Monday Round up Links: A New Kind of Book Tour
Cover Cafe nominations for 2010 are now open. If you want to nominate a cover for a book that has been published in 2010, please go to http://www.covercafe.com and click on Nominate. The new 2010 nomination form is now available.
All About Romance has launched its annual readers’ poll.
Author Stephen Elliott wrote an editorial about his very different book tour. Instead of going to bookstores, Elliott booked appearances in people’s homes. Sometimes the group would stay up very late to talk about the book and issues the book brought to readers’ attention.
They asked interesting questions about murder and confession and the moment the lie mixes with the truth like red and yellow paint, becoming orange, the original colors ceasing to exist. Afterward people went back to talking, grabbing another drink or a snack. Leaning against the kitchen counter, I thought to myself that they weren't a standard literary audience: they were better.
I loved that statement “lie mixes with truth like red and yellow paint…the original colors ceasing to exist.”
Xerox has partnered with Espresso Book Machine to provide on demand books for consumers. Espresso used to use a machine from Kyocera but the Xerox is supposed to provide better quality and faster output.
The Espresso Book Machine can produce paperbacks in variable combinations of trim sizes between 4.5″ x 5.0″ and 8.25″ x 10.5″ for a production cost less than one cent per page and can produce a 300 page book in about 4 minutes
I really love the idea of the on demand book because it can use digital technology to deliver books to those who want print and there are definitely opportunities for customization (choose your own cover) and personalization (inscribe a line for a gift).
The Online Computer Library Center (OCLC) released an iPhone App that uses Occipital’s barcode scanning technology. Take a photo of a book’s barcode and the OCLC iPhone App will bring up whether your local library has a particular book and whether it is on the shelf or checked out. It will also provide you with places to purchase the book in case you don’t want to use the library services. That’s pretty awesome.
The Times is going behind a paywall which means we won’t be reading as many stories like Elliott’s without paying for it. Times knows that there will be a steep dropoff in readership but the possible revenue is worth it.
What makes the decision so agonizing for Sulzberger is that it involves not just business considerations, but ultimately a self-assessment of just what Times journalism is worth to the world. ..Hanging over the deliberations is the fact that the Times' last experience with pay walls, TimesSelect, was deeply unsatisfying and exposed a rift between Sulzberger and his roster of A-list columnists, particularly Tom Friedman and Maureen Dowd, who grew frustrated at their dramatic fall-off in online readership.
A game developer posted on slashgear asking why people pirated. He’s trying to see if there are ways in which to modify his behavior to make the product less attractive to pirate and more attractive for legitimate purchasers.
The Wall Street Journal (paywall) reports that HarperCollins is in talks to bring ebooks to the Apple Tablet rumored to be announced later this month.
HarperCollins is expected to set the prices of the e-books, which would have added features, with Apple taking a percentage of sales. Details haven’t been ironed out.
The article suggests the ebooks will be enhanced editions and if so, that would mean a very meager catalog for Apple so I have some doubts about the veracity of the entirety of the article, but it wouldn’t surprise me to see ebooks as part of the Apple catalog. Of course, you can still get the Amazon app on the Apple iPhone and thus, likely on the tablet. Therefore, pricing would need to be competitive. The article speculates that the pricing for “enhanced ebooks” would be $14.99 to $19.99. Frankly, publishers are barely doing ebooks right let alone delivering value added enhanced versions.
I must have that OCLC iPhone app! Sadly, even though the article you link to seems to be speaking of it as if it’s available, I am seeing no sign on it in the app store. Any more info?
I’m sorry…I just don’t know what “added features” might entice me to pay nearly twice what I believe an ebook is worth: $5-$7. I can’t think of not a single extra out there that would entice me to buy one book when I could buy 2 (or 3!), instead.
I’m worried for the Times. I don’t think they are ready for the dramatic fall in readership that they are going to see. Balancing revenues with relevency is a tricky business.
I don’t see the likelihood that the enhanced ebooks will typically be fiction. I think there could be a market in more arts and entertainment based titles. For example, an ebook about U2 that includes clips from music videos, interviews, etc. Or a behind-the-scenes enhanced ebook about Avatar or one of the Twilight movies.
@LizJ: That sounds more like a documentary than a book. Course you need color so that lets out any of the current crop of e-ink screens. I just don’t see the value of most enhancements to an ebook.
Of course the Apple Tablet may change all that, but I want to see it first before I make up my mind.
Patience is virtue