How Not to Negotiate for Digital Rights
Jonathan Galassi misses the boat when he tries to argue with authors on moral grounds. Appeal to their pocketbooks.
The End of Kirkus Reviews: Gloom, Doom, and Sunshine
Kirkus Reviews is doomed. But for all the losses of old ways of discovering books, new ones keep cropping up. The future is bright for book publishing.
Doing the Kindle Math — Does Amazon’s Opacity Conceal a Shameful Truth?
Is the Kindle really a success? Do the vague and convoluted statements from Amazon about Kindle sales mean anything? The backlash against Amazon’s lack of transparency has apparently begun.
Let’s Hear It for Reckless Enthusiasm!
Innovations in scholarly communications often come about through bold and often reckless investments in new capacity, for which the utility is not always obvious.
Churn in the Book Space: Rational & Irrational Behavior Among Book Publishers
Two fiction publishers decide to delay release of their e-books, further marginalizing their books. Meanwhile, an STM book publisher gets it right.
A First Look at the Nook: An Also-Ran That Can Barely Get Out of the Box
The new Nook is over-packaged, and has design and technical issues that keep it from competing well with the Kindle. Too bad.
What Happens When We Misplace the Credentialing Keys?
Self-publishing initiatives in consumer publishing a falling under harsh criticism. Why aren’t similar endeavors in the purportedly more disciplined area of scholarly publishing experiencing the same?
Professional and Scholarly Publishing Leads the Market for Ebooks by a Wide Margin
Professional and scholarly titles dominate the ebook market, and are destined to grow further. So why is the media looking the other way?
How Many Books Dance on the Head of an e-Pin?
Can the model used in the Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records be extended to embrace e-works? Or should it be trimmed instead?
The e-Book Revolution — If At First You Don’t Succeed . . .
E-books are changing the world of publishing, but rather than creating something new, too much emphasis is being put on re-hashing failures of the past. The changing market doesn’t have to be a zero sum game, and the rise of new forms may not spell the death of the book as we know it.
iPhone + Book = PhoneBook
A mixture of traditional and new that is effective, simple, and rather astounding.
The 2009 STM Frankfurt Conference
At the 2009 STM Conference, talk of disruptive innovation, ebooks, and organizational immune responses flow amongst the people who invented electronic publishing.
O’Reilly Tools of Change, Frankfurt Edition
O’Reilly brings its Tools of Change meeting to Frankfurt, with mixed results. The keynotes were the most inspiring.
The Social Media Guru
A video sums up the strange new world of The Social Media Guru. Also, a follow-up on Chris Anderson’s “Free”.
Is 2010 the Year for the e-Book?
e-Books are becoming more competitive, with Sony striking distribution and retail deals. Authors and readers stand to benefit.