Publisher Ellora's Cave to launch eReader

[MrsJoseph]

Ellora's Cave, a well know erotica romance book publisher, is set to launch a new eReader in September:

From TeleRead:

Last week, The Digital Reader noted that erotic fiction publisher Ellora’s Cave plans to release a custom ereader device at its annual RomantiCon Convention in September. Although it’s rare to see a publisher move directly into the device space, it could bring obvious benefits, like lower costs and direct access to shoppers. It’s also the sort of thing one might expect to see first from a romance or erotica publisher, since those genres tend to have customers who are comfortable buying and reading ebooks. (Only some of Ellora’s Cave’s titles are sold in print.)

There’s not much information about the device on the RomantiCon page, other than that it comes preloaded with 60 short stories and will be sold on the convention floor starting September 30th. Based on the rendering provided, it looks like the device is a sibling to a couple of models from Russian companies Digma and Prology, but tellingly the EC model ships with a Chinese dictionary.

Also:
http://www.the-digital-reader.com/20...-in-september/
http://ecromanticon.com/e-cave-reader


The Specs:

Connects to your PC via USB; drag-and-drop ebook files onto the device.
It will accept protected ebooks that have been unlocked by Adobe Digital Editions. (EC doesn’t use DRM on its own books.)
No notes or highlights.
The built-in dictionary is in Chinese. Edwards adds, “Since we do have very frank colloquial language in our books, I can’t imagine what some of those translations might be.”
Notes, highlights and dictionary may be updated in the future, depending on customer response.

Here are some specs provided by Edwards’ team, which match closely to the specs listed on the Digma product page:

7-inch high clear TFT digital screen 720p (Resolution: 800 x 480 pixels)
CPU: Rockchip2729
OS: Unix-based
4GB Storage Capacity, Supports Micro SD cards up to 32GB
Ebook formats: TXT, PDF, EPUB, CHM, HTML, PDB, UMD
Photo formats: JPG, BMP, PNG
Audio formats: MP3,WMA,FLAC,WAV,APE
Video formats: AVI, RM, RMVB, WMV, MP4, PMP, MPEG, FLV,VOB, 3GP etc.
Battery: Li-ION 1800mAh
Playing time(with earphone): 6 hours movie, 10 hours music

So, what do you think? Think it will be a viable option or is it dead in the water?

[Suzanna]

I think this will be a niche device for fans of their books. They have a number of devoted fans who visit their site to buy books (their 3rd party bookstore prices tend to be higher.) They have a convention every year, and also have a presence at the annual Romantic Times convention, so they do have a large following. I can see it doing okay with their fans. I'm curious what the price will be.

[Pomtroll]

I agree with SAO. I think it may find a niche with many of the romance readers. My bet is that Romantic Times Magazine will advertise it too & that should help. BUT so many of the women & men who read romance have been using Kindles. So it will take a lot of advertising to overcome the Kindle's advantage.

[MrsJoseph]

I think that you all may be right - but I do like the fact that the reader is supposed to be completely open to begin with. If the hardware is good enough, could be as good as a rooted nook?

[kjk]

Can't wait to see some of the custom covers for that Reader!

[anamardoll]

The article asked about "vibration" but didn't verify that the device can be used one-handed?

[Suzanna]

From what I heard others say elsewhere, it doesn't have wifi. If that's true, that limits the device.

[MrsJoseph]

Originally Posted by Sao

From what I heard others say elsewhere, it doesn't have wifi. If that's true, that limits the device.

True. How will the publisher dole out these special offers without wi-fi?

[ucfgrad93]

Originally Posted by Sao

I think this will be a niche device for fans of their books.

I think that this is the best case scenario. More likely it is DOA.

[abookreader]

Originally Posted by anamardoll

The article asked about "vibration" but didn't verify that the device can be used one-handed?

so many jokes and innuendos to be made, so little time!

[MrsJoseph]

Originally Posted by abookreader

so many jokes and innuendos to be made, so little time!

Well, if it has vibrations...waterproofing, maybe?

[vulcan_girl]

Originally Posted by ucfgrad93

I think that this is the best case scenario. More likely it is DOA.

I think it's just DOA. People who read romance were some of the early adopters of eReaders, and I don't think this is going to make anyone switch to what they're selling. EC has also been up to its eyeballs in lawsuits over the past few years and based on reports of them changing some of their submission guidelines and signing authors to 75 book contracts, I think this is just grabbing at straws to stay in business.

[MrsJoseph]

Originally Posted by vulcan_girl

I think it's just DOA. People who read romance were some of the early adopters of eReaders, and I don't think this is going to make anyone switch to what they're selling. EC has also been up to its eyeballs in lawsuits over the past few years and based on reports of them changing some of their submission guidelines and signing authors to 75 book contracts, I think this is just grabbing at straws to stay in business.

Do you have a link for that outside of FB?

I have heard of some of the lawsuits. I thought they were all dismissed? But 75 book contracts?? Seriously? WTF?

[vulcan_girl]

Originally Posted by MrsJoseph

Do you have a link for that outside of FB?

I have heard of some of the lawsuits. I thought they were all dismissed? But 75 book contracts?? Seriously? WTF?

The link is to EC's Facebook page - they announced it there. Here's a link to it at MediaBistro.

[MrsJoseph]

75 books? SMH