TeleRead: Bring the E-Books Home

ePub demystified – Tomorrow’s e-book reader the web browser?

By Jon Noring

I have been quite perplexed in reading the many comments about IDPF’s “ePub” format following the release late last year of its underlying specs. A number of very smart people, including several developers who naturally dig deeply into tech specs, have painted ePub as a dark and mysterious digital publication (e-book) format, unlike anything else in the Universe™.

The way some have discussed ePub, if Indiana Jones were to explore the deep caverns of ePub, he would probably find something exotic and other-worldly, maybe even the remnants of a long-lost civilization. [note 1]

In reality, though, the opposite is true. ePub is internally quite recognizable and familiar, very similar to traditional web content that we all know and love.

ePub and web content share a number of important commonalities:

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Free from Tor: Starfish by Peter Watts

By Paul Biba

I’ve been reading science fiction forever and it is rare that I come across hard SciFi as good as that in the Rifter series by Peter Watts. Watt’s, a Canadian PhD marine biologist, sets his series - Starfish, Behemoth and Maelstrom - under the ocean. I mention this because Tor’s free book today is Starfish. You can get it at tor.com and I suggest that you do. The rest of the series can be downloaded from Watt’s site www.rifters.com. They are all out of print, but I heartily recommend his latest book, which is still in print, Blindsight. It’s a book about intelligence without sentience. Is sentience really necessary?

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Book publishing: killing a harmless dream

By Robert Nagle

If you  follow a literary blogger long enough, every few months you’ll encounter a post/rant about the “dirty little secret of publishing”. You know the type. A blogger  rants about the commercialization of an industry, how indie publishing (or ebook publishing) is the wave of the future, how dinosaur-like businesses are forcing pap at the public, how bookstores are ignoring the midlist author, how the Internet/blogging/Long Tail will change everything. Mixed in it is a lament about the economics of book publishing  (conveniently  overlooking the fact that most used books are available for merely the cost of shipping).   

To say I am familiar about this subgenre of complaint literature is an understatement. Every two weeks  in graduate school my creative writing teacher John Barth  used to hand out photocopies of magazine articles full of dire predictions about publishing.  We read them, we chuckled, we wept. Another  major figure in the genre is  Michael Blowhard, a blogger who has worked in publishing for a while  (Here’s a random assortment of links). Every eight months or so  a new variation of this essay comes out, along with a thread of 100+ indie writers who chime in with their thoughts/complaints/witty rationalizations. Once, a few months ago I stumbled across one of his older essays about the subject.  Being bored, I read through the entire enjoyable thread..only to discover a comment in the comment section made by me  (apparently I had read the same essay several years ago). Rest assured that my comment  was  brilliant. 

By accident, I stumbled upon and enjoyed another literary/publishing rant by Michael Blowhard (dated 2003). He tries to understand the human need to publish books and how to channel it more productively.  Here’s his advice:

But why turn your urge to create into “writing a book” in the first place? You say you’ve got a story to tell? Well, why does it have to be a book? You’ll burden your life with a tedious project for a couple of years, you’ll probably overstretch your material, and then no one will read the results. Why not realize your project in a manageable and pleasurable way instead? Put in a month of writing, keep it to a compact length, and post it to the Web. (There really aren’t many stories that need more than 50 pages.) It’s certainly true that no one may pay attention to your work despite its being out there on the Web. But at least you’ll have told your story, enjoyed the process, made your work available — and you won’t have ruined your life, or broken your heart.

No one listens to me, of course, and it’s probably better that way. I confess that The Wife berates me (lovingly and charmingly, of course) when I go on like this. She says I’m being a killjoy. Lots of people dream of writing books. What a harmless dream — why kill it?

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Microsoft e-reading software probable for OLPC machine as XP decision becomes official: DRM coming?

By David Rothman

XO-1 XP demo from Microsoft

I begged and begged. The purity of Linux wasn’t enough by itself for the One Laptop Per Child’s XO-1 laptop. As a literacy-promoter, it also needed apps such as a simplified version of FBReader. OLPC’s current PDFish approach is a disaster.

Now guess what? Although Linux will still be an option, OLPC’s leadership is rushing to embrace Win XP, with September set as the date for general availability of Microsoft-tamed XOs.

Win and the e-reading mode

“Windows now supports the laptop’s e-book reading mode, standard Wi-Fi networking, camera, writing pad and custom keys, as well as the power-saving and other features of the XO hardware,” says the OLPC-Microsft announcement. Just what does this mean? Screen drivers? Also DRMed Microsoft Reader books on the XO? Or other Micosoft e-reading software? Almost surely, Bil-blessed readware will be running on the XP. If so, what about e-book standards such as ePub? Having backed off on Linux, OLPC could well do the same on readware and DRM.

DRM and related tech could potentially be rather dictator friendly. Toe the line or we’ll cut access to your books. Oh, and as long as things are closed, we’d like to do an Amazon Kindle act and be able snoop on what you’re reading and how you’re using the machine. We’re the government. We care.

Open source community partly to blame

Yes, I’m disappointed mainly at the OLPC leadership. But the free and open source community didn’t help, either. In e-book terms, an XO-ized FBReader could have made a world of difference in the ease of use and flexibility of the XO-1 as a reading tool—and thus have helped to make the open approach more appealing. Weren’t e-books to be among the XO-1’s main apps?

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How ePub beats obsolescence

By Jon Noring

When I was in college I collected 78 RPM phonograph records, primarily jazz records from the late 1920’s and early 1930’s. Either I was good at collecting, or just lucky. I found and acquired several large jazz and blues collections (a total of over 100,000 records, about 25 tons, passed through my fingers), and didn’t lose a dime in the process.

I’ve long since given up massively collecting the “old 78’s”, and today have only kept a few favorites. One favorite I kept, a quite rare classic jazz recording from late 1928, is shown to the right. [note 1] My experience collecting older sound recordings has given me some unique perspectives as it relates to media, e-books, copyright, conversion, archiving, formats, etc.

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Random House experimenting with ad model and user-customized books

By David Rothman

PW’s Web coverage of Digital Book 2008 is here, with well-deserved mentions of experimentation at Harlequin, Random House and elsewhere—including RH’s tests of an ad-supported model and user-customized books. Just add your photo and dedication.

I don’t see any PW references to ePub, bizarrely, even though it was on the agenda. Hey, what do you expect?

Interesting stat: “Sean Devine, CEO of CourseSmart talked about rethinking the textbook market, citing statistics showing that college students spend over $1,000 on books, and carry 20% of their body weight worth of textbooks.”

Another one: The $150M e-book market in Japan. Glad to see PW taking note. 

Related: Paul Biba on CourseSmart. Also see our report on new E Ink machines unveiled at DB ‘08.

Also from PW: Fighting facts and figures: Wikipedia’s the elephant; is there room for traditonal references?

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POD and e-books: Why fiction writers and publishers shouldn’t expect much yet

By Marion Gropen, owner of Gropen Associates

Moderator: Our newest contributor is Marion Gropen, a Simon & Schuster alum well versed in publishing’s business side. Welcome, Marion! - D.R.

Espresso machine: POD printing someday at your local FedEx Kinkos?

David touched on an interesting point. Can fiction be profitably published using POD printing or as e-books? In general, and in my opinion, not yet.

Larger presses rarely want to launch fiction in the small numbers associated with POD printing and e-publishing. They do use these tools for backlist or ARCs (Advance Reading Copies), but when they sign a novel, they put so much money into preparing it for publication that they need to sell many thousands of copies. That requires offset printing.

“Self” and “smaller” as POD  and E users: Big overlaps

Let’s look at smaller publishers and self-publishers—in terms of fiction sold as POD and E.

I lump these publishers together, because successful self-publishers are nearly indistinguishable from all the other very small presses. The so-called “self-publishing companies” have other drawbacks for the novelist, but that’s not for today’s entry.

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‘The Web habits of highly effective people’

By David Rothman

Hmm. Maybe the headline someday could read “The Web and RSS habits of highly effective people.”

Doing a Steven Covey act, Granta’s online edition queried a bunch of word people—no billionaire tycoons, politicians, terrorists or mixes thereof?—ranging from U.S. lit blogger Maud Newton to some journalists and literary agents. She’s in the photo to the left. I could have spotted her quotes even without a name attached; not only did her selections tend to be offbeat, but she made the best use of hyperlinks in her reply.

As a group, the “highly effective” folks, at least in the U.K., Granta’s location, tend to go for mainstream sites to an even greater extent than I thought they would.

Here at the TeleBlog—ugh, sometimes effective, sometimes not—I check in at other e-book-related sites, but rely most of all on RSS and Web-based aggregators. Just a few of the 13 Effectives mentioned RSS, including Jonathan Derbyshire, who said he hoped to learn to use feeds one day.

One good bet, wisely noted by Derbyshire and two others: Arts and Letters Daily, from the Chronicle of Higher Education people.

Your own tips on sites and RSS/Web reading: Rec away!

Related: Newton write-up of the Granta write-up.

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AAP supports ePub as a consumer format: A clarification from AAP’s digital policy director

By Jon Noring

AAP’s recent open letter strongly supporting the use of ePub by publishers was covered by David Rothman in a separate blog article.

Reading the letter, it was unclear to me whether AAP supported ePub as a consumer format. The letter focused mostly on using ePub as an intermediary format to be converted by wholesalers and retailers into various proprietary end-user formats currently in vogue.

The letter did imply support of ePub as a consumer format, by the use of the word “IF” in the second paragraph, but it was not explicit and some might have interpreted the letter differently. If so, they should read the clarification by Ed McCoyd, the Director of Digital Policy at AAP, who signed the AAP open letter. With his permission I am quoting part of his reply to the letter I wrote him:

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Kindle ball-gazing: $750M in K machines by 2010?

By David Rothman

Wiley’s Joe Wikert, MobileRead folks, a Boston analyst and others have weighed in on the Kindle’s prospects. Now here an estimate by analyst Mark Mahaney of Citigroup, who, as reported in Tech Crunch, “expects Amazon to generate between $400 million and $750 million in revenue from the Kindle by 2010, or 1% - 3% of Amazon’s total revenue.” So what do you think, gang?

My thoughts: I dunno. Depends on what competitors can cook up. Also, what about the cellphone factor? Could Amazon eventually market cellphones with Kindle-style features built in? If so, what will be a Kindle, and what’ll be a phone?

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Chumby idea: The beanbag gizmo as a library machine

By David Rothman

While the world fixates on E Ink, an LISNews reader points out to me the glories of the lowly Chumby, the endlessly configurable, linux-powered gizmo with a 3.5-inch LCD touchscreen color display. See YouTube video I just found.

Nope, with a 320-by-240-res screen, the $180 Chumby isn’t as good as some machines for e-reading. But Shoe sees plenty else there. He listens to podcasts on it, for example, uses it as an alarm clock, and gets weather updates.

The library angle

Now here’s the library angle: “E-books might not be for the Chumby, but I still maintain they could be a great tool in libraries. Take their guts out of the beanbag potato sack, and mount them on a shelf or some other not-easily-walked-off-with bit of furniture.”

Suppose, says Shoe, a library patron could enter a Dewey number into a Chumby and see a map of the library showing where the book was, and maybe even the place on the shelf.

“Guess it’d depend on how big your library is.” he says. “Damn, though, it’d be pretty cool.”

Your beanbag thoughts?

Shoe—and apologies if it’s a she—is definitely onto something. Hello, Jeff Scott? What do you think? Other folks? Especially librarians.

Chumby for audiobooks: Shoe correctly envisions the Chumby as an audiobook player—with the important caveat that eBabel and DRM can get in the way of a linux device. That’s one more reason, of course, for Amazon and other audiobook outlets to ditch DRM ASAP.

Related: Earlier TeleBlog posts on the Chumby, inlcuding the e-book angle, plus David Pogue’s New York Times column that Bibiofuture linked to from LISNews.

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Bigger screen set for new iPhone? E-books among the built-in apps for mini tablet?

By David Rothman

Apple supposedly will unveil an iPhone with not just an Atom chip but also a larger screen. So, Steve, will e-books be among the built-in apps? Does this mean you’ve discovered that a few people are reading after all?

For the mini-tablet rumor to be reality, it would help for the Atom chip to throw off less heat. So will a new version of that pop up soon than some might expect? Or will the tablet be big enough so the heat issue really does not matter?

Big question: Crave checked with Intel and wonders if a high-ranking German exec, the reported leaker, would be in a position to know.

And a reminder to E Ink skeptics: Here’s to different screen options! Remember, too, that the tech will be improving. That said, a crisp, colorful LCD or even OLED screen would be more in keeping with Jobs’ style.

Speaking of OLEDs: Will they indeed last as long as the boosters say? Some killjoy has raised questions about the lifespan of an OLED in Sony’s much-touted thin TV.

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