On the E-Book Community mailing list, Brenna Lyons has announced that Smashwords has made a deal with Apple for inclusion on the iPad:
There are hoops to jump through to be included but nothing outrageous. Among them…a unique ISBN (they have a free option that shows SW as the publisher and a $10 version that doesn’t, which they will allow you to run a credit balance to get), acceptance into the premium catalog, and cover art loaded of at least 600 pixels high.
More details here.
Whether bestsellers on iBooks will be priced at $9.99 or $12.99, there will be a number of books on the store absolutely free. AppAdvice reports that the iBooks catalog includes access to a number of Project Gutenberg titles. Although other iPhone readers also have access to Gutenberg, either directly or via Feedbooks or Manybooks, having them in iBooks will help Apple make the app more appealing.
Saying that iPhone apps look terrible when blown up to the size of the iPad’s screen, developer Marco Ament is making a new version of his Instapaper read-later application that will work to best effect on both iPads and iPhones. Gizmodo thinks that this new version of Instapaper will be a great killer-app for the iPad.
Apparently the iPad SDK will allow programmers to bundle both iPhone and iPad versions in a single app, meaning that it would only be necessary to purchase one version to run in both places. That means that those who have already purchased Instapaper Pro will have the use of it on the iPad without paying again.
Since the iPad is eminent, a number of e-book devices’ prices have dropped already, and CNet speculates on whether Amazon might consider cutting the price of its Kindles to $199. As the next lower price with the psychologically appealing lots-of-9s in it, this price point could have the potential to sell a good number of the devices. It certainly seems that the iPad is going to benefit even those e-book readers who don’t plan to buy one, since it will drive down so many other prices to compete.
Over on TechDirt, Mike Masnick wonders why it is that the Authors Guild has not yet “freaked out” over the iPad’s text-to-speech reading capabilities. It was fairly quick to jump on Amazon after the announcement of the Kindle’s text-to-speech after all, claiming that it infringed on the separate audiobook rights, until finally Amazon permitted them the option to disable it.
There has not yet been any sign of a similar outcry from the Authors Guild this time, however. Have they simply not noticed the text-to-speech capability yet? Or is negotiation going on behind the scenes?
Google Livres (the French version of Google Books) has lost an appeal not to have to publish the text of the December court ruling against it on its website for two weeks. The verdict ordered Google to pay a French publisher damages for digitizing copyrighted books without permission.
Google is appealing both the ruling in the appeal not to publish and the original ruling itself. However, the appeal against the original December decision may not be heard for another year or more.
Amazon may be forced to adjust its e-book pricing at the behest of publishers and their new agency model, but it seems to be just as guilty of enforcing price-fixing itself in other ways.
Amazon sites in the European Union—Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.de, and Amazon.fr—will be requiring “price parity from all sellers” beginning March 31. That is to say, those people selling goods through Amazon Market as well as other venues will be required to post the lowest price on Amazon. (At least, I think that is what the article means. It might mean they can’t sell anything cheaper than Amazon itself does. I’m not sure.)
