10:02 AM by RWood in Miscellaneous | Announcements

An index page has been added to the Wiki for Complete Works of Charles Dickens Available at MobileRead.

The twenty-five (25) works are listed in alphabetical order and contain direct links to the downloadable ebooks available in both Mobipocket PRC and Sony BBeB (LRF) formats. Many are illustrated with the original graphics scanned by HarryT.

These editions were created by HarryT and contain thousands of textual corrections beyond the public domain sources available at Project Gutenberg and elsewhere. Each book is a handcrafted masterpiece. Each volume is DRM free.

These are wonderful editions from one of the greatest writers in the English language.

06:00 AM by Alexander Turcic in Miscellaneous | Week in Review

If you've been absent and are keen to find out what MobileRead was up to this week, check out the links below:

E-Books - News

• NY Times article about e-books and reading business
• Paulo "The Alchemist" Coelho pirates own books to increase sales
• Amazon to Begin International Rollout of MP3s in 2008
• Macmillan Publishing Solutions launches mobile reader service
• PVI cannot meet Amazon Kindle demand
• Amazon to Acquire Audible.com
• Will cellphones save books?

E-Book Devices - Sony Portable Reader

• Sony's eBook Store begins "stocking" Short Stories!

E-Book Devices - Bookeen Cybook Gen3

• Cybook Gen3 officially back in stock

E-Book Devices - Amazon Kindle

• A Beginner's Guide to Kindle Content
• Amazon Kindle - driving lots of traffic to Amazon
• Kindle scores high in Disrupt-O-Meter test
• Jerry Pournelle has a Kindle
• Please Don't Ask NowNow technical questions about the Kindle

Miscellaneous - Lounge

• The case for novellas versus long books

Miscellaneous - Announcements

• The MobileRead logo and tagline contests end tonight!

11:15 PM by rocky1938 in E-Book Readers | Amazon Kindle

I'm one of the people who responds to the various questions posed on nownow. We have just been advised that we are now forbidden from responding to any question that can be construed as being of a technical support nature (regarding Kindle) and we can be banned if we ignore this edict. So you're advised to refrain from asking any support questions of us, and must now contact Amazon customer support directly for any problems or concerns you have with Kindle.

Here's the pertinent portion of the email that some of us received (their email system is somewhat "broken" so many people don't receive any correspondence from them). We already knew their policy regarding solicitation of votes from persons asking question, so that part isn't a surprise.

"Message from Amazon Requester Inc. (turk-nemo-requestor@amazon.com)
---------------------------------
Dear MTurk worker,

It has come to our attention that Kindle users are seeking Kindle customer support by asking these questions through the MTurk HIT "NowNow Research Question for $1695 Weekly Reward. "

We appreciated that some of you have tried to answer Kindle customer support questions, but we have decided it is more appropriate that our own Amazon customer service support these users to ensure they have a great experience. Therefore, please do not work on any HITs for "NowNow Research Question for $1695 Weekly Reward. " that could be Kindle customer support questions. If you submit a HIT on any Kindle customer support question, we will be forced to ban you from working on future NowNow research questions.

It has also come to our attention that some workers have been soliciting "Great" votes from our users. Soliciting votes from our users is against our rules and will result in your account being banned from working on any future NowNow hits.

Thank you for your understanding and support.

NowNow Team"

To add some further information, we were taken by surprise last November when the group of questions originating from users Kindles was added with little fanfare. Matter of fact, we had absolutely NO training of any sort from Amazon themselves regarding the Kindle ("they sprang it upon us" is a mild way of putting it), and any information we did find, we located on our own. For the record, we have no more knowledge of it that any of you could find on the internet on your own...there's no "inside" or "secret" information that any of us know (which is why all those "how many Kindles has Amazon sold" questions only received guesses--we really don't know either).

Amazon should've made a decision back then how to deal with Kindle support--either send the questions to us, but actually provide information on the product for us to work with, or have actively filtered out support questions from day one. They did neither.

02:30 PM by DaleDe in E-Book General | News

Here is an interesting article from Mike Elgan of the Computerworld.

[T]he secret to getting young people excited about books isn't about taking our existing published books and formatting them for cell phones. Instead, we need to figure out how to let readers publish their own books in a way that can reach a mass audience -- not just on obscure blogs, but on all media: print, online, audio and, yes, even cell phones.

Was Jobs wrong? Were we premature in replacing the MobileRead logo?

Dale

01:14 PM by Alexander Turcic in Miscellaneous | Lounge

Not exactly a new question, but it always comes up again. Should anyone need more than a few hundred pages to tell a good story?

Mrs. Edelstein from the Guardian Books blog is an outspoken proponent of efficient novellas, and she also explains why:

And who could deny that the actual experience of reading a long book can feel a little arduous if it doesn't really make your heart sing? It is much like eating a delicious meal in an American restaurant - lovely, but you have to leave at least quarter of the portion behind or else you'll explode.

[...]

Readable in a couple of hours, a novella demands far less time than a full-length novel: you can get through them in the same amount of time it takes to watch a film or two reality television programmes. If you read one in bed you can actually finish it in one go, as opposed to reading the same few chapters repeatedly because you keep forgetting what you covered the night before. And best all, an upswing in the publication of novellas would not confirm the prejudices of those who rail against the dumbing-down of literature: novellas require an intelligent author and an intelligent reader to appreciate the power of brevity.

Some people like a long read. Some don't. On which side are you?

[via SF Signal]

11:08 AM by NatCh in E-Book Readers | Sony Reader

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

"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."

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.

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.

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

09:03 AM by Nate the great in E-Book General | News

Amazon.com today announced that it has reached an agreement to acquire Audible Inc.

Audible.com is the leading online provider of premium digital spoken word audio content, specializing in digital audio editions of books, newspapers and magazines, television and radio programs and original programming. Through its web sites in the US and UK and alliances in Germany and France, Audible.com offers over 80,000 programs, including audiobooks from well-known authors such as Stephen King, Thomas Friedman, and Jane Austen, and spoken word audio content from sources including The New York Times, The New Yorker, Fresh Air and Charlie Rose.

"Audible.com offers the best customer experience, the widest content selection and the broadest device compatibility in the industry," said Steve Kessel, Amazon.com's senior vice president for worldwide digital media. "Working together, we can introduce more innovations and bring this format to an even wider audience."

"This deal brings together two pioneering companies that share a long history of ceaseless focus on improving the customer experience," said Donald Katz, founder and chief executive of Audible.com. "We are very excited to be joining a company as innovative as Amazon.com."

In recent months, Amazon has announced a number of innovations in the digital space, including Amazon Kindle, a revolutionary wireless portable reader that provides instant wireless downloads of more than 90,000 books, blogs, magazines and newspapers to a crisp, high-resolution electronic paper display.

Under the terms of the agreement, Amazon.com will commence a cash tender offer to purchase all of the outstanding shares of Audible.com for $11.50 per share and will assume Audible.com's outstanding stock-based awards, for an aggregate transaction value of approximately $300 million which includes Audible.com's cash and short-term investments at closing.

The acquisition is subject to customary closing conditions, including regulatory approvals, and is expected to close by the second quarter of 2008.

from:
http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix....cle&id=1102510

03:58 PM by petermillard in E-Book Readers | Amazon Kindle

Science fiction author and former 'Byte' computer columnist Jerry Pournelle has a new Amazon Kindle. His initial comments are on his current column/blog Computing at Chaos Manor, January 29th.

Whether it's worth the money depends how much of your life is involved in carrying books around and reading them. I know in my case I am very glad to have it: I won't ever be caught in a waiting room without a book to read, because I am loading the Kindle up with older mysteries (priced from half a buck up) and books I always intended to read (most of those are free) and I'll have that selection with me wherever I go.