This week's news on E-Books.
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10 Landing Page Usability Mistakes That Are Costing You Money
2 FebArticlesBase
Landing pages have one job: compel a visitor to take a desired action. Whether it's making a purchase through a website, registering for a webinar, downloading an eBook, or signing-up for a newsletter, landing pages are all about conversion. -
Which E-book Reader Would You Pick when Facing various Eraders?
2 FebArticlesBase
Portable Document Format is regarded maybe since the greatest format that is readily available to us in today's time particularly with regards to publishing eBooks, the knowledge about several book reader explained below provides you with a good concept to choose worthy ebook viewers. It's the capability to become study on computer systems that could be operating essentially on any offered running process. -
Jamie Raab Interview Sparks eBook Royalty Debate
1 Febmediabistro.com
GalleyCat contributor Jeff Rivera interviewed Grand Central publisher Jamie Raab for mediabistro.com’s So What Do You Do? feature today.In the interview, Raab (pictured, via) defended her imprint’s standard practice of giving authors a 25% royalty rate for eBooks: “We have an infrastructure to support.” She outlined the values of what traditional publishers have to offer whether they are new in their writing career or established New York Times bestselling authors.
When asked on whether or not she fears big-name writers will take a less traditional publishing route, she replied: “I think about that a lot because I know it’s on authors’ minds. And I think it’s incumbent on every publisher to do a better job than they’ve ever done before — more creative on marketing and eBooks, working in partnership more closely with their authors, keeping them in the loop, publishing more strategically.”
New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.
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Why Some Book Buyers Are Increasingly Resistant To E-Readers
1 FebpaidContent:UK
Book marketing firm Verso Advertising recently found that over half of book buyers say they are “not at all likely” to purchase an e-reader in the next 12 months—up from 40 percent in 2009. Why?
I asked Verso’s Jack McKeown and Denise Berthiaume why they think avid book buyers—those who buy at least ten books a year—are increasingly resistant to e-readers. McKeown and Berthiaume are also the co-owners of Books & Books, an independent bookstore on Long Island. Here’s what they think:
1. E-readers and tablets do not yet provide sufficient “relative advantage” over physical books to convince this hard core group of book readers to switch to these devices. In other words, the convenience of e-readers is not enough of a factor to offset the abandonment of the codex—with its stereoscopic (two-page) effect, tactile and aesthetic appeal, and more immersive impact—for many hardcore book readers.
2. Screen fatigue: Book readers, and in particular avid readers, enjoy the escape that physical books provide from the array of screen technologies that absorb so much of their working day.
3. Avid book readers enjoy the discoverability experience of shopping in a physical bookstore where contact with the physical product, and interaction with knowledgeable staff, convey an added benefit.
A couple more reasons could be found in another group that is resistant to e-readers—teenagers, who lag behind all other age groups in e-book adoption. Last week at Digital Book World, Bowker’s Kelly Gallagher presented new research on teens’ book buying habits.
Teens like using social technology to discuss and share things with their friends, he said, and e-books at this point are not a social technology. An increasing number of teens surveyed says there are too many restrictions on using e-books: 14 percent said so in 2011, compared to 6 percent in 2010.
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Adult Hardcover Sales Down Nearly 21% in November 2011
1 Febmediabistro.com
According to the latest Association of American Publishers (AAP) net sales revenue report, adult hardcover sales plunged 20.9 percent in November 2011, dipping from$174 million to $219.9 million for the same period the year before. At the same time, total trade book sales dipped 3.5 percent.
We’ve embedded a year-to-date chart above for 2011, but we still need to wait for the December numbers to get a complete picture of book sales in 2011.
Here’s more from the release, drawn from publishers’ insights: “While the November over November e-books number [65.9 percent increase] is still high, it dropped below the triple-digit percentages we’ve seen in the past year. The year-to-date percentage growth remains pretty consistent with what we’ve been seeing all year.”
New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.
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‘The Artist’s Way’ Book Is Now An App
1 Febmediabistro.com
Penguin has released a free app based on Julia Cameron‘s bestselling novel The Artist’s Way called Artist’s Way Toolkit.The app gives users exercises and meditations to help encourage inspiration. It features note taking tools, the ability to take photos and share their ideas with friends.
eBookNewser has more: “Penguin has been making their mark in the app space over the last year by creating interactive eBook apps for classic books. They are the publisher behind Jack Kerouac‘s On the Roadapp and Wreck This App, the digital version of Keri Smith‘s bestselling Wreck This Journal. The company also released an app edition of Ayn Rand‘s Atlas Shrugged.”
New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.
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Barnes & Noble Stores Will Not Stock Books Published By Amazon
31 Janmediabistro.com
Barnes & Noble has decided not to stock books published by Amazon in their physical stores, keeping the new publisher out of the country’s largest network of brick and mortar bookstores.Bloomberg Businessweek senior reporter Brad Stone called it “a declaration of war,” reprinting a statement from B&N’s chief merchandising officer, Jaime Carey. However, the bookseller will offer Amazon titles in their online store. Last week, Amazon revealed that Houghton Mifflin Harcourt will distribute print books from Amazon Publishing.
Check it out: “Our decision is based on Amazon’s continued push for exclusivity with publishers, agents and the authors they represent. These exclusives have prohibited us from offering certain eBooks to our customers. Their actions have undermined the industry as a whole and have prevented millions of customers from having access to content. It’s clear to us that Amazon has proven they would not be a good publishing partner to Barnes & Noble as they continue to pull content off the market for their own self interest.” (Via Sarah Weinman)
New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.
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VIDEO: Amazon expects low growth for late 2011
31 JanFrom BBC News
Amazon has been pushing into new markets with products like the Kindle e-book, but investors are worried that the expansion is coming at the expense of profits. -
Jonathan Franzen: ‘Maybe nobody will care about printed books 50 years from now, but I do’
30 Janmediabistro.com
Author Jonathan Franzen is not a fan of eBooks. While speaking at the Hay Festival in Cartagena, Colombia, last week, he said that print books are more permanent than eBooks.The Telegraph UK recorded his comments: “Maybe nobody will care about printed books 50 years from now, but I do. When I read a book, I’m handling a specific object in a specific time and place. The fact that when I take the book off the shelf it still says the same thing – that’s reassuring. Someone worked really hard to make the language just right, just the way they wanted it. They were so sure of it that they printed it in ink, on paper.”
You can read more at eBookNewser: “Franzen defended the paperback technology saying that he could spill water on it and it would still work. He also defended the print format for its permanence.” You can also watch a video about more cutting-edge features of print books.
New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.
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Michael Hart
30 JanThe Economist - Obituary
AMONG the episodes in his life that didn’t last, that were over almost before they began, including a spell in the army and a try at marriage, Michael Hart was a street musician in San Francisco. He made no money at it, but then he never bought into the money system much—garage-sale T-shirts, canned beans for supper, were his sort of thing. He gave the music away for nothing because he believed it should be as freely available as the air you breathed, or as the wild blackberries and raspberries he used to gorge on, growing up, in the woods near Tacoma in Washington state. All good things should be abundant, and they should be free.He came to apply that principle to books, too. Everyone should have access to the great works of the world, whether heavy (Shakespeare, “Moby-Dick”, pi to 1m places), or light (Peter Pan, Sherlock Holmes, the “Kama Sutra”). Everyone should have a free library of their own, the whole Library of Congress if they wanted, or some esoteric little subset; he liked Romanian poetry himself, and Herman Hesse’s “Siddhartha”. The joy of e-books, which he invented, was that...
