Romancing the Book

After about a decade of electronic see sawing on the future of the book, a handful of very successful electronic reading devices are leading the way. It no longer seems like a question of whether electronic books will ever own a significant portion of the reading market. These days, the questions are focused around how quickly it will happen in a deep and meaningful way.

Now Penguin CEO, John Makinson, has thrown a reminder into the mix: in the frenzy to get on board with electronic books, it’s important we don’t forget the romance of its printed ancestor. From The Washington Post via Reuters:

With the excitement around the launch of Apple’s iPad and the growing popularity of other digital devices, it is a challenge to retain the romance of the printed book, according to the head of publisher Penguin.

The iPad, a cross between a smartphone and a laptop, is helping foster a market for tablet computers that is expected to grow to some 50 million units by 2014, and with it, also expand the market for e-books, which has been hard to crack.

On a trip to India, Makinson commented on the place of the book in our hearts as well as on our shelves:

“We need to keep the emphasis on the reader’s emotional relationship with the book. It’s still important to produce a well-designed, beautifully printed book that looks good on a shelf, and that you can gift to a friend,” he said.

“And the challenge is not to lose sight of the main act, which is still the book. The definition of a book itself is set to change, but there is a tradition, a romance to a book that is essential to retain,” he said.

The piece is here.

Which E-Book Reader is Right for You?

While new e-book readers continue to enter the market, it’s pretty early to say who is going to win the battle currently being fought over dominance in the growing e-book market. In fact, it seems likely that the reader that will win the war probably doesn’t even exist yet. Meanwhile, though, if you want to read electronically right now, there are some very viable options available. WebWorkerDaily takes a closer look at the top of the field:

E-books have never been more popular, but despite all of the attention they have gotten recently, there isn’t a universal e-book format, and we must contend with the many different types of e-books and e-readers that are available. Here’s a rundown of the popular e-book formats that are available today and how to use them all.

The full article is here.

Meanwhile, 31 Japanese publishers got together yesterday and formed an e-book association. From Mainchi Daily News:

Yoshinobu Noma, vice president of Kodansha, was named head of the new association. At a news conference, he presented three principles for the association: securing rights and profits for authors; providing convenience for readers; and the coexistence of print and digitalized works.

More on the new organization here.

Where Do Bookstores Fit in an Electronic World?

Lately, it seems that barely a day can go by without some sort of electronic book news making headlines. Part of me is happy about this: where there’s discussions about books, you generally don’t have to look very far to find people reading, and that’s always a good thing. But in the sea of decision-making that accompanies the sudden rush to go electronic, certain aspects of the process are being overlooked. The most recent chunk of e-book news touches on this gently.

Yesterday’s e-book headline was that legal thriller meister John Grisham had announced that he’s had a change of heart about his original anti-e-book stance. Knopf Doubleday said Tuesday that they would be releasing Grisham’s backlist in e-book form. From The New York Times:

According to Random House, his books have sold more than 250 million copies worldwide. Mr. Grisham had previously hesitated to release his books in e-book form because of concerns about piracy, pricing and the effect of digital editions on physical bookstores.

I can’t help but think that, in his initial assessment, Grisham had it right. What does happen to physical bookstores in an electronic world? Because, let’s face it, all this e-book stuff? We’re going to get it right eventually. The electronic readers will be seamless and easy to operate, everything anyone wants to read will be available in that form and all the concerns some people currently have about privacy and piracy will either be overcome or swallowed down. What I’m saying: with electronic books, it’s no longer a question of “if.” Only a matter of “when” and “how.”

But what about bookstores? Where do they fit? And what are publishers and authors doing to make sure that the lifeblood of the publishing industry doesn’t get cut off?

And it’s do-able: sure it is. It’s not an easy piece, but it’s a possible one. It’s a huge step: re-imagining some of the very foundations that contemporary publishing are built on. International rights deals, for instance. Already on shaky ground in an electronic world, if publishers do make it possible for independent bookstores to sell electronic books, who gets to sell what and to whom?

While right now there are obstacles preventing most small booksellers from getting into the e-book market, one of the things I’ve heard whispered about are value-added deals that would allow physical bookstores to sell an electronic version of a book with a hardcover. That would make a lot of sense: if, for instance, the only place you could get an e-book version with a hardcover was your local indie, suddenly maybe it’s worth the trip. The problem is, it just isn’t as simple as it sounds especially since, at present, publishers are so concerned about how electronic books are going to impact their own bottom lines, they don't seem to be offering even lip service to their old partners, the indie booksellers.

Here’s the thing, though: somebody has to do something for the indies, and fast. If we don’t look after them now, we’ll be crying at their memory. Nobody wants that.

Penguin’s Big Thoughts About Electronic Books

Commenting on Penguin’s head-long plunge into iPad waters, CNET points out that this is a publishing house that was founded on the idea of innovation:

Penguin Books came into existence because of a realization on a train platform. Penguin’s founder, Allen Lane, was returning from a weekend with the famous mystery writer Agatha Christie, and looked in the train station’s book stall for something to read on his journey back to London. Finding only popular magazines and poor-quality, luridly written novels, he wondered why there was not anything for the reader who wanted some good-quality fiction at a low price.

It’s clear that Penguin has done some pretty serious thinking about the electronic book revolution so many people see coming. Here’s a taste of what the company thinks at least one aspect of the future of the book might look like.

Nintendo Aims at Burgeoning eBook Market

In some ways, you might say that the Nintendo DSi XL console is the exact opposite of Amazon’s Kindle eBook reading device. While the Kindle was designed, produced and is sold to be used for reading electronic books, the DSi XL really, really was not. Even so, a growing market mandates a second look and, with eBooks being the hot 2010 item, Nintendo is poising itself to try to cash in. From The Tech Herald:

The DSi XL was officially unveiled before the U.S. market this week and, while the content hosted by its more generous twin screens will remain firmly centred on videogames, the handheld will also serve as a perfect pseudo book reader thanks to the introduction of software such as ‘100 Classic Book Collection’.

The 100 Classic Book Collection cartridge will provide DSi XL owners with a wealth of literary content to enjoy on-the-go from authors such as William Shakespeare, Charles Dickens, Jane Austen, Charlotte Bronte, Alexandre Dumas, Victor Hugo and Mark Twain.

Literary Classics as Video Games

With the success of Electronic Arts’ recreation of Dante Alighieri’s epic poem as a hack and slash Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 videogame, The Atlantic asks if the “new video-game version of Dante’s Inferno [might] prove the perfect model for introducing readers to difficult classics?” (Can’t you just see them now: playing it in highschool classrooms? Me neither.) The Atlantic’s essay is lengthy and thoughtful, and it’s here.

Meanwhile Wired, who know a thing or three about all things electronic, have put together a list of classic literary works that might inspire games and gamers. Or as Wired’s gaming section, Game|Life quite succinctly put it, they’d “like to humbly suggest 10 more books that would make totally kick-ass games.”

Here’s the list, but it really warrants a trip to the site for Game|Life’s concise and quirky reviewlets of the works in question:

• Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain
• The Metamorphosis, Franz Kafka
• The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck
• A Farewell to Arms, Ernest Hemingway
• Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad
• Gulliver’s Travels, Jonathan Swift
• The Canterbury Tales, Geoffrey Chaucer
• Siddhartha, Herman Hesse
• Invisible Man, Ralph Ellison
• Moby Dick, Herman Melville

While we know that women who are hardcore gamers are the exception, not the rule, we still can’t help but notice that this list could benefit from some estrogen. Come now: surely some classic chick lit could make this cut? Something by Ayn Rand, Daphne DuMaurier, either Brönte or even Mary Shelley. There have to be some decent game scenarios in at least one of those?

Anne Rice Will Release Vook

To me the whole concept has always sounded like a lot of sizzle for a steak that already exists. After all, we’ve had moving pictures for an awful long time, and interactive medium for long enough to be accepted and, in a lot of cases, expected. How is a video book anything other than excitement about something that, more or less, already exists? (There are real questions, BTW. If you have the answers, let me know.)

Meanwhile, this week, the mildly exciting Vook took on a whole new layer of cool when they announced that Interview of the Vampire author Anne Rice was going to give the video book form a whirl. Rice and Vook will collaborate on a multi-media edition of “The Master of Ramping Gate,” a short story -- complete with vampires -- that was initially published by Redbook back in 1984. From The Washington Post:

“Vook represents a very exciting combination of new technological elements, that I think is long overdo in publishing,” Rice said in a statement released Wednesday by Vook. “I’m excited that ‘The Master of Rampling Gate’ is going to have new life in this form, and cannot wait to see the finished product. I’m not sure that my mind can conceive of all the possibilities of this new form. I’m learning. And it feels good.”

Opinions are still mixed among publishers and authors about video books, or vooks, with some calling them a gimmick and others saying new formats are needed for the Internet age. The product integrates text, video and social networking.

The Washington Post story is here. We’ve written about Vook before, and that’s here. There are two different January Magazine interviews with Rice. They are here and here.

Google and Amazon Trying to Take Over the World? Shut-Up, Please. I Just Want to Read.

Even mainstream news agencies are carrying news about the Google book deal and the Amazon Macmillan electronic rights wars. I’ve read a lot of misinformed articles and cock-eyed assessments of both situations in the last week -- both in the world and on the Web. I’ll bet you have too.

With a few exceptions, we’ve been resisting the urge to comment on either story at January Magazine, other than with the broadest of strokes. This is because, in a very real sense, both stories are outside of our mandate.

January has always been about the celebration of books and reading. There are other -- many other -- publications and blogs whose mandates seems to be to comment on the business end of publishing. It seems to us that, in some ways, there is very little about the publishing industry that has anything to do with books other than making, distributing and selling them. Certainly the appreciation of the written word -- what makes a good book, what ignites that fire in the soul -- has very little to do with the industry of publishing. They are connected thoughts, sure. But they are not the same.

While it can be argued that, in the end without the industry, there can be no books, we would argue back that this is simply not true. These two current situations seem very dire. And to some people, I suppose they are. In the big picture, however, I assure you, they will not be.

I’ve said this before, will likely say it again: when it comes to books, I want my full body immersion. Everything else is just a lot of noise. The industry will go ahead and work out the details and, in a perfect world, everyone will be happy when they do.

When the dust settles -- and it will -- there will be books for us to read. Someone will be publishing them. They might be on paper, they might be electronic. Those involved will make a certain amount of money, or they will not. But, here’s the thing, when I sit near my hearth, or at the beach or under a tree in the summer time, and I have a book in my hand, it will make the world go away. And all of this noise? It doesn’t have a lot to do with that.

Amazon Capitulates

Well, it looks as if Amazon has blinked first in its big e-book battle against mega-publisher Macmillan. An announcement posted this evening by the “Amazon Kindle team” reads:

Dear Customers:

Macmillan, one of the “big six” publishers, has clearly communicated to us that, regardless of our viewpoint, they are committed to switching to an agency model and charging $12.99 to $14.99 for e-book versions of bestsellers and most hardcover releases.

We have expressed our strong disagreement and the seriousness of our disagreement by temporarily ceasing the sale of all Macmillan titles. We want you to know that ultimately, however, we will have to capitulate and accept Macmillan’s terms because Macmillan has a monopoly over their own titles, and we will want to offer them to you even at prices we believe are needlessly high for e-books. Amazon customers will at that point decide for themselves whether they believe it’s reasonable to pay $14.99 for a bestselling e-book. We don’t believe that all of the major publishers will take the same route as Macmillan. And we know for sure that many independent presses and self-published authors will see this as an opportunity to provide attractively priced e-books as an alternative.

Kindle is a business for Amazon, and it is also a mission. We never expected it to be easy!

Thank you for being a customer.

No need to rub Amazon’s nose in it. Let’s just call this good news for all those Macmillan authors whose work will once more be easily available through the giant online retailer.

READ MORE: “Looking Like a Fool with Your Foot in Your Mouth,” by Sandra Ruttan (On Life and Other Inconveniences).

How to Publish, Not Perish

It sounds like a spam come-on, not the headline on an article in the blog of one of the most respected newspapers in the world:

How to publish your own book online -- and make money

Yet there it is: in backlit black and white, on The Guardian’s technology blog. Technology and economics columnist -- and fledgling poet -- Victor Keegan takes a very personal approach to the topic of self-publishing for fun and profit in a piece that clearly comes from outside of the book industry and approaches the matter at hand from many angles.

It doesn't have to be an embryonic bestseller because self-publishing is best suited to limited editions. Anything over 1,000 copies and you would be better off going to a traditional printer to take advantage of economies of scale. I know a lot people who are self-publishing a record of their own lives together with memories of their parents and grandparents as a bit of family history. That's not vanity publishing, just a great way to preserve memories for future generations and add to the archive of local history. Self-publishing is ideal for that.

Despite Keegan’s clear-eyed approach, I’m still not convinced you can do what the man said and “publish your own book online -- and make money.” But if self-publishing is something you might take a run at, you could do worse than Keegan’s primer.

The Guardian piece is here.

Amazon’s Kindle Not Ready to Lie Down

The day after Apple released the device some industry watchers are expecting to help kill Amazon’s Kindle e-book reading device, Amazon released a statement seemingly set to diffuse the iPad’s early impact:

“Millions of people now own Kindles,” said Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon.com. “And Kindle owners read, a lot. When we have both editions, we sell 6 Kindle books for every 10 physical books. This is year-to-date and includes only paid books -- free Kindle books would make the number even higher. It's been an exciting 27 months.”

As much as that sounds like bravado to some jaded ears, the Los Angeles Times seemed to have no trouble rounding up a group of users who are standing fast by their Kindles:

Since the Kindle was launched in late 2007 its advocates, including Amazon Chief Executive Jeff Bezos, have said that to reproduce the quiet, solitary experience of reading a book, e-readers should not tempt users with a panoply of digital distractions.

The iPad, on the other hand, is by design a multimedia device, equipped with dozens of entertainment features and primed to offer thousands more in the form of add-on applications.

Critics say that's not going to help anyone get to the end of the chapter.

“If you like your kids, get them an iPad so they can play games,” said Russ Wilcox, the head of E Ink Corp., which created the digital paper technology used by the Kindle and many other e-ink-based readers. “If you love them, get them an e-reader so they can actually read.”

The L.A. Times has much more to say, and it’s here.

What the iPad Might Mean for Book Publishing

Into a sea of stories on Apple’s new iPad yesterday, covering everything from specs to speculation, the New York Times’ Motoko Rich piped up with some book-related facts and figures:

When Steven P. Jobs announced the new iBooks app, he said five of the six largest publishers -- Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins Publishers, Macmillan, Penguin and Simon & Schuster -- had signed on to provide e-book content for the new tablet.

In negotiations with Apple, publishers agreed to a business model that gives them more power over the price that customers pay for e-books. Publishers had all but lost that power on Amazon.com’s Kindle e-reader.

Rich’s piece is here. January’s entry into the sea of introductory iPad pieces is here.

iPad, iBook, iBookstore: the Works

Last week we asked if the much anticipated Apple Tablet would kill Amazon’s Kindle e-book reader. The beast was unveiled this morning. We now know it looks just like a giant iPod Touch, it’s called the iPad (shown at right with optional keyboard), it costs about half as much as expected and the answer to the question is, “probably yes.”

Everyone’s talking about the iPad, of course, but PC Mag is best at boiling stuff like this down, and they do:

After years of rumors, speculation, and leaks, Apple today announced its long-await tablet, the iPad.

Chief executive Steve Jobs complemented the introduction of the new device with a new e-bookstore, called iBooks, together with partnerships with four major publishers, and showed off new versions of its iWork application and third-party applications.

Jobs kicked off the company's launch event in San Francisco on Wednesday by highlighting the history of the company's mobile products. "We're the largest mobile device company in the world," he told the audience, showcasing the iPhone and the company's line of MacBook products.

The full piece is here.

Will Apple’s Tablet Kill the Kindle? (And Does it Really Matter?)

E-book watchers are betting that when Apple’s much-anticipated tablet finally reaches consumers some time between now and this spring, the presently precarious e-book market will solidify. The New York Times looks at recent developments:

It’s a formidable high-tech face-off: Amazon.com versus Apple for the hearts and minds of book publishers, authors and readers.

Amazon’s Kindle devices and electronic bookstore now dominate a nascent but booming market, accounting for more than 70 percent of electronic reader sales and 80 percent of e-book purchases, according to some analysts. And on Thursday it will take a page from Apple and announce that it is opening up the Kindle to outside software developers.

Not only that, but Amazon will also debut a shiny new Kindle device. Between that and the newly opened source, Amazon insiders expect things to be shaken up, but in a happy way:

Ian Freed, vice president for the Kindle at Amazon, said he expected developers would devise a wide range of programs, including utilities like calculators, stock tickers and casual video games. He also predicts publishers will begin selling a new breed of e-books, like searchable travel books and restaurant guides that can be tailored to the Kindle owner’s location; textbooks with interactive quizzes; and novels that combine text and audio.

Sound familiar? (There’s an app for that.)

All of this, just as Apple is about to unleash a device that is much more expensive than the Kindle, but also much more capable: a creature that will likely be very much like an iPod on steroids, capable of all types of computing and -- by the way -- acting as an e-book reader.

While all of this Kindle-killing speculation is fun for the media and interesting for those of us who will ultimately end up schlepping such devices, we’re still a very long way from fat ladies and singing.

Think of the epic battles between Betamax and VHS. Then think of what you’re recording video with these days.

Or how about eight-track and cassette or even -- heaven forbid -- reel-to-reel. What about eight-and-a-half inch diskettes, versus mini-floppies, then on to zip drives and rewriteable CD-ROMS and all the other storage devices we ended up spending big bucks on in the time leading up to now: I have a flash drive smaller than a lipstick that I need to keep in a special drawer in my desk for fear of it getting lost.

My point with all this memory lane stuff is this: while we work towards the answer, don’t anticipate that it’s right around the corner. It is not. But here is what I predict: in the end the medium will not matter. Nor will we care about the puny questions we bandy back and forth so seriously now. What really matters never changes, not in the long haul.

I want my full immersion reading experience. Work out the details, please. Fight quietly amongst yourselves. I need the quiet, because you see, I’m over here, in front of my fire, with my heart and my mind immersed in a book.

Will E-Books Be 2010’s Digital Photo Frame?

Expert journalistic assessment or Luddite alert? Either way, while rounding up the latest in e-book technology, Money Control wonders if the e-book readers are really going to be all of that:

Digital Photo frames. A phenomenon that really should have taken off, and clocked in much more numbers in sales than it really has, but hasn't. My neighboring analog photo studio is still doing great business, with his 6 by 4 prints. What really happened to the digital frames?

Hmmm... I keep seeing them around. On sale. Still. I’m not convinced it’s quite the same thing. Still, it’s an interesting, somewhat thoughtful piece.

The Twilight of the Book Industry? Maybe Not.

Right in the middle of the excitement about the opening of the latest movie based on Stephanie Meyer’s phenomenally selling Twilight series, it’s interesting to think about what all of this hoopla says about books and where we are with them now.

When the film, The Twilight Saga: New Moon, opens later today, it is expected to break ticket records. The first film, Twilight, grossed more than $190 million in North American revenues after it opened last year.

While much is said about just why Meyer’s series is so beloved, what interests me today is what this rabid outpouring is saying about the book industry.

Let’s face it: one way or another, book publishing has had a rough year. Much of it self-inflicted. Between shaky international financial news and the uncertainty many parts of the industry are forecasting through the final arrival of the electronic book, the industry has been stumbling. And through the stumbles we hear the chanting of cynical voices about the death of the book. It has always been thus, but now it’s more.

And then there is Twilight. And then there is The Lost Symbol. And then there is just about anything J.K. Rowling would care to put her name on. Others, as well. Books that create excitement and cause line-ups and watercooler chatter. And no: bestsellers do not an industry make, but they sure don’t hurt anything. For one thing, a book that is discussed, is talked about, is pressed on even friends who usually do not read gets a culture talking about books. More importantly, it spreads the very real joy of reading around. It gets people reading who might not otherwise have had a chance to be properly exposed to the full body experience of being immersed in a good story and the emotional virtual reality that reading offers.

The publishing industry, like so many others, is going through changes. Sure, things in the future are going to be different. But millions of girls and young women excitedly sharing a book that they feel simply must be read indicates a certain vibrance for that future. And not all change is bad.

Google Kindles Electronic Book War

The announcement that Google is going into the electronic book vending business is surprising absolutely no one. Nor, as Information Week notes here, is it making already nervous authors and publishers feel any better about the company’s controversial Book Search Settlement.

Google didn’t immediately respond to questions about whether it would sell e-books in an open or protected format. The company already offers over 1.5 million public domain books for free to users of Android mobile phones, Apple’s iPhone, and the Internet. It also allows people to search through millions more books sold online and provides links to online stores selling those books.

Once Google starts selling e-books directly, Amazon may have to add a caveat to its claim that it “offers Earth's Biggest Selection.”

Meanwhile, Amazon’s latest electronic reader, the Kindle DX, will be available later this month. The new larger format is meant to support electronic versions of magazines and newspapers. However, at $489. US, the new larger price tag might prove to be the most interesting feature on the latest model. Will consumers go for it? With interest in and adoption of electronic book technologies at an all-time high, I’m betting the answer will be in the affirmative.

Tiny Kindle Contender: Cute But Lightweight?

After over a decade of thrashing about, Amazon’s Kindle device -- with a push from Oprah -- has established the electronic book industry in a way that feels unassailable. That is, after years and years and years of everybody talkin’ ’bout it, electronic books aren’t just coming anymore, they’re here. That being the case, electronic makers and marketers are jumping on board in a gratifying way with ever more manufacturers introducing the coolest new contender.

The winner of this week’s Kindle Killer Contest looks to go to iPod Nano-like Cool-er, from Interead. The Cool-er is small and -- as the name implies -- very cool-looking, and the machine is a lot cheaper than Amazon’s offering. USA Today compares the potentially Cool-er Kindle:

The Cool-er beats the Kindle on style, at least on the surface. It comes in eight colors: hot pink, racing green and the ruby model I tested, among them. The fact that these bring to mind colorful iPod Nanos is no accident. Cool-er creator Neil Jones says his goal was to create an "iPod moment" for e-books.

At just over 6 ounces, Cool-er is about 40% lighter than Kindle 2. Its 6-inch display is the same size as the Kindle 2. It has 1 gigabyte of memory for storing hundreds of books, half the memory of Kindle 2. But it comes with a slot for an SD memory card to bolster storage, which Kindle doesn't have.

But while USA Today’s Edward C. Baig found a lot to like, he points out several shortcomings, including such important things as navigation and title cost and availability. You can see his assessment here.

Kindle Killers Coming

Amazon’s Kindle might have led the pack to a standard platform for the reading of electronic books, but it is unlikely to keep its #1 position for long. For one thing, a lot of people really dislike the company that brings the Kindle and would do just about anything to avoid supporting it. For another, successfully launching a technology always inspires other companies to get on that boat.

Today the technology magazine Slippery Brick takes a quick look at all of the potential Kindle killers, including the brand new Cybook Opus, due out in June.

According to Slippery Brick, the Cybook Opus goes beyond the Kindle’s standard of usability, in part because it’s pocket-sized and has built-in PDF support:

Software features would let users pick one of 12 font sizes for readability as well as let owners organize e-books by folders. Battery life will give you about 8,000 page flips, which is quite a few novels (Or one Robert Jordan Wheel Of Time novel). No 3G wireless feature, but you’ll get 21 days at standby.

We say: Bring it!

The Changing Face of P.O.D.

This is what micropublishers have been dreaming about for decades, really. One machine that does it all and makes it possible to have books printed and delivered, a single copy at a time. Is this what Print On Demand technology will look like in the not-so-distant future? From The Telegraph:

Crime and Punishment may take the average reader several months to complete, but Britain’s first “book vending machine” can print you a copy in just nine minutes.

A freshly-bound edition of Fyodor Dostoevsky’s classic -- ordered by The Daily Telegraph -- was one of the first tomes to drop out of the Espresso Book Machine when it opened for business for the first time yesterday.

The novel is one of more than 400,000 titles including many rare and out-of-print books that can be printed on demand at Blackwell bookshop on Charing Cross Road in central London.

The bookstore of the future, then, might look very different, indeed. Not shelf upon shelf of books, but row upon row of machines churning out custom copies for waiting customers. Between that and the electronic streams of the e-books whizzing by, it’s possible that, a few years hence, bookstores will be very different places, indeed.

While that idea makes me a little sad, it has a hopeful edge. Back at Blackwell, The Telegraph’s copy of Crime and Punishment was better than all right:

The hefty work that skidded out of the chute, while slightly sticky to the touch, looked and felt like a standard edition, even down to the correct ISBN number on the back.

The paper and ink are the same quality used in larger presses, and the binding appeared flawless.

Phill Jamieson, head of marketing at Blackwell, said that the firm was uncertain how the £68,000 machine -- one of only three such printers in the world -- would be used during its three-month trial period.

And the moral of the story? It seems entirely possible that the death of the book so many have been forceasting will never come. We love our books. Witness the many thousands of readers that pass through January Magazine every day, not to mention other online magazines and blogs and discussion groups and book groups and all of this without even leaving the online world.

At their core and at heart, books themselves will not change. However, how the publishing industry delivers our books, how they sell and market and get them to the consumer, all of that might change quite a bit.

Consider a world without remainders. Now that doesn’t sound so bad.

#Amazonfail Fiasco Leaves Bookbuyers Suspicious

The big story in the book world yesterday was the fact that Amazon went on a shopping trip. The Seattle-based bookseller acquired Lexcycle, the company that makes Stanza, which is a free e-book application for the Apple iPhone. From The New York Times:

Stanza allows users to browse a library of around 100,000 books and periodicals for the iPhone, many of them in the ePub format -- a widely accepted standard for e-books that Amazon has yet to support with its proprietary Kindle platform.

After the news was announced yesterday, the blogosphere and the Twitterverse (did I just seriously type those words?) started talking about what the move might mean: was there something darker and more sinister behind the announcement? Something beyond what Amazon “spokeswoman” Cinthia Portugal told the Times, that “Lexcycle is a smart, innovative company, and we look forward to working with them to innovate on behalf of readers.”

Consumer suspicion is understandable. The Amazon-Lexcycle deal comes just weeks after a “glitch” in Amazon’s ranking system was seen to be dropping many books with possible gay or lesbian content from its ranking system.

As I write this, I suspect that things still aren’t what they should be with Amazon results. At 12:15 am Tuesday morning, the number one result Amazon returned when the word “homosexual” was typed into its search bar was Loving Homosexuals as Jesus Would: A Fresh Christian Approach (Brazos Press). Somehow that result doesn’t feel quite right. It’s possible Amazon needs to poke at their search algorithms still further. More importantly, it illustrates consumer’s wariness of Amazon right now, a wariness that has many former customers researching alternatives for online book purchasing and vending.

Vook, Book, Blook: A Rose By Any Other Name Still Has Thorns

When it comes to the future of the book, a lot of people are running around trying to come up with answers. Yet I’m still not convinced we’ve dreamed up the right questions thus far. Take. for instance, yet another bookish innovation, the slightly ridiculous sounding “vook.” From The New York Times:

Bradley Inman wants to create great fiction, dramatic online video and compelling Twitter stream -- and then roll them all into a multimedia hybrid that is tailored to the rapidly growing number of digital reading devices.

Mr. Inman, a successful Silicon Valley entrepreneur, calls this digital amalgam a “Vook,” (vook.tv) and the fledgling company he has created with that name just might represent a possible future for the beleaguered book industry.

The fact that the electronic book in present form has challenges is no secret:

Vook tries to address a big problem for book publishers as they expand onto digital formats. For all the hype and initial success of devices like the Kindle, they threaten to strip traditional books of much of their transportive appeal. Images on the jacket cover, inviting fonts and the satisfying feel of quality paper are all largely absent, replaced by humdrum pixels on a virtual page.

In short, words aside, some of the stuff we love about books is lost in electronic form.

And though in this piece, Inman and his ilk come across practically giddy about bringing home neo-book technology, a couple of things come to mind. One: this isn’t the first time we’ve been down this particular road and, Two: the classic form of the book is a time-tested design that has endured very well over the years. Want my attention in the new book wars? Don’t simply give me something different. At this stage, it has to be better, as well.

Apple Censors Electronic Book

Is Apple aiming at being this decade’s Wal-Mart? From CNET:

An e-book submitted to Apple’s App Store has been approved after the author removed language that apparently offended Apple.

CNET’s David Carnoy wrote a book called Knife Music last year, and attempted to submit it to the App Store as an e-book. Apple rejected his application for containing “objectionable content,” which appeared to be a couple of uses of that four-letter word that starts with F.

I’m a little less proud of being a Mac user today.

The story is here.

Kindle May Be Headed for Court

The outfit that powers Discovery Channel has slapped a patent infringement suit against Amazon. They say the Kindle device violates a patent they registered in 1999. Arts Technica has the story:

Amazon’s Kindle e-book reader was introduced to the world back in November 2007. Most people would be forgiven, however, for thinking that the device’s legal problems only started with the 2.0 version of the device, which has gotten Amazon in hot water with the Authors Guild, and prompted the company to lash out at those who attempted to put unsanctioned content onto its hardware.

But, as it turns out, Amazon’s biggest legal worries may have begun in the very month that the device was first introduced. That's when a patent that anticipates most of the Kindle’s major features was granted to someone else. That someone else, Discovery Communications, has now filed suit against Amazon for patent infringement.

John Timmer’s take for Arts Technica is here.

It’s a Phone, It’s a Camera, It’s a ... Book?

The editors at MacWorld seem reasonably excited about the fact that Amazon has released an application that will let Apple iPhone users read Kindle-formatted books on their mobile phones.

The arrival of Amazon.com’s Kindle for iPhone app certainly raises the profile of Apple’s handheld wonder as an e-book platform. Of the many fine things the iPhone is already -- planner, organizer, Internet and e-mail portal, MP3 player… and, oh yeah, a phone -- add reading tool to the list.

When one looks at what the success of the iPod has done to the music industry -- turned it upside down -- I’m a little cautious about this move by Amazon, a company known for not doing much of anything that isn’t both cagey and well thought out.

If, on the other hand, you’re among the millions of iPhone users our there, this will be big news for you, indeed. In that case, MacWorld is certainly the place to get the skinny. They’ve recently run related pieces here and here.

When Books Are Electric

The medium is not the relevant bit. Sure: books on paper are wonderful. They smell good to me. They feel good in my hand. I like the weight and heft of books on paper. I like how books never run out of batteries and don’t ever need to be plugged in. And how I can take a book to the beach/ski slope/on rapid transit and not worry if it will work in that place. I know that it will.

Let’s face it: the design of the traditional book is a good one. It’s timeworn amd time-shaped and it works. Sometimes all the kerfuffle about e-books seems like a lot of inventing better mousetraps. And sure: there are some good ideas. But when the dust settles, what’s in my hand? A book. Always, a book.

In the end, it will be preference, won’t it? A good book transports us, does it not? It lifts us from the place where we are -- with a paper book or an e-book reader in hand -- and drops us into the world of that story. The message does that, then. Not the medium.

As is so often the case in life, it’s all about the journey. The method of transportation barely factors in.

Bezos’ Jon Stewart Visit Kindles Laughter

The best thing about the launch of Amazon’s shiny new Kindle was watching Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos laugh his fool head off on the Jon Stewart Show last night. If you missed it, you must see it. And, fortunately, Gawker makes that possible here as well as in a snarky piece on the same page and quoted below:

Jeff Bezos turned up on the Daily Show couch to promote Amazon.com's newest Kindle e-book reader. And as this clip shows, he laughed, and laughed, and laughed. Why wouldn't he?

Host Jon Stewart seemed discomfited by his guest’s wild, table-slapping howls. But any tech reporter who's interviewed Bezos knows that the Amazon.com’s CEO hooting laughter is his most distinctive personal quality, the hook of every headline.

I don’t agree: I didn’t think Stewart seemed at all discomfited. Let’s face it: Stewart is a comedian. He likes making people laugh. And Bezos really did laugh.

That’s all the time I feel like spending writing about the new Kindle right now. And why? I’m just sick of hearing about it. In case you’re not, you can get the 4-1-1 here and here and here.

Kindle Revamp Sparks Speculation

The portion of the book industry that’s mad for electronics is abuzz with what Amazon’s redesign of its popular Kindle e-book reader might mean in real-world terms. From Information Week:

With Amazon expected to unveil a new version of its Kindle e-book reader in less than two weeks, tech enthusiasts on the Web are taking their best guesses as to what the online retailer has planned for the popular device....

Despite the Kindle's popularity, most experts agree the $359 device is in need of a facelift. While the Kindle gets high marks for ease of use and a free wireless connection that lets users buy books from Amazon, the gadget, which is more than a year old, is ready for a redesign.

Information Week rounds up the speculation here.

No Kindle for Christmas, Thanks to Oprah

Even though many readers were keen to see a Kindle in their stocking this year, Amazon has announced that not only are they out of stock, but new supplies won’t be available until well into the new year. From The Wall Street Journal:

For the second holiday shopping season in a row, Amazon.com Inc.’s Kindle e-book reader is out of stock, and more of the devices won't be available until mid-February, at the earliest.

Amazon thought it had plenty in stock, but then the most powerful person in book publishing intervened. In late October, Oprah Winfrey described it as her “favorite new gadget” on her TV show. And just as Ms. Winfrey’s reading selections turn no-name books into best sellers, the demand for Kindles soon overwhelmed Amazon.

The full piece is here.

The iPod Effect

Over just a very few years, Apple’s iPod has changed the music industry practically beyond recognition. Today The Telegraph suggests that the latest generation of e-book readers might well be on their way to doing that for the book industry:

Electronic book readers -- also known as e-readers -- are the book equivalent of the iPod. Just as your MP3 player allows you to store thousands of songs and CDs on the device, so e-readers enable you to cram thousands of books into a slimline, lightweight gadget that’s less than the size of a paperback.

And while e-readers have been around for a while, it’s only in the last year or two that the technology has got to a point where they are a viable alternative to a real, dog-eared book. One of the biggest challenges was developing screens and fonts that would be easy on the eye - after all, no one wants to feel as though they are staring at a computer monitor while reading a novel. The introduction of “eInk” technology and the creation of low-glare screens has made electronic type more readable.

The piece includes reviews of Amazon’s Kindle, the iRex iLiad, Sony’s PRS-505, the Ectato JetBook and the Netronix EB-210 and it’s here.

Waxing Poetic About Kindle

In Monday’s Wall Street Journal “Information Age” column, Journal big cheese L. Gordon Crovitz gets excited about Amazon’s Kindle… of all things.

To an info-snacker of many years, the prospect of a gourmet meal sounds pretty good. Perhaps a new digital device like the Kindle can help us regain the attention spans earlier devices helped us lose. If so, this could become a great era for books, or more accurately for the future of words that for centuries could be delivered only in book form.

Intellectually, I’m not sure a lot of his arguments hold water. From a purely artistic standpoint, almost no one writes this kind of stuff better than Crovitz. I’ll tell you what I mean. At one point, he says:

Much is at stake. As Mr. Gomez concluded, “what’s really important is the culture of ideas and innovation” books represent. But “to expect future generations to be satisfied with printed books is like expecting the BlackBerry users of today to start communicating by writing letters, stuffing envelopes and licking stamps.”

See? Lovely stuff. Except, even what he describes here is already happening, as shops like this begin to spring up and the very stuffing of envelopes and licking of stamps that Crovitz scoffs at actually are beginning to make a sort of sweetly kitschy return.

Upshot? The jury is still out. As regular readers of this space know, I’ve never been particularly nuts about the Kindle (starting with that extra-goofy name) but the electronic book as a fixture is not a question, merely a reality that has yet to come to pass.

More on the Death of the Book

I don’t want to hear another word about the death of the book. I’m not suggesting that electronic options won’t do well in the market. If they’re well priced and well designed, they very well might. But that won’t kill the book as we know it, the book that we love.

Did satellite kill television? Ultimately it altered it. But that’s nothing like death. Both things are still around. They co-exist. If anything, satellite options forced commercial television to be better, smarter. Competition that integrates into existing technology has a way of doing that.

A healthy, well accepted electronic book reader will enhance the print market. It will alter it, but it will make it better. People will talk about books more easily, they will even talk more about them electronically. For some people, it will make books easier to interact with, easier to purchase. Easier to read.

And will it change things? Of course it will change things. Is change necessarily bad? I don’t think so. But what do I know? I used to be the fastest paste up artist in the production department. I could have curled up in a ball in the corner and cried about the changes in my world. I did not. By the time those changes could have touched my life, I had already moved on.

Revoltech vs. Kindle

“Forget Kindle,” says Gizmodo, “this is much more awesome.”

We have to agree.

Meanwhile, Forbes posits that the Apple iPhone made the Kindle obsolete before it left the shop. And PC Magazine wonders if the Kindle will, in fact, kindle e-book sales. (Groan.) We still think it looks goofy and has a funny name.

Meanwhile, in the unlikely event you feel the burning need to rush out and get your very own Kindle, the Amazon product page is here.

But Did They Have to Give It Such a Stupid Name?

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos will unveil the company’s new e-book reader tomorrow. Kindle will be introduced at a media event in New York on Monday. No: you read that right. Kindle. That’s gotta be a dealbreaker, right?

“Hey mom: pass me my Kindle.”

I don’t think so.

CNET says that “the device will retail for $399 and receive automatic downloads from major newspapers, magazines and other publications. The source also said that Kindle features e-mail.” Hey, cool! Amazon has invented to the laptop.

More from CNET:

Amazon is banking a lot on the e-reader. The retailer held up the release for more than a year in an attempt to deliver a superior product than predecessors, a source told CNET News.com. Previous attempts to convince the public to switch to digital books have largely failed.

Seriously: you want success? Think of a better name than “Kindle.” Sheesh.

More on this as the story develops. Unless it doesn’t seem worth repeating.