06:43 PM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book General | News

When we learned about the recent resignation of their CEO, we knew there was trouble in the air for Barnes & Noble. Seeking Alpha has an article explaining why that is. They cite three market segments in which the bookseller is still operating: tablet market, retail business, and college bookstores. Neither of these markets appear to offer any hope.

In the tablet market, the only upside for Barnes & Noble is Microsoft's recent involvement in the Nook business:

Maybe there's hope for the Nook, though. Last year, Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) acquired a 17.6% stake in Barnes & Noble's Nook business segment. Through this investment, Microsoft breaks into the e-reading market with the goal of developing a Windows 8 operating system to replace the Google Android operating system currently running on the Nook.

The rumors of Microsoft paying $1 billion for Barnes & Noble's e-book business segment should temporarily keep investors onboard.

Don't even consider the retail business, if you read the numbers.

As aforementioned, though, its e-book division's future does not look bright. Last fall, it reported it had 27% of the e-book market share. Just a few months later, that number fell to 25%. Because its tablet segment is downsizing, its market share will continue to fall.

Lastly, while revenues in college book sales are on the rise, earning margins have been decreasing (due to investments, they say) and might continue to do so in the long-run.

This segment may boast increasing margins as margins on textbooks increase, but I see this practice tapering off. As textbook rental sites like Chegg further develop and refine their business, college students will seek the all-inclusive services that go beyond just the textbook.

Things certainly aren't looking good for B&N. Question is, what's really left for this company that used to be a behemoth in the book industry? Or, differently asked, does B&N even deserve to have a future?

Somehow, the publishing world calculus has deemed Barnes & Noble an evil lesser than Amazon. And there is, perhaps, some valence to that argument. But mostly, it just shows how myopic we can be about the business we love so much.

As is so often the case, the cleverest take on the ironic saga of Barnes & Noble comes courtesy of The Onion, where a recent article reported that Fox & Company — the triumphant, megalithic bookstore from You've Got Mail — has closed in the face of "Amazon and Apple absorbing the lion’s share of the market." The article also noted, as Radosh does, that the fictional chain, like the real one that is its obvious basis, had "a cold approach to revenue." This is a satire of the truest kind.

[related: Are bookstores still worth fighting for?, image: Flickr]

07:00 AM by Alexander Turcic in Miscellaneous | Week in Review

It was the week that was. Here's what MobileRead's been talking about since last Sunday:

E-Book General - News

• BookVibe mines the Web to find your next read
• Jane Austen to appear on Bank of England £10 note
• EPUB3 is dead, long live EPUB3Lite...
• PW: Conspiracy Fines detailed, so far...
• Penguin ends Apple Agreement

E-Book General - General Discussions

• Your next e-book reader - powered by urine?
• Ditching DRM on all e-books. Could Apple do it again?
• Trend Watch: Paper books back in vogue
• Poll: 3 out of 4 Americans prefer paper books
• Finland: Crowdsourced copyright law will be put to a vote
• Aussie regulator: E-book price fixing is not our problem
• Ectaco caught using MobileRead to create fake buzz about Jetbook

E-Book General - Reading Recommendations

• August 2013 Book Club Vote

02:12 PM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book General | General Discussions

We're a bit heavy-hearted to report the news, but recently it was discovered by one of our vigilant members that someone, or several people, employed by, or affiliated with, Ectaco used sock puppets in our forums. Posing as regular consumers, these sock puppets were used to create phony grassroots support for Ectaco products, specifically for the Jetbook device. Not just recently, but for several years.

We pride ourselves on being an open and welcoming community. Everyone is invited to join the discussions, whether in an official capacity or otherwise. Full disclosure is not a requirement, as long as you don't attempt to distort the views in our forums, either by pretending to be a delighted customer of your own brand, or by pretending to be a disgruntled user of a competing product. This would be considered astroturfing, which is designed to counteract real opinions and confuse anyone seeking the truth. Astroturfers will be banned without notice.

Ectaco sock puppets were identified through having identical IP addresses registered to Ectaco, Inc. We tried to reach out to the company directly on the issue, but received no response.

The moral of the story: If you're having trouble energizing a legitimate set of brand evangelists, don't attempt to disguise false engagement by having employees or affiliates pretend to be customers. It will most certainly be found out.

[image: Flickr]

02:05 PM by HarryT in E-Book General | News

Author Jane Austen is to feature on the next £10 note, the Bank of England says, avoiding a long-term absence of women represented on banknotes.

The Pride and Prejudice author will be the next face of the note, replacing Charles Darwin, probably in 2017.
...
The portrait of Jane Austen, which will appear on the banknote, is adapted from a sketch drawn by her sister Cassandra Austen. Other features include:

- A quote from Pride and Prejudice - "I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading!"
- An illustration of Elizabeth Bennet, one of the characters in Pride and Prejudice
- An image of Godmersham Park in Kent - the home of Jane Austen's brother, Edward Austen Knight, and the inspiration for a number of novels
- A central background design of the author's writing table which she used at home at Chawton Cottage in Hampshire

Fellow writers William Shakespeare and Charles Dickens have appeared on banknotes in recent times. Dickens was on the £10 note and Shakespeare on the £20 note.

Full story at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-23424289

12:31 PM by fjtorres in E-Book General | News

...maybe.

From the Association of American Publishers comes a last ditch effort to save epub3 by killing epub3 and replacing it with a de-bloated version: AAP EPUB 3 Implementation Project.

Via Digital Reader.

AAP publishers are currently recruiting representation from all stakeholder groups to participate in the initiative’s two central efforts:

Convening this summer: A working group to identify baseline accessibility features for the EPUB 3 files and for metadata, and to plan the program for the September workshop
September 10, 2013: A daylong workshop for all participants in New York City to define and prioritize actionable projects

With that timeline they'll be lucky to get the spec implemented in readers for Xmas 2014. Which says epub3 not only won't be ready this year, they don't expect it to be ready next year either.

12:27 PM by kennyc in E-Book General | News

Boost for Amazon as Penguin agrees to end Apple e-books deal

Jennifer Baker, IDG News Service
Jul 25, 2013 7:50 AMprint
Penguin has agreed to terminate its e-book agreement with Apple and to allow Amazon to set its own prices for electronic books in a settlement of a European Union antitrust case.

The European Commission accepted the deal with Penguin on Thursday after more than a year of investigations into allegations of cartel price fixing in the e-book market.
...

http://www.pcworld.com/article/20451...ooks-deal.html

12:26 PM by fjtorres in E-Book General | News

Those poor put-upon victims of the Feds have so far paid $166M dollars for their two year run of price fixing.

From Publisher's Weekly:

Notably, the letter includes the total damage awards calculated by the states and lists the amount publishers agreed to pay as a percentage of those damages. In that regard, the deals look pretty good for the initial three settling publishers (Hachette, HarperCollins, and Simon & Schuster). Hachette was calculated to be on the hook for a total of $62,280,000, but has paid $32,686,165, roughly 52% of what it was liable for. HarperCollins paid $20,168,710, about 65% of $31,140,000 it was assessed for. And Simon & Schuster was on the hook for $42,920,000, and paid $18,303,551 or 42% of assessed damages.

Penguin and Macmillan, meanwhile, appear to have paid a premium for being the last two publishers to settle claims. Penguin, which struck a deal just days before Apple's June trial, agreed to pay $75 million to settle calculated damages of $62,128,000, or 121% of its assessed liability. Macmillan, which settled in March, paid $20 million to settle damage claims of $18,515,000—or, 108% of their liability.

Note that the way the "reparations" will be paid is a credits for future ebook purchases so they'll get the money right back.

As expected, they got off easy, though you'd never believe it to hear them whine about getting a wrist slap.

Glass tower crime pays off, again.

08:06 PM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book General | General Discussions

What do you do if something smells fishy? You ask your local competition regulator to sniff around until they find the potential source of the stink. Unfortunately for Senator Nick Xenophon, and for all our Aussie members, the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC) turned down his request to investigate the pricing of electronic books in Australia. The Australian Financial Review writes:

[A]n ACCC spokesman said the watchdog considered that "the conduct of concern occurred in the US and we note that conduct is being sanctioned by the regulator in the US."

We've seen plenty of examples here in the forums where MobileRead members pointed out the difference in e-book prices, usually to the disadvantage of our Aussie friends.

Instead of fretting about e-book prices, the Australian argues more attention should be given to snapper fish and giant squids (subscription req):

Nothing would be served by such an inquiry; it certainly wouldn't result in any significant reduction in e-book pricing, which is set beyond these shores, and as far as we can see no longer by Apple. [...] Xenophon, we reckon, would be doing more useful work petitioning the ACCC for an inquiry into the price of Aussie seafood.

[image: Flickr]