Perhaps not too far off. It would not surprise me to see books as just another form of streaming content downloaded from your cable provider to a device in your home.
(By: daniela bo)
168 notes
reblogged via 
ebook Porn
"The new electronic interdependence recreates the world in the image of a global village."
- Marshall McLuhan, "Gutenberg Galaxy", 1962
"Books were only one type of receptacle where we started a lot of things we were afraid we might forget. There is nothing magical about them at all. The magic is only with what books say, how they stiched the patches of the universe together into one garment."
- Ray Bradbury, "Fahrenheit 451", 1951
- Marshall McLuhan, "Gutenberg Galaxy", 1962
"Books were only one type of receptacle where we started a lot of things we were afraid we might forget. There is nothing magical about them at all. The magic is only with what books say, how they stiched the patches of the universe together into one garment."
- Ray Bradbury, "Fahrenheit 451", 1951
Saturday, May 26
168 notes
~
Without Steve Jobs' vision to distract us are we now noticing the cracks in the iPad? →
Without Steve Jobs’ powers to bend reality and focus our attention on the future the way a magician focuses our attention on a distracting hand are we now beginning to see the cracks in the iPad? Jobs promised us us a revolutionary future of mobility and productivity but now we are starting to notice the limitations of no flash, clunky if not down right annoying App store, no memory card slot, minimal operating system, a rudimentary browser, an ebookstore struggling to compete with Barnes & Noble… Now that Steve Jobs is not distracting us with his vision we are focused on our daily reality and we realize we don’t want a bigger iPhone, we want a smaller computer. Apps are not the internet, iTunes is not an operating system, screen resolution alone is not why we buy a computer. A lot is riding on how good a magician Tim Cook is.
1 note
Thursday, May 24
What’s the deal with 50 Shades of Grey hype?
With all this talk about how revolutionary 50 Shades of Grey is you would think this is the first erotic book women bought. When I was a bookseller (lets just say a long time ago) the most frequent question I was asked was, “Do you sell books by that author Anonymous?” Sure you can download a book and no one will know what the book is but Grove Press was making erotica that women could buy in the late 70s early 80s quite effectively. You could walk into any mall in America, go into a Waldenbooks and purchase a paperback with the picture of a lovely Victorian woman on the cover and walk out no one the wiser.
Of course there is Eric Jong’s Fear of Flying, The Story of O, Anais Nin’s Delta of Venus, White Palace, 9 1/2 Weeks, The Ages of Lulu… hell, even Nancy Friday. It seems every few years men remember that women read too.
All of the books pictured here are available on the Kindle by the way…
1 note
Wednesday, May 9
What happens when you give Kindles to kids in Ghana? →
Nonprofit Worldreader gives Kindles to students in sub-Saharan Africa (and is working on a reading app for mobile phones). The organization just published the results of iREAD, its year-long pilot program in Ghana, and many of the findings are promising: Primary school students with access to e-readers showed significant improvement in reading skills and in time spent reading, and the program is cost-effective. The theft rate was “near-zero,” but nearly half the e-readers broke… [Full Article]
Monday, May 7
Amazon's Bold Move to Content Creation →
Amazon’s advantage has been price and convenience. For $0.99 I will try a book. If I don’t like it no harm is done and I move on. The problem Amazon faces is television and film is no matter how cheap the cost to the consumer if a TV show is bad the audience can smell it and they leave in droves.
A book is a single unit produced for relatively little but a TV series is a major upfront investment. If the first episode bores viewers you can’t lower the price to lure them back. Amazon is built on traffic and volume. Quality does not follow the normal laws of goods and commerce. Quality is expensive. Some of our greatest works of literature are our least read. Our best painters died penniless. Quality television is synonymous with “small but loyal audience”. Amazon is fueled by data mining and trend analysis. Quality Content tends to ignore convention.
Superb device maker Apple found that creating and online retail store was not so easy. When you own the market like with the iPod people forgive a clunky interface like iTunes. Superb retailer Amazon may soon find content creation similarly difficult.
It will be interesting to see how the Big Six react. As content experts, publishers have the best track record so far. Pottermore looks to do $60 million this year. Content powerhouse Disney looks to have the highest grossing film of all time with the Avengers and that is without including merchandising or comic book sales.
It is beginning to look like content is king after all.
~
E-Books Drive Revenue Growth for Children’s, Young Adult and Religious Categories →
Children’s and religious e-books continued their rise. Children’s and young adult e-book revenues were up to $22.4 million from $8 million in February 2011, a 177.8% increase. Religious e-books were up to $7.6 million from $5.1 million, a 49.2% increase.
Wednesday, April 11
“ Today the Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against Macmillan’s US trade publishing operation, charging us with collusion in the implementation of the agency model for e-book pricing. The charge is civil, not criminal. Let me start by saying that Macmillan did not act illegally. Macmillan did not collude.
We have been in discussions with the Department of Justice for months. It is always better if possible to settle these matters before a case is brought. The costs of continuing—in time, distraction, and expense— are truly daunting.
But the terms the DOJ demanded were too onerous. After careful consideration, we came to the conclusion that the terms could have allowed Amazon to recover the monopoly position it had been building before our switch to the agency model. We also felt the settlement the DOJ wanted to impose would have a very negative and long term impact on those who sell books for a living, from the largest chain stores to the smallest independents.
When Macmillan changed to the agency model we did so knowing we would make less money on our e book business. We made the change to support an open and competitive market for the future, and it worked. We still believe in that future and we still believe the agency model is the only way to get there.
It is also hard to settle a lawsuit when you know you have done no wrong. The government’s charge is that Macmillan’s CEO colluded with other CEO’s in changing to the agency model. I am Macmillan’s CEO and I made the decision to move Macmillan to the agency model. After days of thought and worry, I made the decision on January 22nd, 2010 a little after 4:00 AM, on an exercise bike in my basement. It remains the loneliest decision I have ever made, and I see no reason to go back on it now.
Other publishers have chosen to settle. That is their decision to make. We have decided to fight this in court. Because others have settled, there may well be a preponderance of references to Macmillan, and to me personally, in the Justice Department’s papers – often without regard to context. So be it.
I hope you will agree with our stance, and with Scott Turow, the president of the Author’s Guild, who stated, “The irony of this bites hard: our government may be on the verge of killing real competition in order to save the appearance of competition. This would be tragic for all of us who value books and the culture they support.”
Since we are now in litigation, I may not be able to comment much going forward. We remain dedicated to finding the best long term outcome for the book business, for Macmillan and for the work you have entrusted to our care.
We have been in discussions with the Department of Justice for months. It is always better if possible to settle these matters before a case is brought. The costs of continuing—in time, distraction, and expense— are truly daunting.
But the terms the DOJ demanded were too onerous. After careful consideration, we came to the conclusion that the terms could have allowed Amazon to recover the monopoly position it had been building before our switch to the agency model. We also felt the settlement the DOJ wanted to impose would have a very negative and long term impact on those who sell books for a living, from the largest chain stores to the smallest independents.
When Macmillan changed to the agency model we did so knowing we would make less money on our e book business. We made the change to support an open and competitive market for the future, and it worked. We still believe in that future and we still believe the agency model is the only way to get there.
It is also hard to settle a lawsuit when you know you have done no wrong. The government’s charge is that Macmillan’s CEO colluded with other CEO’s in changing to the agency model. I am Macmillan’s CEO and I made the decision to move Macmillan to the agency model. After days of thought and worry, I made the decision on January 22nd, 2010 a little after 4:00 AM, on an exercise bike in my basement. It remains the loneliest decision I have ever made, and I see no reason to go back on it now.
Other publishers have chosen to settle. That is their decision to make. We have decided to fight this in court. Because others have settled, there may well be a preponderance of references to Macmillan, and to me personally, in the Justice Department’s papers – often without regard to context. So be it.
I hope you will agree with our stance, and with Scott Turow, the president of the Author’s Guild, who stated, “The irony of this bites hard: our government may be on the verge of killing real competition in order to save the appearance of competition. This would be tragic for all of us who value books and the culture they support.”
Since we are now in litigation, I may not be able to comment much going forward. We remain dedicated to finding the best long term outcome for the book business, for Macmillan and for the work you have entrusted to our care.
— John Sargent, CEO, Macmillan Publishing on being sued by the US Department of Justice
3 notes
Sunday, April 8
Change is hard but the challenge thrown down from digital is not to lament what is lost but rise to the challenge of what is now possible. Chip Kidd is too good of a book designer to not see this and ultimately succumb to the lure of of a new continent. Audio, video, image transitions, buttons, thumbnail to full screen, interactive fonts, all these things are among new resources to be mined from digital books.
Chip Kidd mourns what is lost in this Ted Talk but it is worth watching for his examples of solving complex design issues with simplicity and truth. Digital books do not preclude this, you just need to learn the new language of the natives.
Yay! Calling all book fetishists. The best articulation of what we concede in the move from print to digital I’ve heard to date. Also, Chip Kidd is my new favorite person.
2 notes
reblogged via 
Friday, April 6
~
Posts that have made me click the 
button
-
-
Travel Posters for Lazy People
-
Books are magical (by nikynator1993)
