Comments for TeleRead: News and views on e-books, libraries, publishing and related topics

Comment on Foyles launches ebook app along with txtr by Howard

Howard — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 02:39:28 +0000

Unfortunately that says it all Katherine.

Imagine if they launched a classy eReader app with bells and whistles, or say they bought out something like Shubook or such like, and rewrote it to make it even better. Then say they had a eBook Market page in that eReader with access to each major Indie’s eBook catalogue, all built in and downloadable and purchasable with a single click. Think about it. Then let’s say the EU opens up the Kindle to competing sellers in 2013/4 … or they get together to build a kindle clone … it doesn’t take a rocket scientists to see the possibilities to compete with Amazon. It’s not as if Amazon are unassailable.
But Everest cannot be climbed if no one has the bottle!

Comment on How Publishers Misunderstand Kindle, by Ted Striphas by Howard

Howard — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 02:34:06 +0000

I don’t see any business logic in your argument at all Felix, and I don’t see that value you see. It’s easy to assign value and so some sums, but it has to stand up. It doesn’t imho. The rest of the publishing world is well within competing distance if they chose to. The trouble they chose not to because they can’t see beyond the tips of their noses. And the Indies don’t seem to have any leadership or vision to join together to launch their own. This data stuff is froth.

Comment on How Publishers Misunderstand Kindle, by Ted Striphas by Felix Torres

Felix Torres — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 02:06:25 +0000

The value of such information about any one reader is low, yes. Say a few cents over a couple of years. But multiply it by the millions of people Amazon sells to and it starts to add up. (Think of olympic swimmers shaving their bodies to reduce drag; it doesn’t make much of a difference by itself but in a competition where fractions of a second count, every little bit helps.)
More importantly, it is data *doubly* valuable to Amazon because it is *their* customers they’re profiling and because nobody else can get it. Even cheap things can be valuable if nobody else has them. Like the Kindle Special Offers. It is doubtful there is much outside money coming in for those banner ads. Maybe like Google’s ads, they only bring one cent each. Per device. Per day. But if Amazon has 10 million KSO’s out there, each bringing in one cent a day, that’s over $30 million a year.
Not trivial.
In the end, it doesn’t matter all that much *how* valuable it may or not be, but it is an interesting indicator of just how big the gulf is between Amazon and the rest of the publishing world. It’s almost as if they are playing two entirely different games or running a road race where one team has a modern car with a GPS unit and the other has to stop and ask for directions at every intersection.
Knowing is usually better than guessing, right?
That is the value of data.

Comment on Amazon Is Removing from Kindle Store Books Published in Unsupported Languages, by Piotr Kowalczyk by Natasha

Natasha — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 01:40:40 +0000

My books in Russian have been blocked with the same explanation. Very strange and rude.They’re talking about customer serves… It doesn’t include Polish, or Russians, or Romanian I guess. They want only customers in “supported” languages.

Comment on Foyles launches ebook app along with txtr by Katherine

Katherine — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 23:56:42 +0000

In the U.S., there is the IndieBound app… works with Google Books. Of course on the iPhone/iPad you can’t BUY books through it, but you can buy them through your iOS device’s web browser and then download the books with IndieBound. On Android, you can buy and download.

Comment on How Publishers Misunderstand Kindle, by Ted Striphas by Howard

Howard — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 23:37:23 +0000

Felix – I think it is valuable … up to a point. But I believe it is way overstated in the article and in your comment. That’s just my opinion
They’ll find out that people read in this and that pattern. That they read mostly at lunch or tea or at night or on the bog. That they read for an average of … 35 minutes or whatever. And they already know what we buy from Amazon, and that many of us buy indie titles and side load them. That many read titles of dodgy origins. All very interesting and fascinating. But as I say, a big deal about very little imho.

Comment on How Publishers Misunderstand Kindle, by Ted Striphas by Felix Torres

Felix Torres — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 22:33:21 +0000

@Howard: Have you seen this?
http://www.digitalbookworld.com/2012/how-publishers-should-prepare-for-epub-3/

Signature quote: ” With EPUB 3, publishers should be able to build software into their books that tells them how much a reader reads, when they read and for how long, for starters.”

That is the kind of information Amazon can get without building spyware into their ebooks, just off their own servers. It is valuable.

Comment on Smug about OverDrive? A whopping 39 percent of U.S. public libraries don’t offer downloadable e-books. by paul

paul — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 22:10:00 +0000

Is Overdrive for sale ?

Comment on Foyles launches ebook app along with txtr by Howard

Howard — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 19:57:54 +0000

This fragmentation by the independent sector is crazy imho. The Indies should be getting together to develop a hot eReading app that gives the reader access to a whole group of independent sellers in an easy to use manner as an alternative to Kindle et al.

Comment on An ebook rental option: the solution to OverDrive’s library woes? by Howard

Howard — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 19:53:19 +0000

Another crazy way of trying to bolt old ways into a new world.
The best way of getting eBooks to the masses, and the less well off, is affordable pricing. All of this lending and renting is really a side track.

Comment on How Publishers Misunderstand Kindle, by Ted Striphas by Howard

Howard — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 19:49:55 +0000

Thats ten minutes of my life I’ll never get back …

And this stuff about Amazon’s big Information gain is way way way over stated.

Comment on Amazon Is Removing from Kindle Store Books Published in Unsupported Languages, by Piotr Kowalczyk by Melita K.

Melita K. — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 19:31:27 +0000

One possibility is that Amazon is trying to minimize issues with texts published in languages that they don’t have the resources to check (is it p0rn, illegal translation from another language, copyright-infringing, etc).

Comment on How Publishers Misunderstand Kindle, by Ted Striphas by Ted Striphas

Ted Striphas — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 18:16:39 +0000

I’d venture to guess your reading habits are not as eclectic as you think they are; if nothing else, Amazon’s algorithms are capable of finding the unity amid all the eclecticism, which helps the company to build a more accurate profile of who you are. In terms of what Amazon does with this information, you need to think about the matter from Amazon’s — and not your own — perspective. It’s not only about product recommendations, although it is in part. Consider, for instance, Amazon’s recent move into publishing. I’d venture to guess that they’ll be using information scooped up from people’s Kindles to determine what types of books they ought to be publishing.

My guess would be that Amazon knows that you and your daughter share a Kindle — or that you share it with someone. Even if it doesn’t, the algorithms I’ve been writing about are adept at “smoothing” and “scrubbing” data, or discerning the “signal” amid all the “noise.” I’m not saying they’re perfect, by any means, but I’m confident they’re more powerful and widely deployed than people tend to give them credit for. Hence, my post, which I’m grateful to you for reading.

Comment on An ebook rental option: the solution to OverDrive’s library woes? by Mary

Mary — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 17:53:58 +0000

This is an excellent idea and one I would gladly support. However, it appears to be a long way off since publishers are afflicted with paranoia and not on the cutting edge of innovation. Perhaps Random House might venture to dip a toe in the waters. They are the only major publisher in the Overdrive system without restrictions (so far). For that reason alone they seem to be the most forward-thinking.

Comment on Cheap Reads: Legacy of the Aldenata series by John Ringo by kocho trajchevski

kocho trajchevski — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 17:46:32 +0000

the book series is ok for an easy reading but it has a lot of faults in the story line. The author’s view of USA as the only world super power is just crazy and funny. He makes that China falls in just one month. First of all with population of 1.6 billion people China can easy field an army that will dwarf the one invasion wave. 30% of the population goes as soldiers and that is roughly 500 million soldiers and Mr Ringo China is not that far behind us as major power in fact it’s almost as strong. Second Russia with the winter and the Red Army back the Russians would trash any invasion that landed in their mist. They would of course retreat to the east in the end. For france i have to agree but as for the Balkans and the saying that they will be only bits and pieces of survivors. Thonk again. The balkans are mostly mountains especualy former Yugoslavian countries. 20 years ago the SFRJ was the fourth power in the world with over 2000000 regular troops ten in the story line. And his best answer as for he strength of the army is simple. Why didn’t nato troops enter in serbia in 1999 becouse they would be slaughterd like pigs. With the rejuv therapy JNA will come back. And the republics would most certainly unite again. i think that the posties would get their arses kicked so bad that they would just live the balkans alone. The terrain is easyly defendable and with refugies arriving from eastern europe bulgaria and greece and from hungary romania there would be ample soldiers to fight. I think tha the posties may take vojvodina and nortern croatia anad maybe just maybe small parts of macedonia and kosovo but that is all. I”m writing a book abut the events on the balkans it should be published soon and i hink it will tell a good story about the Balkans in that war.