The “big” news ebook reading devices recently has been Amazon’s new Kindles with their Pearl screen. OK, ebookers got the point: Amazon is moving right along in its attempt to capture the wallets of all ebookers. Which raises the question, here in the United States, “Sony, Sony (and Barnes & Noble, as well) — Wherefore art thou?” Not a hint, not a misspoken word, not anything leaked to eBookland about a response by Sony and/or B&N to Amazon’s new Kindles. I, for one, am desperately seeking solace, especially from Sony, that there will be new competitive...

A recent exchange on a message board I frequent led me to a surprising realization: there is a demand for ebook readers even for very young children, and it might not be a device maker that wins this niche at all. It might be a peripheral maker. Here's why. The initial poster was looking for advice on a reading device for her toddler daughter, let's call her D. D is already an avid reader, enjoys paper books immensely, and also enjoys playing with Beatrix Potter downloads on Mama's Kindle (she can turn the pages already herself). Mama never thought she would consider...

Nick Spalding, author of the experimental written-all-in-one-sitting novel Life…With No Breaks (readers on Amazon seem to either love it or hate it), announced yesterday that he’s launched a new indie author blog called Spalding’s Racket: I’ve created [it] to promote books written by independent authors. It’s a place for you to find out about new books you might like to read. I’m making sure that only professionally laid out books make it on the blog. It’s not a review site per se, but I won’t be posting just anything up and...

Having been in business for over 40 years I am continually amazed by the publishing industry's inability to understand how business really works. This industry has been in its little walled-off corner of the world for so long that its executives don't have a clue about the real world. A perfect example of this was demonstrated at a recent conference I attended when Peter Osnos asked the head of a major publishing company about publishers' historic lack of direct contact with customers (they deal mainly with intermediate buyers). She replied that with the agency model she now...

How many hours do you spend sitting at your computer for work and pleasure? How many hours are you willing to spend reading an ebook on your work computer? How many additional hours are you willing to spend to search through ebook websites to find an ebook to read? I find these latter two questions to be the ones that haunt me as I try to find an ebook to buy and read. I broached this topic in an earlier article, Finding the Needle in a Haystack of Needles (II): eBooksellers, but didn’t really delve into the problem of reading on...

Sports Illustrated is the latest big-name magazine publisher to offer an iPad edition. It's a nice looking product, btw. The app itself is free and it includes a sample of what's to come. It joins the likes of Time, Wired and Newsweek...but they all currently have the same limitation: You can only buy individual issues, not sign up for a one-year subscription. Worse, most of them seem to think they can charge the full print cover price for each iPad edition. I bought the initial Wired edition for $4.99 but I'm not buying the second one. ...

Special to TeleRead The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights just finished meeting in Geneva. One of the main topics of discussion was a treaty proposal that would standardize copyright exceptions around the world to benefit blind readers. While there was strong support for the treaty by NGOs and many national governments, there were also competing initiatives put forth by the US and the European Union. Apparently the meeting ended in something of a stalemate. While the stated goal of the treaty is laudable – readers with disabilities should have equal access to the written word...

I came across this video by Kevin Rose, a founder of Digg, with some suggestions for future enhancements for ebook reading devices. I think his suggestions are excellent. The question now is whether they can be implemented at what seems to be the new price levels for e-ink readers. Barnes & Noble has introduced a new $149 wi-fi version of its nook and has lowered the price on its 3G nook to $199. Amazon has lowered its price for the K2 Kindle to $189 and Sony has lowered the pricing on its line of readers: Pocket Edition (PRS-300) $169.99, Touch Edition...

Sarah Chubb, President, Conde Nast Digital; Matt Jones, VP Mobile Strategy and Operations, Gannett Digital; Jeff Price, President and Publisher, Sporting News; Vijay Ravindran, Senior PP and Chief Digital Officer, The Washington Post Company; Marion Maneker, Columnist, The Big Money, moderator. Sarah Chubb: Spent a lot of time thinking about "who we are". One of answers is that they are known for a high level of engagement with audience. If are Conde customer you will probably get a number of their products and will expect them to be on multiple platforms. Invested a lot in iPad and...

Publishing consultant Mike Shatzkin made an interesting observation yesterday in an exchange that he and I had on his IdeaLog blog: We should long remember that in the Spring and early Summer of 2010, prices of ebooks actually went *up*. I don't think we'll look back five years from now and see that as a frequent occurrence. He and I agree that rising ebook prices probably won't be "a frequent occurrence" over the next five years. But even though he was basing the comment in part on my data showing that the number of Kindle store bestsellers priced above $10 had grown...

The Kobo honeymoon is officially over---the verdict is, the device is cute and adorable and has potential, but this potential is increasingly being compromised by niggling techie issues, some of which are user-fixable and some of which will need some firmware tweaking. So, what are the concerns? And what is my prescription for setting things right again on the good ship Kobo? 1) THE FONT SCALING ISSUE Users continue to experience frustrations with a known glitch involving some files not permitting font 'scaling'---the book will render with a teeny-tiny font, and the font size changer has no effect on it. Whatever it...

eBooks present some unique challenges to the “personality” of books, challenges that make me think there will yet be a very long life for pbooks, particularly hardcover pbooks. I am a book collector. I am proud of owning, for example, an excellent first edition of Sinclair Lewis’ It Can’t Happen Here. I love my first editions of Steinbeck, Twain, and numerous other authors — some signed, most not – books that I canvassed used bookstores and online booksellers for over many years. I sometimes attend lectures by authors at the Franklin Roosevelt Presidential Library and purchase the authors’ books and have...