09:44 AM by fjtorres in E-Book General | News

No, they never went away, but independent bookstores are in growth mode. As half the book industry has moved to online purchases and ebooks, a good portion of the other half is now shopping indie. CNBC reports:

"Sales from independent bookstores in 2012 were up eight percent over 2011," said Dan Cullen a spokesman for the American Booksellers Association, a nonprofit trade group of independent bookstores.

"We've got people opening new bookstores and people buying into existing ones," he said. Talk of the death of independent bookstores "as a result of the big-box stores was premature at best," he added.

Some interesting numbers:

About one in five books sold last year was an e-book, accounting for $3 billion of the $15 billion in total publishing revenues, according to the Association of American Publishers and the Book Industry Study Group.

Meanwhile, audio books are going through an explosive period, with sales up 21.8 percent last year from 2011, to $241 million. Amazon bought the biggest maker of audio books, Audible, in 2008 and has the lion's share of the market.

This comes as book sales are in general decline worldwide, with sales in the U.S. down 9.3 percent last year.

Independents hold just 10 percent of the overall book market compared with Barnes & Nobles's 20 percent and Amazon's 29 percent, according to the ABA.

B&N's numbers include *their* online and ebook sales so it sounds as if the Indies are cumulatively the equivalent to B&N's storefronts. Which suggests that lots of smaller stores at more sites *is* a viable strategy for a chain. It certainly seems to work for Half-Price books. (Though I'm not sure I'd count them as indie as the report does. They're family owned but... 116 stores/16 states...)

A trend worth watching.

(image by secretlondon123 via Flickr)

08:54 AM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book General | News

You'd think that in an electronic age, accumulating a stack of paper work is utterly unnecessary, right? Heck no. A group of human computer interaction researchers from Canada have come up with a system dubbed DisplayStacks, which allows you to physically stack a bunch of flexible E Ink displays and make them interact with each other. Still not convinced? Check out the following for a live demonstration.

If you're interested in more details in how this works, you can download the research paper over here (PDF).

08:21 AM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book General | News

As the old Russian proverb goes, "He who does not take risks does not get to drink champagne." In the case of Amazon, the saying may be amended to, "He who does not take risks misses the chance to make a fortune as the world's biggest book seller in the (territory-wise) largest country in the world." Publishing Perspectives has revealed some tantalizing details about Amazon's expansion plans into the Russian book market:

[Amazon] has begun signing contracts with Russia’s largest publishing houses to supply electronic content to its Russian store.

According to Amazon, at the initial stage the company will sell only digital content in Russia, while later will expand to print books. Currently, Russians buy tens of millions of dollars worth of print books and other media from Amazon, though these are ordered from overseas sites (and consequently, an alarmingly high percentage is “lost” in the post). [...]

According to Andrew Cechin, head of commercial projects Ozon.ru, the largest Russian online retailer, delivery of digital media content in Russia will be more profitable for Amazon than would establishing a large-scale logistics operation from scratch.

More at Publishing Perspectives (via Goodereader)

[image by David Dennis via Flickr]

07:29 AM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book General | News

Every semester is the same: Students limp back to their dorm rooms with heavy bags full of textbooks and light wallets. Google's entry into the textbook market is a sign of change for the better. Although we haven't seen an official announcement yet (except for this teaser), news is spreading fast that textbooks have arrived in the Google Play store (alas only if you live in the US, so far).

You can purchase textbooks from Play at full price or rent them for six months at up to 80% off, and read them either on your desktop or with the Google Play Books app (available on Android and iOS).

More at Android Police (via Digital Reader).

Related: Google Play Books expanding further in Europe

04:49 AM by jackastor in E-Book Readers | Kobo Reader

So 2.8.1 is out. What do you think?

What Change do you think would make a big improvement over all to 2.8.1? How would you suggest they implement the Home screen? Tiles or Old School? Or choice of Home Screens?

What major advantage/disadvantage did you find in 2.8.1?

What would your ideal kobo interface be?

Have fun and be honest share your pros/cons and likes and dislikes.

regards

JAck

04:43 AM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book Readers | Amazon Kindle

MobileReader Hotrootsoup posted an excellent starting guide for anyone who's interested in creating their own kindlets. Kindlets are Java applets that can extend the functionality of your Kindle reader.

From the guide:

Welcome! You may have noticed that it's easier to find reliable information about Atlantis than it is to find info on writing kindlets. I'm here to remedy that. After scrubbing through outdated wiki's and forum posts that assume you can read the author's mind, I have emerged triumphant.

Legal/moral note: I am not responsible if you crash, ruin, etc. your Kindle. These steps have worked for me, but they may not work for you. I do not believe that jailbreaks or further hacks void your warranty, but they very well may.

Links on Kindlets:

• Kindlet writing guide for the absolute beginner [PW]
• Guide: How to write Kindlets
• Kindlet Index (Wiki)
• Kindle Hacks Information (Wiki)
• Kindlet Entwicklungstutorial (German)

04:20 AM by Purple Lady in E-Book General | General Discussions

I wanted to buy a book from kobobooks.com today, but the format was not given anywhere on the page, so I didn't want to risk buying it. I looked up a book I bought just a few days ago and see the format there but I can't find a format on anything I search for. I searched for Hugh Howey because I know he's non drm epub, but didn't see the format there either.

Could someone look for this book and let me know if you see a format? I tried both Firefox and IE 10. Book is Mira Grant Feed.

I remember seeing a similar thread a few weeks ago and I searched but couldn't find it. I could see the format at the time, but whoever posted couldn't see it. I hope this isn't their new web page format.

04:02 AM by Billi in E-Book General | News

Barbara Mertz (September 29, 1927 – August 8, 2013) died at the age of 85. She wrote under the pseudonyms Elizabeth Peters and Barbara Michaels.

She was perhaps best known for the Amelia Peabody series, mysteries set in Egypt.