Can JK Rowling bring on e-book standardization?

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by EatingPie

The following article states that four publishers have been told Amazon will accept ePUB in the future.

http://www.thebookseller.com/news/am...pub-files.html

Another reason for standardization: it reduces costs for publishers!

-Pie

Given that he article is from May 19, 2011 and Amazon has yet to go ePub on the Kindle, Amazon say they now accept ePub means that Amazon is converting from ePub into Mobipocket so the Publishers just have to create one version and submit that for the Kindle.

[Andrew H.]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

So given all of this, there is no way Amazon can be 80% in the US. The numbers just don't fit.

The article doesn't claim that Amazon is 80% in the US. The article claims that 80% of e-books sold globally are sold in the US. Many of those will be epub, of course.

[EatingPie]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

There have been links posted to articles that say that B&N is #2 in the USA with 25% of the eBook market. So that leave some % for Sony & Kobo and others. So 80% for Amazon would then have to be incorrect as taking 25% off of 100% is not 80%. So sorry, that article claiming 80% for Amazon isn't correct. We have Sony, B&N, Kobo, & Apple as the big players. Then there are the people who have other readers. For Apple, I'm going with iBooks and none of the other apps.

Unfortunately, your math is based on an errant interpretation (feel free to blame my post's wording). However, it looks like doing the math correctly still puts ePUB in the majority. (Assuming I have done my math correctly at 12:30 in the am after a long day. )

The article claimed 80% of all ebook sales were in the US. They did not say 80% Amazon, but 80% counting everyone selling in the US. I confused matters by pointing out the following: The poster who originally cited this information (and said "put up or shut up"), also made an errant assumption, incorrectly arguing as though that 80% belonged entirely to Amazon. No, that 80% belongs to all sellers in the US, be they peddling mobi or ePUB format.

Now, to get a more accurate breakdown of ebook sales, we can use your numbers and remove B&N's percentage.

Percentage of worldwide ebook sales in the US: 80%
Percentage of B&N US ebooks sales: 25%
Percentage of US ebook sales for Amazon and everyone else: 55%

At this point, in order for Amazon to maintain a worldwide majority for mobi format, Sony, Apple, Kobo, Google, Borders, etc., could only have sold 4% of all US ebooks!

How likely does that sound?

I think your summation works even better with these corrected values:

So given all of this, there is no way Amazon can be 80% in the US. The numbers just don't fit.

Indeed.

There is no way mobi/azw format can be a worldwide majority.

I believe this is known as "putting up," and the numbers -- though speculative -- put ePUB pretty squarely in the majority.

-Pie

[JSWolf]

Yes, I misread like some others here that the 80% was for Amazon's sales in the US. While Amazon is a player in the game, they are the only player doing things differently. And in this case, differently is not good (overall) for the users of Kindles.

The people who do not strip DRM and/or format shift may be OK for now given that Amazon's DRM works fairly seamlessly. But come the first time they start thinking of getting a different brand reader, it could all go south as they find that their library cannot go with them. Even if we didn't have DRM to contend with, all the people who do not know about Calibre or any other tools used to convert Mobipocket would be stuffed.

Now we know it's not possible for AZW/Mobipocket to be the #1 format. But it is the #2 format. It used to be a race between Mobipocket and MS Reader but now that ePub has taken over from MS Reader, it's clearly become #2. PDF (although not an eBook format) is #3. eReader is #4 and the rest don't really matter.

[karunaji]

Originally Posted by Andrew H.

I don't know whether the article considers areas within the former eastern bloc; it doesn't mention them specifically. But this is also pretty much a non-issue - even if the eastern bloc sold as many e-books as western Europe (which I very much doubt), the US would go from having "over 80% of the e-book market" to having almost 80% of the e-book market. Which doesn't change the underlying point one bit.

Lack of sales does not equal absence of e-books. I far as I know ebooks are very popular in the former Soviet countries. Some of my friends say that they download up to 100 books for reading each month. However, dedicated e-readers are rarity. They are too expensive for general population and are not well adapted to their reading habits. Most people use a computer or a cellphone and e-books usually are in simple txt, html, word doc or pdf format. Most e-readers, especially Kindle are not designed to acquire books from different sources and in different formats.

When ebook industry is going to become more commercialized in Russia, it is expected that epub becomes the first choice of publishers while e-readers will be expected to support many alternative formats (FB, mobi, etc.).

[Sil_liS]

Originally Posted by Andrew H.

Why would Rowlings even be tempted to ignore the dominant e-book format, particularly when she owns a Kindle. You should be pleased she even bothered with e-pub.

I am really curious about why people assume that she only owns one ereader.

And when it comes to standardization, xkcd said it best:

[EatingPie]

Originally Posted by Sil_liS

I am really curious about why people assume that she only owns one ereader.

And when it comes to standardization, xkcd said it best:

I think everyone in the thread is like... "Oh! Oh, crap!"

The good thing about ePUB vs. mobi is they already exist, so it's not about adding a new standard. Much like HTML of old, when the web was young, and ftp ruled the world.

-Pie

[Arrghus]

I've just this minute registered for early access to Pottermore. Anybody else wishing to can do so by following this link:

http://quill.pottermore.com/112

It's very much time-limited and I expect registration for day 4 (today) will close within the hour.

[MrsJoseph]

Originally Posted by Arrghus

I've just this minute registered for early access to Pottermore. Anybody else wishing to can do so by following this link:

http://quill.pottermore.com/112

It's very much time-limited and I expect registration for day 4 (today) will close within the hour.

I can't get in at all, lol.

[Hellmark]

I got in. You have to pick between 5 randomly generated names, you cannot create your own.

They were having some server issues today, due to the massive load (140,000 accounts were signed up today in the span of 35 minutes). If you can find the answer, and load the page up, but still get a page without a quill try using http://www.pottermore.com/en/magical-quill/found to register.

[MrsJoseph]

Originally Posted by Hellmark

I got in. You have to pick between 5 randomly generated names, you cannot create your own.

They were having some server issues today, due to the massive load (140,000 accounts were signed up today in the span of 35 minutes). If you can find the answer, and load the page up, but still get a page without a quill try using http://www.pottermore.com/en/magical-quill/found to register.

Thanks for the help...but today's registration is now closed.

[Hellmark]

I know, but there is always tomorrow!

BTW, when you get on, I'm ElmGlow40.

[Arrghus]

Originally Posted by MrsJoseph

I can't get in at all, lol.

Don't give up! There's three more days for you to register. The clues are supposed to be getting easier (today's was a doddle), and the Pottermore Insider Blog gave yesterday a time slot that the clue would be revealed within (was 14:00 - 18:00 BST, I think). Hopefully they'll update the blog to reveal the time frame of tomorrow's reveal.

I have a feeling those who registered on the first few days will get earlier access than those registering on days 4-7, as they state on the blog they will not be allowing access to the beta for all 1 million early registrants at the same.

Good luck! If you don't manage to get a username, there's always October!

Hellmark: I'm GalleonStar163. Look out for me!

[Arrghus]

From the Pottermore Insider blog:

UPDATED: So far, all the clues have appeared in the early hours of the morning in my time zone. Will this continue for the remainder of The Magical Quill challenge?
We know that Harry Potter fans around the world are taking part in the challenge, so we will be varying the times that the clues are revealed. We can tell you that today’s clue (Day 5) will be released between 4.30pm and 8.00pm BST.

As long as you've got the Pottermore website open in a tab, and you refresh every five to ten minutes, you should have no trouble registering. Good luck!

[EatingPie]

Originally Posted by Hellmark

I got in. You have to pick between 5 randomly generated names, you cannot create your own.

They were having some server issues today, due to the massive load (140,000 accounts were signed up today in the span of 35 minutes). If you can find the answer, and load the page up, but still get a page without a quill try using http://www.pottermore.com/en/magical-quill/found to register.

You don't get to pick a name? That's beyond lame! Even many children's sites let you pick a name. That was my motivation for registering early; so I can grab a name.

-Pie