Sony Shuts it's eBook Store. And that means...?

In the wild, wild west of publishing e-books to electronic devices, Sony is packing up their e-book bags and leaving town.

As announced on February 6, 2014 and reported by Dianna Dilworth at GalleyCat,

"Sony, one of the early players in the eBook business, has closed its eBook store The Reader Store. The company did not explain why it shut down, but despite being early to the scene, Sony has been lagged behind Amazon and others in device innovations and eBook sales penetration.
 All Sony client accounts will be transferred to Kobo, the Canadian-based eBook store that is owned by the Japanese commerce giant Rakuten. All accounts will transfer to Kobo in March."

Sony's upbeat press release about closing their e-book store.

For people reading on their Sony Reader™, Xperia® tablet or smartphone, it's cool that their e-libraries will still exist, but there's some nervousness (I'm seeing the tweets) about what this means in the larger sense.

What about the Nook? (That's Barnes and Noble's e-book reader.)

Are we seeing a replay of 8-track versus cassette, just in a wider field? (Okay, now you all know I grew up in the 80s! And for those of you younger than that, that's what music was on after vinyl records, before CDs, waaaay before MP3 players and digital files.)

Or is there an intrinsic uncertainty to buying an e-book, since it's ephemeral and not an object? In which case, much of what's online is ephemeral, too - including this blog post!

Here's one of those things we talk about in Los Angeles: Earthquakes are a risk we all know about, even if it's usually in the back of our minds. But, let's say you're buying a condo - it's a 20 story building, and you're buying a really nice place on the 15th floor. Congratulations - it's awesome, except...
 IF there's an earthquake and
 IF the building is red-flagged (yeah, there's even a term for it when a building needs to be demolished and taken down for safety) and
 IF that building doesn't have earthquake insurance (and some buildings vote to not have it) Then, um, where do you live?
What you now own is, essentially, a slice of sky, 150 feet up in the air above the plot of land where the building used to be.
Do you have money to rebuild? Is there earthquake insurance? What's your backup plan? 

Of course, it would be a public relations disaster to let an e-book reader format fail and have all those customers lose their e-libraries, and Sony does seem to be taking care of things. Borders, when they went out of business, had their e-readers get covered by Kobo as well. And maybe the threat of that bad P.R. (and a posse of unhappy customers) is ultimately our insurance.

What do you think?

Between the cowboys and the earthquakes, that's a lot of metaphors. It's an interesting time, out here on the digital frontier. Isn't it?

Illustrate and Write On!
Lee

Have You Heard Of The Independent E-Book Stores?

Disclaimer: The following history of book selling in physical stores is super-simplified to share my thought process.

In the "golden age" of Independent Book Stores, that's where you went to buy books.

Then Barnes & Noble and Borders kind of took over the selling of books, and then Amazon took over from them.

Independent bookstores still exist, though they're fewer in number. And they still serve an important function - curating selections is becoming more and more crucial as self-published work ups the amount of books available.

However you look at it, things have changed dramatically.

In the much newer realm of e-bookstores, We've pretty much started with the big platforms: iBooks, Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

And now it looks like indie e-bookstores are the next evolution. A recent post at Cassandra Daily highlighted these three Indie E-Bookstores:


Libiro: Fantasy author/self-publishing consultant Ben Galley and designer Teague Fullick want to help all writers get their books on the digital bookstore shelves, not just those with the backing of big publishing houses. Not only offering underdogs a better shot at exposure, Libiro also offers an 80% royalty as standard.

Tomely: New Australian e-book store Tomely provides independent authors and small presses with a DRM-free distribution platform. Tomely sees itself as sort of the Etsy of digital books, and all their titles can be sent to social reading tool Readmill in just one click, especially appealing to readers who prefer to digest their books in groups.

Kobo: When Kobo’s former primary retail partner, Borders, shuttered in 2011, the Canadian e-reader company was forced to change strategy, focusing on forging partnerships with independent booksellers. They see themselves as "the true bookworm’s e-reader." Users of the Kobo eReader, Kobo Arc tablet, or the Kobo eReading app can opt to purchase titles from their favorite local bookstores through the Kobo eBookstore. Among the long list of participating shops are Book Soup (West Hollywood, LA), Greenlight Bookstore (Brooklyn), and City Lit Books (Chicago).

It will be fascinating to see what happens in the future with indie e-bookstores and e-book sales.

Illustrate and Write On,
Lee

Amazon: "Would you like the e-book with that?"

I remember burning hundreds of CDs to get the songs I already owned in one format into my now-digital system, because I didn't want to buy (at full price) all those albums again.  But if a music retailer had offered a good deal on simply downloading the albums, they would have made money on it.  And I would have saved all that time.

So in publishing, what if when you bought a physical copy of a book, you could get the e-book at a big discount, maybe even for free?

What if they offered $2.99 or less e-book versions of all the new hard-copy books you've purchased in the last 18 years?

Well, it's happening.  Amazon has announced their Kindle Matchbook, scheduled to launch in October 2013.  As Christopher Shultz reports for litreactor,

Now, mind you, this doesn't cover all book purchases, as Amazon has partnered with only a select few, unnamed publishers. That being said, some 10,000 titles will be available in October, including works from Ray Bradbury, Michael Crichton, Jodi Picoult, Neil Gaiman and Neal Stephenson, amongst others.

What does it mean for publishers?  For indie bookstores?  For readers?  And for us authors and illustrators?  We'll all be watching how this plays out, but it's another interesting development as our industry moves into the future.

Illustrate and Write On,
Lee

Short Story and Novella-length E-books as "bridges" between novels, and as a way to introduce readers to an author's world

This new approach, as reported in the Wall Street Journal (and covered in Publisher's Lunch last week), is worth noting:

In a sign of how digital technology is influencing traditional book publishing, Ballantine Books and Harlequin Teen each plan to issue short standalone digital works intended to serve as "bridges" to coming novels.

 On June 1, Toronto-based Harlequin Enterprises, a unit of media company Torstar Corp... intends to give away e-book copies of Julie Kagawa's "Winter's Passage." The 15,000-word novella will serve as a link between Ms. Kagawa's February debut novel, "The Iron King," and her second teen novel, "The Iron Daughter," which goes on sale July 27.

"The purpose is to keep her audience interested while building their excitement for the next book," said Malle Vallik, director of digital content for Harlequin Enterprises. Harlequin plans to offer "Winter's Passage" at $2.99, beginning in late August.

Separately, Ballantine Books, (an imprint of Bertelsmann AG's Random House Inc.) plans a September publishing date for a 6,000 word digital short story, "The Balkan Escape," priced at $1.99, from thriller writer Steve Berry.

The idea is that

"...it is a literary appetizer, inexpensive enough to attract potential readers who might otherwise not be willing to buy a new novel from an author whose works they haven't yet read, said Mr. Berry."

"Realistically, it would be hard to get something like this in print," said Matt Schwartz, vice president of digital marketing and strategy for the Random House Publishing Group. "But the e-book format is very flexible. What this does is offer an affordable entry point into Steve's world...It's the equivalent of buying a couple of songs online," he said. "You can read it in 30 minutes."

Fascinating!
 
Illustrate and Write On,
Lee

E-Books in Libraries: The Final Major US Publisher Gets On Board

This recent op-ed in the New York Times by Anthony W. Marx, the President of the New York Public Library, trumpeted that with Hachette Book Group (which includes Little, Brown) announcing it will (as of May 8, 2013) offer e-books of its titles to libraries, the future of being able to get e-books from libraries seems more-or-less assured:

"This is a big step, as it represents, for the first time, a consensus among the Big Six, at least in principle, that their e-books should be made available to library users."

Anthony cites some remarkable statistics (did you know that circulation since 2008 in New York's neighborhood library branches has risen 44%?  Or that e-book readership in NY rose 168% from 2011 to 2012?)

As Anthony says, "Many issue still need to be sorted out" in terms of prices, terms of licenses and which e-books are part of the inventory libraries can get, but it's an upbeat assessment, stressing that the challenge to keep in mind is:

"to ensure that the information revolution provides more, not less, access for the public"

It's well worth reading.  

E-books in libraries.  It's the future.  And it's happening now.

Illustrate and Write On,
Lee

More News About E-publishing your out of print titles...

This month, Sarah Weinman in Publisher's Lunch reported this single line:

"Argo Navis Author Services has signed the Arcadia Literary Agency, Donald Maass Literary Agency, and Harvey Klinger as clients."

What's worth noting is that Argo Navis is an e-publishing service "designed for professional authors acting as publishers, who control the e-book rights to their reverted or not-in-print works" and that authors cannot sign up themselves.  Their AGENTS have to be signed up before they can have their works included.  That "ensures that the service is focused on professionals rather than self-published authors."

By making literary agents central to their business model, and ensuring their e-books are vetted by the structures of traditional publishing, this announcement gives us one view of how the future of e-publishing is shaping up.

Fascinating!

Illustrate and Write On,
Lee

The USA Justice Department Sues Apple and 5 Publishers over E-Book Pricing

This story is very much in the news.  As the article by Julie Bosman in the New York Times put it:

The Justice Department jumped directly into the fight over the future of digital books on Wednesday — and Amazon came out the winner.

There are lots of reports about this development, how three publishers have settled, what the other two are saying, and what this might mean for e-book pricing.   Among them, you might read:


Justice Dept. Sues Apple and Publishers Over E-Book Pricing; 3 Publishers Settle (New York Times, April 12, 2012)

Cut in E-Book Pricing By Amazon Is Set To Shake Rivals (New York Times, April 12, 2012)

U.S. Alleges E-Book Scheme, Lawsuit Says Apple, Publishers Colluded to Raise Prices; Three Will Settle (Wall Street Journal, April 11, 2012)

Apple, Hachette, HarperCollins, Macmillan, Simon & Schuster: DOJ Sues Apple & Publishers (MediaBistro GalleyCat, April 11, 2012)

Justice Department sues Apple, publishers over e-book prices (Washington Post, April 11, 2012)

And Publisher's Marketplace, in their Publishers Lunch newsletter, reports that:

"...the European Commission's parallel investigation of agency ebook price may be close to a settlement among most of the parties involved as well."

Illustrate and Write On,
Lee

Business: E-books and Libraries - what's the vision?

One of the shakeups happening as our industry continues to move into the future is the controversy over exactly how downloading ebooks to your tablet should work... when you're not buying it, but rather getting it as a loan from your public library.

As reported in Publishers Lunch, as of February 10, 2012, Penguin

"will no longer offer additional copies of ebooks and audiobooks for purchase via Overdrive" and is severing their ongoing relationship with the vendor. 

Penguin and other publishers are concerned about security (especially in terms of over-the-air delivery to tablets like the kindle).

Authors want to make sure that they're fairly compensated - a library can loan out a physical book to only one patron at a time, and only so many times before they need to buy a new copy.  But a digital copy could be loaned out to multiple patrons simultaneously - and because it's digital, there's no wear-and-tear.

And library patrons (Readers!) want to be able to get e-books from their libraries.

In Australia, they have a system called "Public Lending Right"

Public Lending Right (PLR) and Educational Lending Right (ELR) are Australian Government cultural programs which make payments to eligible Australian creators and publishers in recognition that income is lost through the free multiple use of their books in public and educational lending libraries. PLR and ELR also support the enrichment of Australian culture by encouraging the growth and development of Australian writing.

They have that system in Britain, too, where authors get about six pence per library loan.  (In U.S.A. currency, that would be about nine cents.)

One possible path forward for publishers in the U.S.A.?

Following productive discussions between the ALA leadership and executives from Penguin, Macmillan, Random House, Simon & Schuster, and Perseus, there is some talk about at least one pathway to what some believe is an appropriate model for now: lending ebooks to patrons from within library branches, the same way physical media is lent, rather than lending ebooks online. 

Illustrate and Write On,
Lee

The MeeGenius contest - have you voted for your favorite text for a children's e-book?

In yet another example of innovative ways to "break in" to Children's Publishing, specifically e-books for children, check out the MeeGenius Author Challenge 2011!

The chance to enter a story has passed for this year, and now it's time to vote for your favorites (from now until December 18, 2011.)  And every vote counts, as the number one book as of writing this post ("The Treehouse in Your Sock Drawer" by Nicholas Wilmoth) is ahead by only 119 votes.

Here's details on how the contest works.

Kudos to Heather Harris-Brady, a SCBWI member in Michigan, USA, who contacted me and asked if I could let our readers know about the contest, because there might be other SCBWI members hoping for people to read, love and vote for their stories as well.  That's how to appropriately self-promote and use all these social media tools.  And that's why I chose Heather's story, "The Berry Jam," for the screen shot above.  Oh, and that link to her story.

And if you've got a story in the running, add a link to your story's MeeGenius page here in comments.

Good luck to our SCBWI competitors!

Illustrate and Write On,
Lee

In the News This Week

Fridays on the SCBWI blog, I share snippets of and links to some of the publishing/media-related news I've read during the last week that I found interesting, helpful, and/or fun. Click titles to get to the full articles.

This week's news includes two in-case-you-live-under-a-rock stories---one on Amazon's removal of a pedophile guide (they listened to the Twitter uproar), and another on a career shift for agent Nathan Bransford. Also a few best books lists, ebook in New York Times, NYT on interactive books (minus the E), a new publisher at Scholastic, two ebook devices aimed at kids, and more. Also a count/counterpoint pieces on NaNoWriMo--which are slightly over a week old, but I gave you no news last week during my vacation, so enjoy them now, and keep at it, NaNo-ers!


'Pedophile's Guide' Removed from Amazon (GalleyCat)

The Pedophile’s Guide to Love and Pleasure, a controversial title that generated boycott threats on Amazon yesterday, has been removed. The old link now opens the image embedded above. The Today Show covered the story this morning. The author, Phillip R Greaves 2nd, spoke to reporters during the segment, adding: "Everytime you see them on television, they're either rapists or kidnappers. It's not accurate of that particular sexuality." BNet and TechCrunch have both written about the removal.

PW's Best Children's Books 2010 (PW)
Shark vs. Train
Chris Barton, illus. by Tom Lichtenheld (Little, Brown)
This is one of those elementally brilliant ideas that evokes a "Why didn't I think of that?" response. By pitting a cartoon train and shark against each other in a series of increasingly ludicrous challenges (the train's heft is a liability in a hot air balloon race, but very effective on a seesaw), Barton and Lichtenheld tap into kids' innate ability to turn anything, anything into a competition.

Best Illustrated Children’s Books of 2010 (NYT)

Annually since 1952, the Book Review has asked a panel of judges to select 10 winners from among the several thousand children’s books published during the year. The judges this time around were Robert Sabuda, a co-creator of the best-selling “Encyclopedia Prehistorica” series and twice the recipient of a Times Best Illustrated award; Elizabeth Bird, a children’s librarian with the New York Public Library, whose first picture book, “Giant Dance Party,” is due out next year; and David Barringer, a novelist and designer who is the author of “There’s Nothing Funny About Design.” —The Editors

Interactive Books (‘E’ Not Included) (NYT)
Years ago, I was a supporter of a new literary movement, one that uprooted the traditional tenets of narrative in modern fiction: Choose Your Own Adventure. The books in that series, which first appeared in 1979, did so much more than simply tell a tale: by offering the reader choices at critical junctures, each one gave a rapt fourth grader like me the opportunity to shape the story. (If you decide to use turbo boost, turn to Page 48. If you decide to use shields, turn to Page 50.)

Benton Named Scholastic Trade Publisher (PW)
Lori Benton, whose career in children’s publishing includes a long run at Harcourt’s children’s division where she rose to v-p and publisher, has been named v-p and publisher for the Scholastic Trade Publishing division. In her new role, which begins January 3, Benton will oversee direction of the publishing program for all imprints. She succeeds Suzanne Murphy, who moved to Disney Publishing in June, and will report to Ellie Berger, president of Scholastic Trade Publishing.

Public Libraries by Design: Creating teen-friendly spaces with a gaming area (SLJ)
Library design and services frequently include welcoming spaces for teens. Why should a designated place for teens be considered? According to Kimberly Bolan, author of Teen Spaces: The Step-by-Step Library Makeover (American Library Association, 2009), it builds positive, safe environments for studying, socializing, and leisure activities; encourages community involvement and library appreciation; expands the library’s customer base; and is an effective way to market the library and draw teens to other services the library offers.

Social Books Hopes to Make E-Reading Communal (NYT)
Outside of a book club, reading a book is a pretty solitary affair. Two entrepreneurs, Jason Johnson and Jason Illian, are trying to change that with a new mobile application called Social Books. "Short-form content on the Web is very interactive, very dynamic," Mr. Johnson said. “You can see which of your friends read the same article and what they thought of it. It made us ask, 'Can this be applied to long-form content? Can we take the advent of social media and apply it to the way we read books on tablets?'"

E-Books to Join The New York Times Best-Seller List – NYTimes.com (WIRED)
he New York Times will begin reporting the best selling e-books in new fiction and non-fiction lists early next year, the newspaper reports. The Times has published best-seller lists since 1935 and they have been a significant driver of book sales for decades. Bricks-and-mortar stores post the list and, space permitting, section off these titles outside the fiction and non-fictions aisles as close to the cash registers as is humanly possible. The same has become true with advent of e-book stores, where lists and search are key entry points, and browsing is somewhat more problematic. So expect these lists to be a boon to e-book merchants on day one.
 
eBook Sales To Grow To $2.8 Billion In 2015 (eBook Newser)
eBook sales in the U.S. will grow from just less than $1 billion in 2010 to more than $2.8 billion in 2015, according to a new report from Forrester Research. The study found that the digital publishing category has more than doubled from 3.7 million users in the US at year-end 2009 to more than 10.3 million a year later.

Barnes & Noble Pushing Nook Color To Kids In Test Stores (eBook Newswer)
Looking to reach families, Barnes & Noble is expanding the Toys & Games departments in its stores nationwide and is testing new children’s play spaces in five test stores. The playrooms will be a great gateway drug to get kids hooked on the upcoming Nook Color, as the playrooms will be stocked with the devices.

Fable maker to target youth e-book market (Boston Globe)

Amazon.com is making a fortune selling electronic books, presumably to adults. Now, Concord start-up company Isabella Products Inc. and Boston publisher Houghton Mifflin Harcourt are planning to cash in on an untapped market: e-books for children. Next summer, Isabella will introduce the Fable, a combination tablet computer and e-book reader aimed at children. Unlike the black-and-white screen found on Amazon.com's popular Kindle e-reader, the Fable will feature a full-color, 7-inch touchscreen that can display the colorful illustrations found in most children’s titles.

Nathan Bransford Leaves Curtis Brown & Joins CNET (GalleyCat)
Curtis Brown agent Nathan Bransford told his online community today that he will no longer be a literary agent. He explained in a post: “I am leaving the world of publishing to work at the tech news/review site CNET, where I will be helping to coordinate social media strategy.”

Better yet, DON'T write that novel (Salon)
For me, the end of October is always slightly tinged with dread -- provoked not by Halloween spooks, not even by election season, but by the advent of something called NaNoWriMo. If those syllables are nothing but babble to you, then I salute you. They stand for National Novel Writing Month.

12 reasons to ignore the naysayers: Do NaNoWriMo (LAT)
If you want to write a novel in 30 days, don't let anyone stop you. Not even Salon's Laura Miller. Miller, who I usually find thoughtful and sweet, has written an anti-NaNoWriMo column -- "Better yet, DON'T write that novel" -- that is at best wrongheaded, and at worst, smallhearted. Miller would lay the blame for too many writers -- and not enough readers -- at the foot of NaNoWriMo, the project that challenges would-be authors to write a 50,000-word novel during the month of November.