The Expensive e-Book: The Illogical Reasons Why Paper Books Can Sell for Less
When you explore the revenue model of e-books vs. print books, some pricing practices make sense. But when you factor in the expenses, the logic begins to break down.
When you explore the revenue model of e-books vs. print books, some pricing practices make sense. But when you factor in the expenses, the logic begins to break down.
Apple’s apparent abuse of its platform dominance may signal a basic incompatibility between providers and platforms.
It’s been a reckless year marked by books becoming cannon fodder in the platform wars.
Users are gaining a “me at the center” expectation, but publishers have a “we at the center” world view. Can the wrenching changes be made? David Worlock worries maybe not.
Amazon’s latest play is aimed squarely at academics. Will it revive the moribund monograph market?
Traditional bookstores are missing a huge e-reader opportunity, proving that, sadly, they are not the customer-focused retailers they once were.
Amazon’s Kindle and e-book sales take off, and the overall trend is for a huge shake-up in the retail book space.
A Nielsen usability study confuses speed with usability, raising many questions in so doing.
Apple announces a new model iPhone and an updated operating system for all iPhones/iPads/iPod Touch devices. What impact will these new technologies have on publishers?
The e-book age is here — infrastructure, readers, storefronts. Publishers should heed the warning signs and stop delaying the inevitable.
The failure of the traditional music industry has become the standard cautionary tale for content industries adapting to a digital era. But for scholarly publishers, many factors make the music industry a poor comparison. We have more in common with smaller niche markets. Watching their electronic experimentation and new business models may be more informative as we seek new strategies for presenting and selling content.
I am pleased to announce that the Scholarly Kitchen will soon be offering our very own electronic tablet. The briSKet, or binary roaming integrated Scholarly Kitchen electronic tablet, is a purpose-built device, designed to support all of the scholarly publishing needs of our readers. The Scholarly Kitchen’s business development team has spent the better part of the last year designing the device and its array of scholarly functions and applications.
When customers get angry, they’ll resort to all sorts of tricks to be heard. Is it wise for a publisher to take a hard line over the inevitable?
Publishers may have won the pricing war, but the real struggle is now on for users’ attention. Because the iPad is not a dedicated e-book reader there are, unfortunately, many things that users can do with the device other than read books. Unlike the Kindle, where publishers have the device all to themselves iPad users will be able to surf the Web, play games, watch movies, view their photo collections, listen to music, watch TV, send e-mail, work on a presentation, or access over one hundred thousand applications that do any number of distracting things.
The iPad moves electronic reading to a multi-function device, marking the end of proprietary interfaces controlling commerce for e-reading.