Sony's eBook Store begins "stocking" Short Stories!
While we're waiting for that first Firmware update for the 505 (which we're all anticipating next month) Sony has thrown out this little bone.
Over at the
eBook Store they've added a new class of offering they've dubbed "eStories" which consists of "over 1,000 stories from America's leading authors."
The list of authors presently includes:
- Kevin J. Anderson
- Lawrence Block
- Lois McMaster Bujold
- Orson Scott Card
- Philip K. Dick
- Ed Gorman
- Joe Haldeman
- Wendy Hornsby
- Margo Lanagan
- Tanith Lee
- Mike Resnick
- Robert Silverberg
- Susan Sizemore
- R.L. Stine
- Donald E. Westlake
Quote:
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"The short story has a long standing place in American literature, but over the last several decades, the economics of distribution made it difficult for authors to make their short stories available outside of anthologies and certain literary magazines, said Steve Haber, senior vice president of Sony Electronics' Digital Imaging and Audio Division. "In much the same way that the digital download enabled music fans to get the songs they wanted without having to buy the album, the eBook format enables a new generation of readers to instantly access an ever increasing selection of short stories to read on the Reader Digital Book from Sony, or their PC."
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The prospect of being able to buy and read just a single
Philip K. Dick story, for example (they have 120 of his short stories), is an exciting one. Particularly for those who would like to read, say,
Minority Report but aren't sure they want to commit to a full anthology of his stories. The $.99 to $1.99 per-story pricing should be a lot more attractive to the newcomer.
As the story within the story on this one, this news brings with it the hope of yet another expansion in Sony's offerings, not just the short stories themselves, but possibly from the other works held by the
source of those short stories: Tekno Books.
Quote:
Sony's access to America's leading authors is enabled through its association with Dr. Martin H. Greenberg, the founder and Chief Eexecutive Partner of Tekno Books, a leader in the book packaging industry, with more than 2,000 books produced to date with more than 65 bestselling authors in all genres, including Tom Clancy, Dean Koontz, Nora Roberts, the late Isaac Asimov, and many more.
Dr. Greenberg is the recipient of the Milford Award for lifetime achievement in science fiction editing, the Ellery Queen Award for lifetime achievement in mystery editing, and the Bram Stoker Award for lifetime achievement in supernatural horror editing - the only person in publishing history to have won all three of these honors. In conjunction with Sony, Dr. Greenberg and the team at Tekno Books will be working directly with authors to bring their short stories to Sony eBook Store and to Sony's co-branded store with Borders.
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Of course, there's no guarantee that the one will bring the other, but the prospect of finally being able to get Tom Clancy novels as e-books is exciting to my mind and a great relief to my wrists!
Then there's the detail that this brings Sony's store more in line with what Amazon has been doing, offering short work as well as longer ones. It should certainly herald a good jump in the number of items Sony "stocks." How excellent that that the rising e-book tide is giving us
all more choices for our e-reading passion.
So what do y'all think? Is this more evidence that we're reaching a tipping point on e-books?
Original Press Release