Amazon Announces E-Book Lending Partnership with Libraries

(Source: Techland/Time via USA Today)

Amazon doesn't want to kill local libraries, or at least that's what its newest venture would seem to indicate. A new partnership with OverDrive, slated to launch later this year, will allow patrons to borrow e-books from local libraries to read on their Kindles.

According to a press release, the Kindle Library Lending program will allow readers to borrow from over 11,000 public libraries to use on their Kindle devices or free Kindle smartphone apps. The electronic library books will even support Amazon's new Whispersync technology, which allows users to take reading notes in the margin.

Exact details of how the process would work weren't released, and neither was a launch date, but if I had to speculate I would say we're looking closer to the end of summer. A bit overdue, but a nice move nonetheless.

Though Amazon doesn't disclose how many Kindles have actually sold, it touts the e-reader as its "best selling product of all time." Total sales for 2010 have been estimated to be anywhere from 5.4 million to 8 million.

Read the full press release after the jump.

(via USA Today)

New Survey on E-Book Trends

Source: Publisher's Weekly

A survey of 600 publishers from across the industry spectrum found 64% now offering e-books with 74% of trade houses producing titles in that format. The trade and STM segments had the biggest gain in number of publishers producing e-books in the survey, the second one conducted by the conversion and technology services company Aptara. There was no dominant factor among the publishers that don’t produce e-books about why they haven’t entered the market, with 71% giving no particular reason for staying out of the business.

 

The profitability of e-books has been a point of contention between publishers and authors, and according to the survey 66% of trade houses have no clear picture if the return-on-investment from e-books is better or worse than for print books; 15% said the ROI was better, but 13% said it was worse. Aptara attributed the murky picture to publishers “retrofitting existing print workflows” to produce e-books, an inefficient process that inhibits publishers from producing cost savings. The report predicts that as more efficient and scalable digital workflows are implemented, and more backlist titles move to digital, ROI will improve. The two most important reasons trade houses move backlist books into e-books are a desire to extend the life of a title and market demand.

 

Publishers are still selling e-books from their own sites (38%), but Amazon is now a close second (37%), while the report found the iTunes store to be the fastest-growing distribution channel with 22% of publishers now offering e-books there compared to 9% last year. (The report did not ask respondents specifically if they sell through Apple’s iBookstore).

 

The top challenge in producing e-books—for all types of publishers—was content format and compatibility issues. Forty-five percent of all publishers said that was their biggest issue, up from 21% in the summer 2009 survey, a development attributed mainly to the plethora of new e-reading devices introduced into the market in the last year that adds to costs and confusion.

 

Despite some problems, 49% of all publishers said e-books are of “high importance” to their growth plans, with 55% of trade house putting e-books in that category.

The News (As I See It) - pt. 3

Let's start off with some rather startling (but predictable) news; Amazon's Jeff Bezos has announced that within a year Amazon ebook sales will outsell paperback sales. This news follows quickly after their previous announcement that ebooks were already outselling their hardcovers by a substantial margin.

Many--myself included--predicted that this would be the inevitable result of the surge in digital readers and changing trends in both the publishing and reading communities, but, I must admit, even I didn't think it'd be upon us so quickly. Let's see if it holds true.  

Flavorwire has taken a jab at the most common poses struck by authors for promotional photographs. There's no educational benefit in reading this, but it's good for a lark. I assure you, you'll think twice about resting your chin on your fist, writing at a typewriter, or casually lounging against a piece of furniture after reading this article.

Agent Query has recently launched a new forum for its members. As with the rest of Agent Query, this seems as though it'll become an invaluable resource for aspiring authors. Need to beef up your query or synopsis? Then take a gander, because everything is looking streamlined and structured to promote community involvement, perfect for aspiring authors searching for like minded individuals to bounce their material off of.

For all of you Suzanne Collins fans (I've yet to read The Hunger Games trilogy--but I will, I promise!), there's a  a lovely article worth checking out in which she speaks quite candidly about the series post Mockingjay release, particularly in regards to her newfound celebrity and how her books operate as commentaries on the various aspects of war.

Writer's Digest has put out another useful list of ten. Today's subject? The Ten Commandments of Writing Fiction.

For comic book geeks, the senior managing editor of Dark Horse Comics recently sat down to share his thoughts on what it takes to write high quality comic books.

And as always, my aspiring authors, try to keep yourself from ending up on SlushPileHell.

Amazon Announces E-Books Outselling Hardcovers

Still think e-books are just a passing craze? Think again.

"Amazon sent around a notice to the press today announcing that it has sold 143 Kindle books for every hardcover it has sold over the last three months"

Did you catch that? 143 to 1.

Here's what I'm wondering though -- should this even come as a surprise? With their bulk and increased mark-up, hardcovers were always the likeliest candidate to be surpassed. If there is room for surprise, I'd think it'd be on account of the fact that the Kindle has been on the market for less than three years. The evolution of technology and what it means for us as readers is undoubtedly a fascinating subject worthy of discussion.

Now a question for you, the reader.  How long do you think it will take before e-books manage to surpass mass market paperbacks? Will we ever see such a day? I remain slightly skeptical of the e-books ability to completely dominate, but I have no doubt that we could easily see them take a whopping half of all book sales in a decade. Maybe less. Of course, I'm just pulling these numbers out of my ass, so feel free to shut me up with any evidence that suggests otherwise.

Source: Publisher's Weekly

Update: The figures reported turned out to be the result of a mistake. The actual ratio of sales was 143 Kindle books for every 100 hardcovers, rather than the 143 to 1 ratio that was assumed by many (myself included) early on.