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U.K. news: Amazon Kindle and Sony gear up for slug-out, and top writers will be available in E
February 17, 2008 | 6:46 am
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By David Rothman
The Amazon Kindle and the Sony Reader will be officially on sale in the U.K. in the next few months. Meanwhile, Hachette and Random House, which own 30 percent the book market in Great Britain, “are to offer downloadable versions of titles by authors ranging from Delia Smith to Ian McEwan and Michael Parkinson.” So reports Times Online. “Every other major publisher is drawing up plans to follow suit, pitching the books at just below the price of a hardback.”
Whoops. Here I thought this would be the era of $10 e-best-sellers, especially at Amazon. I’d love to know all the facts. Not all books at Amazon are $10, but isn’t the cost of distributing electrons far below that of atoms? Just why the devil should any sane reader pay $25, or whatever that is in pounds these days, for a DRMed book? Or will the publishers consider dropping DRM? Hardly likely. If nothing else, what about prices at Amazon’s U.K. site vs. those at on the mother ship?
If the Times account is accurate, and I have my doubts on some of the details, then U.K. publishers will be in for a rude surprise.
According to the Times, “The first device to be launched in Britain will be the Sony Reader, probably in late spring. The manufacturer has been working with the Borders bookshop chain in America so shoppers can both buy the device and download books at branches. In Britain, it is understood to be in discussions with Waterstone’s.”
Related: If you’re a Brit with Kindle lust.
Likewise of interest across the Pond: 95-year copyright law for music in E.U. countries, via Google News. Also see MobileRead discussion.
Technorati Tags: Hachette,Random House,Delia Smith,Ian McEwan,Michael Parkinson,books,publishing,book publishing
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Comments:
It’s the first time I’ve heard anything about the Kindle coming out over here. Also it’d have to be redesigned somewhat, because I don’t think our mobile networks use EVDO. Given the fact that the Times article also gets other things wrong (such as claiming that the Kindle and Sony Reader are interoperable!) I suspect their source is not very reliable. I do remember hearing about Sony planning a deal with Waterstones to launch the Reader at the London Book Fair 2008 though, but that’s a few months away yet.
Great news if the Sony Reader and Kindle appear over there. If Amazon and Sony insist on pricing books high, I imagine Fictionwise will have a field day.
Yes, electrons are cheaper to push than paper. Although there certainly are costs involved with either format (if you think that the papermakers get most of the $29.99 price of your latest hardback, you’re kidding yourself). I certainly believe in passing the savings on to the customer but I’m hardly a model of a high-profit business.
Rob Preece
Publisher, http://www.BooksForABuck.com
The Times article also said: “Pages are turned by touch rather than by fiddling with buttons. . . .”
It isn’t clear to me (at least) what the Times means. The Sony PRS505 uses buttons that you touch, as does the Kindle. Usually when using the term “touch” the reference is to a touchscreen, but unless new models are about to appear, both the Kindle and the Sony use buttons.
Or am I missing something?
The Kindle is ridden with DRM and will for that reason, in the long term, fail.
The Reader (I have one) is a nice machine, but suffers, though to a lesser extent, from Sony’s misplaced obsession with DRM.
As Rob Preece implies above, the price of ebooks is too high. The future of ebooks lies in self-publishing by authors: for an essay on the implications, please have a look at
http://www.richardherley.com/FTCebooks.html
The price of the ebook-displays themselves, when they reach these shores, will no doubt be subjected to that peculiar exchange rate, so popular with technology companies, of $1.00 = £1.00!
eBooks will make it – and the evolution of Readers (Sony, Kindle, and anyone else game enough to enter the market) and Pricing (real pricing, not pumped up grab-all prices )will end in tears for many, joy for the rest.