From Against-the-Grain: Etextbooks are the latest and, some would say, last major eBook category to finally start opening up to active experimentation and sales development worldwide. Over the last year or so we have seen a number of new and innovative business models, pricing ideas, and interactive or “born digital” products being explored by major Publishers as well as new market entrants. These new suppliers, distributors, and aggregators are developing some innovative approaches to eTextbook supply that are in some cases challenging, and in others sitting ...

From the press release: Vital Source Technologies, Inc., the leading e-textbook solution provider for publishers, academic institutions and students today announced the availability of the VitalSource Bookshelf application for Apple’s iPad™, iPhone®, and iPod Touch®. With the addition of the new VitalSource mobile app, students and faculty can access their content three convenient ways—via integrated download, online, and mobile devices. Notes and highlights made on other VitalSource Bookshelf platforms are synchronized with the new VitalSource Bookshelf iOS app. The VitalSource Bookshelf e-textbook app is free and available from Apple’s App Store at www.itunes.com/appstore Using the new VitalSource Bookshelf® iOS app, the full e-textbook,...

Received a press release about this platform today. You can find their site here. From the release: Brigham Young University-Idaho views self-publishing as a way to provide affordable options for students, a revenue source for faculty (where permitted), and a central role for the bookstore in a digital age. One of the store’s first self-publishing initiatives is using the CaféScribe platform to distribute “Inner Victory,” a popular business leadership text published by Professor David Christensen. “Our goal is to be the go-to source for the university no matter what kind of book students want or what kind of course materials...

From a press release I received: Traditional textbooks routinely cost $100 or more, adding significant cost to a student’s total educational expenses. To address the problem, faculty teams at Florida State College at Jacksonville have written 20 general education textbooks from the ground up. The CaféScribe platform will make it easy for any student at any school to purchase them. “Florida State College at Jacksonville is applying the latest research on teaching, learning and motivation in every phase of textbook and course development,” said Dr. Jack Chambers, chief operating officer for Florida State College at Jacksonville’s SIRIUS® course development project. “The CaféScribe...

Here is the summary of a report by The Xplanation: "Over the next five years, digital textbook sales in the United States will surpass 18% of combined new textbook sales for the Higher Education and Career Education markets. This increase will boost revenues for digital textbooks to more than $1 billion and necessitate a general overhaul of traditional textbook production processes. The growth will also create avenues for new content publishers to enter the textbook market, lead to fundamental shifts in purchasing patterns around learning materials, and expedite the formal adoption of open educational resources to augment premium digital content. Our five-year projections assume a current market share of...

From a press release I received today: Academic eBook publisher Holcombe Publishing has released its first publication, a book identifying how social systems shape current society. Holcombe Publishing aims to provide academic books at affordable prices, as well as providing a platform for academic authors to distribute and sell their work. Colin Asquith, Holcombe Publishing's Technical Director, said: "Holcombe Publishing was created with the aim of creating academic books which are both high quality and affordable. Many current academic books are expensive due to high publishing costs for low volumes, so starting with an eBook avoids us keeping our...

So many articles on the potential for e-textbooks! Chris Meadows posted earlier about the shortcomings of the Kindle DX at Virginia University, for example. Not so great with the PDFs, and better suited for reading fiction. So...what if reading fiction is part of your degree? Can an ebook reader replace a bagful of textbooks then? I did some thinking about my own degree in English Language and Literature (1996-2000) and I think that if ebooks had been even half as big back then, I would have saved a fortune! WHICH OF MY COURSES WERE E-FRIENDLY? The first year course was your standard...

From a press release I received the other day. When students register for courses, NYU Bookstores emails them links to the required texts to signal the availability of the books on the CaféScribe eBook platform, making it simple for the student to opt for the digital versions. With CaféScribe, no additional eReader is required to access the eBook, and most titles can be downloaded to multiple computers. Digital textbooks represent less than five percent of college-store textbook sales but could reach 10 to 15 percent by 2012, according to the National Association of College Stores. “We expect digital textbook use to...

From a long article in Knowledge@Wharton, drawing upon comments from a number of Wharton professors. Here's a bit. Educators and book publishers are also predicting that eTextbooks will change the way teachers teach, students learn and textbook publishers sell their content -- often in unexpected ways. Yet while students eagerly anticipate lower costs and lighter backpacks, teachers remain wary and some publishers still question the model. Wharton management professor Daniel Raff, who has studied the book business, suggests that publishers will maintain their grip on the school market. "One expects textbooks to have a certain authority. To the extent they are...