes a complaint by Marcia A. Mardis, an assistant professor at Florida State University’s School of Library & Information Studies:
“I hesitate to teach students to look at one device,” she says.
  Her pet peeve with the Kindle?   The inability to print wirelessly—a function supported on the iPad [via apps]. 'For those kids who can’t take a Kindle home or comprehend a test, the inability to print has been a barrier,' says Mardis..." Barack continues:

' For its part, Amazon is trying to meet some of its user’s demands, last month adding page numbers to Kindle books, which correspond to the print version of a title.  For book clubs and classes using both printed books and Kindles, this will be a big plus.  Kindle users will also be able to share notes or highlighted text with their classmates. The new features, however, will only be available on the latest generation device, the Kindle 3. '

Meanwhile, Kindles are working out just fine at Chambersburg Area Middle School in south central Pennsylvania.  That’s according to Joanne Hammond, head librarian for Chambersburg’s school district and librarian at the middle school...In fall 2010, the program began in earnest when librarian Teresa Miller acquired the devices for the middle school, which now hosts a Kindle club, where student members can come into the library and grab a device for leisure reading.

“I love using the Kindle and I’m going to the library even more because of it,” says Andre Kerlin, a seventh grader at Chambersburg Middle School and a Kindle club member.  “I think it’s very cool to be able to read tons of books on one thing.”

Students have, in fact, picked up books (so to speak) that they may not have tackled if they’d seen the size of the printed volume, says Hammond...
. . .
Over at Chambersburg’s Senior High School, librarian Melissa Engel-Unruh has been using Kindles with her struggling readers. With 33 devices—more than enough for a classroom—she’s watched as the Kindle has caught on with teachers, too...
. . .
Chambersburg has since taken to another device. At J. Frank Faust Junior High School, librarian Katherine Miller used a $3,500 grant from the Greater Chambersburg Chamber Foundation to purchase five iPads.  Students are using the Apple tablets in the library to access iBooks.

A difference Miller’s already noted between the Kindle and the iPad’s iBook feature is the accommodation for multiple readers of the same title.  So, for example, if an eighth grader reading Sharon Flake’s You Don’t Even Know Me (Hyperion, 2010) is on page 35 of an iPad and a ninth grader is on page 79, the book will sync to whoever read it last.  So students have to jot down where they left off—not very 21st century.  This is not the case with the Kindle, which can hold places for individual readers, even if they’re reading the same book.
. . .
With budgets as they are, it’s unlikely many media specialists can purchase a full, school-wide set of ereaders anytime soon.  Still, most librarians believe they’d be amiss not to try piloting the devices with students, acquiring as many as school budgets and hard-earned grants will allow... '

OTHER SCHOOLS IN ARTICLES THIS WEEK
"Better reading through technology in Dalzell"
The News Tribune's Matthew Baker writes about the Kindle project in Maggie Hachenberger's class at Dalzell School in Illinois.

  As you can see in the picture at the right, although the camera perspective makes the e-reader seem really huge, Kiara Atkinson is holding the earlier edition of the larger Kindle, the Kindle DX Graphite, which is relatively expensive!

  The school is small, with only 70 students, but they purchased 18 Kindles last summer, so at any time, about 25% of the student population can have a kindle in hand.  "Twelve of the Kindles are split between the junior high age students with the remaining six for younger students."
  Steve Parker, the principal was inspired by the success his wife, Kathy, a librarian at Seneca Grade School, was having with a similar program, and based on early successes, he hopes to purchase more Kindles next year.

'   According to teachers, the response to the Kindles by students has been great.  “They love it, it’s technology,” said third/fourth-grade teacher Maggie Hachenberger... A built-in dictionary feature allows students to discreetly look up difficult words without picking up an actual dictionary.
“So that helps with their vocabulary,” she said.

  The dictionary feature was useful for the fifth/sixth-grade students in Janette Gallup’s class as they attempted to decipher the 19th century terminology used in Washington Irving’s “Rip Van Winkle.”
The students have been reading a variety of books and short stories on the Kindles and Gallup has seen results in her class.
“It has improved their fluency this year,” she said.
  The Kindles also come with a feature that will read the books’ content aloud, which comes in handy for some students.
  “Some children’s comprehension is better if they hear it instead of reading it to themselves,” Hachenberger said. [ Kindleworld note here: I don't see that this helps in Reading though! ]
  “It makes it easier to teach when they’re excited,” [Gallup] said.
  Students aren’t allowed to use the Kindles to go online, nor can they take them home.
. . .
  Although an exciting new initiative at the school, Groleau said teachers are not putting the flash of the new Kindles in front of effective teaching.
“A Kindle is a tool, it’s another way to get (students) to read,” Parker said. '

"Kindle program gets national eye" (Clearwater HS)
A follow-up news-article on Clearwater High School's Kindle project.  Here's the original long article on Clearwater's much larger experiment.

St. Petersburg Times's Dominick Tao writes that "...six months into an effort that has attracted national attention, students and teachers say the “Kindlezation” of their school has yielded clear benefits and limitations."

' Some classes are book-free, others are still book-bound as publishers scramble to digitize materials. Some teachers have been slow to adopt, others have eagerly embraced it. And even the digital natives students are divided, with some using the Kindle more than others.

But one thing was clear in a visit to the school this week: The devices are blending in, being used as often as a pen or pencil....
...
[Social studies teacher Kathy Biddle] said she has found students pushing her harder to grade tests faster because as soon as the grades are entered on her computer, students can see the scores on their Kindle, which is connected to the Internet and the school board’s servers.

  Students said a plus for them has been the ease of studying on the go, hard to do with a hulking textbook.
  “I can just easily flip through. Study anywhere,” said senior Nikki Hux.
  Hux, who is dual-enrolled at St. Petersburg College, said many college-level e-books are less expensive or free, saving her money.

  That many students take notes on the Kindle is something school principal Keith Mastorides said he was surprised by.
  “I didn’t expect a lot of use from those keyboards,” he said...
. . .
  One pressing student complaint and concern of administrators is the relatively small number of traditional textbooks available in a Kindle format.
  “It’s taken them a little longer,” Mastorides said of publishers.
  But Amazon, which holds weekly teleconferences with school officials, works with publishers to get more material and streamline the delivery process. '

MORE schools
Virgin Islands Daily News reports a small grant by St. John's Kids First!, for an elementary school, and will involve online instruction materials and tests for understanding of the materials read.  They point out that "there are over 30,000 children's books available online that can be reviewed and purchased in a matter of minutes at a cost up to 80 percent less than a bound book."

Possibly more unrealistically, Riverfront Times and Press of Atlantic City both report that a school district in Missouri approved a Kindles for Schools proposal that would, if formalized, "provide more than 2,000 students with an Amazon Kindle DX by the start of the next school year. Administrators are hoping that the tab will be picked up by electronic stores, as opposed to the school district. (Each Kindle DX cost $380.

' "This program would save the district a lot of money each year on textbooks," Superintendent Desi Mayberry told the A.P.  "If we were able to provide each student with a Kindle, students would be able to learn and access a whole world of information much quicker than they would through a regular textbook.  Students would have information instantly, rather than they would if they waited for a shipment of textbooks to arrive."'

Good luck on getting electronic stores to foot the Kindle DX bill for over 2,000 students.  Interesting though!


Kindle 3's   (UK: Kindle 3's),   DX Graphite

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Check often: Temporarily-free late-listed non-classics or recently published ones
  Guide to finding Free Kindle books and Sources.  Top 100 free bestsellers.
UK-Only: recently published non-classics, bestsellers, or highest-rated ones
    Also, UK customers should see the UK store's Top 100 free bestsellers. Below are ways to Share this post if you'd like others to see it.
-- The Send to Kindle button works well only on Firefox currently.

Send to Kindle

(Older posts have older Kindle model info. For latest models, see CURRENT KINDLES page. )
If interested, you can also follow my add'l blog-related news at Facebook and Twitter
Questions & feedback are welcome in the Comment areas (tho' spam is deleted). Thanks!

Apple: App Subscription policies MIGHT not affect Amazon's ebook app

BUSINESS INSIDER REPORTS AN APPLE QUOTE ON NEW APP POLICY ENFORCEMENTS

 That image at the left is by Asa Mathat, All Things Digital, and is the photo used at the Business Insider article, although the image is much larger there.  It's in candid-portrait style, which tends to focus on expressiveness, taken from the ATD conference last year and startling for the force felt from that face.

I dropped by the The Kindle Chronicles Friday Podcast site to see what Len Edgerly had for this week, as all recent weekly podcasts are available there for listening.  In addition to the podcast that includes news, Kindle tips, reader-comments, and the main interview of the week, Len has a text summary of each podcast's info with links to specific news and tips mentioned in the podcast.

  While there, I saw that Len has highlighted an important Business Insider article by Jay Yarrow that I'd missed, written February 28.  It's of special interest to me because on February 24, I'd written a blog article titled, Why Kindle books will be readable & sync'd on Apple devices no matter what, in which I mentioned the known Kindle-for-Web "solution" (but one must be On the Net to read the book), and I repeated the caution that all actual Apple statements re the 70/30% revenue split had referred to Subscription apps, and not one-off e-book reader apps yet.

  Amazon does have subscriptions offered in a Kindle app but not for Apple devices, only for Android.  Obviously they've never made a doable deal with Apple for an app involving subscriptions.

  The February 1st quote from Apple media representative Trudy Muller about the rejection of the Sony e-reader app was in connection with Sony having an e-book purchasing-option inside their app, to buy a book from Sony of course, using a transaction outside that app while not offering iDevice customers the option of buying that book within the app (from Apple) instead.

  Obviously, Amazon and other booksellers would also need to comply with any such new enforcement of such a rule, before the July 1 deadline for legacy apps to comply.  That's been a point of real concern, but taking over has been the certainty expressed in many columns that this involved Apple taking 30% of the sales transaction (100% of the competitor bookseller's profit).

  However, it's not clear what type of buying-option had been included in Sony's app, rejected by Apple.  Sony hasn't clarified that either.  Most of all there has been no mention (yet) of a 70/30% split in statements about the one-off ebook-reader app.  You'd think Sony would have commented on or complained about that specifically.

  Applying the 70/30% subscription-revenue rule to e-book one-time purchases would mean Apple was bent on grabbing 100% of the bookseller's 30% share of a sale.

  If Apple did do this, that would imply they actually want all online bookseller apps Off their devices (this is certainly possible now that they have Random House in their iBook Store finally), and no sane bookseller would bring their book-sales app to Apple then, since it would be like 'tribute' paid to overlords.

BUSINESS 101
  Who would put a lemonade stand in a mall just to spend the day selling lemonade so that the mall owner would get 100% of the profits?

WHAT'S BEEN SAID SO FAR, FOR SURE
  But, as I've said often, the only Apple-representative quotes since February, mentioning the now infamous 70/30 revenue split, have been specifically about Subscription apps rather than one-off book sales, at this point -- even if Apple has general rules about revenue-sharing in their November-updated guidelines for Apple-app Developers.

  Since this topic concerns many of us, here is what Business Insider's Yarrow reports about a meeting between Berstein analyst Toni Sacconaghi and Apple execs during that week.
  The article's headline is "Maybe Apple's New App Subscription Rule Won't Hammer Amazon."  Excerpts:

' Apple's new in-app subscription policy might not affect Amazon after all.
Berstein analyst Toni Sacconaghi met with Apple execs last week and pressed them on how the new subscription policy would affect Netflix and Amazon.

Eddy Cue, Apple's Internet services boss, wouldn't comment on either company, but said, the announcement only applied to subscriptions.

Well, Amazon Kindle books aren't subscriptions, so they shouldn't be affected, no?

We've been pressing on Amazon trying to get a comment and the company is just ignoring us.  But, we think there's a chance that it's just not going to be affected by Apple.

Why?  Beyond Cue's comment, we've heard from a source that Netflix would not be affected by Apple's new policy.  We're not sure of the exact reason why, but it now seems reasonable to think it's because Netflix isn't a publishing business.

Don't forget Steve Jobs reportedly said in an email, "We created subscriptions for publishing apps, not SaaS ["software as a service"] apps." (Amazon, for the most part, isn't a publishing company.)

Another reason for Netflix to be exempted: Apple needs Netflix to make Apple TV a success, and keep iPad owners happy... '

Yarrow then speculates on the lack of comment by Apple re Netflix and Amazon and also on the silence from those companies on Apple's recent moves and reminds us that no one knows what will happen on all of this.  I'll repeat that Apple would suffer more from the Kindle app not being available on the iDevices since they WILL be on all the new Android devices and a real pull for consumers trying to decide on tablets in 2011.

But the statement by Apple's Eddy Cue is somewhat encouraging and a sign of sanity.  Signs are only signs though.


Kindle 3's   (UK: Kindle 3's),   DX Graphite

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Check often: Temporarily-free late-listed non-classics or recently published ones
  Guide to finding Free Kindle books and Sources.  Top 100 free bestsellers.
UK-Only: recently published non-classics, bestsellers, or highest-rated ones
    Also, UK customers should see the UK store's Top 100 free bestsellers. Below are ways to Share this post if you'd like others to see it.
-- The Send to Kindle button works well only on Firefox currently.

Send to Kindle

(Older posts have older Kindle model info. For latest models, see CURRENT KINDLES page. )
If interested, you can also follow my add'l blog-related news at Facebook and Twitter
Questions & feedback are welcome in the Comment areas (tho' spam is deleted). Thanks!

More on raids in price-fixing probe. Publishers "explain" high ebook pricing.

The title should read, "...try to explain" the fixed higher-pricing of e-books.  See earlier article here on the raids.

The Guardian has a piece today on the raids, which includes quotes from some publishers trying to explain or defend the fixing of pricing so that prices are generally much higher and must be the same at all online bookstores needing Agreements with the Big 5, with no way for the online stores to offer sales or lower prices no matter what the case.  Random House has decided not to join Agency pricing in Europe during this time of probing questions.

Benedicte Page and Leigh Phillips report from Brussels, where they say that officials there have "refused to say how many or which publishers were targeted although a spokesman for Hachette, famed for its dictionaries, confirmed that it was among them.  The inquiry is understood to be focused on French companies."

Excerpts of particular interest, emphases and bracketed comments, mine:

' The EU competition spokeswoman, Amelia Torres, said: "We have suspicions of collusion to keep prices high.  But if our suspicions prove to be founded, this would have an impact across the EU because ebooks are sold across borders."  She added that the firms involved face fines if the commission finds "hard evidence".

The development comes on the heels of an investigation in January by the UK's Office of Fair Trading into whether arrangements between certain publishers and retailers over the sale of ebooks "may breach competition law".

Investigation teams have asked many of the biggest London publishing houses, including HarperCollins, Hachette and Penguin, for all records and documents relating to ebook sales.
. . .
Publishers see the agency model as crucial because it allows them to trade with Apple [which created the Agency plan and insists on it], which was already using it for iTunes, and also to control the price at which their ebooks are sold.
. . .
Ronald Blunden, Hachette's head of communications, denied that the company engaged in price fixing. "Emphatically no," he said. "We are dealing with distributors [such as Amazon] who have considerable clout.

"We found that in the US, electronic retailers began to apply large discounts on ebooks, driving the cost down.  Steadily the spread between the price of a printed book and an ebook became so substantial that we felt it was just unacceptable."

"It's important for the publisher to control the retail price," Blunden continued. "We don't want the items sold below cost, as the perceived value of books becomes damaged.  Once this happens, can we expect online retailers to absorb the cost of financing the editing and publishing of books?"

John Makinson, the Penguin group chief executive, argued that the "very important" agency model contributes to a competitive ebooks marketplace.  "To have vibrant competitive markets, it's important that Apple and the other digital vendors have a place in that market.  The agency model made it possible to have that choice," he said.

Makinson added that he saw "a certain irony" in an OFT [Office of Fair Traiding - UK] investigation designed to ensure competition and consumer choice.  "That in our view is what the agency agreement has provided," he said.

Their view of 'competition' is that the online booksellers must not be allowed to offer lower prices, which means online bookstore "Sales" are no longer possible and the customer cannot look for a lower price elsewhere as it would be fruitless.  Some consider this 'price fixing' while others consider it necessary publisher-control of book pricing, no matter how artificial or without reason.]

Novelist Nick Harkaway, author of The Gone-Away World, agreed. "If the agency model is really a problem under EU law, the law is the problem, not the industry," he said. "Otherwise you fall back into a situation where Amazon controls the market.  This is not to demonise Amazon, but they are a massive portion of the physical market and if their wholesale model also dominates the digital book market, it becomes much harder to negotiate with them." '

The Bookseller's deputy editor, Philip Jones, feels that if you let the market decide, then ebooks will become "too cheap" and they'll be unable to pay authors, editors or all the infrastructure that sustains the industry."

Yes, if an industry or individual companies (as we saw with digital music and with companies still limiting themselves to distributing physical copies of DVDs) cannot find a way to adjust to a vastly changing world, they won't be able to sustain the infrastructure as it stands.  The answer is not unceasing efforts to Stop the World from moving naturally (and insisting customers just pay up, and up) but to modify their infrastructure to reflect the real world and evolving technology, no matter how upsetting it may all be for them to have to change anything.

Read more at The Guardian story.

EARLIER BLOG ARTICLES ON THE E-BOOK PRICING WARS, WITH SOURCING
A Kindle World Blog history of articles on the e-book pricing wars


Kindle 3's   (UK: Kindle 3's),   DX Graphite

---

Check often: Temporarily-free late-listed non-classics or recently published ones
  Guide to finding Free Kindle books and Sources.  Top 100 free bestsellers.
UK-Only: recently published non-classics, bestsellers, or highest-rated ones
    Also, UK customers should see the UK store's Top 100 free bestsellers. Below are ways to Share this post if you'd like others to see it.
-- The Send to Kindle button works well only on Firefox currently.

Send to Kindle

(Older posts have older Kindle model info. For latest models, see CURRENT KINDLES page. )
If interested, you can also follow my add'l blog-related news at Facebook and Twitter
Questions & feedback are welcome in the Comment areas (tho' spam is deleted). Thanks!

Kindle news 03/04/11, Rise of 99-cent Kindle ebook + iPhone-revenue piece

RANDOM KINDLE NEWS - March 4, 2011

""Rise of the 99-cent Kindle e-book" by ZDNet's David Carnoy
  This is a long article covering several aspects of e-book pricing today, which should be somewhat interesting to both budding authors and Kindle owners.

Here's what Carnoy had to say about a case study of experimenting with pricing and revenue share under Amazon's self-publishing models:

' Case study: "Fifth Avenue"
Christopher Smith, who wrote the novel "Fifth Avenue," priced his novel at US$2.99 when he launched it last October. He says that with some social media outreach--he did an iPad and a Kindle giveaway for those who tweeted about the book--and little else, the book quickly reached the Amazon Top 100 and peaked at No. 4. After the initial rise, Smith then decided to drop the price of the book to 99 cents to maintain his ranking in the top 100, which is key to generating sales.

Thanks to some controversy over gay sex scenes in the book that touched off heated discussions in Amazon's Kindle message boards, Smith says "Fifth Avenue" remained in the Top 100 for three months and also has done well on Amazon's U.K. Kindle Store. His sales, he says, are in the "six figures", and he's now represented by an "A-list" agent, Matt Bialer at Sanford J. Greenburger.

"When I went to 99 cents, I was going for longevity," Smith says. Later, when he was firmly planted in the Top 100, he started playing with pricing and listed the book back at US$2.99. For every US$2.99 book he sold on the Kindle, he needed to sell six books at 99 cents to make the same amount of money. While he drifted downward on the best-seller list, if he priced at US$2.99, he says he was making significantly more money.

"To keep the book on the list as long as possible, I'd just switch it back to 99 cents and it would quickly climb the list again," Smith says. "Rinse and repeat. This went on for months." '

Other sections of this article on the trend toward 99-cents pricing include: How we got here; The App Store effect: Price drops; The new pricing sweet spot; Whither publishers?


SATIRE NOT THAT FAR FROM THE TRUTH  !   :-)
"Apple To Take 30% Cut On Voice Orders Taken Over iPhone"
  It starts:

' (Palo Alto, California) Apple announced today that as of March 1st it will take a 30% cut of all commerce done over the iPhone. Apple will use a voice recognition system to monitor all phone calls and transcribe order information so that any company taking voice orders over the iPhone can be billed. The announcement is a clarification of a policy released to developers and publishers last week when Apple indicated that all subscriptions purchased through the phone would be subject to a 30% fee. '

You'll want to read the rest of it at Unconfirmed Sources (Kindle-edition readers will be able to click through the link too.  Press the Menu button there and select "Article Mode" to read it and, when finished, press Menu and "Web Mode" and the BACK button to get back to the blog.)


QUOTE OF NOTE
This is London's Money page writes:

" Referring to Amazon's 'best-selling item ever', the 3G Kindle, Fortune observed: 'The tablet continues to dominate the e-reader market, despite initial fears that Apple's iPad would be a problem.

'Now, it seems many people are buying both, to serve different purposes.'"

No surprise to Kindle users though.


Kindle 3's   (UK: Kindle 3's),   DX Graphite

---

Check often: Temporarily-free late-listed non-classics or recently published ones
  Guide to finding Free Kindle books and Sources.  Top 100 free bestsellers.
UK-Only: recently published non-classics, bestsellers, or highest-rated ones
    Also, UK customers should see the UK store's Top 100 free bestsellers. Below are ways to Share this post if you'd like others to see it.
-- The Send to Kindle button works well only on Firefox currently.

Send to Kindle

(Older posts have older Kindle model info. For latest models, see CURRENT KINDLES page. )
If interested, you can also follow my add'l blog-related news at Facebook and Twitter
Questions & feedback are welcome in the Comment areas (tho' spam is deleted). Thanks!

The iPad 2 and the e-reader app situation

APPLE IPAD-2 NEWS IN CONNECTION WITH E-READER/KINDLE INTEREST
In the articles linked and summarized below, note the Apple-device revenue-sharing issues that were described in a blog entry Feb. 24.

Many Kindle owners also own iPads for color-intensive books, web-surfing, and shorter, lower-light reading sessions, and many are (according to article comments) waiting to hear what Apple plans are for Kindle, Nook, Sony, and Kobo apps for iPhone and iPad in July.

"Why you should wait before buying an iPad 2"
That is the headline for a Communities Canada parenting blog by Chad Skelton, who makes the following points:

' Of the people I know who have an iPad, or who want one, one of the reasons they want one is to use it as an ebook reader... in addition to Apple's own iBooks, you can also download other ereading apps for the Kindle and Kobo -- even library ebook apps like Overdrive.  It's the one device that doesn't force you to lock in with a particular book buyer -- meaning you have the broadest possible selection to choose from and can comparison shop for the best deals.

  But all that versatility is at risk.  Apple's new subscription and in-app purchase policies -- which will require apps like the Kindle to cough up 30% of every book purchase to Apple -- may well force other ereading apps off the device.
  [The wording should be "might require" rather than "will require" as the wording is still for subscription apps until we know more.]

Which would, in one stroke, turn the iPad from the most versatile ebook reader to the least.  Instead of having your choice of several ebook stores, you'd have a choice of just one: iBooks. '

Now that Random House is adding 17,000+ e-books to Apple's iStore, it could be that some Apple execs could decide to consider B&N, Amazon, Sony, et al, "middlemen" -- said to be of no interest to Apple, and the way to get them off the iPad and iPhone/iPod Touch would be to just grab 100% of the revenue-share of these competing online bookstores wishing to have their apps included on the Apple devices.  One can understand a 3-10% fee, but 30% from 'middlemen' who get only 30% in the first place would be indicative of unparalleled, open greed.

 If that turns out to be the case, I don't know why Apple wouldn't just say they no longer want competing online bookstores on their devices.  I think that's better than just saying they want 100% of the revenue that the other stores would normally get (30%).

The article ends with:

' But if you're interested in using your tablet as an ereader, you'd be wise to wait a few months to see what happens before plopping down $500 or more on what could be a very lame ereader come this summer. '

The many comments to the February 16 article linked in the quotes are an indication of how many Kindles (UK: K3's) might be bought due to such a decision by Apple.


"THE IPAD 2: LIPSTICK ON A PIG"
"Apple’s new subscriptions policy takes the lustre off launch"
This mentions other apps that may not be available on the Apple devices.
The New Stateman's Jason Stamper

' Rhapsody said in a statement that, "An Apple-imposed arrangement that requires us to pay 30 per cent of our revenue to Apple, in addition to content fees that we pay to the music labels, publishers and artists, is economically untenable. The bottom line is: we would not be able to offer our service through the iTunes store if subjected to Apple's 30 per cent monthly fee vs a typical 2.5 per cent credit card fee." '

  Rhapsody will be looking, with its market peers, at "an appropriate legal and business response to this latest development."

  Apple did buy Lala last year, though, and may have its own plans, Stamper said.  Also:

' The chief executive of Pearson, the publisher of the Financial Times, said on Monday that it may pull the FT out of Apple's ecosystem if it refuses to give up customer information.  "It is unclear how their proposal is going to work, we are still talking to them," said Marjorie Scardino.  "The important thing to remember is there are many, many tablets coming out and multiple devices ... [from] Kindle to mobiles.  If indeed Apple are not happy to give us customer data then maybe we will get it somewhere else." '

Stamper adds:

' It's little wonder that if the Wall Street Journal is to be believed, the Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission are "looking at" Apple's new rules for possible antitrust violations.  At the heart of the issue isn't the 30 per cent fee but that requirement that in-app subscriptions have the same price as offers outside the app. '

  The coming (March 11) iPad 2 is considered "more an update than an upgrade" by some reviewers, and as a result some expect an iPad 3 in September with real changes instead of something to keep momentum up while the myriad of tablets are released in the next few months, while others feel that Steve Jobs's statement Tuesday that 2011 will be the year of the iPad 2 means this is IT for this year unless they also release a 7" of some type (whether a large iPod or a small iPad).  In any case, those who prize the e-reader capabilities available today will be waiting for further developments before dropping money automatically for Apple's latest edition of the iPad.

  Already, although Android apps are not plentiful yet, the Xoom WILL support Adobe Flash, will have true multi-tasking (apps actually running in the background rather than suspended, and their activity showing in a window), have a USB port and an SD slot and, most important for book readers, will run the various e-reader apps.


Kindle 3's   (UK: Kindle 3's),   DX Graphite

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"EU raids publishers in ebook price-fixing probe" - UPDATE

EU raids publishers in ebook price-fixing probe
That's the headline in a story from The Telegraph today, written by Rupert Neate.

The drama continues with the wording, "European investigators raided several major publishers on Wednesday as the worldwide probe into allegations of price-fixing of ebooks stepped up a gear."  The actual wording is more important than usual so I'll do more quoting than paraphrasing.   The bracketed comments are mine.

' The European Commission said its agents had "reason to believe" that several unnamed companies across Europe "may have violated EU antitrust rules that prohibit cartels and other restrictive business practices".

The raids comes after the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) last month launched a similar probe into the prices of ebooks, which can cost more than twice as much as their printed cousins. [Exactly.]

The OFT's investigation focuses on publishers' ability to set ebook prices using "agency" pricing.
. . .
The discrepancy has led to some electronic books costing far more than a hardback version of the same book.
. . .
Earlier this year, Amazon said sales of ebooks for its Kindle ereader had overtaken paperback sales in the US for the first time. A similar investigation is under way in the US.

An EU Competition Commission spokesman refused to name the publishing houses raided, but said investigators were "working closely with the OFT".

Penguin, the publisher owned by Pearson, and Harper Collins, which is owned by News Corporation, are both being investigated by the OFT, but were not raided by EU investigators.

Harry Potter publisher Bloomsbury, which has declared 2011 "the year of the ebook", refused to state whether or not it had been raided.

Publishers refused to comment on the legality of the agency pricing model. '

The Harry Potter books have never been made available on e-books, however, because the author doesn't want them available in that format.

But, this was really quick action, relatively speaking.  Some thought it would take a year before any actual investigation.

UPDATE - 02/03/11, 11:37 AM (Original posting 3/2/11 at 11:52 PM PST)
The Bookseller has a far more detailed story about it by Philip Jones and Barbara Casassus.
I saw a brief post by Paul Biba on this, dated yesterday, at Teleread.com from probably an earlier article and searched Bookseller for a story just now.

I'll add a few excerpts here, as it's very long, and you should read the full article at the Bookseller site:

' . In some cases laptops and smartphones of senior executives have been seized.
  . a spokeswoman added separately that it did not have "any proof". It said that it carried out "unannounced inspections" at publishing companies in several member states.
  . French publisher Hachette Livre confirmed that an inspection had been conducted beginning on Tuesday (1st March) and continuing Wednesday at its Paris headquarters. [See story for other companies.]
  . The AFP reported the following quote from Amelia Torres, spokeswoman for Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia: "The competition services Tuesday conducted inspections in publishing houses in several European Union countries due to suspicion of anti-competition practices in the pricing of e-books.  We are not naming the publishing houses nor the countries because we are just at the beginning of the inquiry.  We are not accusing anyone and we do not have any proof."
  . "The Commission officials were accompanied by their counterparts from the relevant national competition authorities.  Unannounced inspections are a preliminary step into suspected anti-competitive practices.  The fact that the Commission carries out such inspections does not mean that the companies are guilty of anti-competitive behaviour nor does it prejudge the outcome of the investigation itself.  The Commission respects the rights of defence, in particular the right of companies to be heard in antitrust proceedings.
    "There is no legal deadline to complete inquiries into anti-competitive conduct... '

  Much more at the Bookseller article.


Kindle 3's   (UK: Kindle 3's),   DX Graphite

---

Check often: Temporarily-free late-listed non-classics or recently published ones
  Guide to finding Free Kindle books and Sources.  Top 100 free bestsellers.
UK-Only: recently published non-classics, bestsellers, or highest-rated ones
    Also, UK customers should see the UK store's Top 100 free bestsellers. Below are ways to Share this post if you'd like others to see it.
-- The Send to Kindle button works well only on Firefox currently.

Send to Kindle

(Older posts have older Kindle model info. For latest models, see CURRENT KINDLES page. )
If interested, you can also follow my add'l blog-related news at Facebook and Twitter
Questions & feedback are welcome in the Comment areas (tho' spam is deleted). Thanks!