ROBUST discussion
Rants: OT & OTT
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Borders, unloved to the end, goes belly up, proves books aren't soap
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I am going to miss Borders even though it took me an hour to get there. We have wonderful small independent book stores in our area but they just can't carry the inventory. Publishers Weekly has certainly been keeping us posted on the Borders downfall. The author of this article makes such a good point---why is it that the people in control fail repeatedly to consult with their employees; with the people on the front lines daily?
I think we will see the return of the independent bookstore. It may take some time, and be delayed by the crappy economy, but it will happen.
Only if books survive, Kat.Even the rare books business began dying years ago. Once dealers started listing their titles on the Internet, they learned rare volumes weren't so rare after all. Prices tanked, which was a hardship on dealers who'd had to buy their stock over several years knowing it would sit on the shelf till the right customer wandered in. Suddenly there were customers galore, but because of the easy-availability of the titles from multiple dealers all vying for the same customers, dealers ended up selling books for less than they paid for them. Not a good business plan.
There was a time when I couldn't imagine my home without thousands of books in it. Now I have few but I no longer feel that a room looks naked without shelves brimming with them. Cutting back was largely a matter of my having moved into a much smaller space but owning a Kindle has also factored into the change. Just yesterday I noticed that I have only one book in my living room and I had to look at the spine to be reminded what it was. Only five years ago it would have been impossible to picture myself being comfortable in a book-starved room.
Non-fiction and Fiction will always be around in paper format. There are only a few million e-readers out there. E-books are still a niche market. A very NICE niche, but still a niche. I don't by fiction except on Nook, but I'm still buying reference material.
Just bought 2 books from Amazon used books last week.
I'm PoD publishing both my books. Not many people I know own e-readers, yet.
Mod
A consideration that no one has mentioned yet is that ebook owners are enthusiastic readers and bookbuyers. Economists know that of every discretionary product (i.e. non-necessities), 5% or fewer of people buy 95% of the goodies. Ebook owners are probably in that 5%, so for them printed books are already a past technology, useful only for specialty items like reference books.
The vast majority of people never read a book after they finish their education, and not too many during their education either. We are not interested in those. We are interested in which part of the book buying public have ereaders, and I find it amazing that no market research has yet leaked from Apple or Amazon to give us hard numbers.
Amazon and Apple are too secretive. They don't drop any breadcrumbs.
Kat, it's not a niche market when the largest book retailer is selling more ebooks than paper books. I'd say paper books are becoming the niche. It'll take years, but I don't for a minute doubt that books in paper form are on their way out. Already the speed of the switch-over is surprising folks in the industry. Some libraries have eliminated paper books entirely as they've gone digital, and they were doing this even before ebooks started taking off. The closing of indie bookshops and now even the big box bookstores also says a lot about the future of paper books.As Amazon moves into the educational market, young people are being brought up on electronic books. That's what I think will determine their life-long preference in book formats. Also, the drop in Kindle prices is prompting parents to get them into the hands of younger and younger readers.
While I agree that there are certain types of reference books that people will want on their shelves, even that is not the necessity it used to be. I resorted to a paper reference book once in the past year. It's quicker to look up what I want to know on the Internet. Recently I read a book written by an author who liked to show off her vocabulary. I didn't haul out my dictionary to see what she was talking about; I used the one built into my Kindle. It doesn't require me to leave the page I'm reading to use it.
Mod
But I own many thousands of books that are impossible on the Kindle and not much chop even on a large screen with cinematic colour. They're large-format books of reproductions of works of arts, classic automobiles, stuff like that. I keep one on a lectern in my study, and every day I turn a page, or some days several. It's a good place to stand thinking.
I donated my art books to the library, but there I still have one book that wouldn't work on a Kindle. It's an over-sized collection of photos of writers' homes. But it would work as content on a Website.
Last I heard they are working on a laptop for kids in developing nations. They have 10k text books on each one, and cost only $50 USD.These 'school books' are being used in the Middle East, Africa and Asia. So I agree that the coming generations will be taught on laptops.
However, the baby-boomers aren't going to change their habits. Most of my family are Luddites who have never used a computer at home. I see a market for paper books for the next 10 years.
Mom's sight is going, which is why we got her the e-book. She's read a lot of free books, the classics. And I fill her reader occasionally.
So far, she and I are the only ones to switch.
We have hit this market at the right time. This is a great time to be a writer.
Looking ahead - Nook color outsold everything because it is a touch-screen tablet that can be hacked and turned into an Android driven computer.
We can expect Nook color to sell 2 million units this year. Kindle has been selling steadily, it should be very hot this Xmas. (I saw some figures, but I can't remember them. LOTS of Kindles!)
I'm buying books early. Last year B&N crashed and was basically down for January. Sales were so heavy they trickled in for 3 months.
Amazon staggered under the load, but held up.
This is all good news for us. Which is why I pushed to get 'Swallow the Moon' out in the summer. I'm not waiting until January.
Last year I was utterly clueless. This year I've got a better idea of what to do.
Mod
I was thinking a couple of days ago that I should reissue my full colour illustrated books to be ready for the colour Kindle.
Andre Jute wrote: "I was thinking a couple of days ago that I should reissue my full colour illustrated books to be ready for the colour Kindle."I think that's a good idea, Andre. I've been thinking for a while about starting a thread on an observation I had that surprised me. Got my kindle for an early Christmas present. Read a couple of print books since which were on my unread pile. 'The Help' rests on my coffee table begging to be read. I should read that book, I think daily, cost me a few hard-earned bucks.
But it may not happen. Because when I decided I might as well shell out a few more bucks and buy the Kindle version, it wasn't available. Here's the thing I observed (as a reader) that had me surprised: It annoyed me that the book was not available on Kindle. And that's not the first time. I find myself simply not buying a book if it's not published to Kindle.
Andre had another good point about readers. I was at a gathering of some good friends recently, many of whom I know to be readers. We were a group of seven. Five of us had ereaders, either Kindles or ipads (or in two cases, both). The other two profess to want to read more but don't have the time. They don't know it but they are not innately readers. They probably don't even ever buy the books they do find time to read; someone loaned or gifted them.
Here's another thing I discovered (because I asked). To a man (they were however all female. The English language is going to have to change some around gender issues, but that's a whole 'nother debate) they have no problem paying about $10 Cdn for a Kindle book.
The pastime of reading is indeed a changed world. Aren't we lucky to be at the forefront...
Yep, Sharon. Here's an article I read today about the readers being the ones who benefit:http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/08/05...
Just recently I saw that a book I read and loved in the past is being reissued. I wanted to buy it, but it's available only in paper in the US. I emailed the publisher to ask if a Kindle version is coming. Got back a message saying they don't own the rights to the ebook. There is an ebook version in the UK. So I wrote to a bookseller there who told me I couldn't purchase it from them (rights issue), nor could anyone there purchase it and give it to me as a gift. The DRM would make it useless, they said. Sooo, I won't be buying the book because I can't get it in the format I want.
Andre, so far I'm not finding the Kindle to be very good at handling photos. I've seen some exceptions, but usually -- given the size constraints -- it's not working out. If the Amazon tablet materializes, that might be a good device for photo-viewing. That, or the DX (which is too heavy and awkward for me).
If and when Amazon comes up with a color version, I hope it's not backlit. I'm hoping e-ink reaches the point where it can do a good job with color. I saw some early demonstrations of what's possible, but I was seeing it on my backlit computer so I don't know how effective the technology would be on the Kindle itself.
Great article, Patricia. Windwalker conjectured (or perhaps dreamed) the next version of Kindle would look just like a trad book. Open it up and on one side would be an e-ink Kindle, on the other a colour one. He produced an image on his site. Caught my attention but upon reflection I'm certain he was pulling our legs. Still, I would like to see the technology one day that would permit this. I suspect it would have to be sufficient that the 'book' would be like those Corning Glass commercials where each side would be paper-thin and weigh almost nothing.
I would hate the idea of two screens, but a single screen that could be switched from one mode to another might be good.
Mod
Frankly, while I like the idea of electronic ink, and love my Kindle for being cheap enough not to care if I drop it in my bath, as a computer it is piece of crap, c1978. It is appallingly slow at doing the simplest things, like switching back to the home page, and the software is shamefully fragile. Amazon just isn't a technology company either. As I keep saying, they're barrowboys writ large by the internet, not book people, not even the sort of booksellers who if they had a high street store we would go into more than once, and as technologists the Kindle is probably their speed. They were lucky with the Kindle. If you want to assess how lucky, consider this: the Kindle is undoubtedly the best device strictly for reading books, especially so because of the glarefree screen. Logically, it should have taken the entire market. Yet the other booksellers' backlit devices, and even the vastly more expensive iPad, all sell substaintially and the iPad more than the cheaper Kindle. People have come to expect more than just reading from their gadgets. It is quite possible that the Kindle in the end might be a yoke around Amazon's neck, customers being loudly disappointed that Amazon's colour device doesn't match the one thing the Kindle does well.
Amazon won't be so lucky trying to compete with Apple, which is what a full colour device with more tricks than just reading books will inevitably have to do. Much smarter people, and a lot bigger too, have been hurt, some crippled, while the pained look of the underdog never slipped from the face of Steve Jobs. As an example, Amazon paid hundreds of millions in lost profits in their attempt to use a price war in books to grab the market -- and failed.
Apple in retaliation casually, and devastatingly, simply removing the in-app ability to use iPads to buy from Amazon. (I forecast that too, long before Apple made the threat, the first time I wrote about Amazon's shortfall in technological understanding.)
Next year this time I'll be telling you I told you so.
I have no idea what you're talking about, Andre. The Kindle is a poor computer because it's not a computer. It's also a very poor toaster, TV, and automobile.Switching from a book to the home page is instantaneous.
It's impossible to compare iPads and Kindles in any meaningful way (as e-readers) because studies show that few iPad owners use their device as an e-reader, or if they do, it's light use. It's also impossible to know how many Kindles have been sold because Amazon keeps that info secret, though some have extrapolated info from the annual reports of other companies (suppliers) to make guesses. People who want a do-everything device tend not to be the heavy-duty readers; Kindle owners do tend to be heavy-duty readers and there's a high satisfaction level among those owners because they prefer using a dedicated device that does one thing very well. My own experience with the iPad was one of great disappointment, which is why I gave mine away.
Last I heard, Jeff Bezos said color e-ink technology isn't advanced enough for the Kindle, but I never heard he had abandoned the idea of using color e-ink when it is refined. In fact, I read that Amazon is still working on it. My info is not recent, however.
About backlights: It doesn't surprise me at all that people, used to computer screens, would perceive a backlit screen as a better choice. It also wouldn't surprise me if most of those same people would change their mind if they used e-ink for a week. People who are perfectly happy to turn on a lamp when reading a paper book think it's an outrage that they must also turn on a light to read on the Kindle. They don't realize that the comfort level (for the eyes) is enhanced by what they assume to be a failing on the Kindle's part. It's all a matter of having been "trained" on computers and electronic games and cell phones that light up. When I got my Sony I was ticked off that it didn't glow like my Rocket reader, but that lasted all of a few pages. Then I was a happy convert. I don't want to give up e-ink, ever.As for Amazon losing millions in the price war: did they lose? Time will tell. Now that they've become a publisher, I'm not so sure the Big Six won a thing.
The word I'm getting is that Amazon sold 4 million Kindles last year. Projected sales this year 10 million.
Nooks and Nook Color sold out - I think it was 2 million each.
I love my Nook. It uses my home wifi - so I can buy books when I like, without having to worry about cell phone access.
Kindle uses wifi, too.Bezos doesn't reveal the actual sales numbers so whenever you see any announced, it's someone making them up. Jeff says knowing the numbers would give the competition an advantage he doesn't want them to have. Note, too, that he doesn't reveal how many books Amazon sells, except on a per-title basis when someone hits a million.
Apple has a long way to go to be anywhere near as perfect as they advertise. I got an iPhone last year. I hate it. It is so much slower than a Blackberry or even any no-name one can name, it is laughable.
Shortly after, and I'm talking two days after the puchase which was non-refundable, for which I shall never forgive them, they came out with a newer version. Lots of hype about how it could now multi-task. Whoop-de-doo, most of the smart phones always could. Until recently when I updated the software I couldn't even email pix from the camera.
The Kindle never claimed to function as anything other than a reader. Every function I enjoy (dictionary, notes, menu, Go to, works fairly quickly on mine (except the 'experimental' connection to the Internet which I suspect will remain evermore experimental).
The one function I'm less than happy with is making purchases. Though I have a 3G and wifi version, I never do that directly from my Kindle, I use my PC and download to whichever device I want any particular book to go to immediately.
I buy books from the Kindle, but only via the sample. I wouldn't want to browse the store that way.If your Kindle moves from one function to another only "fairly quickly" I wonder if you have it loaded with books. I've seen some posts from people who say the number of books on the Kindle makes a difference (dunno if that's true). Every function on my Kindle is instantaneous, but I don't keep a lot of books on it. Maybe 40 at most at any one time.
Sharon - iPhones are notorious. And Apple is a strange company. Once someone is hooked on Apple products they are hooked for life.The only thing I don't like about the Nook is that I have to side load Smashwords books as if they were documents. Sounds like you have to do that will all your books. ICK.
Still e-readers are great. I can read and not have a house full of dustcatchers that I read once and never again.
Patricia, sounds like your experience and mine are pretty similar, I just didn't express myself well. The functions are pretty much instantaneous, no complaints. I have fewer than 40 books on the device, I keep the rest on my Kindle for PC and slide books I read over to there after finishing. Kat, it's not that I have to load books that way, it is that because the Kindle is not in colour, I can't seem to 'see' the books I'm considering. I must have had one glass too many of our ROBUST wine when I posted last night (as I only poured my normal one glass, guess that was the one too many :)). I could have sworn I wrote that I downloaded to the PC for books I am browsing for or unsure of). I'm fairly visual and find I make better choices if I do that process first. All free books go there first. But if I run across a book from the forums and think I must try that book, it goes straight to the Kindle. Occasionally it goes straight back to the PC but not very often.
I know about Apple addictions. We could coin a whole new word for the species. Applets? Appleites? I dunno, I don't want to become one but know I could quickly enough. I said when the ipad came out I would buy the next gen of it, but I'm still unsure. There are so many tablets being produced right now and though I love techie gadgets I want something that will do everything I (and not some 20-something boy designer who thinks anything to do with games is what Boomers might want - though we might) want it to. But since the ipad and not the Kindle is what first got my joices going in regards to self-publishing, I will likely buy one once the new versions of most devices are released for the Christmas season.
Unless something is designed that is as light and delightful to use as the Kindle (specially now that I have my fabulous hand-tooled leather cover to protect it) and performs all other functions I would want on a computer, I expect I will always have a separate ereader.
As for the iphone, the jury's still out on whether I would purchase another.
I don't have the Kindle for PC app. Does that keep the books from going into your regular Amazon account (i.e. the Manage Your Kindle area)? I always go to the Manage link and choose from there what books I want to keep, delete, or move back to the Kindle. (No side-loading necessary.) What I don't like about using the Manage link is the removal process. When you decide you no longer want a book on your account and hit delete, the software reloads the list after every deletion, and then it defaults to the first book on the list. Thus, you have to re-travel ground already covered in order to process every deletion.I find that I keep very few of the free books I've downloaded. I usually remove them from the Kindle after reading a bit of them, then later go into my account to remove them entirely. I'd like to be able to get rid of them via the Kindle itself. I don't like sampling freebies because by the time I get around to looking at them, they could no longer be free and I might end up clicking to buy something that's not worth the price to me.
About the iPad: The only thing I liked about it was the Angry Birds app. I'm just not an Apple kind of girl. Never was interested in fancy cell phones. Had an Apple computer that I couldn't get rid of fast enough. Tell me what's intuitive about having to drag something to trash in order to burn it to a CD...
Mod
Don't get me wrong. I like my Kindle for reading. I love the screen. But it doesn't do what Amazon claims it does.
Andre, it truly sounds like you have a lemon of a Kindle. I don't mean because of the Internet feature (which I never use and see no reason to), but the other troubles. The keyboard is about as good as my cell phone's text keys, and I seldom use either one. I can see how it would frustrate someone who does want a keyboard. But those other glitches sound awful.I've heard of some people having trouble because a book hasn't indexed properly but your problems don't sound like the ones they've experienced.
I use my Kindle for editing but only to read what I've written, with "Tom" also reading it aloud. It's an easy way to check for typos and flow. I don't make annotations -- I make changes/corrections on my computer as I go along. Isn't the Kindle limited in how much it can store (on purpose) so people can't copy whole books, violating copyright?
Maybe one reason I'm so happy with my Kindle is that I don't use all its features. If I did use them, I might have something to complain about.
I don't load a bunch of books onto the Kindle at once because an emptier Kindle helps me control myself. I don't jump around so much from book to book.
Mod
I was sitting in an atrium today at the cardiologist's, nowhere to escape the bright sunlight. I kept on reading my Kindle, comfortably, while people were turning their phones this way and that, trying to read them.
Patricia - you can download Kindle for PC here: http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html... or Mac to your computer (or other devices) for free. Then when you make a purchase (from wherever you are) you can tell it where you want it to go. It's a whole lot easier (for me anyway) to have the books archived to there and make decisions on what to read when the time comes. I like to keep my Home page down to a minimum. Andre, with all the problems you are having, you sure one of those baggies in your bath haven't leaked...
I wish the Kindle had a better system for notes and such, that function is awkward to refer back to during reading. Haven't used the notes to edit but if I did I would probably sync to the K for PC and work from there. I've heard before about that trick of listening to the audio for editing. Sounds like a great idea, I'm planning to use it in future.
I use my Nook to read my work, then edit onto the paper copy. E-ink and paper work about the same. So I'll grab a pen and highlighter and have at it.Nook color is the one that is a tablet computer in disguise...to the IT geeks. There are instructions on how to hack it on the Nookboards.
The colour Nook looks good, but I think not available in Canada. Plus it is limited only to books pubbed at B&N?
Kat, I basically do what you're doing, but I don't print my work; I just look/listen to the Kindle with the Word file open. I hardly ever use my printer for anything. It's stored in a closet.I used to print articles I found on the Web -- long ones I didn't feel like reading at the moment. Now I just copy/paste them into a Word file and read them later on my Kindle.
Sharon, what I'm getting at re the Kindle app is this: how is the storage of books there any different from having them stored in my Amazon account? I don't store them on my Kindle after first downloading them, taking a look at them, then shoving them over into archives (off the Kindle). When I buy a book I have it sent to my Kindle so I can see if I want to read it right away or later or not at all.
Sharon - I read Word Docs and Smashwords books just fine, PDF's and anything E-pub all for for me. You can get Kindle apps if you hack the Nook Color. But there hasn't been anything I wanted on Kindle that I couldn't get for Nook.
Canada - location may be an issue. Though it wouldn't be fair to Canadians. Cross the lake/river isn't THAT far.
It's just more visual is all, Patricia. Since I have always done it that way, not sure how much organizing one can do on the account page. I like to use the Collections feature like I do here on Goodreads.Btw, the book covers now come up in a 3-D form on the PC Kindle, wondering if that is a test for a new format on the Kindle store...
Something is up at Amazon because their site was slow last night.Amazon is NEVER slow.
Amazon KDP forums connections are often slow for me.
http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by...