Kindle Lending Now Available

As promised, Amazon today rolled out it's ebook lending feature for the Kindle. You can now let your friends read Kindle ebooks that you've bought (and hopefully they'll share theirs, too). Not all titles are necessarily lendable, however: lending rights are decided by the publisher or rights holder rather than Amazon, so it will be interesting to see which titles are ultimately offered. But I imagine most of them will be, since the idea is to make ebooks as equitable with print editions as possible to smooth the transition to digital (and help promote it), particularly since word of mouth is the best marketing a publishing company can't buy. The Saga of Beowulf is lendable, so feel free to send it to your friends.

To find out if a book you own is lendable, or to lend it, look in Your Orders section under Manage Your Kindle where you'll see "Loan This Book" by titles for which the feature is enabled. At present, loans can only be managed through the website, and not from the Kindle itself (although you can, of course, reach the website via the clunky Kindle interface should you wish to do so). Hopefully this will change, and lending will be enabled via a link on the Kindle itself.

For more details on how the program works, follow this link to reach the Amazon help page. But meanwhile here's a general overview of how the program works, and it's essential caveats:

• Currently, Kindle book lending can only be initiated by customers residing in the United States, and only received by readers in countries where the rights to the title are available. Worldwide lending will likely be enabled for most geographic regions as soon as foreign rights are cleared.
• Recipients do not need to own a Kindle, but will be able to read the loaned book on any of the free Kindle reading apps that are available.
• Eligible Kindle books can be loaned once for a period of 14 days (this means once you loan a book to a friend, you will not be able to loan it to anyone else again, ever). This is a pretty big caveat. Initially I thought this meant once per recipient, but apparently they really do mean once. So choose your friends wisely.
• The recipient will have seven days to accept the loan before the 14 day loan period begins. During this time, the initial owner will not be able to read the book.
• While a book is on loan, the owner of the book will not be able to read it – just as if it were a print edition you had lent out to a friend. This means it could be as much as three weeks before it's "returned" if the recipient takes all seven days to accept the loan.
• 3 Days prior to a loan ending, the borrower will receive a courtesy email reminder about the upcoming loan expiration (so that they can hurry up and finish reading it). However, you can check the status of a loan at any time from the website.
• To return a book early, the borrower may simply delete the title (from the Manage Your Kindle page), after which it will reappear in the Archive section of the owner's Kindle.

For independents and self-pubbed authors distributing via Digital Text Platform, here are a few more important points to note:

• All DTP titles are lending-enabled by default, so if you want your title to be lendable you need do nothing.
• For titles with a 35% royalty option you may opt out of the lending program. To do so, simply deselect the "Kindle Book Lending" checkbox in the Rights & Pricing section.
• You may not opt out for any title that is available in another ebook lending program (such as for the Nook). Additionally, Amazon has the right to enable lending rights if they find this is the case.
• If you have chosen the 70% royalty option you are required to enable lending, per your contract agreement (which, by the way, was updated yesterday to include this without your even knowing it).
• You do not receive any royalties or notification for ebook loans, so don't ask.
• You can loan your own published books out just as any other titles you would own, and with the same stipulations (i.e. only once per title).
• If you opt out of lending for a title, any copies purchased prior to the opt out date (but presumably after the lending program began) are still eligible for lending. Once granted, lending rights cannot be taken away.
• Amazon, or course, the right to change any of these rules at any time they see fit.

Let me know what your thoughts are on this, as it's sure to stimulate debate. Already there are questions concerning why they chose to go with an opt-out policy rather than an opt-in clause (and if they legally have the right to do so - which of course they do, since by signing their distrubution agreement you say they can). Given that you can only loan a book out once, I don't really see that it's a big issue either way, but for those publishers who want to opt out, I imagine they'll be a lot of scrambling today, particularly if they have a lot of titles they need to change.

10,000 Views!

Just noticed the page counter has hit 10,000 views, so thanks to everyone for visiting, and especially those of you who've stuck with me awhile. Keep stopping by from time to time, as there's a lot more fun to come!

And here's a proactive Happy New Year to you all. Best wishes for the coming decade. And to all you striving writers: keep putting words on paper. There are millions of readers out there, so go find yours.

The Literary Underworld

Author Stephen Zimmer has posted up an interview on the Seventh Star Press blog with Literary Underworld founder and head functionary Elizabeth Donald. A successful author in her own right, Ms. Donald operates the unique collective known as the Literary Underworld, a promotional outreach program for independent and small-press authors which includes an online webstore and an ongoing run of convention circuit appearances.

The interview is both insightful and informative, revealing how the Literary Underworld began and what its primary aims and goals are, in addition to some candid and rather humorous commentary on the trials and tribulations of operating an online business while dashing madly about the country from one book fair to another - and writing a book or two in the meantime. It's a witty and engaging look into one author's efforts to succeed and thrive on her own terms, and maybe help some other struggling authors along the way.

Be sure to visit the Literary Underworld bookstore, where you can directly support independent authors such as Elizabeth and Stephen - and put a little gas in Elizabeth's Camry (or even help her get that van she so desires).

Novelled.com

Novelled.com is a new (forthcoming) site devoted to promoting the work of self-published authors, providing yet one more outlet for their works, with something of a unique twist. Authors upload their manuscripts in Word format, which is then converted into the three major ebook formats - PDF, ePub, and Mobi - and sold to the reader for a flat rate of $1.50 for all three, with no digital rights management applied. Royalties are paid out quarterly at 50% of the cover price, with no additional fees involved: accounts, uploading, conversion and hosting are all free of charge.

The idea seems to be to create a place where new authors may be discovered, and where, for a minimum investment, readers can explore new works which they might otherwise pass over. The site in currently in "phase one," with just the author upload features functioning. No "phase two" launch date has been given, but some additional insight (and an interesting discussion of the subject in the comments by the site owner) can be found at TeleRead.

Several provisos concerning author submissions must be mentioned. Firstly, due to its flat-rate pricing structure the site deals only in novel-length works (hence the name), although both non-fiction and short-story anthologies are allowed. Also, manuscripts must meet a professional level of quality as far as editing is concerned, and certain restrictions on content apply; any material not meeting these minimum requirements will not be posted.

Lastly, aside from a cover image, only text documents are allowed: no internal graphics or tables will be kept. This, I imagine, is purely for practical purposes, to avoid any of the many complications that arise from integrated graphics; and given the price structure, this is not wholly unreasonable. However, this essentially undermines any reason for including a "Travel Guides" category in the non-fiction section (which the site for some unknown reason chose to focus on in its promotion), as well as many other non-fiction subjects, such as how-to guides. But as the site's primary focus seems to be on novels, for authors whose work fits these constraints, Novelled.com might be a useful resource for finding readers, and for readers to find you.

2010 Reading List

This year I've tried to keep better track of what I've been reading than I have in the past. One of the projects I wasted time on this summer while taking a mental break was cataloging my book collection into a sortable database. The archive currently contains 1814 titles, but I have no real idea how many of them I've actually read. Like most rabid book buyers, I have a lot of books I've just never gotten around to reading (or finishing), for one reason or another - like most avid fans of reading, my budget of funds generally exceeds my budget of time. This is, of course, an ongoing dilemma of the human condition: more funds can always be gained, while more time cannot; and, regrettably, one must trade the latter in order to gain the former, while no matter how much of the former one spends, the quantity of the latter is inexorably fixed.


My Kindle Skin

The following list contains a more or less complete chronology of books read this year, in roughly the order I read them (I generally have more than one going at a time, depending on my mood). I say "more or less" because it does not include articles, snippets, or sections of larger works, such as the Norse mythology sections of Edith Hamilton's Mythology and Thomas Bulfinch's Age of Fable, both of which I re-read this year (along with several others) as background to my present study of the Ring matter. In addition, there are no specifically non-literary reference works included, such a number of Poser 8 and Photoshop CS4 reference manuals I've perused over the course of learning 3D rendering and digital image manipulation this year. Nor are any specifically reference titles included, or any of the vast amount of matter one tends to slog through on the internet each day.

Today we are a society awash in a veritable flow of words, coming at us at an ever-increasing speed and from every conceivable corner of our lives. Computer screens are now the common mode of communication, and the average modern homo sapiens has many forms, from televisions to computer monitors to mobile phones to tablets and dedicated reading devices. The vast majority of people in the Western world spend the better part of their day staring at one screen or another, and what is mainly on them - aside from purely graphic games and shows - is words. For as much as parents and teachers are heard lamenting ever louder our reliance on technology, we are of necessity an increasingly literate society, immersed in a virtual universe of words.

And so, without further ado, here is how I spent a large part of my year:

1. Wagner, Richard - The Ring of the Nibelung (1853/1876; tr. Robb, 1960) *
2. Radcliffe, Ann - The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794)
3. Lee, M. Owen - Wagner’s Ring: Turning the Sky Round (1990)
4. Moore, Christopher - Fool (2009)
5. Sandell, Lisa Ann - Song of the Sparrow (2007) *
6. Cooney, Caroline B. - Enter Three Witches (2007)
7. Patterson, James - Jester (2003)
8. Sturluson, Snorri - Edda (ca.1225; Everyman Edition, tr. Faulkes, 1987) *
9. Anonymous - The Elder Edda (ca.1270; of Saemund the Learned) (tr. Thorpe, 1866)
10. Anonymous - The Elder Edda (ca.1270; tr. Bellows, 1936)
11. Anonymous - The Poetic Edda (ca.1270; tr. Hollander, 1962) *
12. Cornwell, Bernard - The Last Kingdom (Saxon Chronicles I) (2004)
13. Cornwell, Bernard - The Pale Horseman (Saxon Chronicles II) (2006)
14. Cornwell, Bernard - Lords of the North (Saxon Chronicles III) (2007)
15. Cornwell, Bernard - Sword Song (Saxon Chronicles IV) (2008)
16. Darnton, John - The Darwin Conspiracy (2005)
17. Tolkien, J.R.R. The Legend of Sigurd & Gudrún (ca.1920-30; published 2009) *
18. Irvine, David - Wagner's Ring of the Nibelung & the Conditions of Ideal Manhood (1897)
19. Aldrich, Richard - A Guide to The Ring of the Nibelung (1905)
20. Anonymous - The Fall of the Nibelungs (ca.1200; Prose tr Armour 1897; ill Rackham 1910)
21. Anonymous - The Nibelungenlied (ca.1200; Poetic tr. Needler, 1904)
22. Anonymous - The Nibelungenlied (ca.1200; Prose tr. Shumway, 1909)
23. Anonymous - The Lay of the Nibelungs (ca.1200; Poetic tr. Horton, 1898)
24. Anonymous - Völsunga Saga (ca.1220; tr. Morris & Magnusson, 1888)
25. Anonymous - Völsunga Saga (ca.1220; tr. R.G. Finch, 1965)
26. Dippold, George Theodore - Richard Wagner's Poem ... Explained (1888)
27. Hall Brownell, Gertrude - The Wagnerian Romances (1907)
28. Kobbé, Gustav - How to Understand Wagner's Ring of the Nibelung (1895)
29. Wagner, Richard - The Nibelung’s Ring (1853/76, tr. Forman, 1877)
30. Wagner, Richard - The Ring of the Nibelung (1853/76, tr. Jameson, 1900)
31. Ward, William - A Study of the Inner Significance of Wagner’s Music-Drama (1889/1904)
32. Weston, Jessie L. - The Legends of the Wagner Drama: Studies in Mythology (1896)
33. Fortier, Anne - Juliet: A Novel (2010)
34. Follett, Ken - World Without End (2008)
35. Bryson, Bill - Shakespeare: The World As Stage (2007)
36. Hawking, Stephen - The Grand Design (2010)
37. Akin, Florence - Opera Stories from Wagner (1915)
38. Gernett, Richard - The Twilight of the Gods & Other Tales (1903)
39. Frost, William Henry - The Wagner Story Book (1894)
40. Guerber, H. A. - Stories of the Wagner Opera (1895)
41. Shaw, George Bernard - The Perfect Wagnerite (1898)
42. Morris, William - The Story of Sigurd & the Fall of the Nibelungs (1876)
43. Sprague, Martina - Norse Warfare: Unvconventional Battle Strategies of the Ancient Vikings (2007)

A few of these you'll note are listed more than once, which is not uncommon when reading in translation if you're truly studying the subject (I read ten translations of Beowulf as well as reading it in the original Old English for my research on The Saga of Beowulf). But I count them separately because I read them each in their entirety - often more than once - while compiling my "Comparative Study Editions" (see the Fantasy Castle Books reference page for more on this: you can download them there for FREE!).

The last two entries I am currently reading now, but will finish before the year is out, with perhaps another one or two begun. But doing the math, these alone equate to one book finished every 8.5 days, which isn't bad considering everything else I've been working on in my "free" time. What people mean by "spare time" is beyond me. I guess that must be when I sleep.

A further interesting note here is that of the 43 titles read, only 6 of these were in print editions (those marked with an asterisk) ...only 6 printed paper books read this entire year! And of those, Tolkien's new book is the only one I actually bought this year (in hardback format), while Sandell's was a library loan recommended by a friend; the others were picked up in used book stores over the years. The rest are all ebooks in one format or another - increasingly Kindle toward the end. Not that I haven't laid my digits on a lot more printed paper than that, but most of those are history books and other encyclopedic references, which is likely what print books will be relegated to in my library from this point forward. If I buy any more at all.

Digital Model Archive Stats

Today I completed the final install of all the 3D digital models I've acquired over the past year or so, a process which has taken far more time to accomplish than I had ever imagined. There has seriously got to be a better way to install these files than as executable programs, since that is not what they are, nor how they function: they're merely a collection of image files wrapped around a mathematical geometry, with some text files containing equations detailing their specific data properties. All Renderosity files, in fact, come as zipped archives, but DAZ sells there's as .exe's, which require an unnecessarily long install process. But to put this in a more vivid light, here are some staggering facts about the current status of my hard drive contents:

SIZE OF GEOMETRIES ARCHIVE:

• 29.4 GB, comprising 25,079 files in 3018 folders

SIZE OF TEXTURES ARCHIVE:

• 120 GB, comprising 156,613 files in 6139 folders

SIZE OF LIBRARIES ARCHIVE:

• 91.2 GB, comprising 655,970 files in 21,614 folder

TOTAL SIZE OF RUNTIME:

• 242 GB, comprising 841,488 files in 31,087 folders!

HOLY CRAP!!! That was a lot of work. This does not include the source files themselves (which are in another folder), just the installed content.

This morning I also bought (and installed) another model set, seen in the images here. This is Merlin Studios' brand new Saxon Settlement prop set, currently featured on the DAZ homepage, and out just in the nick of time for me to get my Viking mojo going. I've been looking for a good thatched hut and meadhall prop for the Midgard human habitations, and while I have some that will do, none are half as good as these. Merlin always does nice work (see my prior post on Digital Art 101 here for an example) and I'm using several of their swords and other medieval set props in this current project. I've pretty much bought everything they've put out, and I literally jumped on this one when I saw its blazing meadhall hearth fire leaping out at me this morning. Way to go Merlin!

NPR on eBooks

Red Nose Studio's 2008 NPR Calendar Image: Visionary

NPR's Talk of the Nation yesterday featured a segment on the rise of the ebook and how it's changing the face of publishing and bookselling. Follow the link to listen to the program or read the transcript, which is insightful and informational as usual. It provides a nice overview of where the industry stands at present, and how it got here, as well as what it all means for the reader. Of particular interest was their discussion of multimedia/interactive ebooks, and how they may - or may not - live side by side with print editions, as well as the reader's ability to access a greater range of books, instantly and from anywhere - one of the most significantly underestimated factors of the digital revolution (and the one that print book aficionados just can't seem to wrap their heads around).

On that note, Bloomberg's latest revised estimates show that Amazon will top 8 million Kindles sold this year rather than the five million previously reported (a 60% increase), up 233% over last year's 2.4 million Kindle sales. Consequently, Amazon's stock has climbed by 37% this year, showing that dedicated eReading devices can hold their own against the tablet incursion. However, Apple's iPad meanwhile sold 7.5 million units in just the six months from its April debut through September, with the holiday season still ahead. Estimates are for another 5-6 million sales for the final quarter of the year, bringing the total to roughly 13 million worldwide, with the release of Version 2.0 only months away.

Predictions are for a booming year in digital sales for 2011, with ebook shares on track to take over 20-25% of the market. Random House this week announced that ebook sales accounted for more than 50% of several of its biggest selling titles, showing the value of digital's instant-access delivery for both the publisher and the reader. Certainly print books will remain a factor for some time to come, but as with vinyl records and cassettes, they will become a small niche segment of the market - and much, much sooner than most people expect.

A Little Christmas Cheer

So I'm on holiday now, and I thought I'd start it off by putting together this little vignette just for fun before I get down to some serious business. The past months have been so hectic that I've barely had time to brush my teeth. Back to back to back fourteen hour work days leave little room for anything but sleep in between, and precious little of that it seems. Needless to say, I'm way off my writing schedule.

With the stray moments I manage to scrounge I've been struggling my way through a few fairly tepid Wagnerian rehashes just to cover the subject and keep my mind steeped in it, but until I began this Shaw treatise I hadn't found anything stimulating to wrap my brain around. But G.B. has got me well back into the groove, and I'm more excited than ever to put myself into it with gusto and see if I can meet the challenge. For all of Shaw's excesses and extremes (he was a proponent of eugenics and a defender of Stalin, to name just two), his social and political commentaries are as thought-provoking and insightful today and they were a hundred years ago. He is at times astoundingly profound, and at the same time fiercely witty. The Perfect Wagnerite is as much a joy to read for its piercing humor as for its poignant analysis of the human condition. Oh, yeah, and Wagner, too. I highly recommend it.

Anyway, it's back to the desktop for me this week, working on building more characters to populate the Ring world, and hopefully finishing up some rough drafts to accompany the opening volume. Creating the scenes and characters is taking considerable time, but once I have my cast and sets finalized things should begin to move along quite swiftly. In addition, I've been working up some concepts for the visual style I plan to use, and I've pretty much locked in what I want. Other than that it's just a lot of work on honing my skills at 3D rendering and digital art, and writing up rough drafts for each scene. I plan to read my Art of Poser & Photoshop book during the break, and take up Secrets of Poser Experts from where I left off some time back. So that should keep me busy for awhile, though I might try to get a little rest in, too.

Happy Solstice!

This year's Winter Solstice is marked by a rare confluence of astronomical events that has not happened for nearly four centuries - since 1638 - and will not occur again until 2094: a total lunar eclipse of a full moon that falls on the shortest day of the year - a virtual rebirth of the sun from the darkest depths of winter. This year's lunar festivities get underway around 10:30 p.m. Mountain Time, December 20th, peaking just after 1 a.m. on Tuesday the 21st, and will be visible throughout the Western hemisphere. Click on the chart to the right for more info, and to see where the eclipse will be visible. The darkness of a winter eclipse provides excellent opportunities for star gazing, and tend to be more colorful due to atmospheric ice crystals. Also make sure to check out the star cluster Messier 35 in the constellation Gemini, which will be visible just a few degrees above the eclipsed moon.

FutureBook 2010

Percentage of Respondents by Domain

The UK's FutureBook 2010 Digital Publishing Convention wrapped up a few weeks ago in London, and today the top results of its industry survey were posted (the full 30-page report is £57, even though all responses were provided online for free). The report provides some insight into current thinking on the digital transformation among industry insiders. With 2575 respondents - 64% of whom hail from the UK - the chart at left shows the breakdown by industry domain, with publishers making up the largest share at 46%, and agents the least, with just 2% responding. Booksellers and libraries together account for a full quarter of the data provided, while authors represent less than either of these alone, with just 9% (of whom I was one).

Percent That Sell in Digital Format

With that proviso, here are some of the more interesting facts that emerge. Firstly, the growing divide between publishers and traditional booksellers was made dramatically clear by this statistic: 85.3% of publishers have embraced the digital format, while just 36.7% of booksellers have done so. The obvious result of this is that publishers are forced to place more emphasis on online outlets and less on traditional retailers, much to the latter's detriment. This is simply a matter of distribution efficiency, and is one of the primary reasons for the recent success of ebooks: the cost of delivery and returns (not to mention storage of physical inventory) has always been the largest factor in the cost of print editions, and the subsequent success or failure of brick-and-mortar stores. This is one of the main reasons why Google was able to entice nearly every major trade to come on board their eBookstore in the end. Additionally, from the reader's perspective, instant delivery and virtually unlimited selection are significant factors in digital's ascendancy. The fact is that conservative trade publishers are finally beginning to see the advantages of selling a product they don't have to stock or ship, a factor Amazon discovered years ago, but brick-and-mortar stores have yet to deal with.



% of Respondents Who Buy eBooks

Here's a statistic which clearly highlights that disparity: in 2009 just 18% of industry insiders said they had purchased a book in digital format, while the figure this year jumped to 47%, a 161% increase within the industry itself. The equivalent numbers for those who said they had read an ebook are slightly less striking, but still revealing: 47.2% had at least read an ebook in 2009 while 79% had done so by 2010, a 67.3% increase. That's nearly 80% of book industry figures who have at least dabbled in digital this year. The importance of this cannot be overstated, as it points out how the print industry itself is embracing the digital revolution, a key factor in making this the watershed year for ebooks. Unless, and until, the industry itself accepts the change, that change is bound to be slow, and often painful. With the realization made, that transformation will be swift and conclusive.

With that said, here is what publishers and booksellers predict will occur in the coming years: overall the majority foresee ebooks making up at least 11-20% of the market in four years' time (it's already at 10%), with 29% of UK publishers and 26% of booksellers making this claim for only moderate growth. Curiously, 16% of US and 13% of UK publishers responding think there will be no further growth in digital at all, that we have reached the plateau, while a handful of lunatics clearly not in touch with the current trends think digital will fail altogether - most of these being traditional booksellers, with 20% of these predicting a digital decline in which ebooks lose significant market share in the next four years. This just goes to show you how oblivious some (soon to be unemployed) people can be.

Meanwhile, a full 25% of US publishers responding see ebooks dominating with more than a 50% market share, while 22% predict a 21-50% share (mind you, only 15% of the survey responses were from US publishers, so this is likely less conclusively representative of US industry views overall than the UK results, which, however, reflect a similar 23% for the 21-50% category). Interestingly, US responses were split fairly evenly among the upper ranges, while booksellers themselves were entirely unable to envision a future where digital comprised more than a 20% share. With an onslaught of new and improved reading devices poised to flood the market in the coming months (and a wealth of new e-readers on Christmas morning), I would hazard to say this is a tragically conservative mistake, and one which may catch the brick-and-mortars with their proverbial pants around their ankles. Here, ironically, the booksellers may be right in one thing: their own market share will dip into the single digits in the coming years.

[NOTE: don't ask me what the "Other" category is all about: with choices from 1% to >50% offered, "Other" can only mean "None" or "All" - neither of which is probable, and yet, perplexingly, 21% of booksellers chose this option. Go figure.]


Winners & Losers in the Digital Age

And here's what the result of all this fuss will be: traditional booksellers, libraries, and literary agents will be the foremost losers in the digital transition, with publishers, online retailers, authors and book buyers all coming out ahead. The obvious caveat in this is in the ability - or inability - of each of these to adapt to new conditions. Libraries, for example, while traditionally slow to change (due both to budgetary restrictions and overtly conservative leadership entrenched in long-outdated practices), are making some strides in creating new digital lending programs that at their best can enable and promote literacy among a whole new segment of the populace, such as the homebound and impoverished, or the millions who live in rural areas with no access to public or academic institutions. Implemented with intelligence and vision, libraries could in fact flourish in the digital age.

A second, more intriguing issue is brought out in this study, and that is the general shift in roles among the various constituents of the literary industry. Agents, for example, are rapidly becoming irrelevant and unnecessary middlemen as the gap between the author and the reader closes, with both the retailer and the authors themselves taking on many of the tasks formerly allotted to the agent, such as negotiating royalties and brokering contracts. With standardized agreements between authors of digital books and the online outlets who provide them to their readers, both the agent and the traditional publisher are rapidly becoming antiquated. You'll note that of the responses given in this final chart, the most certain - that is, the only ones in the 90+ percentile range - are that online retailers will win (including Amazon, Apple and Google) and traditional booksellers will lose. You can surmise for yourself which category Barnes & Noble and Borders fall into.

For some truly insightful analysis of the latest trends and future projections, read Peter Ginna's post over at Dr. Syntax yesterday titled Why We Should Get Ready for a Plunge in Print-Book Sales and Tim Spaulding's post at LibraryThing on Feedback Loops in eBook Success. Nancy Herther has also put up a fairly thorough evaluation of Google's newest venture, titled Google's eBookstore Takes eBooks to the Next Level.

Kindle for the Web vs. Google eBooks

When Google opened the doors of its new eBookstore on Monday, Amazon was quick to answer the call, announcing Tuesday that the "Kindle for the Web" book preview widget launched in late September would soon become a full-fledged web e-reader. The revamped version - due out "in the coming months" - will allow users to buy and read full editions of Kindle ebooks wherever there is an internet connected browser, with no app or installation needed.

As with the Kindle itself (and the various versions of its installed applications), the Web-based Kindle reader will sync user data between each device the reader uses. But while the Google eBooks version can do this, too, thus far the Google reader only stores the furthest page read, while Amazon's Kindle device, app, and soon browser too, all allow for syncing annotations, highlighting and bookmarks, as well as including a built-in dictionary, which for some odd reason Google lacks. That said, Google has clearly stated that the current edition of eBooks is a plain-vanilla version, and further enhancements are forthcoming.

What Google eBooks does offer - and every other reader lacks - is the ability to view the actual scanned pages of a book (if provided and allowed by the publisher, that is, as The Saga of Beowulf features). This is highly useful for older titles which lose much of their charm in the sterilized font format, such as graphic initial letters or custom fonts for titles and headers. In one instance I found several letters had converted incorrectly, or dropped altogether, and somehow not been caught; only when I switched to scanned view could I make sense of the text. This is something publishers in general really need to work on, with equal attention given to editing of digital editions, which at present are often treated as superfluous additions to the "real" book.

But the Google reader app is otherwise quite nice, with a sleek and clean design. While missing the aforementioned features, it does allow for resizing text and line spacing, changing between six different fonts, and even includes a white-on-black "night reading" setting, which I really liked. It functions smoothly, with animated page turns that emulate the feel of reading a real book, particularly on a hand-held device with a touch screen, where it works like iBooks at the flick of a finger. In addition, it features full color cover art and a linked table of contents which is easily accessed at any time. One drawback, however, is its lack of a horizontal/landscape view to allow for easier reading of larger text settings on smaller screens. Fortunately, I'm not so old as for this to be problematic yet (and a larger screen device is an easy enough solution).

Both web readers feature incentive programs for sites to host and sell their books, using widgets and/or ad-links. For Amazon this was an easy leap from its Associates program, while for Google, even with their industry leading search infrastructure in place, marketing and sales will take some time and tweaking on their part: their eBookstore is far less user-friendly than Amazon's, who have long since evolved a system which intuitively accommodates each customer. But it's an admirable beginning, and clearly one that Amazon is taking seriously, as well they should.

Survey Results

I'd like to thank the four people who took the time to respond to my survey. Unfortunately, it's not quite enough data to draw any real conclusions from: 2 Kindle users, and one each for Nook and iPad, who all pretty much read text-only ebooks exclusively. Nothing real earth-shattering there.

However, here's something a bit more interesting. Publishers Weekly ran a similar poll this week, asking readers which eBookstore they use to purchase their digital content. In a way this is what I was trying to get at in the end, although I'm also curious about the potential of illustrated graphics in the digital format.

What the PW poll found was that - not surprisingly - Amazon's Kindle Store claimed the largest share, with 36.36%. What is interesting is that this does not really equate with the Kindle's 65-75% market share previously reported. This implies that roughly half of Kindle users are uploading their own files to their device rather than use the Kindle store. I use the Project Gutenberg Magic Catalog more than the Kindle store, for example, or upload my own converted PDF or text files. I use Mobipocket Creator to make Kindle-compliant .awz files from PDFs.

Even more perplexing in this poll, however, is the nearly 24% of respondents who chose "Other" above any other offered choice as their preferred ebook source. According to PW's report, the most popular of these write-in candidates were Kobo, iFlow Books and Books on Board - in that order - with AllRomance, Ellora's Cave and "publishers' own Web sites" bringing up the rear. Why Kobo's e-store wasn't included as an option while Sony's was is beyond me. Sony came in dead last, behind even the fledgling Google eBookstore, still less than a week old.

This is probably the single-most stunning factor in this poll, showing how eager readers are to give Google a try, and how much the open-ended storefront concept appeals to them (and/or how much they dislike the idea of proprietary dedicated reader formats). Mind you, the survey is only of PW readers and no more definitive than mine, although it's certain to be a lot more comprehensive, and therefore more representative of current ebook readership.

Another interesting factor here is how few ebook readers use the iBookstore. With Apple's iPad selling extremely well - better than the Kindle this year, in fact, with something like 7.5 million units sold to Kindle's 5.5 or so - one would think iBooks would make up a larger share than a fairly meager 8% - particularly given Google's 7% after only three days in business! But I've discussed the likely reasons for that here already, and with the news yesterday that Apple wants to set themselves further apart by requiring new iBookstore e-books to contain bonus content not available in their print editions or elsewhere, their accessibility difficulties are probably not going to change anytime soon. I can appreciate them wanting to push the multimedia capabilities of the iPad in order to stand out from the competition, but requiring it is hardly the way to make peace with content providers.

Google eBooks Launched

With an initial inventory of more than 3 million titles, Google eBooks officially launched this morning, becoming the largest bookstore in the world virtually overnight. And with some 4000 publishers participating initially, its inventory will only grow. Formerly known as Google Editions, Google's newest online venture changed its name on launch in order to better reflect its content - and rightly so: Google Editions always sounded too much like an imprint of a physical publishing house to me.

But ebooks is what Google's new ebookstore is all about. And its approach is entirely new. While digital copies purchased via Google eBooks - or any of its rapidly growing infantry of retailers (including the social book site Goodreads) - can be downloaded for use offline, purchased titles are also stored in the "digital cloud," where they are accessible by the buyer at any time on any device with a web browser, including the iPad, Nook, Sony Reader or smartphone of your choice (although not the Kindle - while it features an experimental browser, it doesn't support Adobe's ACS4 encryption technology, used to secure each user's account). In addition, to increase the convenience of its digital editions, Google will soon introduce both iOS and Android apps which will sync with your customer account, allowing you to read a few pages on one device, and then pick up where you left off on another.

While browsing titles in the old Google Books, you will now see a new button in the left column with the option to purchase a Google eBook edition. Click the image to view The Saga of Beowulf page there, or here to see the page in the new Google ebookstore. The price is currently $9.99, which is the standard Google ebook discount of 80% off the print edition, but I've changed this to $4.99 to match the price I currently have listed for the Kindle edition, so this should update fairly soon.

For those interested, Google's revenue share is dependent on how the author/publisher sets up their title inventory. For agency-model publishers (the vast majority), where the publisher sets the list price, Google offers the now-standard 70% royalty, whereas for the wholesale model only 52% is passed on to the publisher. I'm guessing this is because most agency-model publishers set as high a price as they can, much higher than what Google would set themselves. But self-published authors can decide for themselves what works best.

UPDATE:

Under the wholesale model, publishers split the proceeds with the retailer 63/37%, with Google taking 10% off the top. The split under the agency model is 70% for the publisher, with 20% to the retailer and 10% to Google (which may, of course, both be Google).

Here's a video announcing the launch:

eReader Survey

I thought I'd try running an informal poll here, just to get an idea of what you readers think of all this debate concerning electronic reading devices. I just want to know which electronic medium you use for reading ebooks, and what formats you tend to read on it. If you use more than one device, just put down the one you prefer or use the most, but you can enter as many formats as you like. I'll let the survey run for a week and then post the results.

Create your free online surveys with SurveyMonkey, the world's leading questionnaire tool.

Google Editions Launch "Imminent"

The Wall Street Journal this morning reported that the highly-anticipated but much-delayed launch of Google Editions - Google's ebook retailing venture - is in the "final stages" and will come by the end of the year, with industry insiders saying the launch was "imminent" and may come "within days." One Google executive is quoted as saying it will be before the holiday break, which he plans to take "early" this year. Not only that, but they will launch with 500,000 titles available for sale from a virtually unlimited number of retail sources, since every web page is a potential point of sale. At launch, Google will be the largest bookstore on the planet.

Google Editions could be a major game changer, undermining attempts by the likes of Amazon and Apple to create a dominant, proprietary ebook platform: rather than requiring a specific eReading device, Google Editions can be read on any device with a web browser. And with the hardware wars far from settled, this could alter the eReader dynamic dramatically. In addition, with the multimedia intensive HTML5 set to become the new standard for web language, interactive ebooks are poised to flourish, a capability which dedicated readers have yet to take full advantage of.

Google Editions is also set up to allow independent retailers - including individual websites and bloggers - to take advantage of their near-universal storefront: any website will be able to sell Google Editions and take a share of the revenue generated, in much the same way that Google's AdSense or Amazon's Associate programs work now. Just how much profit might be enjoyed is one of the details as yet left undisclosed, as is the percentage Google themselves will take. The retailer's portion of each sale is likely to be fairly small, little more than those other ad programs provide, though for sites with high traffic this can be substantial. Suffice it to say that with 190 million users of its search engine each month, as well as 10% of the 150 million books in existence now scanned into the Google Books archive, Google has vast resources, and the marketing muscle to do something with them.

And individual websites - including those of independent authors and publishers - could benefit quite well from its efforts. According to one source, "Google is going to turn every Internet space that talks about a book into a place where you can buy that book. The Google model is going to drive a lot of sales. We think they could get 20% of the ebook market very fast." If so, Google Editions could dominate the digital book market in the coming years. 

Results of Recent ChangeWave Study

In related news, two new studies shed further light on the digital transformation in literature. The chart to the left shows the results of polls by ChangeWave over the past ten months tracking ownership of ebook readers. As you can see, in February, prior to Apple's launch of the iPad in April, Amazon held a near monopoly with 68% of the market (the rest being divided primarily between Sony, Kobo, and the Nook, more of less in that order), while nine months later that share had dropped to just 47% as 32% of ebook readers polled said they own an iPad (with Sony claiming 5% and the Nook just 4%). The comparison is somewhat unfair, as according to another study by GfK MRI data, only 76% of iPad owners use their tablet to read ebooks, skewng the actual ebook market share substantially in Amazon's favor. However, the data highlights a growing trend away from dedicated eReaders and toward multi-function devices, a change which will only increase as tablet prices drop and previously dedicated readers incorporate additional features.

But another factor is the rise in total number of devices in use. While Amazon's percentage of total readers has declined, total devices in use has skyrocketed. The GfK study found that as of October of this year 5.9 million U.S. adults owned an e-reader, whereas just 2.1 million did at the same time last year - an enormous increase, with that number set to explode during this holiday season: a recent Forrester report predicts that more than 15 million e-readers and tablets will be sold by year's end. With that many readers in play, writers can only benefit.