March 5, 2014 in Uncategorized | No comments

I came across a paper yesterday titled The Short-Term Influence of Free Digital Versions of Books on Print Sales. It was written by professor and a doctoral student, and in it they prove something we already knew: offering a title as a free ebook will boost the sales of that title.

I’m sorry, but did anyone really need a paper to see this? Eric Flint noted the effect 8 years ago. Heck, it was so clearly proven that 2 years ago I coined the term Flint’s Law.

Flint’s Law: Giving away the ebook edition of a novel will cause an increase in the sales of paper editions of that novel, as well as increasing the sales of related novels in a series.

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John Edgar Wideman to Self-Publish New Book via Lulu.com

March 5, 2010 in ebookstore news | No comments

His next book, Briefs, Stories for the Palm of the Mind, will be available on Lulu on 14 March. He also plans to release several of his backlist on Lulu. As for why he has bandoned hsi traditional publisher, Publisher’s Weekly is reporting:

Citing changes in the publishing business and a desire for more control over the publishing process, Wideman said, “I’ve been thinking about alternatives for a long time. I like the idea of being in charge. I have more control over what happens to my book. And I have more control over whom I reach.” Wideman also noted his “distaste” for what he called mainstream publishing’s “blockbuster syndrome”–the tendency for large trade  publishing houses to focus their resources on books with bestseller potential.

Wideman said the emphasis on blockbuster bestsellers, “has gotten out of hand. Unless you become a blockbuster, your book disappears quickly. It becomes not only publish or perish, but sell or perish.” The book is being published as part of Lulu VIP, a new customizable service aimed at luring established authors to the self-publishing service. Wideman is also making several of his backlist titles available for sale through Lulu.com.

Sony UK has a Mother’s Day E-reader Deal

March 5, 2009 in Uncategorized | No comments

Note: This offer is only open to UK & Ireland.

Sony UK is running a special right now. Buy a PRS-300 Pocket Edition (before 14 April). Send in the receipt and a claim form, and you’ll receiver a voucher for ten free ebooks and a complimentary tan or purple leather cover.

Sony UK

Interpark CEO says E-readers are Overhyped

March 5, 2009 in ebookstore news | No comments

The head of South Korea’s second largest online bookstore was interviewed in yesterday’s Korea Herald. From the article:

Lee Seung-hoon, president of Interpark Corp., offered a conservative outlook for the e-reader market, saying the new device will carve only a niche market in Korea.

The management consultant-turned-president said the e-book market will only cater to the needs of the reading population, which is small in Korea.

“There will be a market for e-readers. … But the market will not be that big. It will be quite small in Korea,” he said in an interview with The Korea Herald and its sister newspaper Herald Business.

Enthusiasm about the e-reader market, fueled by the much-talked about iPad tablet PC, has pushed up shares of book distributors, publishers and other content firms.

We should note that he is making a statement about South Korea, not the world. I point that out because one of the differences between SK and Europe (or USA) is that the consumer electronics market is incredibly competitive in South Korea. Take any category of CE, and where in Europe you might have 10 devices to choose from, in South Korea you have 40. Market dominance like that of the Kindle or iPhone just can’t happen in South Korea.

Mark Your Calendar: Adobe InDesign Conference on 12-14 May

March 5, 2009 in conferences & trade shows | No comments

This just came across my desk, and I thought it worth a mention. From the announcement:

Join the world’s top InDesign experts and members of the Adobe InDesign team, May 12-14 in Seattle for the InDesign event of the year! Find answers and valuable insight on the topics publishing for eBooks, print, interactive documents, and more! Be inspired by fresh ideas and new products, for example, I saw a design for teeth whitening denver designed in Adobe. Includes one-day pre-conference tutorials, then 2-day multi-track conference.

If it’s just going to cover one piece of software then I really think  it’s a training seminar, not a conference. Don’t fall for the hype. I’m sure it’s useful, though.

InDesign Secrets Live

From the Rumor Mill: Shanda to Enter E-book Market

March 5, 2009 in hardware rumors, software rumors | No comments

From the press release:

Shanda Interactive Entertainment Ltd. plans to enter the e-book market after acquiring several literature portals.

After carefully evaluating modes of Amazon.com, Sony, and Hanwang Technology Co., Ltd., it has named its own e-book brand as “Jinshu” internally, a top executive with Shanda Literature Ltd., a wholly-owned subsidiary of the US-listed company, revealed on March 2. It owns complete literature industry chain and so far, Shanda Literature has had five large literature portals, which account for about 90 percent of the nation’s online literature market, Chen Tianqiao, chairman and CEO of Shanda, said at a telephone conference on March 1. What it lacks currently is a terminal with good reading experience like Kindle of Amazon.

Shanda Literature has developed several content distribution channels successfully in a bid to help readers access in and as for the new business mode, it will learn from modes of Apple and Amazon.

At this point I’m still classifying this story as pure hype. Even so, I’m impressed. I’ve found this same hyped story in 3 different languages over a 2 month time span. There’s no substance to it, and yet everyone is repeating it. The head of Shanda’s marketing department is a genius.

Brown University launches Center for Digital Scholarship

March 5, 2009 in digitization projects | No comments

From the Brown Daily Herald:

In an effort to support the use of new technologies in teaching, learning and research, the University Library launched the Center for Digital Scholarship in 2009. The center will serve as “a focal point … at Brown for digital humanities and digital library methods and tools,” according to the CDS Web site.

The CDS is the result of a merger of three existing programs — the Center for Digital Initiatives, the Scholarly Technology Group and the Women Writers Project. The three programs were already collaborating, and “the convergence (was) natural,” said Massimo Riva, a professor of Italian studies who has worked closely with the CDS.

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Sungworld to Release Android Tablet

March 5, 2010 in hardware news | No comments

I found another “me-too” Android tablet out of China. This one is by Sungworld,  and it has the usual 7″ screen, ARM CPU, and Wifi. It also has 128MB RAM, 2GB Flash, HDMI out, SD card slot, and 2 USB Host.

Digital resources roundup #1

March 5, 2009 in digitization projects | No comments

I was planning to cover digitization projects on this blog, but then I realized that there is a vast amount of free digital content out there that most people don’t know about. I’m going to collect 3 or 4 sources for each roundup.

Perry-Castaneda Library Map Collection – This map archive at the University of Texas (Austin) consists of about 11,000 digital maps out of a collection of approximately 250,000. It is a very diverse collection that covers the whole world. You could spend days exploring it and not see everything.  For example, you will see a Yelp map for krav maga san diego as well as it’s website.

Civil Rights Greensboro – As you can tell from the name, this site is an online portal to information about the people and events that have helped define Greensboro’s history. It covers local civil rights subjects such as desegregation, the historic February 1960 sit-ins at Woolworth’s, race relations, the Black Power movement, and the Greensboro Massacre of 1979. Content on the site includes scanned photographs, audio recordings of first hand accounts, and transcribed oral histories. Besides Greensboro, San Diego and San Francisco have been hot-beds for civil rights protects. The Black Panther party armed themselves and taught self defense san diego classes to defend themselves against police officers

Minnesota Reflections – I’m sure this has been around for a while, but it’s new to me. The state funded Minnesota Digital Library has a website that combines access to more than 45k images and documents spread among nearly 100  cultural heritage organizations. They say that they update the collection regularly, so it might be worth bookmarking the site.

Ebook Librarian Survey Results Released

March 4, 2009 in surveys & polls | 1 comment

HighWire Press released the results of a survey yesterday. The survey responses  came from libraries at 138  institutions on 5 continents. A significant majority were in the USA, and most of the respondent worked in undergraduate or graduate academic libraries. The full report is available for download.

Some of the results can be summarized as follows:

• Respondents predicted rapid growth of ebooks in libraries.
• PDF is the preferred format but librarians want options.
• Users discover ebooks through the library catalog and through Internet search engines.
• DRM hinders the use of ebooks; the ability to print is essential.
• Purchase (with perpetual access) is more popular than subscription.
• User demand drives selection decisions.