[OPLIN 4cast] OPLIN 4Cast #200: E-book Developments

Wed Oct 20 12:10:12 EDT 2010

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OPLIN 4Cast

OPLIN 4Cast #200: E-book Developments
October 20th, 2010

openbook with digits 
<http://www.oplin.org/4cast/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/openbook.gif>We've 
done three OPLIN /4cast/ posts about e-books in the last six 
months, and this one makes four. We try to mix our topics 
and avoid repeating ourselves, but last week there was just 
too much e-book news to ignore. This time the news items 
that caught our eye were not necessarily the stories about 
e-book sales 
<http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/ebook_sales_triple_in_one_year.php> 
or marketing 
<http://www.readwriteweb.com/mobile/2010/10/who-you-calling-crapware-verizon-preloads-kindle-on-android.php>, 
but the stories about significant changes to e-book 
*content*. These changes are certainly food for thought; for 
example, will libraries have any way to offer patrons new 
types of "books" designed from the ground up for digital 
distribution? (While you're thinking about that, you might 
enjoy Eli Neiburger's presentation---part 1 
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqAwj5ssU2c> and part 2 
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bd0lIKVstJg>---from the 
September 29 LJ/SLJ "ebooks: Libraries at the Tipping Point" 
virtual summit.)

    * Amazon to publish "Kindle Singles"
      <http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/news/2010/10/amazon-aims-to-publish-shorter-content-as-kindle-singles.ars>
      (Ars Technica/Jacqui Cheng) "Amazon is rolling out a
      separate section of its Kindle store meant for shorter
      content---meatier than long-form journalism, but
      shorter than a typical book. Called 'Kindle Singles,'
      the content will be distributed like other Kindle
      books but will likely fall between 10,000 and 30,000
      words, or the equivalent of a few chapters from a novel."
    * Amazon introduces a format for shorter e-books
      <http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/10/12/amazon-introduces-a-new-type-of-e-book/>
      (New York Times/Nick Bilton) "This medium-length
      format has traditionally been difficult for writers to
      sell to publishers as it doesn't fit into the mold of
      a printing-press distribution model. In a digital
      distribution system, those pricing structures no
      longer exist, and a digital price can be adjusted
      accordingly."
    * Borders partners with BookBrewer to turn blogs into
      eBooks
      <http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/borders_partners_with_bookbrewer_to_turn_blogs_int.php>
      (ReadWriteWeb/Audrey Watters) "While there is a lot of
      competition in the eBook and self-publishing space,
      one of the key features of BookBrewer is the ability
      to turn an RSS feed into a book. This will have appeal
      not simply for independent authors, but for bloggers
      and for educators."
    * Feds give $1.1 million for e-textbooks for
      vision-impaired students
      <http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/feds-give-1-1-million-for-e-textbooks-for-vision-impaired-students/27674>
      (Chronicle of Higher Education/Travis Kaya)
      "Typically, college students who have trouble with
      standard book formats could only turn to their
      disabled student-services offices to have textbooks
      translated into braille or scanned with rudimentary
      text-to-speech computer software. [...] With more
      advanced technology, [...] developers are digitally
      reformatting hundreds of books that can be rented
      online at a much lower cost to the students and the
      institutions."

*/Young Reader Fact:/*

A study <http://mediaroom.scholastic.com/node/378> conducted 
this summer by Scholastic Corporation found that a third of 
children age 9-17 say they would read more books for fun if 
they had access to e-books on an electronic device; however, 
two-thirds of the children also agreed with the statement, 
"I'll always want to read books printed on paper even though 
there are ebooks available." .
------------------------------------------------------------
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