Comments on: New York Times Takes Another Look at EBooks http://dearauthor.com/wordpress/2008/12/25/new-york-times-takes-another-look-at-ebooks/ Book reviews, industry news, and commentary from a reader's point of view Thu, 18 Mar 2010 01:35:04 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Shreela http://dearauthor.com/wordpress/2008/12/25/new-york-times-takes-another-look-at-ebooks/#comment-185147 Shreela Sun, 28 Dec 2008 07:54:00 +0000 http://dearauthor.com/wordpress/?p=8528#comment-185147 <blockquote><strong>Amazon.con How the online retail giant hoodwinks the press.</strong> The day after Christmas Amazon put out a press release declaring the 2008 holiday season "its best ever, with over 6.3 million items ordered worldwide on the peak day, Dec. 15." The story was eagerly snapped up by the Associated Press, Reuters, the Washington Post, the Atlanta Journal Constitution, and even the Web site for Business Week, which really ought to know better. Some, but not all, of these accounts went on to concede that Amazon would not provide revenue data for the entire shopping season, or even for its "peak day." Nor would Amazon confirm or deny that one or both of these revenue figures exceeded those for 2007... The same gullibility applies to coverage of the Kindle, Amazon's e-book reader... http://www.slate.com/id/2207537</blockquote> I couldn't quote more, because the article's not that long.

Amazon.con
How the online retail giant hoodwinks the press.

The day after Christmas Amazon put out a press release declaring the 2008 holiday season “its best ever, with over 6.3 million items ordered worldwide on the peak day, Dec. 15.” The story was eagerly snapped up by the Associated Press, Reuters, the Washington Post, the Atlanta Journal Constitution, and even the Web site for Business Week, which really ought to know better. Some, but not all, of these accounts went on to concede that Amazon would not provide revenue data for the entire shopping season, or even for its “peak day.” Nor would Amazon confirm or deny that one or both of these revenue figures exceeded those for 2007…

The same gullibility applies to coverage of the Kindle, Amazon’s e-book reader…
http://www.slate.com/id/2207537

I couldn’t quote more, because the article’s not that long.

]]> By: Jessica http://dearauthor.com/wordpress/2008/12/25/new-york-times-takes-another-look-at-ebooks/#comment-184966 Jessica Fri, 26 Dec 2008 11:45:01 +0000 http://dearauthor.com/wordpress/?p=8528#comment-184966 NPR did a similar report earlier this week, but never mentioned romance. Sales may be tripling for ebooks, but 1% is ... not a lot. It's funny to think how much discussion of ebooks dominates in Romancelandia when ebooks represent such a tiny portion of the market share. I guess romance readers are on the cutting edge. But did you catch this line in the NYT: "At Harlequin Enterprises, the Toronto-based publisher of bodice-ripping romances, ..."! NPR did a similar report earlier this week, but never mentioned romance.

Sales may be tripling for ebooks, but 1% is … not a lot. It’s funny to think how much discussion of ebooks dominates in Romancelandia when ebooks represent such a tiny portion of the market share. I guess romance readers are on the cutting edge.

But did you catch this line in the NYT: “At Harlequin Enterprises, the Toronto-based publisher of bodice-ripping romances, …”!

]]>