Swearing in on E-Readers

Early this month, Suzi LeVine, the new US ambassador to Switzerland, was sworn in on a Kindle Touch. This marked the first time a US ambassador was sworn in on an e-reader. 

In related news, Atlantic City firefighter were recently sworn in on an iPad when they couldn't find a paper copy of the Bible. 

These stories show a big step for digital publishing: content is king, no matter how it's distributed. 

Ebooks and Information Retention

A new study from West Chester University suggests that ebooks negatively effect how much information readers actually retain. Out of a small group of middle school students, WCU professors Heather Schugar and Jordan Schugar found that that students who read ebooks retained less information than the students who read the same content in print books.

The Schugars compared reading ebooks to watching a PowerPoint presentation: all flash, distracting from the message. One college student noted that reading ebooks can allow for more distractions due to access to Facebook and other online offerings. However, other students noted that ebooks are far more affordable, and they allow students to search for specific terms when studying.

Read more information on the West Chester study here.

Meanwhile, a new Harris Interactive poll shows that the majority of Americans read ebooks (54%). Two thirds of millenials read ebooks. The most interesting figure for me is that the Americans who read at least some ebooks tend to read more books per year overall, as opposed to people who just read print books.

Divergent by Veronica Routh (HarperCollins) was the top ebook bestseller for the week of April 12.

Amazon and Samsung Tag Team

Amazon and Samsung have teamed up to offer a great service for Samsung device owners: a free Kindle ebook each month. Samsung Book Deals lets Samsung phone or tablet owners choose from a selection of four ebooks each month, for the Kindle for Samsung app. The move is a win/win for both companies: Samsung is distancing itself from Google Play apps with its own Kindle for Samsung app, and Amazon is increasing its range by providing its content through Samsung devices and its full roster of tablets. 

Other interesting services: Whispersync, which allows the reader to quickly synchronize the last page read across multiple devices, and Time to Read, which estimates how quickly the user can finish a chapter or book. Time to Read is really intriguing to me; this is technology that could be applied to educational publishing to help students.

Amazon and B&N Refunds

If you've recently received an email from Barnes & Noble or Amazon about a refund, you're not alone. Consumers who purchased ebooks between April 2010 and May 2012 are receiving store credits based on the number of ebooks purchased. Credits are also higher if any of the ebooks were bestsellers. 

The credits come as part of the fallout from the 2012 ebook price-fixing class action lawsuit involving Apple and the five major publishers. The publishers were accused of conspiring with Apple to raise ebook prices. As part of the settlement, the publishers have allowed the credits to be issued for any ebook purchases during that time period. Apple is appealing the ruling.

The credits were issued at the end of March. Check your inbox to see if you've received any emails from Amazon or B&N about the settlement. The credits can only be used on ebooks or print books, and they won't last forever: B&N's will expire on April 1, 2015, while Amazon's will expire on March 31, 2015.

StoryBundle Gets Epic

StoryBundle fans, be sure to check out their Epic Fantasy Bundle, billed as their "best bundle yet". It includes works by Brandon Sanderson, Neil Gaman, David Farland, Tracy Hickman, and Kevin J. Anderson. 

Like all of their offerings, you can set your own price: you can get the main bundle (six ebooks) for as little as $3. For $12, you can get the three bonus ebooks, and you can choose how to allot that money between the company, the authors, and a charitable organization. 

The Epic Fantasy Bundle expires in three days, so check it out!

Ebooks are Helping the Book Industry

There's been a lot of hand-wringing over the future of the book industry, but reports of its demise are greatly exaggerated: Yahoo! Finance has a great article on how the industry is actually growing, thanks in part to ebook sales. According to the Association of American Publishers, US book publishers enjoyed revenues of $15 billion in 2012, an increase of 14% from 2008. Although print book sales shrank 8% in that time frame, ebook sales grew $68 million to $3 billion. Clearly, ebooks are making up a bigger portion of the pie. 

If you're in the market for a new reader or tablet, the Green Bay Press Gazette has a piece on which is right for you: a simple e-reader or a full tablet. 

For you gamers out there, Humble Bundle will be adding ebooks to their bundles. Humble Bundle has been selling video game bundles at whatever prices users choose, letting them split the price between Humble Bundle, the publisher, and a charitable organization. Story Bundle, which we've posted on before, adopted a similar pricing strategy for ebooks. Now Humble Bundle is getting into the book game. Their plan is to offer regular ebook and audiobook bundles along with their usual game bundles. 

Unlimited Ebook Services

One of the great things about ebooks is that they're so easy to buy. One of the crappy things about ebooks...they're so easy to buy. It's easy to ignore the price tag, click "BUY" and see it show up in your digital library as the money disappears from your bank account. It's great to be able to carry your entire library with you, but that can get pricey. Two new services have emerged that can help. 

Scribd offers a subscription service for $8.99/month. Your first month is free, and you can choose from a library of over 100,000 books. Scribd's titles tend to be older, but popular books. With just a quick glance I noticed titles from New York Times bestselling authors Pearl S. Buck, Pat Conroy, and Michael Chabon. Scribd works on Android and Apple devices, and via a Web browser for any other device. 

A new startup called Oyster offers a library of over 100,000 ebooks for $9.95. Like Scribd, the first month is free. Unlike Scribd, Oyster is only available for Apple devices. Oyster has more partnerships with small publishers but there are some big names available, such as Tolkien's The Hobbit, The Best American Short Stories, and Dr. Phil McGraw. 

What do you think? Each service offers its own unique reader and an extensive list of titles. Could either one become the Netflix of ebooks?

New Year, New Toy, New Look

Happy 2014! 

I'm proud to announce that my big Christmas present was a Google Nexus 7. First and foremost it has full access to the Google Play store, which the Nook Tablet was sorely lacking. I can use all the same apps that I have on my Droid Razr. The multimedia capabilities are great, and I've enjoyed watching streaming media on its crisp screen--including a free digital copy of Elf from Google.

And of course, the ebooks! Now I'm no longer tied down to just Nook books, which is probably a good thing. I have a Nook app that lets me read all my old ebooks, so they're not lost. I now have access to the full Amazon Kindle library through the Kindle app, along with Google Play books. This is big for me, and this is why I wanted a Nexus, because I didn't like having to "pick a side" when it comes to content providers. 

In other news, I cleaned up the template a bit. Hopefully it's no longer duplicating each post in the right-hand margin. I've also added Google +, Twitter, and Facebook widgets. 

I hope everyone has a great new year. I look forward to continuing to update this blog.

Kindle MatchBook

Coming next month, Amazon is launching a cool new feature called Kindle Matchbook. Think of it like a digital backup for paper books you already own: for many of the hard copy books you've bought through Amazon, you'll be able to buy a Kindle ebook at a discount-- $2.99 or less. No word just on how many books qualify for this yet, but the page says thousands and it goes back to purchases from 1995. 

This is an interesting strategy to try to bring more readers into the ebook fold. If your favorite, dog-eared book is available cheap (or even free) on a Kindle or Kindle app, why not check it out? As selling digital content becomes more and more important, this is the kind of move that can help get traditional book buyers into ebooks. Kindle readers: would you buy discounted Kindle books that you already own? As a Nook reader, I'd love to see Barnes & Noble make this available. 

StoryBundle has a fantasy mini-bundle, but it's expiring in two days so act fast if you're interested. 

Bookbub and a New Bundle

There's an ebook startup located right here in the Boston area. Cambridge's Bookbub is a simple service-- you sign up with your email address, check the genres and readers you like, and they send you regular emails listing free and discounted ebooks. Big publishers and indie publishers alike pay Bookbub to advertise their sales, and Bookbub employees choose which books to promote. 

Publishers put their ebooks on sale quite frequently to drum up interest, and this is a great way to keep track of the sales before they expire. They advertise ebooks for all the major readers, and they currently boast over a million subscribers. 

Also, there's a new bundle at StoryBundle and this time it's science fiction. Be sure to check it out!