The Xplanation has the conclusion of its textbook publishing series today: Over the past month, I have written a series of posts on the future of textbook publishing in the digital age. In the series, I have addressed new business models, new product models, a formula for digital product profitability, and specific product opportunities. In this final installment, I want to address the need for new publisher workflows in the coming decade. A focus on digital content that leads to greater product diversity and flexibility, will force textbook publishers to introduce a number of changes in both conceptualizing and managing their content....

Another one from The Bookseller this morning: French e-book distributors have launched the first phase of their scheme to create a single online book catalogue and electronic interface. Inititally, the websites of nine bricks and mortar booksellers: www.appeldulivre.fr; www.arbrealettres.com; www.cultura.fr; www.librairie-ledivan.fr; www.furet.com; www.gibertjeune.fr; www.lamartine.fr; www.ombres-blanches.fr; www.virginmega.fr, and two electronic counterparts, ePagine and Numilog are involved. The last two are handling the sales....

Here they are, according to the Bookseller: 1. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak (Doubleday/Transworld) 2. Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel (Fourth Estate) 3. The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown (Bantam Press) 4. Brooklyn Follies by Paul Auster (Faber) 5. An Utterly Impartial History of Britain by John O'Farrell (Black Swan) 6. Life of Pi by Yann Martel (Canongate) 7. Making Money by Terry Pratchett (Doubleday) 8. The Fifth Elephant by Terry Pratchett (Corgi) 9. Train to Trieste by Domnica Radulescu (Black Swan) 10. To Heaven by Water by Justin Cartwright (Bloomsbury) ...

The Plato Code. No, it’s not the next best-seller by Dan Brown; this is something real. It comes out that a science historian has discovered that Plato, one of the ancient Greek philosophers whose known writings shaped the whole of modern scientific thought, hid secret writings within those known writings by means of a code. However, banish thoughts of directions to a hidden treasure. The real treasure Plato hid was some of his more radical (for the time) philosophies, that could have caused him to be executed like his teacher Socrates had they become widely known. ...

The application has been released and can be downloaded from the Android Market, according to Amazon's press release. You can find out more about it here. ...

Starting on June 28 the Kindle will be sold at HMSHost branded airport stores - Simply Books and Authors Bookstores. The Kindles will be pre-charged and ready to go. According to the press release the airports that will be selling Kindles are: Atlanta Hartsfield Jackson, Charlotte Douglas, Dallas Ft. Worth, George Bush Houston, Miami International, Minneapolis St. Paul, John Wayne, Salt Lake City, San Diego International, Mineta San Jose, Tampa International...

Ars Technica has a profile of retiring Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens that makes for interesting reading. Although most of it may not be relevant to e-book readers, the article does mention a few particularly important decisions to the tech world that were decided in large part thanks to Stevens breaking a tie. One of these is the seminal Sony v. Universal case that decided the legality of VCRs and declared “time shifting” to be a fair use of copyrighted media. It was Stevens who decided the 5-4 majority, and who wrote the majority opinion. This...

Jeff Jarvis at BuzzMachine has a great, in-depth editorial that ties together two stories I’ve covered in the last few days: the ongoing debate about the “hot news” doctrine and Rolling Stone getting beaten to the web with its own story, the controversial interview of General McChrystal. Jarvis casts the “hot news” case in a light of old media versus new media, and takes a detailed look at two briefs filed in the case—one from a conglomerate of old media companies, and the other from Google and Twitter. Jarvis refers here to the New York Times...

And speaking of school libraries, NPR reported a few days ago that they are increasingly becoming seen as a luxury where school budgets are concerned. Since there are few laws mandating that schools must have libraries, they are beginning to go by the wayside as budgets dwindle. But librarians do far more than just check out books. They help students with research and information technology, such as the Internet—or even e-books. Students, especially those from low-income families may not have access to the resources they need to do their schoolwork at home. [Rosemarie Bernier,...

Placing e-books in public libraries is not a new idea. I’ve reviewed a couple of e-book library systems, including the one my own local library has. However, it turns out that e-books may have a place in school libraries, too. I was interested to see this piece in Mediabistro’s “EbookNewser” section in which Amy Chow, Head Librarian at Brearley School in New York City, is interviewed about her library’s use of e-books. Said Chow: We've been providing access to eBooks online for some time now. We subscribe to Questia School eBook collection and we...

Results from the London Times’s paywall implementation are coming in. For the first part of the implementation, the Times has gone to a registration wall, rather than a paywall—the site is still free to read, but users must register to do so. According to statistics from Hitwise, the Times’s site lost about 1/3 of its traffic just from users who were unwilling to take the time to register to keep reading for free. Of course, Rupert Murdoch would probably say those people were all freeloaders, and the site will be better off without the additional load...

Mike Shatzkin’s blog has an interesting essay about putting together an advisory council for the Digital Book World conference, and some of the challenges that come with running such a conference. One challenge has to do with knowing some change is going on or about to go on in digital publishing, but not knowing who is a part of it or whether those who are will talk about it. The other has to do with with publishers being willing to discuss things privately, but not publicly—e-book royalty rates, for example. And as with any business, nobody...