Publishers have been experimenting with promotional free downloads of books, and worrying about the risks of electronic piracy but there has been precious little data and analysis to work from. For the past eight months Brian O’Leary at Magellan Media has partnered with Random House and O’Reilly Media to rigorously study the “impact of free distribution on paid content,” which meant examining both giveaways and unauthorized peer-to-peer distribution. The ultimate objective is to develop “a model that describes instances in which free distribution works or may not work,” taking into account the variety of complex influences. The work is still […]
eNews
Guild Alerts Authors on Kindle Text-to-Speech
The Authors Guild posted a note that raises their concerns that text-to-speech software will “improve rapidly” and calls the inclusion of the feature on Kindle 2 “a significant challenge to the publishing industry.” They advise: “We’re studying this matter closely and will report back to you. In the meantime, we recommend that if you haven’t yet granted your e-book rights to backlist or other titles, this isn’t the time to start. If you have a new book contract and are negotiating your e-book rights, make sure Amazon’s use of those rights is part of the dialog. Publishers certainly could contractually […]
Stanza to Support Adobe PDF and Protected ePub
As anticipated, Lexcycle’s Stanza Reader for iPhone/iPod Touch will license PDF and EPUB rendering technologies as well as support for Adobe’s eBook content protection technology. The capability will launch “next quarter.” That opens up a significant world of books to the platform, comprising “a wide variety of commercially published eBooks from major publishers.” And it contrasts to Kindle 2, which still does not offer native support for PDF files. In a presentation this morning at TOC, Lexcycle’s Neelan Choksi said “the one thing we’ve focused on from day one is that it’s all about the readers.” A survey of users […]
Grisham Coming Soon to eBooks
Agent David Gernert tells the WSJ that he is close to finalizing an agreement with Random House to make John Grisham’s 22 novels available in electronic form for the first time. “There was a period when John and I felt it was a good idea to watch the world of e-books evolve before diving in. Now that it’s a more mature marketplace, he will be available very soon in all digital formats.”WSJ
Kindle Day 2: King is "Publisher"; Does Read-Aloud Infringe? Waiting for Mobile
Things to say about Kindle 2 on day two are a lot more interesting than yesterday’s first shot. An Amazon representative explained after yesterday’s press conference that Stephen King is acting as publisher of the Kindle-exclusive “Ur,” through the company listed as Storyville LLC on Amazon’s site. The etailer says that the “digital list price” of $3.99 was set by Storyville, and Amazon is discounting the product to $2.99 in the same way that they discount other ebooks. Amazon says it is distributing Ur electronically in partnership with Storyville, and that the publisher is selling them the ebook at a […]
TOC Keynotes
O’Reilly Media’s Tools of Change conference kicked off this morning in New York with three keynote speeches (tutorial sessions were held yesterday). Longtime e-publishing publishing pioneer and visionary Bob Stein–now at the Institute for the Future of the Book) had a rough start, underscoring that even technical geniuses need to prepare (and practice) ahead of time. Stein’s payoff thought was that “the principle role of publishers in the future is to build and nurture vibrant communities for authors and their readers.” Arguing that “a book is a place where readers and authors sometimes congregate,” Stein predicted that future generations will […]