The Uncertain Future of the Printed Word

Guest Review on the Kindle Fire

2011-12-26T14:10:00.000-08:00

Hi, my name is Jeff and I am a readingaholic. I have been one as long as I can remember, and always will be. At any given time I am reading 3-4 books. I usually have a book at my bedside table, one on my desk, one in my car, and one that kinda floats around wherever I go. Bookshelves line my living room, overflowing with mine and my wife's collection. We are readers.

A few years ago my wife wanted a Nook for her birthday. While I thought that nothing could replace the experience of having an actual book in your hand, I relented and got her one. It seemed fine enough for what it was, but I never saw myself going that route, it just didn't seem the same to me. Earlier this year that all changed as I was offered the chance of getting a Kindle at a discounted price, and I have not bought a paper book since. I much prefer the Kindle to the Nook, it doesn't seem as bulky, it's easier to organize, and Amazon has a great system set up to support it.
Three months ago I started looking into getting an iPad. On my budget it's a pretty big investment so I wanted to be sure. I had a hard time justifying the expense for what I wanted to do with it (access the internet, read books, play some games). What I needed was a turbo-charged Kindle. And the Kindle Fire was announced! It was a no-brainer to pre-order, it seemed like it was just what I was looking for, at more than half the price of the cheapest iPad. And I was right.

Let me be clear, I am not anti-iPad. I have gotten to play around with them quite a bit, and I love them. But for me, it's just too much to spend for what I want. I do not think the Fire is the iPad killer it was first touted to be. It's just, for me, the Fire is a better fit.

So let's get down to it. If you order it from Amazon (which I did), it comes pre-configured for your account. Out of the box all I had to do was type in the password for my wifi home network, skip thru a few introductory screens, and I was off and running. Since it was pre-configured, all the books I had bought for my original Kindle were instantly available for me to download, displayed as front cover icons you can scroll thru. I wanted to try out the purchasing process of the Fire, so I bought the new Stephen King book 11/22/63. Accessing the Amazon store is a one-tap process, and a few taps and a quick download later it was on my Fire. Amazon has abandoned the e-ink technology for the Fire, which is too bad as it was easier on the eyes. But in exchange I get a back-lit presentation, which is good for late night reading in bed while my wife is trying to sleep (the original Kindle was not back-lit).

The Fire runs a version of the Android OS. Amazon has a nicely stocked app store (not the full selection of the actual Android store, but it has over 8000 currently available with more on the way). The Fire comes with a bunch of apps pre-loaded. I fired up the Facebook app, and was very happy with the results. Quick and easy to use. I downloaded the Twitter app and had the same results. The apps seemed to run just the way they should, so no complaints there. Web surfing is quick and easy with the Amazon Silk browser, which supports Flash. I have read some reports that said web browsing was slow, but I did not encounter that. The sites I went to loaded fairly quickly. Amazon offers one free selected app every day. Kinda cool if you want to try out something but weren't sure if it was worth the money.

One of the big features the Fire has been touting has been video streaming. With the Fire you get one month of Amazon Prime free, which gives you access to their vast movie and TV collection. From Amazon I looked up Dr Who, and they had every season of the new series to include the recently finished 6th season. I watched some of the last season 6 episode, and was happy to find a crisp picture, good sound, with zero lag/buffering issues. I downloaded the Netflix app and watched a bit of Torchwood with the same results. Again, some online reviews found the streaming to be a bit laggy, but I did not see that at all.

Amazon, like Apple, has introduced a cloud storage system. You get 5Gb (which they will probably increase in the near future) of free online storage to store anything you want, and you can access it from anywhere. This combines very nicely with the Fire. I can upload a playlist to it and listen to it on my home computer, then when I get to work the Fire can access it and pick it up where I left off (as long as you have access to a wifi hotspot). Any songs you get from Amazon Mp3 are automatically stored on the Cloud and don't contribute to the 5Gb storage space. You can expand the storage for $1 per extra gb per year).

So let's talk comics. Amazon has a fairly decent collection of comic books available for the Fire, including an exclusive deal with DC to publish many of their books. In addition to a proprietary comic reader that comes on the Fire, Amazon also pre-loaded the ComiXology app, where you can purchase issues and subscriptions. I bought Brightest Day #0 and was pleasantly surprised. While I really don't see myself reading comics on the Fire too often, the images were crisp and clear, and had no trouble reading it on the 7" screen. You can either read it by the page, or frame-by-frame. Decent enough for what it is.

Amazon has kept in the sync ability from the Kindle. This means I can be reading a book on the Fire, then switch to my Kindle iPhone app, tap a button, and I can pick up right where I left off. LOVE that!

Of course the kindle Fire is not perfect. So far my main grumbling point is the poor placement on the on/off button, which they put at the bottom of the device. If you use a cover (I bought the Microshell Folio cover by Marware, which works just fine), the placement shouldn't be much of a problem since the cover creates a kind of buffer for the button. But if you go coverless it most likely will result in you hitting the button more often than you would like. Also, if you want to transfer anything to your Fire, I hope you kept your USB cable from your old Kindle, because the Fire does not come with one (they switched to a wall charger). Also the Fire is wifi only, no 3G support. While that doesn't bug me too much, I did like the fact the Kindle had free 3G support. Oh well, I will learn to live without it.

In closing, I can honestly say I LOVE the Kindle Fire. It's light weight, easy to use, does everything I want it to, and it didn't cost a whole lot. Highly recommended!

The DC Relaunch and The Digital Future of Comics: Will It Work?

2011-09-15T10:50:00.000-07:00

The comic book world was stunned last May when DC, home of some of the medium's most recognizable and iconic characters, announced that it was stopping publication of all its titles and relaunching the entire DC Universe with 52 new series all starting at issue 1. The announcement, which was posted on the company's blog, sparked myriad reactions among fans, retailers, and creators, some of whom expressed interest and excitement about the plan, while others reacted with doubt and frustration. Many fans were dismayed at the idea that long-running series such as Action Comics and Detective Comics, which have spanned decades and several hundred issues, would now be starting over. Others wondered if such a massive creative overhaul would, like so many other epic world-changing storylines that have saturated superhero comics over the last decade, fail to live up to the hype. Regardless of the reaction, one unifying comment from supporters and skeptical critics was that the company was taking a significant risk. As noted by the New York Times in an article written by David Itzkoff:

"The success or failure of this plan will have far-reaching implications: it could alienate longtime fans for the sake of new readers. And it could portend a more widespread exhaustion with film and television projects that are adapted from comic books and that are constantly starting over from scratch."

Two weeks ago the relaunch began with the release of Justice League #1, written by Geoff Johns with art by Jim Lee, with some comic stores having midnight launch parties to celebrate the event. Since then DC has added over a dozen other titles with more to be released throughout the month. Fans and critics have received the books with mixed reviews (so far I've enjoyed a lot of what I read) but one thing is for certain, DC is generating a lot of buzz and many comic stores are reporting selling out of titles hours after they are released.

While the ultimate success or failure of the relaunch will take a long time to completely gauge, it is clear from the multiple interviews and press releases that the company has provided that this more than a typical 5th week event, designed to excite fans and get them to add a couple of more titles to their Wednesday buy-pile. Instead, this is a concerted effort to grab new readers and increase the emphasis on DC's digital publishing platform.

The plan seems to have two principle means of achieving these goals, supported of course with a massive marketing campaign.
The first means is naturally the relaunch itself. As a former comic book store manager, I can attest that the medium can seem a little daunting for new readers. One of the characteristics of the culture, a result of its decades as a marginalized and niche group, is that casual readers often feel overwhelmed at the amount of titles, the requisite knowledge of continuity, and the recurring trips to the comic store that keeping up with everything requires. I remember talking to customers who looked at the back stock of trades and the fact that Batman was in the 600's and decided that it simply wasn't worth the energy and commitment to start reading comics or to get back into them.

The second part of DC's plan is the increased focus on their digital comics which are available to download on your computer or onto a smartphone or iPad/iPod through comiXology or directly through the publishers own app. Prior to the relaunch, DC had always waited a week after the titles were released in comic book stores, before making them available in a digital format. Now, the comics are accessible for immediate download the same day as their paper release. This has caused some concern from comic store owners who already contend with multiple other issues threatening their businesses, including online sites and chain stores able to offer large discounts on trades, declining readership, digital piracy, and multiple other issues.

Two things must be considered though when trying to gauge the impact the synchronized release dates will have on brick-and-mortar stores. First, both comiXology and Diamond Comics Distribution have both been working on programs to allow comic book stores to sell digital comics and receive a portion of the proceeds, similar to the program Google has created to allow independent bookstores to sell e-books. These programs are still in their infancy, but might create a way for the stores - which are useful for upselling and cultivating a customer base - and the publishers to both benefit.

The second issue to be considered when determining if digital comics will hurt comic book stores is the question of reader demographics. Who is actually buying digital comics? While there is still no exact certainty in this issue yet, some have argued that there is no overlap in customers. Many people who read digital comics are not the type to go to their local comic store every Wednesday, buy a stack of books, and then preserve them with bags, boards, and long boxes. Many have claimed that the people who will read digital comics constitute an untapped market that will not take business away from retailers since these are people who would never commit that much energy to comics. However, they will download books onto their iPad from the comfort of their homes.

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One important criteria that is will be necessarily when evaluating the success of the Relaunch comes from the concern Itzkoff raises in the quotation above. In order to achieve their goals DC must appeal to new readers, while simultaneously avoiding alienating their notoriously fickle fans. New readers can't feel lost in a backstory they know nothing about, yet fans likewise, can't be made to feel like their knowledge of the history of their favorite characters is now null and void.

So far this issue, like the relaunch itself, has been met with mixed reviews. Historian Julian Chambliss, who I interviewed here at the blog last month, argued that he didn't think it would attract new readers, contending that, "To create new readers they need to continue to innovate, but I'm not sure innovation is the goal here." Comic Book Resources created a "New Reader Litmus Test" in which they concluded that, "there were only two titles the new readers both understood and said they would voluntarily buy the second issue of: "Detective Comics," and "Action Comics." Certainly not the results DC were hoping for.

I do think that there is a chance for DC to be successful even if they are not able to find an exact equilibrium between old and new readers. First, in many of the books I read, such as Swamp Thing (which I reviewed for popmatters, check it out here), it appeared the creators had taken a layered-approach to their story. I enjoyed the book because it linked back to the Alan Moore run from the 80's that I loved so much, but I think it did it in such a way that new readers wouldn't have even noticed that there was something they were missing. There were subtle cues that fans would pick up on, but simultaneously nothing that would necessarily have a new reader scratching their head.

Additionally I think DC might be successful simply because they have generated enough enthusiasm - particularly with the success and ubiquity of superhero movies - that might carry new readers over any continuity learning-curves they might encounter. I have spoke to retailers who said they have a lot of customers new to comics who are excited about the prospect of getting into the medium, and today while waiting for my local comic store to open I spoke to a couple of people who said they were coming here for the first time to pick up the new books. Hopefully, that enthusiasm will keep them reading long enough to hook 'em.

But will it work? And will it breathe new life into the paper side of the industry or is it ushering a new era of digital comics? What do you think?

Comic Con On MP3

2011-08-06T12:50:00.000-07:00

For those who didn't get a chance to go to Comic Con this year and are interested in hearing some of the panels on the digital impact on the comic book world check out these MP3's brought to you by the folks at TheComicBooks.com

Post Comic Con Report and An Interview With Comic Scholar Julian Chambliss!

2011-07-29T20:49:00.000-07:00

Digital comics and the future of the medium were very much on the minds of people within the comic book world at this year's San Diego Comic Con. There were multiple panels dedicated to the changing marketplace with publishers, retailers, creators, and fans expressing their hopes and concerns about the coming years. The collapse of the Borders book chain - with one of the now-closed book stores less than a mile from the convention center - seemed an ominous start to the week. Sadly, I was only able to visit the con for a day and a half so the only discussion I went to was, "Are Comic Books Doomed," - a panel hosted by critic Douglas Wolk. The panel, which included Mark Waid, reps from Comics Pro and the Comic Alliance, as well as an independent publisher, was interesting but an hour isn't really enough time to go to in-depth. Most of the discussion was centered around Waid expressing concern that it is now harder for independent creators to break into the medium and the rep from the Comics Alliance arguing that concerns about the industry's future were a little overstated.

So with little to report from the con I thought now would be the perfect time to publish a recent interview I did with a colleague of mine, Dr. Julian Chambliss. There is a brief bio at the bottom of this post, but just to provide a little background: I first met Julian when he organized a section on Comic Book History for the Florida Conference of Historians where I presented a paper at a panel he moderated. Since then Julian has joined the staff at Popmatters where he has contributed several excellent articles, and is currently editing an anthology of essays - including one by me - on comic history. As both a scholar and a giant fanboy, I thought his perspective on the future of the industry would be an invaluable addition to this blog. Enjoy and please feel free to comment!

What first got you into comics? When did you decide to dedicate a portion of your academic career to the study of this often neglected medium?

I have been a comics fan since childhood. I wrote my first academic paper about comic books as an undergraduate. I didn't seriously think about doing more substantive work centered on comics until I began looking for ways to engage my students in urban history. From my perspective, superhero comics in the United States are an urban topic, so they are way to hook students.

As a comic book fan and collector what are your thoughts on the digital direction the medium appears to be heading in? Is there something about comics that is inextricably linked to paper? Do you read comics in a digital format?

I think comics are in the forefront of a digital conversion in print. As such, I believe that it almost inescapable that comics will move to digital publication in greater numbers. The benefits are obvious, easier to distribute and greater opportunity for creators and publishers to push and develop product. I think the natural instinct is to believe that paper has a unique place in our reading experience. Yet, for many young readers, I think paper is a secondary experience. I think print will survive, but that print version will be a high end product and digital will be the common place format. I don't know that we will "lose" anything, but I understand the reaction that the new way is not as good as the old. From a historical standpoint, it is a common reaction. I read comics in print, 90% of the time, but I also read them in digital format. I have taken advantage of Marvel's deal with Starbucks to read back issues and I look forward to reading comics on the iPad.

Do you think that the medium influences the message? For example do you think that DC's recent decision to relaunch their titles is connected to the new customers being wooed through their digital platform? Would they be doing this if they were only trying to maintain their current Wednesday readership?

There is no question in my mind that the move toward digital is about expanding the readership for superhero comics. It is important to be specific. Superhero comics have increased their profits in recent years, but that profitability is built on event driven stories, superstar writer and/or artist, and license properties. In many ways, the "old" model of kids loving comics is not strong enough to sustain the comic industry in an era of multimedia digital entertainment. With superhero comic readers getting older, publishers need to find ways to entice customers to try comics. Moving to digital model put the products in front of more customers. For better or worst, the established comic customer is not driving this conversion. Superhero comics are, by definition, a destination purchase. The buyer goes out of his or her way to acquire the newest releases. They often do this by traveling out of their way. They go to a place that is socially and culturally marginalized. They are doing this because they know all of this, and they don't care. The comic book shop is a retail space catering to established customers and the person, driven by interest to seek it out. If the average comic fan's shop closes, they will go to another shop. It is unlikely they will stop buying comics. They are dependable consumer of the product. Digital is not about those readers or retailers. It is about the new customer, the marginal customer, and the curious customer. If Captain America's Essentials were a digital download for 9.99 on July 22nd to mark the opening of Captain America in theaters, how many people would download it? I don't know, but if every trailer mentioned that the deal was available for everyone with iPhone or iPad, I can't imagine it hurting business. This is the fundamental truth driving digital convergence. If you lose one diehard customer converting to digital, the odds are you will pick up one diehard digital subscriber, plus a few quarterly customers, someone interested in the back catalog, and who knows how many one time purchasers. If you don't convert to digital, you will keep one person, but loose the opportunity at many more. I think this is the logic that drives digital. The fact that DC announced the same price for digital and print is understandable. They don't want to alienate the established retail system. Still, the nature of the digital distribution makes the future look bleak for the

established model.

Do you think that there a long-term roll for comic book stores now that people can download comics from home onto their digital devices?

I do think there is a future for the comic shop. Comic shops can strive if they look upon themselves as curatorial service. There are more to comics than meets the eye, having someplace where you can go and immerse yourself in the culture is welcomed opportunity for many people. Superhero comics are the iconic face of sequential art, but far from the only example. Comics shops defined by "geek" as outsider need to evolve to see themselves as nexus of a global pop culture. Comics are the kaleidoscopic point in modern culture. Referential and innovative, we recognize comics as an art form, but we are still embarrassed by the superhero. If comic shops are to survive, they need to "open up" embrace all aspect represented in the form.

What happens to collecting in a digital world?

Do you think that these changes to the medium can be good for comics? While some fans and collectors might be "left behind," do you think that this represents a necessarily step towards greater societal acceptance and decreased marginalization that will ultimately help legitimize comics and bring in more money? If not, why? If so, do you think that this is a type of betrayal of the fans who kept the medium alive during it's decades on the periphery of popular culture?

I think this is great time for comic fans. For all the uncertainty associated with changes in the distribution system, the content found on comic pages is fantastic. No matter the genre, you can find a standout example in comics. The emergence of transmedia means that creative minds can (and do) rely on the comic form to engage with the audience as part of a larger business model. Often seen as exploitative, comics are at the center of search for product to feed global entertainment market. This process allows relatively small comics to become the source material for films (WANTED, RED) and television (Walking Dead), At the same time, independent creators can and do find an audience with passion projects. I think more people find comics everyday through the films and television with comic roots. Indeed, people are always asking me about comics to read. They don't want to read superheroes, but I can direct them to FABLES, NORTHLANDERS, and MORNING GLORIES and they do enjoy those books. While superheroes struggle with an identity defined by adolescence anxiety, comics as a genre are caught in a space where elite knowledge give you assess to a diverse landscape unknown to the masses. At some level, the emergence of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and DC's turn toward the same effort will heighten this disconnect. As a result, the marginalization associated with comics will persist as long a superhero garner so much media attention. Superheroes are linked to a regressive outlook. If you are reading comics at 35, you are trying to recapture your childhood. No other literature you discover in youth and return to faces the same kind of scrutiny. If you read Catcher in the Rye when you were 15 and came back to it at 35, no one would question you. If you read Green Arrow/Green Lantern in 1973 and went looking for it now because you saw the trailer for Green Lantern, people would ask you why...that is a problem of perception, not content.

For comic fans, the coming years will be difficult. I don' think we need to worry about the death of comics, but a new model of distribution is going to take hold and this model will wipe away comic shops unable to adapt. Is this a betrayal? No, it is no different than the man who made buggy whips when the Model A arrived. He was out of business because the technology made his product useless. The comic shop as we know it is under stress, but a new shop will emerge that give people the support for products related to comics. Indeed, I suspect limited editions print will become a new high end product in an era of digital distribution. The ABSOLUTE JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA by Geoff Johns and Jim Lee will fetch a considerable, especially if the number of print copies is limited. This will actually heighten the value of print, sparking a new age of collectibles (perhaps).

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Julian C. Chambliss is associate professor of history at Rollins College in Winter Park, FL. His teaching and research focus on urban history and culture in the United States. His recent publications have appeared in Pennsylvania History: A Journal of Mid-Atlantic Studies, Specs: A Journal of Arts & Culture, Studies in American Culture, Georgia Historical Quarterly, Journal of Urban History, and Florida Historical Quarterly. Check out his website here.

(Incompetent Editor's Note: Sorry about all the weird boxes around some of the interivew. Not quite sure how to get rid of it.)

Sad pic from Downtown San Diego

2011-07-23T17:51:00.001-07:00

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Comic Con

2011-07-22T09:34:00.001-07:00

Just arrived in San Diego for Comic Con! There are several panels about digital comics, and the future of the medium going on this weekend. I'll be live tweeting the various panels under the hashtag "@futureofprint" and doing a full write up of what I see next week. Any readers have any questions you want me to ask please comment on this post.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:E Harbor Dr,San Diego,United States

Bookless Library Trend: Designing Space for Digital Learning - TIME

2011-07-17T10:34:00.001-07:00

Bookless Library Trend: Designing Space for Digital Learning - TIME

From Slate - Google Story HD e-reader: Target to sell Google eBooks-integrated device starting this Sunday.

2011-07-17T10:34:00.000-07:00

Google Story HD e-reader: Target to sell Google eBooks-integrated device starting this Sunday.

A Country Without Libraries by Charles Simic | NYRblog | The New York Review of Books

2011-07-17T10:31:00.000-07:00

A Country Without Libraries by Charles Simic | NYRblog | The New York Review of Books

"Our Wednesdays are numbered." - The Digital Future of Comics and Comic Book Stores

2011-06-16T10:58:00.000-07:00

*****Note: The link to the article discussed below is no longer active. The author explained on his twitter feed that the piece has been temporarily removed from Wired.

Douglas Wolk, author of Reading Comics: How Graphic Novels Work and What They Mean, has written an excellent article for Wired on the potential impact of the iPad on the future of comics and of retailers. As someone who used to manage a comic store and whose brother-in-law is the owner of Waterfront Comics is Suisun, CA, this is a subject that is close to me. As Wolk notes in his article, the comic store has been crucial to the success of the medium over the years, citing the publisher's attempts to maintain the relevance of retailers in the face of changing demographics. He writes:

" Local stores—and their devotees—drive not just the industry’s steadiest profits but its development of new material. If more than the tiniest fraction of that fragile market gets cannibalized by digital sales, then those stores will start folding. If that happens, the majority of print readers who don’t have fancy tablets will have nothing to buy on Wednesdays anymore. And if digital sales alone aren’t enough to cover writers’ and artists’ fees and publication costs and underpin a marketing apparatus, the entire structure will blow up like Krypton."

Not Even the Daily Planet is Immune. (Image respectfully
borrowed from Superman 706 which can be purchased here.)

Wolk does conclude however that this relationship is not sustainable, ending his piece with, "Our Wednesdays are numbered.". As traditional print readers decline and digital alternatives become more appealing to the new generations of readers, the comic book industry as it currently exists is no longer feasible in the long-term.

Wolk noted on his twitter feed that the article was, "slightly overtaken-by-events." The events he is most likely referring to is DC's recent announcement that starting with its forthcoming relaunch digital comics will now be released day-to-date, i.e., at the same time as their paper iterations. Previously, in order to maintain the relationship Wolk discusses in the article, digital comics were typically released after the print version in order to maintain an incentive forreaders to keep going into stores. DC's new move is definitely a step away from this mindset.

This news comes at a time when distributors are likewise trying new ways to adapt to the digital market. comiXology, for example, has created a program where people can purchase digital comics from their local comic book stores through comiXologiy's platform (Check out the blog post I wrote about this for popmatters). This announcement was followed by the news that Diamond Comics - the hegemon of comic book distribution - has started a similar program where comic stores will be given digital codes that they can sell to customers who will then use the codes to download the books onto their computer or mobile device.

Comic book retailers seem unsure as to the future of their beloved stores; the feelings seeming to range from the extremes of enthusiastic optimism, to head-in-the-sand-denial, all the way to doom and gloom. One owner I spoke with stated that they believe that digital comics and print comics are not necessarily in conflict since the readers of both are uniquely different. He argued that there are enough readers to go around and that Wednesday comic readers, the digital down loaders, and those that buy graphic novels from bookstores, will ultimately strengthen the industry as a whole. I hope he is right, but looking at the way the digital revolution has decimated bookstores and record stores its hard not to be pessimistic. What do you think?

Kindle Singles: Potential Savior of Long Form Journalism?

2011-06-13T08:59:00.000-07:00

On April 20, 2011, Jon Krakauer, author of the wildly popular Into the Wild and Into Thin Air, released “Three Cups of Deceit,” a damning expose of writer Greg Mortensen and the alleged abuses that took place at his charity. The next month Jesse Eisinger and Jake Bernstein released “The Wall Street Money Machine”, a 46 page treatise that examined a crucial but relatively unexplored aspect of the recent financial crisis. Shortly after the death of Osama bin Laden, noted polemicist Christopher Hitchens wrote an essay examining the terrorist leader called “The Enemy.”

These works were not released in the pages of noted periodicals like The New Yorker or Vanity Fair, nor were they published for online magazines like Slate or Salon. Instead they were released directly to readers via Amazon’s program Kindle Singles. The platform, whose tagline is “Compelling Ideas Expressed at Their Natural Length,” was started at the beginning of 2011 with the goal of providing a forum for a variety of long-form journalism, essays, and similar types of work.

The opening list of of titles (included in Amazon’s press release here) included works by Evan Ratcliff, Brendan I. Koerner, and Sebastian Rotella. In addition to the essays and articles of journalists, there was also a weight loss manual by a Yale Professor Ian Ayres and a short story by acclaimed author Jodi Picoult, included in the list of nine titles. The prices range between one and five dollars and average about forty pages. Since the launch of Kindle Singles in January 2011, it has come to include the works of William T. Bullman, Susan Orlean, David Baldacci, Tim Gunn, and as mentioned, Krakauer and Hitchens.

Long-form journalism has long held a crucial place in the history of American letters. Literary journalists, or New Journalists, like Gay Talese, Norman Mailer, and Tom Wolf - to name but a few - have been considered some of the greatest writers of the past century; their works are mandatory reading in Journalism and English departments across the country. The pages of The New Yorker and numerous other literary and news magazines and journals were once replete with these types of long essays ranging from satire, personal narratives, and interviews. Yet over the past decades there was a decline in this type of writing. Although numerous publications and periodicals still were home to the long in-depth works that typified long-form journalism in its various iterations, the decline of traditional media helped relegate the formerly entrenched and secure style to a more peripheral position.

The Internet, along with changes in reading habits, were the primary causes of the decline of long-form journalism from the mainstream of American culture. Magazines and traditional newspapers have been on the decline for years, and while there are some notable exceptions, this has had drastic impact on journalism and journalists. However, even as the digital upheaval slowly eroded the former institutions in which long-form journalism thrived, it also provided new avenues for this style to reach readers. Apparently, as has often been noted, just as the Internet can taketh away it can also giveth, as various websites and platforms began providing interested readers with easy access to longer works.

Wired reports, “long-form journalism has seen a surprising revival in recent years, with services like Instapaper and Read it Later allowing you to push longer articles off to mobile devices – like the iPad – to read later. Disproving the typical thinking that web users want their information in small, easy chunks, sites like Longform.org – which curates more in-depth stories – are flourishing.” Kindle Singles is one such attempt to bring an old tradition to readers via a new avenue.

While the works currently being offered from Amazon are not limited to nonfiction, its potential to provide a new platform for journalists is what immediately grabbed the attention of reporters and news organizations. Wired noted that, “This model, curated for quality but with pick-n-mix sales, may be the real future of magazines.” The New York Times’ Virginia Heffernan wrote, “For readers used to greasing many more palms than Amazon’s just to get their word fix, the introduction of Kindle Singles should come as exciting news. It also should delight readers who cherish the twisted and spellbinding journalism of the 1960s and 1970s...”

The Kindle Owner’s Blog offered this glowing review, “Amazon has managed to resurrect an area of writing that the Internet had almost done away with. Literary segments on the Internet have been shortened to meet the demand of efficiency, but Amazon realized that some people still enjoy reading and exploring a topic further than through the limited scope of a top ten list. Long-form journalism has benefited from a second chance and the production of enough quality work will ensure the continued prevalence of the mid-range literary genre for years to come.”

Some publishers are even getting on board with Kindle Singles. Boutique publishing house, The Atavist, which focuses on nonfiction and long-form works, offers readers access to some of their titles on Amazon’s online store, including "Before the Swarm," a profile of photographer Mark Moffet by Nicholas Griffin. Another publisher, ProPublica, which is a non-profit news organization with an emphasis on investigative journalism with a social conscience are also offering some of their catalogue on Kindle Singles including the aforementioned "Wall Street Money Machine" and Sebastion Rotella’s "Pakistan and the Mumbai Attacks: The Untold Story." ProPublica wrote in their statement announcing the deal with Amazon:

“We also think Amazon is on to an important insight here: In the old world of print publishing, narratives longer than about 10,000 words (a long magazine piece) and shorter than about 30,000 words (a relatively short book) were difficult to publish at all. This is another one of those “rules” that digital technology seems to be repealing, and, as frequent publishers of compelling long-form content, we think that’s a step forward.”

Not all the reviews and articles for Kindle Singles have been raves however. In the piece, “Can Kindle Singles Revolutionize Reading,” The Christian Science Monitor’s Husna Haq expressed interest in the new platform but reminded enthusiasts that, “the only way that Kindle Singles can achieve such a goal as lofty as saving long-form journalism – much less revolutionizing reading – is if readers embrace the new product. Right now, that’s still a big if.” Others noted that by edging out the publishers, writers who are not as well-known as Hitchens or Krakuer may have difficulty finding an audience without the publicity that has traditionally been the purview of the large publishing houses. One writer concluded, “Everybody wins in this new model except the book publishers who are cut out of the game.”

These arguments, while valid, do however hit the wall of the status quo where traditional print media has in the eyes of many experts been circling the drain for the past decade. Kindle Singles may not be a catch-all solution, but it is still a preferable option for writers who currently are facing an even bleaker outlook in the world of declining readership and revenues. As many of the commentators noted, with people used to receiving their information via the internet for a low cost it has became harder and harder for writers to publish work that was longer than an article but shorter than a book.

In addition to providing this much needed platform, it also has the potential to change the marketing and consumption of this type of writing. Kindle Singles allows readers to browse and purchase specific titles by subject, author, or any other discriminating factor that is relevant to them. Rather than paying for a subscription to a magazine, or buying a magazine that may only have a few sections one is interested in reading, a reader can follow Amazon’s pay-by-the-article approach. Additionally, many writers stand to gain from the favorable share of the proceeds which is generally split 70 - 30 in the author’s favor. It is not a perfect solution and it might be difficult for writers to promote their works without the help of publishers, but then again, the alternatives are not necessarily promising and getting your work published and read has never been an easy goal even in the best of times.

It's Official: Amazon is Now Selling More E-Books than Print Books

2011-05-22T14:32:00.001-07:00

Last week Amazon.com announced that e-books were outselling hardcovers and paperbacks combined. More to come on this next week when I am done grading papers.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

New Kindle Commercial and My New Favorite Word: Bibilionecrophilia

2011-05-04T16:47:00.000-07:00

What do you think of Kindle's new commercial? I think Amazon's feeling pretty secure with their sales so they've taken a slightly more (passive) aggressive look at bibliophiles and their criticism of the Kindle.

I read an interesting article about the future of print in the Los Angeles Review of Books the other day. Writer, Ben Ehrenreich, coins my new favorite word: bibilionecrophilia.

The Kindle's Popular Highlights: Intertextual Communication or Pain in the Ass Distraction?

2011-03-15T14:09:00.000-07:00

It seems that ever since Amazon released its Kindle and breathed new life into the languishing e-book market, every innovation and addition to its now iconic e-reader is received with the same polarized reaction that ushered in the original device. Angry bibliophiles will lambast it as another assault on the sacred position of the printed word while loyal techies and futurists will hail the newest augmentation as another step towards a bright digital utopia. While many readers, both of digital and printed content, tend to fall somewhere in the middle of these impassioned extremes, it none the less makes for interesting reading to see how elements of either side of the spectrum are reacting to one of Amazon's latest additions to its Kindle platform: Popular Highlights.
This new attempt at augmenting the act of reading, first introduced last year, allows readers to see passages that have been highlighted by others who have purchased the book. Once a few poignant or evocative sentences gets at least three people to note it, it will appear in all Kindle books sold with a little dotted line under relevant portion. You can even click on the highlighted section to see exactly how many people found this passage notable. Kindle owners can then log on to Amazon and keep track of their various highlighted sections and see what other people have noted. Currently the most popular passage, which has been marked by approximately 3,500 readers as of this writing, comes from Abraham Verghese's Cutting for Stone:

           "The key to happiness is to own your own slippers, own who
           you are, own who you are, own your family, own the talents
           you have, and own the ones you don't. If you keep
           saying your slippers aren't yours, then you'll die searching,
           you'll die bitter, always feeling you were promised more.
           Not only our actions, but also our omissions, becomes
           our destiny."

Malcolm Gladwell’s Outlier takes second place with the following excised bit of wisdom: “Those three things—autonomy, complexity, and a connection between effort and reward—are, most people agree, the three qualities that work has to have if it is to be satisfying.” Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat, Pray Love, dominates the Popular Highlights section with 6 of the top 25 coming from the popular memoir.

Reaction to Popular Highlights over the preceding months has been mixed. The New York Time’s Virginia Heffernan noted that the experience was “odd” and found it a reminder that even when reading, “you are still connected.” An article on MSNBC.com wondered at the privacy risks of Amazon monitoring your reading habits and the status of books after purchase, while a post at Tomorrow’s Book described the new feature as, “a little jarring, to say the least, as well as an awkward attempt at social networking.”

Perhaps the most acerbic condemnation of popular highlights came in early March during an NPR segment in which writer, scholar, and critic, Andrei Codrescu, discussed how seeing other people’s annotations compromised both his reading and the integrity of his purchase. He stated that, “When somebody offers perception of what's important, something moronic, usually, which is why I always prefer buying books new so I could make my own moronic marks.” He continued by stating that the Kindle’s new feature, “which will tell you how many morons have underlined before so that not only you do not own the new book you paid for, the entire experience of reading is shattered by the presence of a mob that agitates inside your text like strangers in a train station.”

Defenders of the Kindle have been quick to point out to the various critics that Popular Highlights can be turned off with little hassle – something it appears the many angry Kindle users may not have noticed based on some of the comments found online. However, as Heffernan concludes in her article when discussing feature’s off-switch:

            “[T]here’s a genie-in-the-bottle problem here. As with
            many things on the Web, once you’ve glimpsed popular
            highlights, it’s hard to unglimpse them. You get curious
            about what other readers think, especially with a book
            like “Freedom,” which bookstore windows and airplane
          waiting lounges would have you believe everyone is thinking
          about. Reading, after all, is only superficially solitary; in
            fact, it’s a form of intensive particpation in language
            and the building of common culture."

Fans of the new feature on the other hand argue that the ability to read and share highlights offers a new dimension to reading. Many of the message boards and forums speak positively of the ability to see what others have found fascinating. For some, it offers a type of intertextual communication where readers are able to communicate with each other, connecting both with the text and the like-minded consumers.

In his essay collection, The Case for Books: Past, Present, and Future, scholar and Director of Harvard University Library Robert Darnton discusses the history of commonplace books in an essay called “The Mysteries of Reading.” He explains that, “Whenever they [the reader] came across a pithy passage, they copied it into a notebook under an appropriate heading, adding observations made in the course of daily life.” He goes on to discuss that the commonplace books have been of inestimable value to researchers and scholars interested in the reading habits of important historical figures and the works that influenced their ideas. Kindle’s Popular Highlights serves a similar and more immediate function for readers today. For those interested, this feature allows us to see not only what the population is reading, but specifically what passages they find profound and interesting.

Additionally this feature may hopefully lead to a renewed interest for some readers in the actual act of highlighting and noting favored passages. A recent episode of the Slate Culture Gabfest podcast discussed the future of marginalia in the digital era and mourned the loss of annotating books with underlined passages that could be read and appreciated by future readers. While it is unlikely that Popular Highlights is suddenly going to instill a desire to begin underlining every significant sentence or passage in readers, it is possible that some might react to the open invitation. I for one freely admit that while reading Spike Jonze’s The Wild Things – the first book I purchased after Amazon added Popular Highlights, I found myself intrigued by what others readers had decided to note. As I read, I began to underline sections that I found significant as a type of reply to the other people I was connecting. Although I know that the other people I was “communicating” with may never get my message unless they decided to re-read, and the my contributions to the dialogue would never be shared unless two other people also decided they were of sufficient interest, it still added a new dimension to the reading experience. It wasn’t revelatory, it wasn’t life-changing, but it also wasn't a vicious unwanted intrusion into solitary pursuit.

Like the majority of American students I was assigned to read F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby in high school. I had a used copy and many important sections were underlined and annotated; fingerprints in ink and pencil of the dozens of other students who throughout the years had temporarily been responsible for the same book I was assigned. One passage in particular was underlined, starred, and highlighted by several of the people who had that particular copy before me; “For a while these reveries provided an outlet for his imagination; they were a satisfactory hint of the unreality of reality, a promise that the rock of the world was founded securely on a fairy’s wing.”

While I like to think that I was astute enough to have caught the significance of this particular passage without the aid of the multiple students who had noted it before me, I can’t be sure that had it not been for their efforts this short sentence, which I find even more poignant then the oft-quoted closing lines of Fitzgerald’s masterpiece, might have been lost to me. It is with this in mind that I think that perhaps someone might find resonance with some “pithy passage” that I find notable. Furthermore, after checking out the book’s page on Amazon’s website and seeing that of the hundreds of people who have highlighted sections from The Great Gatsby no one has yet marked this particular line, I might have to buy the book and share it with my fellow readers.

Whether you love the Kindle or despise it as an assault on everything you love about reading, it is clear the Popular Highlights is not worth getting overly riled up about. In the era of websites like Good Reads and Library Thing where readers can share their favorite books with friends, write reviews the anyone can read, and see what writers like Neil Gaiman are reading, this only seems like another logical step in the direction reading seems to be going. It has a few interesting virtues that might intrigue readers, and for others who want to preserve the solitary nature of reading they don’t have to participate. In fact, they can always just turn it off.

The Daily: The Future of Media or Just Repackaged Old Media?

2011-02-16T08:22:00.000-08:00

Two weeks ago Rupert Murdoch's News Corp released what they hailed as the future of news in the digital era with the release of its iPad exclusive news application, The Daily. The newspaper/magazine hybrid represents an attempt to bridge the gap between old and new media by offering a modern looking news platform combined with affordable prices. In an age of aggregators and free online content companies are looking for a way to make money from people who are used to get getting everything for free. The Daily currently offers a two week free trial and is then 99 cents a month or 40 dollars for a full year.

I waited a little bit for the reviews to come in before posting and so far they've been mixed. Wired - which has a pretty comprehensive review here - breaks The Daily down this way:

WIRED: This a serious effort to figure out how to create a for-profit news experience on an very new medium from a publisher with deep pockets who sees magazines as the future of newspapers. Who can argue with that?

TIRED: Long download, lots of crashes, somewhat clunky animation. Articles tend to the short side — neither brief, nor long form. Shades of USA Today?

The Huffington Post - which some may argue may not be a reliable source for evaluating a Murdoch product but I felt was balanced in their reporting - notes in an article that... "looking at The Daily in a browser — here's an article — the organizational or navigational structure one finds on other news sites is here absent. The Daily is not only unwilling to compromise, it's also simply unavailable online.

That might have been sufficient in the days of the newsmagazine, when value was created and retained between the covers. But on the social web, the currency of a successful site is the portability of its content. The Daily's is just the opposite, moored to a single and static platform, with only the smallest concession to social sharing."

Slate had a pretty good breakdown of The Daily's strengths and weaknesses in an article by Jack Shafer and as a segment in their Culture Gabfest podcast. The overarching critique, coming from a news organization that was itself largely experimental when it first came out, is that the current iteration of the magazine is still a prototype and its ultimately too early to tell.

Finally for those really interested Salon has already compiled a fairly comprehensive list of reactions from various news organizations here.

My thoughts:

I downloaded The Daily and read through it for a few days. Although some people haven't fallen in love with the display, I thought it worked with the iPad. Overall all though, there was nothing about it that was so wonderful that I felt obliged to add it to the various apps I read regularly. While 99 cents a week is a totally fair price, with Pulse, Flipboard, and the news organization specific apps I currently read there just wasn't much of an incentive. What are
your thoughts?

News and Updates: Digital Book World 2011, E-Books Outsell Paperbacks at Amazon and More!

2011-01-29T16:47:00.001-08:00

Digital Book World:
Last month was the 2011 Digital Book World conference and by all accounts it was a success. The event brought together writers, publishers, booksellers, and agents and focused primarily on how publishing can adapt to the changing market. For a comprehensive breakdown check out the DBW's site here. Here are some highlights:
- LA Time's book blog, Jacket Copy, has a concise overview of the conference.
- Publisher's Weekly has a piece on DBW's panel on digital books and libraries.
- PW also had a breakdown on DBW's panel on digital royalties.

Book Stuff:
- The New York Time has a great article by Julie Bosman on the various ways independent bookstores are trying to maintain profitably in the digital era.
- The Guardian discusses Philip Pullman's passionate defense of libraries.

Publishing/Business News:
- Amazon has a ten billion dollar quarter and sells millions of kindles reports Ebooknewser.
- Future Book asks how to judge an e-book without a cover.
- The Big Picture discusses Amazon's new Singles Imprint and the New York Times ' first e-book.

Tablet News:
- Wiredreports that the former president of Newsweekly is setting up an app that will sell digital periodicals. Sounds a lot like the app Zinio.
- engadget is not impressed with the new MSI tablet.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

The Kobo on The Office

2011-01-26T21:32:00.001-08:00

Last week's episode of The Office featured a fun piece of product placement. While visiting an unnamed bookstore - clearly Borders - Darryl, played by Craig Robinson, is convinced to buy a Kobo even though he fears devices like that will put Dunder Mifflin out of business.

As part the promotion following the cameo of the e-reader, the folks over at theKobo's official blog announced that they were having a contest for office workers who use their e-readers during work time to share their stories. Check out the details here.

Back From Vacation - Border's Circling the Drain and Do E-reader's Make You Lazy?

2011-01-17T16:31:00.000-08:00

Hey Folks,

Back from a wonderful vacation visiting family in Northern California and I am catching up on some work before school starts at the end of the month. Short post but more to follow soon:

- The Vancouver Sun's Shelly Fralic has a fun article about the angst of a newly converted e-reader fan.
- The Times of India reports on studies that suggest that the clarity of e-reader displays decreases reader's retention and contributes to "lazy brain."

Borders Possibly Closing
- LA Times book blog, Jacket Copy, has an article outlining the current serious financial problems facing Borders.
- The Washington City Paper has another piece analyzing this situation. Writer Lydia DePillis makes this excellent point on why Barnes and Noble is doing better then its rival:
"Why has Barnes and Noble fared comparatively better than Borders? Mostly, it has to do with e-strategy. According to publishing industry analyst Michael Norris, Borders blundered by partnering with Amazon.com for its book sales, and the online superstore had no incentive to help encourage brick-and-mortar sales, which Barnes and Noble's integrated site did much better. Then there was the rewards card mistake: Borders started with a free membership program, which customers didn't really value. Barnes and Noble went with a paid rewards card with deep discounts, which brought in more in membership fees and paid itself back in increased sales."

The Mongoliad - An Innovative New Approach to Digital Storytelling

2010-12-01T09:49:00.000-08:00

Sincere apologies to my readers for not updating the blog this last month. Things have been absolutely insane and I am behind falling behind on several projects. However, I saw this article the other day on Neil Stephenson and Greg Bear's The Mongoliad and it sounded really interesting.

The concept - the brainchild of science fiction masters Stephenson and Bear - is essentially a serialized story that combines writers, artists, and experts in the construction of an epic story that takes place during the Mongol invasions of Europe. The website has a community aspect and brings the fans directly into the creative process. While it has some free information the core content requires a 10 dollar yearly subscription.Whether this is just a cool gimmick or an important step forward in the evolution of literature freed from some of the format demands of print remains to be seen. Nonetheless, I plan to do some more research and write more on this interesting project in the future.
If there are any readers who subscribe to the Mongoliad, I would love to hear your thoughts about it. Do you enjoy it? Is it worth the money? Please let me know!

Next Gen Nook to Come Out with Full Color, Touch-Screen Display - B&N ditches E-Ink

2010-11-01T07:56:00.000-07:00

E-Reader enthusiasts, tech people, and those interested in the future of publishing and print were abuzz last week with Barnes and Noble's announcement that they were releasing a full color touch-screen version of their device. The NOOKcolor, which is going for $249, is essentially a mini-tablet that features games, music, photos, full-color magazines, a user-friendly web browser, and an app store (although its relatively small and
doesn't run all android-based apps). While most sites are holding back on final judgement on the device until the device's in November, PCMag.com writes, "We haven't put the Nook Color through its proper paces in our lab yet, but it looks like Barnes & Noble has built the first excellent color ebook reader."

One important aspect of this device is that it is no longer using the e-ink technology that has been the standard for the majority of dedicated e-readers. Although the distinctions between tablets and devices like the Nook and Kindle have often been framed as "reading versus multitasking," the differences in display technology have been an integral component of the debate over item to purchase for many consumers. Some don't mind the back-lit display - I personally haven't noticed an issue with eye-fatigue and I use my Ipad a lot - but for others its important to be able to read outside in the sunlight. I wonder if the other companies, like Amazon and Kobo, will continue with e-ink, waiting for the color e-ink to become less cost-prohibitive, or will they slowly come around to Barnes and Noble's way of thinking.

What do you think? Can the NOOKcolor go toe-to-toe with the Ipad? Does the back-lit screen mean that much to you or do you prefer E-ink?

Books Relating to the Decline of Print

2010-10-22T11:05:00.000-07:00

My goal is to review all of these (I've read most of them) but until then here are some excellent books about the decline of print and the future of reading and publishing.

One of the first books I've on this topic. Well-written and accessible; offers a frank appraisal of the future of books.

Sven Birkerts has been writing about the negative impact that technological advances will have on reading. Thoughtful, well-written, sometimes overreaching, Birkerts is the Neil Postman of the digital era.

A Case for Books is probably the best book written on the subject thus far. Darnton combines a love of print with an open-minded appraisal of the benefits that can come with the digitization of knowledge. I strongly encourage this book for any bibliophiles who fear the future.

Reading this book right now. In a world where newspapers are dying left and right, and traditional journalists are being replaced by bloggers and pundits, McChesney and Nichols discuss the dangers that a dying fourth estate will have on our society, and the ways that journalism can be saved.

Tom Rachman's thoroughly readable - yet slightly over-hyped - debut offers a look at the various figures who work at a dying English language newspaper in Rome. This testament to the declining world of the newsroom has the tone of dispatches from the closing frontier.

Any comic fan will tell you that if you want to learn about comic books you need to read Scott McCloud. In Reinventing Comics the respected writer and creator discusses the possibilities that new technologies may have for expanding and revolutionizing the medium.

In a time where news stories and broke by anonymous bloggers and traditional news is dying, Keen's book offers an aggressive critique of a world where anyone with an opinion can reach millions of readers.

News and Updates: Books Gone in 5 years, and E-book sales up 193%.

2010-10-18T22:13:00.000-07:00

For all you e-reader owners: check out this site which has price comparisons for ebooks on the Kindle, the Nook, and the Ipad.

Books:
- Author Nicholas Negroponte predicts that in five years printed books will be gone.
- The Huffington Post reports on authors who are choosing to self-publish through Amazon's kindle and avoid the big publishers completely.
- Bloomberg.com discusses on the difficulty in defining a book in the digital era.
- Mashable reports that e-book sales are 193% so far this year.
- Publisher's Weekly has an article on Border's new self-publishing site, BookBrewer.
E-Readers:
- eBooknewser discusses the ePaper display on the new Pandigital Novel.

News and Updates

2010-10-13T08:32:00.000-07:00

E-books:
- Wired has an article on how to digitize your library from home.
- Barnes and Noble unveils its new PubIt feature - publish your book for the nook!
- thebookseller.com reports on China's massive e-book market.
- Techland on Amazon's new kindle singles.

E-Readers:
- Angry Birds versus Steig Larssen: Wired on the kindle in the post-Ipad world.

Publishing:
- Blogcritics discusses the future of publishing.
- Mashable has an excellent article the way apps are changing print.

Bibliophile meets Techno-Geek: A Guest Blogger Reviews the Nook

2010-10-08T10:02:00.000-07:00

Hi, my name is Jennifer and I own a nook.

First and foremost let me say that I love books and reading. To whit there are approximately six large bookcases overflowing with books in my house. Yes, I have read almost all of them (except the comic book “trades”) - even the Twilight series. I spent a large part of my childhood in the Tyler Public Library, where my grandmother worked. Recently though adult life has gotten in the way of spending an entire day reading. I read less often and usually when I’m waiting in line or before bed.

As my husband and I are self proclaimed “techno-geeks” acquiring the latest gadget is high on the priority list. We yearn with an almost visceral hunger at new products that claim to make our lives easier, or connect us with friends instantly. We are PC but own a large assortment of Apple products.

So when my 39th birthday came around earlier this year I naturally told the husband that I wanted the nook. So a couple of days before my birthday we took ourselves to the local Barnes & Noble where a store associate was eager, nay excited, to sell us the nook Wi-Fi. The associate even took us to the back of the store where another associate assisted us in setting up the nook (bonus points to B&N for making this seem standard). While I wasn’t sure I needed the help – I went ahead to see what the experience was like. After telling me how to sign up for an e-library and signing into the nook with my information, the clerk sent me on my way the happy new owner of yet another electronic device. (Have I mentioned that my biggest phobia is that during the zombie apocalypse there will be NO electricity? I have plans for solar panels so I can charge all my stuff…)

Setting up the eBook library was easy and I had actually done it weeks before. My Saturday morning ritual now includes perusing the free eBooks section at www.bn.com. I currently have a library of 113 eBooks – 3 of which I paid for. Note, however, that even to download free eBooks the website requires a credit card.

Suffice to say – I bought a coffee and spent the next hour or so downloading eBooks and playing with my new toy in the Café.

The nook has all the usual (ok, I may be assuming here) eReader capabilities.
You can change font size. You may have to turn the page more often, but hey where else can you get large print books at the drop of a hat?
It automatically saves the page you were reading and opens up to the same page when you come back.
There are games – Chess and Soduku. (I personally would prefer Maj-jong or Solitaire.)
I don’t know about other eReaders, but the nook is beta testing an internet web browser (note to B&N associate – THIS is why I would have wanted 3g+Wi-Fi). I actually tweeted on my nook. (insert geeky squee here)
And has audio capabilities. MP3 and AAC (the iTunes file extension) small speakers are in the bottom of the nook next to a headset port. – Not very loud, but would probably work listening to an audio book in the car as long as the road noise isn’t too bad.
A minor but neat point – the screen saver for the nook (which can be changed) is black and white “sketches” of famous writers.
It’s about the same size as my day-planner (6x8 inches, in its cover) so fits easily in my purse. For a girl that’s REALLY important.

Drawbacks:
The first thing a nook owner needs to learn – do NOT loan out your nook. My husband currently has custody of the nook at bedtime because I bought a book he wants to read but doesn’t want to buy.
When recharging the charger plugs into the bottom of the nook. Convenient when charging on my desktop – not so comfortable when charging while reading in bed.
As far as I can tell, there is no privacy function. If you are showing off your nook folks can see your ENTIRE reading list. So if your guilty pleasure is trashy romance, erotica or the periodic table of elements – BEWARE – unless of course you don’t care.
Due to the completely awesome technology that allows you to read on a screen but not have the whole “I have a headache from looking at the computer” thing – it is not possible to read the nook in the dark. I have noticed comments from several nook owners about book lights being a perfectly fine solution.
eink® technology isn’t in color. There are no illustrations; the web browser is all in black and white. Surprisingly photos seen this way didn’t look as bad as I thought they would but still… I might have liked uploading my photo of Yosemite Falls as a screen saver. Or a photo of my latest costume. Although if you “require” a color display – I’m sure an ipad or a netbook would be a better choice and you can download an e-reader (multiple versions even!) to them at any time.

Suggested upgrades/changes:
The ability to sort by type of book would be nice. Or the ability to categorize books with key words. Looking for a type of book to read can get a little time consuming when you can only sort by date purchased, title or author.
A privacy function that “hides” book from your list. Cause if my husband can’t find the latest Sookie Stackhouse book he can’t read it…

So on to the burning questions. Would I buy it again? You bet, but with the 3g upgrade. Would I recommend it to my friends? Yes, especially the commuters in my life. Would I turn up my nose at a paper book? Not at all. Will I buy one for my family members? My husband or daughter? Maybe. My mom? Nope. She reads in the bath… nuff said.

In closing I have to say that a little part of me is constantly gleeful about being able to carry an entire library with me at all times. And thanks to the free e-books I’m getting an impressive collection of the classics that I otherwise might not have purchased. Cause let’s face it. If it’s a classic and I don’t already own it chances are that I wasn’t gonna buy it anyway.

Author’s postscript: While the nook (and other e-readers) can download and let you read PDF documents, (go to http://books.google.com/ to find out more about Google’s attempt to provide access to out of print texts) they can’t read each other’s formats. Ideally an e-reader would allow you to download books from any retailer, but alas we live in an imperfect and profit driven world.

News and Updates: Riggio Triumphs and an Amazon Tablet?

2010-09-28T10:36:00.000-07:00

Big News: Publisher's Weekly reports that Leonard Riggio has been reelected chairman of the board of Barnes and Noble.

E-Books:
- Publisher's Weekly reports that e-books rose over 150% in July.
- The Guardian speculates on the interactive future of e-books.
- Daily Finance reports that Amazon might start charging for its "Look Inside" option.

E-Readers:
- eBookNewswer reports on the new Velocity Cruz Reader and Sharp's new online bookstore and e-readers.
- Techland on Blackberry's new tablet.
- Techcrunch reports on rumors that Amazon is working on their own tablet.

Libraries:
- "Angry as a Private Company Takes over Libraries" by David Streitfeld over at the New York Times.

Publishing:
- "The Digital Transition Dominates BISG Annual Meeting," by Jim Milliot at Publisher's Weekly.
- Slate reviews The Wall Street Journal's new Saturday Edition.
- "Author's Feel Pinch in Age of E-Books," by Jeffrey Trachetenburg - very interesting article.

Joe Field Interview

2010-09-23T09:15:00.000-07:00

I recently interviewed comic book retailer Joe Field over at popmatters.com on the future of comic book stores in the digital era. As I've mentioned, I used to be the manager of comic book store when I was in college and my brother-in-law is the owner and operator of Waterfront Comics in Suisun, California so this is a topic that is near and dear to me. In a time when one can download their comics onto their ipads, computers, and other digital devices, it begs the question: where do comic book stores fit into this new marketplace? Joe Field, in addition to being owner of Flying Color Comics and the founder of Free Comic Book Day, is a respected businessman who offers an open-minded and pragmatic appraisal of the situation in the interview. Please check it out. He even said that if you stop by his store and mention the article you'll receive a free comic. Pretty awesome, huh?

There was one question that I didn't use for the popmatters' piece that I wanted to include in this post. Enjoy:

Has your business been helped or hurt by the proliferation of online retailers and the increase in titles sold at superstores like Barnes and Nobel? Does the increase in retailers and consumers help bring in new readers or are they squeezing out local comic stores?

When Flying Colors Comics opened in October 1988, there were more than a dozen "direct market" outlets for comics in this county... and each of us would send customers to the others looking for items we didn't have in stock. There wasn't a bookstore anywhere that sold comics.

My how times have changed! Now, there are only three comic specialty outlets in this county, but the growth of the big-box bookstore means there are many more places to buy compilations of comics, even if there are just a couple of place to buy periodical comics. The cool thing is--- Barnes & Noble, Borders and the like now refer lots of people to shop here at Flying Colors. Stores like mine are specialists---stores like B&N and Borders are generalists. They may have 20 times the space I have here, but if you are looking for comics, we have 50 times as much in stock as those big stores do.

I still believe the biggest nut for us to crack in finding new buyers for comics---whether printed periodical, collected hardcovers or digital--- is that we have to find new *readers*. Comics require readers to fully enjoy them. Sure, there are probably book collectors that are not avid readers, but there can't be many of them! And there are comic book buyers who are not comic book readers, but not many of them, either.

I believe that with the stellar diversity of comics material coming out these days, there truly are comics for *anyone* who loves to read. Finding dedicated readers is not an easy trick, though. That is where the comics market will live or die in the next generation or three.

News and Updates: Riggio on the Ropes, Newspapers on the Ipad, and E-Readers on Airplanes

2010-09-21T09:15:00.000-07:00

School has started again so I've been a little behind on this blog. The goal for my new schedule is to post at least twice a week: News and Updates on Tuesdays and something more substantive on Thursdays. Lets see how that plan goes.

- Leonard Riggio's attempt to take control of Barnes and Noble's Board of Directors suffers a massive setback.
- The Wall Street Journal is adding a book section to its Saturday Edition. In a time when newspapers are suffering and traditional book reviewers are being supplanted by online alternatives this has been marketed as a daring move. The Huffington Post has an article analyzing Newscorps plan's here.
- Media Bistro has an interesting article about Virgin America's plans to have a "Read" option on their personal in-flight televisions.
- Tim Waterstone, writer and businessman, says that Amazon has expanded the market of readers.
- Excellent article over at Tech Crunch about Apple's plans to sell newspaper subscriptions on the Ipad and the impact it could have on the industry.

New Kindle Commercial Takes on the Ipad

2010-09-20T09:31:00.000-07:00

Mark Waid on Downloading Comics: Sharing or Stealing?

2010-09-09T08:50:00.000-07:00

Mark Waid, Comic Book Creator and Editor-In-Chief of Boom Studios, recently used his Keynote Address at this years Harvey Awards to discsuss comics in the digital future. This speech, which promtped an apparent "heated exchange" with comics legend Sergio Aragones, offered a balanced look at the issue of copyright, digital comics, and the sharing versus stealing debate.
         He states:
"Like it or not, downloading is here. Torrents and filesharing are here. That's not going away. I'm not here to attack it or defend it--I'm not going to change anyone's mind either way, and everyone in America at this point has anecdotal evidence "proving" how it hurts or helps the medium--but I am here to say it isn’t going away--and fear of it, fear of filesharing, fear of illegal downloading, fear of how the internet changes publishing in the 21st century, that’s a legitimate fear, because we’re all worried about putting food on the table and leaving a legacy for our children, but we’re using our energy on something we can’t stop, because filesharing is not going away."
           The speech, which can be read here, is a frank and open-eyed look at how the comic book industry needs to deal with issues of piracy and torrents. Rather then waste time with angry recrimination or futile and resource wasting efforts to combat it, he is looking at ways to use these file-sharing sites to benefit his company and the medium.

"It's A Book" - Review

2010-09-06T14:35:00.000-07:00

Lane Smith, co-creator of The True Story of the Three Little Pigs and The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales, has a new book out called It's a Book. This charming work concerning the decline of print is about a Monkey who is trying to read while a Jackass asks a series of inane questions, such as, "Does it have WiFi?" "Can you tweet with it?" etc.

When I first heard of the book I thought it was going to be a cute reminder to kids of the joys of reading, but instead its a little more agressive then that. The ending line - which I won't reveal - while hardly shocking, was risque enough that Barnes and Noble chose to shelve it in Humor as oppossed to the children's section. Hint: There is a reason that one of the characters is a jackass.

The book can be read two ways:
                                  1. Its a harmless and cutesy kid's book the reminds readers of the pleasures of reading in our overly digital world of Ipod, Ipads, Cell phones, and E-readers.
                                  2. It's a snarky piece of passive-agression that oozes smug self-congradulation - particualrly in part about the author where the word book is emphazied in the font i.e. Smith writes BOOKS. And his wife draws BOOKS!     (Not an exact replication but you get the idea.)

                      Of the two interpreations I prefer the former to the later. I thought it was cute and funny. But the cynic in me couldn't help but see the other way of reading it and felt it needed to be included in this pos, if only to play devil's advocate. What did you think?

Here are some reviews:
Lesa's Book Critiques: It's a Book
Book Sake: Review: It's a Book

News and Updates:

2010-09-04T10:33:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the delay folks - school has started and I've been busy getting my classes organized. Should be back on track soon.

I've still been organizing a comprehensive essay on the events going on over at Barnes and Noble. Will hopefully have something by next week.

Bookstores News:
- Publisher's Weekly examines Borders' attempt to create a new business model to deal with market changes.
- Borders will also be selling the new Cruz Tablet - a device that is seeking to unseat the Ipad.
- Barnes and Nobles to close their Lincoln Center store.

E-Reader News:
- AOL News asks, "Will Kindle Kill the Book?"
- Book Seller.com has an article on the BeBook Reader. The BeBeook is attempting to move into the market intersection where people who want e-readers meets up with people who don't want to pay a lot of money for the device.
- Sony is not giving up the so-called e-reader wars without a fight. The L.A. Times reports on the company's three new devices that are being released for the holidays.

General:
- Emma Silvers over at Salon.com has a wonderful reflection on why she loves books and is not a fan of e-readers. Any lover of print will find common cause with her thoughtful essay. The reason I enjoyed it so much is that it made its point, without asserting dominion over everyone else's tastes. She explained why she loved to read books, not why everyone else in the world had to read books the same way.
- The Huffington Post has an excellent article on the soon-to-be-released collection of woodcut novels by Lynd Ward, whose words are considered by many to be the forbearer of comic books.

Wylie Update

2010-08-27T10:23:00.000-07:00

I have a follow-up post to my Wylie article up at the RE:Print Blog at Popmatters.com. The Wylie Agency and Random House have reached an agreement and 13 of Odyssey Edition's titles have been removed from Amazon's online store. They are apparently going to be re-released non-exclusively through RH shortly.

While the agreement could be interpreted as proof that Wylie didn't have a legal leg to stand on if the dispute was brought to court, it would be an overreach to declare Random House the winner. There was a lot of speculation in the publishing world that Wylie's plans were more of a publicity stunt then a serious move into the direct market. From that perspective Wylie was able to bring a lot of attention on the issue of author's digital royalties in a world where e-publishing is taking over traditional print. Furthermore, he set a precedent for other authors and agents whose deals may have similar ambiguities concerning e-rights to follow if they feel that they are being mistreated.

Lots of New Updates: Commentary, Reviews, and News about Barnes and Noble.

2010-08-26T10:55:00.000-07:00

Commentary:
- Peta Jinnath Andersen has an interesting article at popmatters, "Will Ads in Books Destroy the Industry or Save it?". Curious to know what you think of this one; would you read an e-book if it had a banner or a footer with an advertisement on it?

E-Reader Reviews:
- A rave review of the Kindle 3 from the folks over at Publisher's Weekly.
- The New York Times has a comprehensive review of the Kindle 3.
- Techland has a good piece on the Pandigital Novel, highlighting the device's potential strengths and numerous weaknesses. They also have a very even breakdown of the Kindle versus Nook discussion.
- Dan Nosowitz has an article over at Fast Company discussing why we shouldn't dismiss the Nook as viable alternative to the Kindle and the Ipad.

Barnes and Noble:
- Daily Finance discusses Barnes and Noble's quarter loss of 63 million, and the letter to investors from the Board of Directors asking them to support founder Leonard Riggio and avoid a drawn out proxy war with Ron Burkle.

Digital Comics:
- Image Comics has launched it's own application for the Ipad and Iphone.
- American and Japanese Manga publishers try to find a digital solution to fighting scanalation.

Random:
- PWxyz on the Ipad mini: will it be announced on September 1?

News and Updates: E-reader's, Barnes and Noble, etc.

2010-08-20T22:57:00.000-07:00

I hope you enjoyed the excellent essay written by our guest blogger a few days ago - a wonderful articulation of the joys of reading off the printed page. Check out my review of Joe Hill's Locke and Key at Irene's blog, Girl on Book Action, here.

- ZDNet has an excellent piece, sent to me by one of my students, on the problems with the Kindle's closed format and its inability to read books from the epub format.

- PWxyz discusses Wired's article on how e-books are priced.

- Publisher's Weekly reports the June's e-book sales are up 119%.

- Engadget reports that CVS pharmacies is going to be selling a $179 e-reader - the Look Book. I haven't been able to find out much about this device so if anyone knows anything about it please let me know.

- Daily Finance reports on the ongoing proxy fight between Ron Burkle and Leonard Riggio. It looks like the future of the superstore chain remains unclear as stock prices fall after a brief rise in value after the company announced it was putting itself up for sale. In an ironic twist however, some are speculating that if the B&N and Borders were to go out of business, it would open the door for a return of the independent book store to fill in the gap.

- The Huffington Post had an interesting article on the evolution of e-ink technology and the future of ebooks.

Vindication of the Rights of Paper Book Lovers - by Irene Peinhopf

2010-08-18T20:41:00.000-07:00

Right now, I’m reading a book about gender in Romantic literature – Romanticism and Gender by Anna K. Mellor - which has exposed me to a number of women authors of the Romantic period whose names I have not found in my previous studies. They wrote novels with titles that are unfamiliar to me and told stories that I have not had the pleasure to read. According to this discussion, part of the reason that women were actively publishing their works at this time, both anonymously and under their own names, is the “establishment of the lending library, which spread rapidly throughout England in this era [which] meant that books were widely accessible to a new and ever-growing readership, a readership composed in large part of upper- and middle-class women who preferred to read literature, and especially novels, written by women” (Mellor 1-2). The lending library, an institution that helped to shape countless lives over the centuries - an institution based on the printed book. All of that is a long-winded way to say that books, physical paper books are a part of our cultural heritage and you may call me a sad sentimentalist and a Luddite, but I believe – strongly – that paper books should not be relegated to the past in light of the new e-reader craze.

Before I tell you more about why you should cherish your printed books, let me make a concession to this e-reader business. First, let me admit freely and openly that I have not used an e-reader, and have not spent any time investigating their features. I have looked at a friends’ Kindle and pondered its uses and whether or not I would hate reading on a digital screen (I hate reading anything longer than a medium length essay on the computer – oh the glare!). However, I can see some uses for them. For instance, if I were inclined to travel it would be simpler to bring an e-reader than to lug a suitcase of paperbacks with me. Not only would it be lighter (paper sure is heavy) but it would also take up less room so I could take less luggage. Also, having my library with me wherever I went would likely have some advantages, such as being able to access quotes and sections at need, which could be useful for school and you never know when you’ll need to prove that you remember the ending of Perfume correctly and all of your friends are wrong. Yes, I can see how an e-reader could be useful and perhaps one day I will purchase one, but it would never replace my love and need for printed books. It would only be an accessory to my library.

Now that I’ve served you an anecdote and some disclaimers, let me tell you about why paper books are amazing and why you should want them to stick around. Books are sensual. Hear me out. They engage the senses, not just sight and imagination, but smell and touch and they are wonderful ways to evoke memories – sensory and otherwise. When my eyes roam over my shelves and I pick out Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar I remember the times I’ve read this novel and how I felt then – oppressed by the future, suffocating in my own mental glass dome and wanting nothing more than to escape and live without the pressure I was putting on myself; or perhaps my eyes rest on my copy of Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov (which at the moment they can’t because I’ve loaned it to a friend) and I recall the weekend I spent closeted away, barely talking to my friends and family because I was having a love-affair with a dead Russian author and his book. They are visual cues for my memory bank. As Anne Fadiman writes:

“Our books, however – even the ones printed long before we were born – remained ageless. They recorded the passage of real time, and because they reminded us of all the occasions on which they had been read and reread, they also reflected the passage of the preceding decades. / Books wrote our life story, and as they accumulated on our shelves (and on our windowsills, and underneath our sofa, and on top of our refrigerator); they became chapters in it themselves. How could it be otherwise?” (xi Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader).

Books become a part of our lives much more so than our computers and iPods and gaming consoles, our cell phones or laptops. But I was telling you about the senses, so let us return to that with one more visual appeal: I’m a sucker for a beautiful typeset. There is just something about a gorgeously lettered book that makes my heart beat a little faster and makes my eyes dance over the page with added pleasure. Another thing you gain from the printed book is the lush evocativeness of its smell – whether you love the new-book smell or the scent of a well-loved used book, or a book you’ve owned for so long that it smells of your own particular past. And last but not least is the feel of a book in your hands, the friction of the paper, the thickness and density of the pages, the smooth or matte or leather or cloth of the covers, the different weights of paperbacks and trades and hardcovers. These sensory impressions are important to me and I don’t know that I could replace all of these experiences with the cold feeling of an electronic device – I don’t go into raptures thinking about picking up and opening my laptop.

Let me backtrack to what I mentioned in passing above: I lent a book to a friend. Are you following my train of thought here? How would I lend a friend a book if I was reading on an e-reader? The lending and borrowing of books is a treasured activity between my friends. If I’m honest, I have to admit that it gives me some pains to send my treasures off into the world, but ultimately I know that I’ll see them again soon enough and that in the meantime someone is also enjoying a story I’ve loved. By the same token, I’ve been exposed to and have come to love many authors and novels that I would never have thought to seek out on my own because a friend lent me a book. I suppose if I really wanted to I could lend an e-reader to a friend, but with that I would give them my whole library and a fairly expensive piece of technology compared to a $10 paperback. Which brings us to issues of cost: in this type of economy lending and borrowing books makes sense (also, the library which lends books), although I suppose if you’re paying $100+ for a fancy e-reader you’re not worried about your bank account. P.S.: Don’t forget about used books, which fortunately will still be around even if the printed tome goes out of fashion, at least for a time so that bibliophiles like me can still get our required fix of paper and ink.

In closing, let me say that you may label me as a Luddite and a sentimental old lady clinging with desperation to the world she feels comfortable with rather than accepting and welcoming the winds of change, but that doesn’t change the fact that printed books are important. Picturing a world with only fancy gadgets and no one sitting in a coffee shop with a beat up paperback makes my heart ache with a loss we haven’t even experienced. I cannot picture my life without books. They are my silent, soothing companions, always ready to welcome me back with open pages and their ever-yielding words. Those are just my two-cents and I’ll likely lose this particular battle. As a society we love technology and I’m not an exception – I like having my iPod and writing blog entries and am a Twitter-addict, but I also think that with the rise of technology we might lose more than we gain. I’m not sure I want to trade the sensory experience of reading a book for the convenience of carrying my whole library with me wherever I go. I’m not saying you should frenziedly burn your e-reader in an attempt to escape the shackles of modern technology, but that the next time you pick it up you ask yourself this one simple question: what would it be like to read this in a print book?

I’m not saying you should frenziedly burn your e-reader in an attempt to escape the shackles of modern technology, but that the next time you pick it up you ask yourself this one simple question: what would it be like to read this in a print book?

***

If you like what you’ve read and want to read some more of my thoughts you can read my weekly contributions at http://girlonbookaction.blogspot.com/ where I (you guessed it) review books along with my cohorts Wren (predominantly movie reviews) and Tdro (the mistress of telling us about cute men).

Bio of our Guest Blogger: Irene (a.k.a. Doomwench) is, no kidding, getting her Masters degree in Vampire Studies (okay, she’s actually getting a degree in Germanic Studies, but she’s bent it to her will and is writing aboutNosferatu). She lives in Canada (but is originally from Austria) and enjoys reading about draculas. She also hates it when you call them draculas. Needing somewhere to vent her thoughts on all of the books she reads, she began the Girl On Book Action blog with longtime friend and bibliophile Wren. Irene likes long walks on....wait, no she doesn't, she likes staying indoors reading, blogging, playing videogames and generally ignoring the sun.

The Great Blogger Crossover a Other News and Updates

2010-08-17T19:16:00.000-07:00

In a few days this blog will be doing a crossover with one of the fine writers over at Girl on Book Action - an excellent site for book reviews that I highly recommend. Irene a.k.a Doomwench, one of the blog's founders, is a bibliophile and print lover who has agreed to write a spirited essay in defense of paper. In exchange they have graciously relaxed their site's gender prohibitions and will be publishing my review of Joe Hill's terrifying comic book series, Locke and Key.

News:

Brent Arends predicts the closing of bookstores and takes a look at the sad state of Barnes and Nobles, and Border's stock over at the Wall Street Journal's Digital Dashboard.

The Huffington Post takes a look at 17 journals that may endure the digital onslaught.

PWxyz has a post speculating that the rumored mini-Ipad will be released by the holidays.

The Odyssey of Andrew Wylie - Expanded.

2010-08-14T10:32:00.000-07:00

I recently wrote an article for Popmatters on Andrew Wylie for the website's RE:print blog. Sadly, none of the hyperlinks made it through the upload process (I screwed up the HTML stuff.) Here is the complete article with all the links included. Enjoy.

*****

The Odyssey of Andrew Wylie

Andrew Wylie, agent and head of the prestigious Wylie Agency, has been no stranger to controversy during his long career in the world of books. Lauded by some as a champion of writers and criticized by others as a "jackal" and "provocateur," Wylie has developed a reputation that just begs for comparisons with the character Arie Gold from HBO’s Entourage. Although dogged by charges of client stealing and other unethical practices, Wylie has come to represent over 700 hundred writers, including Salman Rushdie, Philip Roth, Dave Eggers, and the estates of Jorge Luis Borges, John Updike, and Norman Mailer.

Last month, Wylie caused an upheaval in the publishing world with his announcement that he had given the exclusive digital distribution rights for 20 books whose writers he represents to Amazon.com for release on their Kindle. The books, which will be released through a new company established by Wylie, Odyssey Editions, are reflective of his reputation as a advocate of authors who have made substantive impacts to the world of literature as opposed to just being commercially popular. Included in the list of newly available e-books, priced at just $9.99, are Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Invisible Man, and Updike’s Rabbit series. Although not a fan of the kindle originally (Wylie once stated in an interview, “I have a Kindle. I used it for an hour and a half and put it in the closet.”), this move shows the Wylie is not the type to let his personal hangups get in the way of his objectives.

While the full ramifications of this action remain unclear, Wylie’s decision, which has gained the support of the Author’s Guild, has reverberated through the community of publishers who see this action as tantamount to an act of war. Random House immediately issued a statement, quoted from an article on the Huffington Post, declaring that the, “...decision to sell e-books exclusively to Amazon for titles which are subject to active Random House agreements undermines our longstanding commitments to and investments in our authors, and it establishes this Agency as our direct competitor.” The statement continued, "Therefore, regrettably, Random House on a worldwide basis will not be entering into any new English-language business agreements with the Wylie Agency until this situation is resolved."

This type of drama seems a natural byproduct of the type of personality necessary to have accumulated such a stable of talent under one roof and who has in some ways become the story itself. A piece from portfolio.com writes:

“Wylie grew up as the son of a respected book editor in an old-money Boston family, studied

French literature at Harvard, and entered the publishing game relatively late in life, when he was

already in his 30s, after a misspent youth of Bohemian excess, which included hanging out with

Andy Warhol, writing dirty poetry, and partaking of all manner of dangerous drugs.”

Three decades later Wylie is now one of the most powerful people in publishing, whose resulting infamy, and iconoclastic background, seems to have created an image that has polarized around two distinct narratives. The first is of a hard-bargaining, shrewd businessman who fights for the rights and interests of his client; a type of maverick who takes on the powerful publishers for the artists he represents and the integrity of what they do. They other narrative invokes images of a shrewd opportunist who steals other agencies clients, and demands exorbitant contracts so that it can pad his own agent’s fee. Whichever narrative one chooses to subscribe to, Odyssey Editions seems completely consistent with both versions of the man.

Critics of Wylie have three primary complaints about his plans. The first and most important is that some argue that he doesn’t actually have the rights to distribute these titles. The July 23 podcast for the New York Times Book Review explains that Wylie is taking advantage of ambiguities in the contracts between the writers he represents and the publishing companies. Since these deals were drawn up at a time when ebooks and digital distribution rights weren’t an issue, they aren’t covered. Consequently, Wylie contends that his actions are completely legal and well within the rights of the author’s, and executors of various deceased writer’s estates, that he represents. Despite this, some publishers like Random House are claiming that Odyssey Editions is in violation of their contracts and rumors of legal consequences are pervasive.

Another attack is on the exclusivity of the deal of the deal with Amazon. Some wonder at the wisdom of allowing access only through one e-reader, when there are currently a multitude of online bookstores available. Intuitively, the more digital retailers have access to Odyssey Editions wares, the more money the imprint, and its authors stand to make. John Sargent, CEO of Macmillan, wrote in his blog that the move, “is an extraordinarily bad deal for writers, illustrators, publishers, other booksellers, and for anyone who believes that books should be as widely available as possible." Peter Osnos continues on this theme in his article on Wylie in The Atlantic, stating that, “limiting accessibility of backlist classics showed a clumsiness that seems to undermine Wiley's previous reputation for shrewdness.”

The final major criticism made against Wylie and Odyssey Editions is that this move will ultimately mean the death of publishing as the industry currently exists today. Some contend that if publishers are edged out of the market and agencies like Wylie’s take advantage of the more direct line to consumers provided by digital media that longstanding and primarily paper-based institutions will fall. Penguin publishing chief, John Makinson, was quick to stifle these rumors according to thebookseller.com which reported that the publishing executive doesn't see a lot of substantive commercial value in the Odyssey imprint. He contends that all the responsibilities inherent in book publishing will make the possibility of a wide-spread direct market revolt by agencies highly unlikely.

While publishers may debate the true economic impact of Wylie’s move, the benefits for Amazon.com however are abundantly clear, particularly with the so-called e-reader wars currently heating up. The online superstore, which recently announced that digital books were outselling hardcovers, has been able to maintain the lion’s share of the e-book market with its ground-breaking kindle, but stiff opposition is approaching. Barnes and Noble, which entered the e-reader market last November, is making its e-reader, the Nook, a central part of it’s business plan, and with with hundreds of storefronts allowing it access to customers that might be beyond Amazon’s reach, it may become a growing threat. Apple’s Ipad, which some labeled the “Kindle-killer” also represents a growing threat to Amazon’s market dominance; particularly with rumors a smaller, cheaper version of the device specifically intended as a an e-reader making the rounds. With an exclusive list of titles representing some of the finest works of contemporary fiction available, the company is working to maintain its hegemony over the new digital market and Odyssey Editions represents at the very least a perceptual, if not out right commercial, victory in achieving that goal.

Some however look at all the sturm and drang caused by Wylie’s move and see nothing more then an epic escalation in the ongoing negotiations over digital rights. As has noted by both fans and critics, Wylie’s decision has forced the issue of author’s rights in an increasingly digital world to the forefront. As traditional print media is being slowly but irresistibly subsumed by electronic competitors, Wylie has long been arguing that writer’s should get a larger cut of ebook sales. The agent, according to an article in the Financial Times, spent nine months trying to negotiate better deals for writers before deciding to move on his own. Wylie, the article continues is threatening to up the ante even further, stating,
“if we do not reach an accord, Odyssey will grow. It will not publish 20 books, it will publish 2,000 and have outside investors and make itself available to other agents.”

These comments, coupled with the fact that the deal between Odyssey and Amazon expire in two years, can be interpreted not as a serious attempt by Wylie to destroy traditional publishing, but as a warning to companies like Random House to raise the royalties for authors on books sold in a digital format or else. Currently the position of publishers has been that writers should receive around 25% for digital sales, as noted by the Economist, while advocates of the authors say that 50% is more equitable, particularly when the paper-related overhead is removed from the equation. While some in the industry have argued that the pricing models that see digital publishing as significantly cheaper are flawed, it seems clear that Wylie is a position to either force a compromise from the publishers, or be in a position to punish their recalcitrance with greater expansion into the digital market.

The end of this showdown between Wylie and the publishers does not look to an immediate end in sight. For the future it seems that both sides will use their respective positions to try jockey for position and gather support - there is even a mock twitter war going on between unofficial advocates of both sides of the issue. Whether for good or ill Wylie, who in many ways has become the story, has made his mark on the world of digital publishing the same way both critics and fans agree he made his mark on paper publishing world: aggressively. It remains to be seen if his tenacity will pay off or be labeled a blunder.

News from the Front Lines of "E-reader Wars" and other exciting news!

2010-08-13T20:33:00.000-07:00

I was recently interviewed by a writer from CNN.com for a piece he was working on about the future of comics in the digital era. The article, iPad Boosts Appeal of Digital Comics by Henry Hanks, was just posted yesterday. Check it out!

Ron Adner predicts, "Kindle's Days are Numbered," over at the Huffington Post. While I think his declaration is a little premature, especially if the Kindle and other e-readers can incorporate color and touch-screens into their devices (which engagdet says might be coming soon). The piece does make a good point that whatever the future may hold for the device, Amazon is in an excellent marketing position for selling books as a application on other companies platforms.

Here's another article comparing various e-readers currently for sale: eReader War: iPad, Kindle, Nook, Which Will Win? It has an interesting breakdown of similarities and differences of all the major devices on the market. However, I think it's funny that it includes the Sony and the Kobo in the piece, but as the titles suggests, doesn't consider them a major contender. As I stated before, I don't have a degree in business or any formal training in market analysis, but I think that the concept of "winning the war" is less a commercial reality and more a byproduct of the martial lexicon being used by analysts and people reporting on it. While I think the various invested companies will contend for market share, I wonder if any will come to truly dominate the market in the near future. The three major players, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Apple, are in such different places that, while there may be overlap, none or currently positioned for complete control. The Ipad is cool but comparatively expensive, the nook has access to customers the neither Apple nor Amazon can reach, and the Kindle has the name and has in some ways become a type of commercial icon.

Slate's Farhad Manjoo has an article predicting that the price of kindles might be lowered to $99 shortly. I think Manjoo might be proven right soon since, as he points out in the article, another company, Copia, is planning to release an e-reader for $100. Furthermore, since Nook and Kindle have been competing with each other so heavily, I wouldn't be surprised if Barnes and Noble's Nook 2 will be released with a price in that range.

For those who are still in the market for an e-reader, the website, Best E-Readers, has some good reviews.

In other news, Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. is planning to release an online newspaper for tablets and cell phones.

News and Updates: Barnes and Noble, Borders, Kobo, QUE Reader, and more!

2010-08-11T17:00:00.000-07:00

Just completed a new article for popmatters on Andrew Wylie; will post when its up. Got interviewed a few days ago by a writer for CNN.com on the impact of digital comics on the medium and industry. Will post a link when it comes up. All sorts of good links today:

New York Times reports that Pete Hamill, a writer who built his career in print, is releasing his next book exclusively as an e-book.

G-Online, a magazine about green tech, has a really important analysis of the environmental impact of digital books. The article's final analysis is that purchase of an e-reader, that uses electronic ink which requires less power, used consistently for over a year can reduce green house gases.

Wired takes a look at the new Toshiba Libretto

Retail Traffic has an interesting article on the commercial ramifications of Barnes and Noble potentially closing some of its stores, and some solid analysis on the company's decision to put itself up for sale.

Publisher's Weekly:
   - The Kobo and Random House have reached a deal with Fairmont Hotels to allow guests to borrow e-readers.
   - News of more layoff's at Border's corporate headquarters.
   - Comments about the now dead, QUE e-reader, that may have been big addition to the market if delays had not, and the release of the Ipad, hadn't stolen it's thunder.
   - Some news on Dorchester Publishing's announcement that will be going all-digital - apparently it is only for six months.

Great website for Digital Comics

2010-08-10T09:41:00.000-07:00

Valierie D'Orazio, comic book writer, author, blogger, and media analyst, has an excellent blog for those interested in the digital comics. The site, Val's Digital Comics Page, is an great source of news and commentary, keeping readers up to date on releases from various platforms and applications. This site is on the list of blogs I check out regularly to keep up on new events. For comic book fans in general, I also recommend her blog, Occasional Superheroine.

News and Updates: Barnes and Noble for Sale, Mini Ipads, and Andrew Wylie

2010-08-07T10:29:00.000-07:00

Interesting Book News: Barnes and Noble put itself up for sale last Tuesday according to the Wall Street Journal. The article states that in response to decreased sales the company's founder, Leonard Riggio, is attempting to purchase the company. What this news might mean for the company's future is still unclear, but it seems that Riggio is fighting to keep the company going in face of growing competition and market changes. Publisher's Weekly speculates on what the upcoming annual meeting for the company might be like.
If the sale goes through this might be the time that B&N implements the major changes that have been discussed. As noted in previous posts, the superstore chain is opening large nook station boutiques in all their stores, and the Nook is becoming central to their business model. Some are speculating that should the company survive in the future, it will be smaller and less reliant on a large back stock of titles. I wonder if the company has been investigating the print-on-demand technology as an option.

PW's Blog, PWxyz, has a story about a possible mini-Ipad designed specifically for the e-reader market. If this comes out and is competitively priced, it might be a significant contender against the Nook and Kindle. While I am hesitant to use the terms "killer," I do think it changes the nature of the market significantly if it is true. The way Amazon and Barnes and Noble's devices compete with the ipad is by highlighting their roles as dedicated e-readers that are cheaper and use the e-ink display. If a cheaper ipad, with color and a back-lit screen, were to come out, the only remaining strong argument in favor of the Kindle or the Nook would be the display. The electronic ink is designed to emulate a piece of paper, and, unlike, LCD screens, doesn't cause the same eye fatigue - so the argument foes. However, as an Ipad owner, I haven't experienced this as a problem. If the Ipad does indeed come to dominate the e-reader market, Amazon and B&N might be relegated to the same position as SEGA was in the gaming world. They lost their platform and became game designers exclusively. It's possible that Amazon and B&N's digital bookstores might one day be relegated to simply being apps on another company's devices.

It's been hard to read about anything in publishing - particularly e-publishing - recently without stumbling across the name Andrew Wylie. Wylie, a book agent and head of The Wylie Agency, made news when he announced that he had signed exclusive digital distribution rights with Amazon for 20 books from his high profile clients. Taking advantage of ambiguities in contracts - which decades ago didn't include digital rights - Wylie, whose lists of clients includes Phillip Roth, and the estates of John Updike and Norman Mailer, has caused an upheaval in the publishing world and a backlash from many publishers. I'm going to be following this story closely and posting an more in-depth analysis but for now here are some interesting links about Wylie and his plans:
- The Day of the Jackal, from The Economist
- Andrew Wylie, Agent Provocateur from Peter Osnos at The Atlantic
and podcast for the New York Times Book Review has an interesting discussion of Wylie that can be listened to here.

Comic Con Recap 2: Digital Piracy

2010-08-04T14:57:00.000-07:00

The second panel on I went to at Comic Con was a surprisingly fascinating discussion on digital piracy and its impact on the industry. It was hosted by Techland and moderated by Douglas Wolk, author of the excellent book Reading Comics. The panel had David Steinberger, CEO of Comixology, Cartoonist and writter Deb Aoki, and Manga editor Jake Forbes. Erik Larsen, creator of Savage Dragon and one of the founders of Image Comics, was listed on the program but was unable to attend.

Wolk's opening statement was telling; he remarked that he had watched the music industry alienate some of its most loyal consumers trying desperately to combat piracy with a multitude of ineffectual strategies that ultimately cost them millions and he hoped comics wouldn't follow a similar path. He then stated that currently torrents and other sites are offering digital scans of new and old comics for free, and that the process has become so developed that the sites are posting new comics on the same day they are released at comic book stores.

Steinberger discussed his goals for Comixology, which is a website/application that allows readers to download and read comics from their computer or other digital devices (I have it on my Ipad). He explained that those who are using these sites are not doing it just because the comics are free, but because they are posted in a digital format. He explained that in music industry the album hyper-inflated the cost of CD's and so people went to torrents and places like Napster to get the songs they couldn't necessarily afford. He stated the the rise of Itunes provided a legal and cheap option for consumers and consequently piracy decreased. He believes that once there are stable and legitimate platforms with a wide library of comics like Comixology, there will be a parallel decrease in the amount of people who visit these illicit sites.

The discussion then shifted to manga where the situation is slightly different then with the domestic comic market. For manga, there are literally hundreds of thousands of books in Japan that are not yet available in English. As a result, fans have been scanning and translating these titles and offering them for free on various websites all across the world. The panel acknowledged that this was a genuine labor of love by dedicated fans, but there were problems.
Aoki, while sympathetic with the fans, identified the following areas of concern:
1. That even though the fans weren't profiting off their efforts, there were aggregation sites that had inserted themselves as middlemen between fans and those posting the comics, and they were making money off the searches. Forbes mentioned at this point that currently the top ten hits when someone searches the word "Naruto" in google are actually pirate scans.
2. Several Manga companies and, most importantly, creators have suffered financially from digital piracy, and recorded a boost in sales when a major pirating site was taken down.

Forbes, an editor who has worked on manga, stated that he felt that it was a type of arrogance amongst the fans that they assumed that they knew better then the publishers, creators, or editors. While he makes an interesting point, I don't think that is the fan's goal, but that the situation is a byproduct of the slow process of Manga Publishers who have thousands of titles in the back catalog awaiting the slow process of licensing, translation, and distribution. The fans are merely filling the void. While I get that digital piracy is fundamentally stealing, I don't see how arrogance enters the situation - although I freely admit that there might have been some nuance to his comment that I could have missed.

There were two key questions that dominated the panel: Who is doing this, and how do you combat it? The problem seems split down the line between Japanese comic fans and fans of American comic companies. For Manga readers, the people are fans whose desire for a product is greater then the speed in which the publishers can provide it and so they have taken matters into their own hands. While the panel didn't know how exactly to fight it - Aoki mentioned that even though specific sites have been shut down others just pop up to replace them - perhaps someone at the large Manga companies should be finding these loyal fans and hiring them to do legally what they are currently doing illegally for free.

On the American side, the situation is different. While they weren't 100% on the subject, the overall consensus from the panel was that the people pirating and reading digital comics were not your typical comic book fans - as one person put it, "These are not Wednesday comic people." The question remaining ultimately then is how big an impact is digital piracy having on the industry in America? Wolk noted that for digital readers there is a value to be had owning a digital comic that is different from that found in collecting a paper comic and that these readers go to digital comics because they like the format. If this is true, then hopefully as digital comics become more available through legitimate platforms like Comixology and Graphic.ly, then these readers will go there as opposed to the torrents as Steinberger contends.

This panel, particualrly the discussion on manga, was fascinating. I recently read the book Cognitive Surplus (which I will discuss in a future piece), and it seems that these fans are following the same patterns that Shirky discusses in his book: they are doing this for love, not money, they are organized, and they have their own social rules and mores. I find myself torn on this issue. I am sympathetic to the fans who are trying to access more of something they love, especially since there are often no viable alternatives - unless they learn Japanese as one of the panel recommended. I also wonder about the actual impact on the industry. When I managed a comic store I had plenty of readers who purchased the single issues of comics when they came out, but then bought the collected trade so that they could easily reread the series. I wonder if manga readers might not be the same; they read the free scans online of unavailable but as soon as the publisher releases the actual title in English they'll buy it so that they can have an actual copy.

However, even if the actual degree is hard to establish I am against anything that actually hurts the creators or siphons away actual readers. I'm going to follow up on this topic and see if maybe I can get a few interviews with some of the panelists and others who are fluent on the subject.

Some Cool Links and Pandigitial Novel Reviewed by my Mom!

2010-08-02T14:12:00.000-07:00

Links: A really important article from The Scholarly Kitchen, the blog of The Society for Scholarly Publishing, about the, "true costs of digital publishing". The piece debunks some of the misconceptions on how digital publishing works and shows that the models for evaluating cost are often inaccurate.

Writer and comic creator Warren Ellis recently posted a link on his twitter account to a blog that focuses on the future of publishing that's been going since 2006. The blog itself is very interesting as is the specific article Ellis posted concerning the future of book covers. Check 'em out!

Pandigital Novel: I first heard about the Pandigital Novel a few weeks ago. This blog being relatively new, and a labor of love, I'm still trying to get connected to all the relevant news and so this one snuck up on me. My Mom, a recent convert to digital reading and a new owner of the nook, loved the idea of the new e-reader when she saw it a Bed, Bath, and Beyond, and was the one who brought it to my attention. The device itself sounds pretty interesting on paper. It has full-color, backlit, touch screen and access to the Barnes and Noble online store - which struck me as a smart move; if the nook has to have a competing device at least they can ensure that they are the ones who provide the e-books. At between 169.99 and 179.99 depending on where you go, it's like a Nook and an Ipad had a baby.
Shortly after the devices release there were multiple articles online talking about how owners had already hacked the operating system. PC World reports that some users have put the kindle application onto the device and Engagdet even has a video that has instructions on how to do it yourself.

While some of the reviews have been positive there was a recall of the device in June as reported by Slashgear, which labeled the device "half-baked." It looks like the relaunch hasn't done much better. There have been complaints of buggy devices and lackluster customer service. Here's what my Mom - a Branch Review specialist at West America Bank with over 30 years customer service experience - wrote shortly after purchasing the device:
"I returned the Pandigital Novel. The color was nice but I don't know all that it can do partly because I couldn't get pass page 40 of the owners manual. When I would page forward it just kept repeating page 40. I emailed the company (which is in the valley here and I could have driven there knocked on their door and gotten an answer faster) but have still not heard back from them. I couldn't register my purchase because their web site was not working properly. When I tried to look up accessories for the Novel, when in the owners manual said I could purchase on their web site, when I went there it gave me a list of store I could buy things from but I never did find the cute covers it showed in the manual.

All this added up to too much trouble. And this was all in the 24 hours I had it! I shouldn't have to spend that much time trying to make something work as it should.

The web site for Pandigital is not very informative either. Doesn't really show a very good anything about the ereader.

I'm not sorry I returned it. If I really ever want the color and all the extras I will purchase an IPad. For now I'm sticking with the Nook and I'm very happy with it."

Pandigital Customer Service finally replied to my Mom's e-mails after several days stating, "We at Pandigital apologize for the delay responding to your e-mail. We have had unexpectedly heavy traffic of both calls and e-mails. We hope that our response to your e-mail is helpful."

While this is naturally just one experience, I think it is emblematic of an overall problem with this e-reader and its company. There appear to be problems on every level - from functionality, customer service and support, and the availability of accessories on the website. While the Pandigital Novel appears to have potential, I would definitely wait for them to solve some of these issues before buying one.

Kindle 3 and other Publishing News!

2010-07-30T15:46:00.000-07:00

So Amazon has released a new version of their kindle and escalated the so-called "E-Reader Wars." The Kindle 3 has a larger storage capacity, increased battery life, better contrast, and has 3G available in over a hundred countries (whereas the Barnes and Noble Nook only offers 3G service in the U.S.). Additionally Amazon is now offering a WiFi only version device that retails for 139.
I naturally think this is a smart move by Amazon. As soon as they began selling Kindle 2's at Target it was clear that they were unloading back stock in preparation for for a new release. With a WiFi model I definitely think that competition between Barnes and Noble and Amazon will definitely heat up but I certainly don't think it knocks the Nook out of contention (Although I think this deals another blow to the poor Kobo).

While Amazon is definitely doing great - the New York Times recently reported that ebooks are currently outselling hardcovers - I think Barnes and Nobel's stores give them access to customers that Amazon may never be able to reach. Moreover, there is still the selling point that the Nook's android operating system updates automatically every month or so. The very existence of a Kindle 3 underscores the differences between the two products. Amazon keeps coming out with new devices, whereas the Nook keeps coming out with free firmware updates that everyone gets.
Barnes and Nobel certainly doesn't appear to be giving up without a fight regardless. The superstores are planning on increasing the size and staff of their dedicated nook stations to bring greater emphasis on the store's digital future.
While of subject of bookstores, Publisher's Weekly had an article about Border's hiring new tech specialists to help push their various e-reader devices. I can only imagine that they read my post about my visit to their store last week and decided to fix the problem. :P

In others news:
- Narrative Magazine has launched an application for Ipad and Iphone users that allows access to their entire database of stories.
- The Huffington Post has an interesting breakdown of the e-reader/book market here.
- The New York Times has an article describing videos, hyperlinks, and other additions ebook publishers are adding to their releases.
- The Daily Beast has a great piece reporting on Skip Prichard, CEO of the Ingram Book Company, and his optimistic view of the book business in the wake of the digital revolution.

Coming soon: The second installment of my Comic Con Recap on Digital comics and a review of the Pandigital Novel by a guest blogger, my mom!

Comic Con Recap 1

2010-07-29T08:56:00.000-07:00

While at Comic Con this year I attended three panels on the impact of digital comics on the medium and the industry. There were multiple panels this year on the subject that I wanted to go to, but as anyone who has even been to San Diego when the geeks descend knows you never have time to do half and what you intend.

The first panel was called Digital Comics and You. It was moderated by a journalist from iFanboy, and included comic book creator Ben Templesmith, Micah Balwin from Graphic.ly, talent agent Scott Agostoni, and James Sime, owner of Isotope: The Comic Book Lounge. The overall discussion focussed on the potential benefits of digital comics for creators and fans. Templesmith noted that his digital motion comic prequel to the game Dead Space received over a million downloads, and that the new mediums offer a great place to find new readers for his back catalog as it gets digitized. Baldwin discussed the opportunity for creative liberation where creators can do whatever they want instead of being anchored by a particular company's format. He stated that the emphasis should be on creating a stable platform, not worrying about a standardized formula. Sime, whose comic book store is noted for its laid back atmosphere, thinks that digital comics allow companies to access new readers which then become new customers for the brick and mortar stores. The panel as a whole agreed that the industry needed to change its emphasis on monthly single issue comics, and adapt to the new digital reality. They also referred to the term "Transmedia," as a meaningless jargon word that didn't really mean anything.

Thoughts on this panel: Overall I thought it was very interesting. The people offered an exciting look on the potential digital comics have to attract new customers, and allow for greater creative innovation for writers and artists. However, a few things did raise some concerns for me and I would have asked a question had there been enough time. First, I felt that Sime's opinion that digital comics weren't going to hurt brick and mortar stores was a slightly inaccurate view in the long run. He used Warren Ellis' Freak Angels as an example. He stated that after reading the online comic he had customers come into his store and ask if he had any Ellis books. So he was able to sell several trades to a customer that would never have known who the creator was had it not been for a digital comic. While I think his comment is true in the short-term, I think in the long run it stops being beneficial. What happens when Ellis' back catalog finally gets digitized? Once the industry really starts seeing some money from this sources, they are going to rush to digitize their inventory. And since changes to the book publishing market suggest that people aren't clinging to traditional printed material for love of paper the way some thought they would, what happens to the comic book store when all titles are available online and people no longer desire a printed copy, but are content with a digital alternative?

I'm working on an essay for popmatters.com right now that examines this issue. I'm hoping to get some perspective from some other retailers.

Over the next couple of days I'll be posting the notes I took from the other panels.

Comic Con

2010-07-26T22:43:00.000-07:00

Just got home from comic con. As always it was awesome but exhausting. I'm typing up some notes on the panels I attended on the digital future of comics and will have them shortly.

Update

2010-07-19T13:23:00.000-07:00

I'm currently working on two essays that I will be posting soon. One is on E-Ink versus the tablet, and the other is on the impact of digital technology on comic books. As a comic fan, and a former manager of a comic book store manager, I am very interested on the future of comic book stores in a world where you can download digital versions of comics and read them from your phone, computer, or gaming system. I'm going to San Deigo Con this week and plan to attend four panels on the subject of digital comics. Will send updates!

I'm also doing some research on the Pandigital Novel, a new e-reader device that appears to be a combination of the nook and the Ipad. A family member recently purchased one from Bed, Bath, and Beyond so I'll be hearing about it in full detail shortly.

Thoughts on The Kobo and Borders

2010-07-13T08:55:00.000-07:00

So I went to Borders yesterday and decided to check out the Kobo. My initial impression is that it is a well-designed device but sadly lacking in the features that would make it truly competitive against the Nook, Kindle, or iPad. Aesthically I think it is probably more appealing then Amazon or Barnes and Nobles e-readers; it is surprisingly light weight and the quilted texture on the back is a nice touch. It appears sleeker then it's competitors, but I didn't get the specs so I can't compare the dimensions versus the others. It also comes with a 100 free e-books which is a nice touch but the other readers' access to the Google Book Project makes that feature a little underwhelming. While it has no WiFi or 3G connection, you can connect it via Bluetooth so that you can access and transfer you books from either a computer or Blackberry.

My impression of the Borders and it's customer service however was far more revealing of the devices potential success then the device itself. Before I continue I must preface two things: First, my experience at this Borders was naturally a singular event and consequently may not be representative of the whole company by any means. Secondly, I currently work part-time at Barnes and Noble as a bookseller who works at their Nook station. As an adjunct instructor I needed to get a summer job until school started again and so I got hired at the nearby B&N. I had worked for the company previously and was a cash lead at a store in Norcal. I mention this just to avoid any questions about my credibility or biases on the subject. I work at Barnes and Noble but have no vested interest in demeaning Borders of their e-reader because of this. I assure you of my objectivity...

With that being said the experience I had seemed to emblematic of the deficiencies of both the device and the companies marketing strategy for it. For starters, there didn't appear to be any signs or displays showcasing the Kobo that I could see. There was a kiosk with the two older Sony e-readers, but nothing readily apparent on the device that some were hoping was going to breathe new life into the wanning superstore chain.

I asked a bookseller where the display was and they said they didn't have one yet but that they had a sample model I could check out behind the counter. As mentioned, the device itself is very cool looking and well-designed. I asked the lady I was talking to how it worked and it was clear that she wasn't well-informed on the subject. Furthermore, when I asked about how it compared to the Kindle or the Nook she said she wasn't sure. Note: I wasn't asking questions I already knew the answer so that I could subsequently critique the performance of the bookseller I was talking to. She was very friendly and polite. I was more interested in the way Borders had prepared their employees for these questions. At B&N they have a whole list of talking points with the comparative of advantages of the products clearly listed and I was wondering if Borders had something similar.

One thing that I did think was interesting was the person I was speaking to quickly diverted the conversation to the Sony E-readers that they had on display in the store, and began explaining how the Kobo was much better then these older devices. I don't know if it was intentional, but I think that is a strong selling point. Since, as has been mentioned in a previous post, the recently lowered prices of the Kindle and the Nook has reduced the primary competitive advantage that the Kobo enjoyed, its tough for even the most creative salesperson to explain why the Kobo is a better investment then its competitors. However, if the person downplays this question and then redirects the discussion to the Kobo's advantage versus the Sony e-readers, it might increase their chances of closing the sale. I naturally can't say for certain that that is what the bookseller was doing, but I think its an effective strategy.

Overall, the lack of specific product knowledge of the employee and the in-store advertising gave the impression of an overall lack of enthusiasm and reinforced my the feeling that the device is just too little, too late. Although Barnes and Noble didn't receive its Nook stations immediately, prior to the devices release I remember their employees pushing it hard. I no longer worked for the company at this time and was still a happy Kindle owner and I remember talking to booksellers at several stores who were very excited. Now, Barnes and Noble have installed their Nook displays prominently in the front of the store where it gives them access to customers that may not be actively seeking them out, but suddenly decide they want one. I hope Borders follows a similar pattern or ultimately whats the point? I plan to visit other Borders in the are and return to the one I visited yesterday to see if my experience is replicated or if it was just an aberration.

Anyone with their own experiences to share, or any Borders employees out there want to discuss the strengths of the company's approach, please do so!

News and Notes

2010-07-10T11:56:00.000-07:00

<----- I need to check out this book by Clay Shirky. The author's primary contention is that technology has finally caught up with human cognitive ability and that the two in conjunction will lead to a new era in creativity. This book seems like a hopeful look at the future as opposed to the doom and gloom of some of the other books out there. After I read this one I intend to check out The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to our Brains by Nicholas Carr, just to get both sides of the argument. A really insightful interview with Shirky at the Barnes and Nob le Review is available here. Also check out the review of the book at Popmatters.

The Washington Post has an article evaluating the benefits of e-readers. It's a interesting breakdown of the the devices versus tablets, but the most important part of the piece is at the beginning when the author discusses a study that shows when tested, people reading the exact same text will typically read slower when reading digital version as opposed to a printed version. It was a small study group but still interesting results.

CNET news reports that the lower prices of the Nook have hurt the sales of the Kobo. The article states that the previously lower price of the Kobo was an important part of the marketing strategy, but with Barnes and Noble offering a WiFi capable version of their device for same price and numerous different features, it might be in trouble.

Daily Tech has an article on a marketing study that shows that the average e-reader owner is an older college educated. I think this an interesting demographic breakdown since it seems that the most vocal opponents of e-publishing seem to be in the same group (I don't have statistics to be back up that claim; its just been my experience). Another more in-depth article on the market trend by the Sydney Morning Herald can be found here.

Brief note: on a previous post on John Updike's essay I had the heading historiography. One of my goals of this blog is to read and comment on important works on the subject of the digital transition. Future posts of this kind will have the historiography heading.

Updated Kindle DX and Kobo Reviews

2010-07-06T14:50:00.000-07:00

Amazon.com has just released an updated version of its Kindle DX model with a new e-ink contrast rate, different color, and lower price. The DX, which comes with a larger screen then the standard kindle and was designed with text books in mind, is now only $379. I would be very surprised if the Ipad did not have something to do with this price reduction. While the standard size e-readers, like the Kindle, Nook, or Kobo, are cheap enough as to not compete so directly with the Ipad, whose cheapest model is 499, the DX was originally close enough in price, 489, that a serious customer might be hard-pressed to justify buying a DX when Apple's tablet is only 10 dollars more and can do so much. A Washington Post article discussing the price reduction and some new software changes, including the Amazon's new app for the Android, can be found here.
PC World reviews the Kobo here. I've been wanting to check out a Kobo but haven't had the chance yet. I think I'm just going to have to head on over to Borders one of these days and see one in person. My initial reactions to the device make me wonder if it can compete. The primary problem is that it has no WiFi or 3G connections forcing the owner to buy e-books off their computer and then transferring them to the device. Furthermore, as the PC World article notes, with the WiFi only Nook now dropped in price to 149 the Kobo lost its one advantage: its lower price.

I'm currently working on an article on e-ink versus the tablet. It seems to me that a significant battleground between dedicated reading devices like the Kindle and Nook, and do everything devices like the Ipad is the type of display consumers want to read off of. Will post a link when the article is completed.

John Updike Essay - Historiography

2010-07-01T23:55:00.002-07:00

I was recently flipping through a collection of John Updike essays called Due Considerations and I stumbled upon an Op-Ed piece he wrote for the New York Times in 2000 called A Case for Books. The was relatively short and focused on four key things he predicted we will miss if the printed word "joins the papyrus scroll and parchment codex in extinction..." These were: The book as furniture, The Book as sensual pleasure, The Book as souvenir and Book as ballast. While some of the things he remarks upon are not necessarily lost with e-books/readers his overall point is thoughtful and valid. He remarks, "Books externalize our brains, and turn our homes into thinking bodies." I think this is a beautiful line that captures some of the unique power inherent in the printed medium. Moreover, I enjoy the tone of the article. It is reflective but avoids any of the "reading on computers is the death of culture" arguments that some others like to use.
I plan to do a little research in the future and see if Updike's opinions of digital publishing changed at prior to his death -especially since many of his works are available in electronic format.

Even More Wonderful Book News

2010-06-30T11:42:00.000-07:00

I first have to begin with a correction. I stated last week that even after Barnes and Noble lowered their prices on the Nook that Best Buy was still giving out the 50 dollar gift cards with purchase...turns out that was an error at a specific Best Buy. However, I have confirmed that their service plan is cheaper then buying the extedned warranty from B and N.

Speaking of Barnes and Noble, Publisher's Weekly reports that they are doing very well despite these yough economic times, and that they plan to continue to invest heavily in e-publishing ventures. The full article can be read here.

Slate.com has an interesting article called "Bold Prediction: Why E-books will never Replace Real books," by Jan Swafford. The piece talks at length about the writings of Marshall Mcluhan and is a refreshing call for perspective in a discussion that is often rife with exaggerated conclusions and hyperbolic rhetoric.

The New York Times is reporting on a deal to hopefully breathe some new life into the declining world of independent book stores. Google, which is coming out with its own e-book store called Google Editions, is going to partner up with American book Sellers Association to be the distributor on indy book stores' websites. I hope deal works out for everyone. While I love the superbookstores like Barnes and Noble and Borders, there is nothing in the world like walking into a place like Powell's Books and I hope that this will keep stores like that open.

I'm still working on the review of the ipad but so far I give it high marks. I've downloaded ibooks, stanza, and the Kindle and Barne's and Noble applications. So far ibooks has the best look but doesn't have near the selection of its competitors.

Shortly the blog will have a guest writer review the nook. I'm also interested in any news on the Kobo currently being sold out of Borders. If anyone out there has a Kobo and would like to send me their thoughts please do so.

E-Reader News

2010-06-22T09:18:00.000-07:00

It's been a busy week for e-reader news. Barnes and Noble and Amazon.com just announced simultaneous price reductions. The Nook is now 199. There is also a cheaper Nook that doesn't include the 3G internet service that is going for 149.99 (Incidentally, if you want to buy a Nook it would be better to go to Best Buy then Barnes and Noble. They currently have Nooks at the reduced price, which include a 50 B&N gift card, and a two year warranty for 20 dollars less then if you buy it at the book store). The Kindle has been lowered to 189.
Gigoam.com has an interesting article explaining Why Amazon's Kindle Will Eventually Win the E-Book Wars. The article breaks down the benefits of the Kindle, especially when used in conjunction with the Ipad, but I'm not ready to write Barnes and Noble out of the race just yet. B&N has hundreds of stores that allow them access to customers who may never find themselves checking out the Kindle.
Publisher's Weekly had an article talking a new reader, the wonderfully named Pfleeber.
Last week there was a digital conference on the future of publishing in New York. Here is a link to their page.

Stuff

2010-06-16T14:49:00.000-07:00

Vacation is almost over. I've had a chance to play around with my Ipad and am very satisfied so far. I'll have a full review coming up soon. Also on the way is a review of the nook from the blog's first guest writer.
More coming soon. Until then check out this New York Times article about the future of comics in the digital era.

New Stuff

2010-06-11T09:19:00.000-07:00

My ipad arrived two days ago. Thus far I am very pleased with my new toy. I haven't had too much time to mess around with the ibooks program but I'll have a full report asap. One thing I like about it is that it has apps for the kindle and Barnes and Noble.

Here is an article from the New York Times comparing various e-readers. The author is Joanna Stern, a technology journalist and an editor over at Engadget.

News and Updates

2010-06-02T09:35:00.000-07:00

It looks like J.K. Rowling has changed her position on e versions of her book according to thebookseller.com.

Rowling is just one of several writers who have spoke out against e-readers and e-publilishing.

The Future of Book Stores

2010-05-28T10:04:00.001-07:00

A very interesting article from last week's Wallstreet Journal examining planned alterations to Barnes and Noble's business model in response to changes in the market. According to the piece they are predicting that 20 -25 % of sales will come from e-books by the year 2012. The company now has to re-evaluate the roll of their brick-and-mortar superstores in the face these changes. While the owners maintain optimism, it is going to be interesting to see if they can sustain so many stores with so many employees, with future market trends heading in the direction they are.

Barnes and Noble, unlike Borders which many are predicting will not survive the coming years, has adapted fairly quickly to Amazon's game-changing Kindle. Their e-reader, nook (not the nook mind you, just nook), was released last November and quickly became a competitive alternative to the Kindle (I'll have a more thorough reviews of both items in future posts). Unlike the Sony e-reader, which predated the Kindle, or some of the smaller alternatives like the EnTourage eDGe, nook has been able to garner a stable portion of the market for a couple of reasons: First, unlike the other devices, it has hundreds of the stores with nook stations which allow B&N to grab customers that online sites may not have access to, and it was able to improve it's device based on consumer response to the first generation Kindle.

With a respectable foothold in the digital future of publishing some are predicting that Barnes and Noble stores will shift their focus from book sales to a more meeting place/browsing paradigm. With their cafes and music/movie sections, some envision nook-armed customers coming to the stores to read, browse selections that they will invariably buy on their e-readers, and to hang out. This transition will require a diversification of the products and services offered by the company and still might necessitate a reduction in staff and size, but hopefully it will provide a stable enough platform to ensure the survival of bookstores in at least some form. I think even to most ardent tech-lover will agree that it is still nice to have a non-digital place to browse for new books.

Furthermore Barnes and Noble is trying to use it's e-reader as a platform to get customers coming into their stores. One of the features of nook is that when you enter B&N store, the device automatically syncs up to the WiFi and you can get special in-store only coupons. You're also given an allowance of 1 hour a day to read books for free while connected to the store's internet. Even with these incetives to continue to come in, I'm just not sure that they'll be able to maintain their superstores. What do you think?

Articles and Links

2010-05-27T09:21:00.000-07:00

Some interesting new articles and links courtesy of Huffington Post's Book Section. One on Sony's new e-reader coming out in Japan. Another on the deal reached by Penguin and Amazon over prices for e-books. There is also a good piece from an independent publisher on the growing benefits that e-books will have for the publishing industry.

Goals and Objectives

2010-05-26T08:35:00.000-07:00

Let me preface this post with an important declaration: I am not an expert on business, nor am I an insider on the in's and out's of publishing. The closest I come to professional experience with this subject matter is that I managed a comic book store and I worked as lead at Barnes and Noble - I am a writer and a teacher, not an editor or businessperson. However, I find the current transition taking place in the world of publishing fascinating. Ever since I first began reading about Amazon.com's Kindle I have been interested in the future of paper as the medium for books, newspapers, and magazines in an increasingly digital world. Furthermore, I am armed with two things that justify this blogs existence: I love to read and I have a point of view. Those two things I hope will make up for my lack of experience in the business side of publishing.
The goals for this blog are as follows:
- To act as a news aggregate and have links to other websites that have interesting articles, essays, etc. on the subject.
- To review books that that discuss the future roll of the printed word.
- To provide a forum for substantive discussion.
- To offer commentary and historical perspective (My graduate work was in History so this goal plays to more of my strengths).
- To have interviews with relevant authors, critics, and, hopefully, publishing insiders.
- To analyze and review the various devices that are reshaping the future of publishing such as the Kindle, the Nook, and the Ipad.
- To explore the news avenues of artistic expression and information exchange provided by e-publishing and other digital based writing.
- To examine how the changes in print-based publishing will effect similar industries such as newspapers, comic books, and book stores.
My perspective on the subject:
I personally love paper. I have owned a kindle and currently own an Ipad and a smart phone and do a lot of my reading, particularly of news, on these devices. But when it comes to books I prefer the paper. I even subscribe to the LA Times because I love reading an actual paper in the morning (and I like to do the crossword puzzle). However, my love of paper does not mean that I am opposed to the digital transition that is currently taking place - and that has really been taking place since the invention of the computer. I see the potential value of the new e-readers even as I silently lament the loss of a beloved medium. I think that it is this perspective that will help in the future of this blog. Too many of the discussions I have seen on the subject offer angry hyperbole and mocking derision from both sides of the issue. I have read tech-loving bloggers dismiss books as antiquated relics while equally hostile book loves argue that the nothing short of civilization is being lost by the changes in publishing and demand a moratorium on technologies invasion of world of the letters. My hope is that this blog will be accessible to both sides and hopefully offer a middle ground to examine and debate the future of the printed word without muddying the waters with a lot of angry rhetoric. I invite all perspectives as long as they abide by that simple doctrine.

The Uncertain Future of the Printed Word

Guest Review on the Kindle Fire

The DC Relaunch and The Digital Future of Comics: Will It Work?

Comic Con On MP3

Post Comic Con Report and An Interview With Comic Scholar Julian Chambliss!

Sad pic from Downtown San Diego

Comic Con

Bookless Library Trend: Designing Space for Digital Learning - TIME

From Slate - Google Story HD e-reader: Target to sell Google eBooks-integrated device starting this Sunday.

A Country Without Libraries by Charles Simic | NYRblog | The New York Review of Books

"Our Wednesdays are numbered." - The Digital Future of Comics and Comic Book Stores

Kindle Singles: Potential Savior of Long Form Journalism?

It's Official: Amazon is Now Selling More E-Books than Print Books

New Kindle Commercial and My New Favorite Word: Bibilionecrophilia

The Kindle's Popular Highlights: Intertextual Communication or Pain in the Ass Distraction?

The Daily: The Future of Media or Just Repackaged Old Media?

News and Updates: Digital Book World 2011, E-Books Outsell Paperbacks at Amazon and More!

The Kobo on The Office

Back From Vacation - Border's Circling the Drain and Do E-reader's Make You Lazy?

The Mongoliad - An Innovative New Approach to Digital Storytelling

Next Gen Nook to Come Out with Full Color, Touch-Screen Display - B&N ditches E-Ink

Books Relating to the Decline of Print

News and Updates: Books Gone in 5 years, and E-book sales up 193%.

News and Updates

Bibliophile meets Techno-Geek: A Guest Blogger Reviews the Nook

News and Updates: Riggio Triumphs and an Amazon Tablet?

Joe Field Interview

News and Updates: Riggio on the Ropes, Newspapers on the Ipad, and E-Readers on Airplanes

New Kindle Commercial Takes on the Ipad

Mark Waid on Downloading Comics: Sharing or Stealing?

"It's A Book" - Review

News and Updates:

Wylie Update

Lots of New Updates: Commentary, Reviews, and News about Barnes and Noble.

News and Updates: E-reader's, Barnes and Noble, etc.

Vindication of the Rights of Paper Book Lovers - by Irene Peinhopf

The Great Blogger Crossover a Other News and Updates

The Odyssey of Andrew Wylie - Expanded.

News from the Front Lines of "E-reader Wars" and other exciting news!

News and Updates: Barnes and Noble, Borders, Kobo, QUE Reader, and more!

Great website for Digital Comics

News and Updates: Barnes and Noble for Sale, Mini Ipads, and Andrew Wylie

Comic Con Recap 2: Digital Piracy

Some Cool Links and Pandigitial Novel Reviewed by my Mom!

Kindle 3 and other Publishing News!

Comic Con Recap 1

Comic Con

Update

Thoughts on The Kobo and Borders

News and Notes

Updated Kindle DX and Kobo Reviews

John Updike Essay - Historiography

Even More Wonderful Book News

E-Reader News

Stuff

New Stuff

More Links

News and Updates

The Future of Book Stores

Articles and Links

Goals and Objectives