Publishing Perspectives posted an article yesterday by Kristen McLean, executive director of the Association of Booksellers for Children (ABC), about the benefits that computer technology has had and e-books are likely to have for child literacy. (There is also a related editorial/discussion topic by Edward Nawotka.) McLean notes that studies have shown literacy rates for children have already increased considerably over those for children of the same age prior to the computer. But reading literacy is only one kind of literacy that children are going to need in coming years. Participation, collaboration, intuitive problem-solving,...

On Publishing Perspectives today, Irish publisher (and TeleRead “Things Publishers Fear” contributor) Eoin Purcell opines that e-books are a “cul-de-sac.” But on reading further, his point of view is the exact opposite of most e-book skeptics. Rather than seeing a future primarily in print, Purcell thinks that e-books do not go far enough. Purcell sees a danger in getting so wrapped up in e-books as e-books that publishers and writers forget to concentrate on other new media formats. Rather than expend their energy focusing on one format that may be fleeting, publishers need to...

Liz Bury at Publishing Perspectives has an interesting article on a consultant’s talk at a recent publishing conference. Clive Rich, principal of Rich Futures, suggests that publishers may become more service-oriented as the Internet and digital media continue to change the face of publishing. Rather than just a statement of royalties, Rich suggests, publishers could provide authors with more information on what kind of deals they are making with his content, and such demographic information concerning purchases as is available. In return, the author may cede some control to the publisher over how his work is marketed. ...

Publishing Perspectives has an article looking at the current problematic nature of the ISBN system when it comes to e-books. The article is a good summary of the situation as it now stands, summing up the ongoing debate between whether to give each format of an e-book its own separate ISBN, or assign one ISBN to the entire book. Publishers tend to favor the single ISBN approach, while booksellers and wholesalers want one for each format. Perhaps not surprisingly—publishers are the ones who would have to pay for the ISBNs, after all, whereas retailers would get the...

On Publishing Perspectives, Edward Nawotka posts an editorial wondering whether cheap paperbacks still have a place in the market when their prices are undercut by e-books. He mentions a line of extremely inexpensive paperbacks that Penguin has been publishing in Australia at the “low” price of AU$9.95 (or about US$9.05) to celebrate its 75th anniversary. (I guess paperbacks must normally be much more expensive over there, given that’s a couple of dollars more than many regularly-priced ones go for over here.) Many of these books are available as e-books in the public domain, for free,...

A few days ago I mentioned that independent book publisher Author Solutions had announced an e-book distribution deal with Scribd. Today it comes out they have announced a similar deal with Barnes & Noble for the Nook. As with the Scribd deal, AS e-books will be set at a default price of $9.99, but authors may choose to set their own prices instead. Erin Cox at Publishing Perspectives notes with some amusement that, shortly after Nintendo announced a classic e-books cartridge, Random House has now announced it will be making video games. The Wall Street Journal article is fairly sparse...

Perhaps Paul should be the one covering this, since he’s the one who’s actually gone to e-book conferences over the last couple of years—but since I’m the one who’s awake right now, I’m calling dibs. Edward Nawotka has a pair of posts on Publishing Perspectives—a feature and a short editorial—relating to the subjects of e-book conferences. While Tools of Change was going on, Nawotka was serving jury duty. This gives him an opening to find some amusing similarities between the two events: they both involve taking time off from work and travelling to strange environs, listening to “experts”,...

Publishing Perspectives reports that French readers seem to think that brick and mortar bookstores are more expensive than on-line purchasing "when, in reality, book prices are supposed to be the same across all channels.” (Is that true in France? It definitely is not in the USA, but I seem to recall hearing somewhere about European regulation of pricing.) Ars Technica reports that at a conference on Tuesday, Apple COO Tim Cook said that, since the majority of Apple’s revenue now comes from the iPhone family of devices, Apple now considers itself a “mobile device business” and the iPad...

Publishing Perspectives has an interesting story about a book assembled to raise money for Haiti in the wake of the devastating earthquake. The idea behind 100 Stories for Haiti was to assemble 100 stories from all over the Internet, and then publish them as a book and e-book. Author Greg McQueen says that the book would not have been possible five years ago, before the dawn of social networking: As it happened, I posted [to social networks] an appeal for stories on the morning of Tuesday, January, 19. Just one week after the earthquake...

Last week, Publishing Perspectives covered the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. One of the facts that came out was that smartphone use had more than quintupled from 2.4% of the mobile market to 15.4% in 2008. Publishing Perspectives reporter Hannah Johnson noted: If book publishers add one thing to their to-do lists this year, it should be to develop and execute a mobile content strategy to take advantage of this growth. The article goes into detail about how the market for media content on these phones is growing by leaps and bounds, but...