eBook Publishing

Sony has unveiled three new eReaders, one a 'pocket' reader and the other two touchscreen versions, one with 3G capabilities. The company also has a partnership with OverDrive - an e-book provider which does library loans via eBook - which opens up a whole new area for eBooks (and one that you'd imagine mainstream publishers would not be happy about).

After originally announcing a June/July launch for Google Editions, the internet giant appears now to be aiming at unveiling the new eBook retail platform in the Fall, according to a recent story. Additionally, Google is promoting Editions as an eBook option that might save independent booksellers, rather than condemn them to death:

"We often say we're like Mark Twain: that the rumors of our death have been greatly exaggerated," said Oren Teicher, chief executive of the American Booksellers Association (ABA), an industry group for independent bookstores.

The ABA has reached a deal with Google Editions -- Google's digital bookstore, due to launch this fall -- that would allow its 14,000 members to sell Google's eBooks through their websites.

"Google Editions will serve as an e-bookstore, an e-book wholesaler, an e-book discovery platform and an e-book storage system in the cloud," said Jeannie Hornung, spokeswoman for Google Books and News.

"We anticipate Google Editions will be a popular channel for independent bookstores with a web presence," said Hornung, adding that Google expected hundreds of bookstores to sign on.

Is the Fall release a symptom of problems with the Google Editions platform, or is it part of a marketing strategy, holding back GE until a rumoured Google Chrome-powered eReader/tablet (created in partnership with HTC and Verizon) is available?

With a price war developing between eReader devices (Barnes and Noble's Nook can now be purchased for just $US149), and the iPad making significant inroads into the market as well, Amazon have gone on the attack by announcing significantly cheaper Kindles - including a WiFi only version for just $US139:

The new Kindle features a screen with increased gray-scale contrast, a battery that lasts for a month, and a slightly smaller size. It will come in two flavors: one with Wi-Fi and 3G Internet connections selling for $189, the other with Wi-Fi only for $139. The latter will be among the cheapest wireless-equipped e-readers on the market, at least for now.

"We developed this device for serious readers. At these price points, it may be much broader than that," said Mr. Bezos in an interview. "People will buy them for their kids. People won't share Kindles any more." Amazon will begin taking orders Thursday and the new models will begin shipping Aug. 27 to customers in 140 countries.

The new models and pricing seem aimed primarily at undercutting other comparable devices such as the Nook, rather than taking on the iPad. In the words of Jeff Bezos, "adding video and animation is not going to be helpful. It is distracting rather than enhancing. You are not going to improve Hemingway by adding video snippets."

Here's Bezos on Charlie Rose explaining further:

On Monday Amazon announced that over the last 3 months, sales of Kindle books had outstripped those of hardcover books on the bookselling behemoth's website (and that's not even counting free eBooks):

In that time, Amazon said, it sold 143 Kindle books for every 100 hardcover books, including hardcovers for which there is no Kindle edition.

The pace of change is quickening, too, Amazon said. In the last four weeks sales rose to 180 digital books for every 100 hardcover copies. Amazon has 630,000 Kindle books, a small fraction of the millions of books sold on the site

Amazon's reticence to release hard figures has some questioning the statement though, or at least wondering what the figures actually mean given price disparity and books available.

Nevertheless, one interesting point is that Amazon's eBook sales have continued to grow since the release of the iPad, suggesting that while the device may be some sort of rival to the Kindle, it does just offer a new market for Amazon's eBooks (via the Kindle for iPad app).

James Patterson has become the first author to sell a million eBook copies of his work, according to his publisher Hachette Book Group:

The Hachette Book Group says Patterson has moved 1.14 million units of his books for devices like Kindle and the iPad. The big seller, by far, is the most recent: Patterson's novel "I, Alex Cross," which was published both electronically and in hardcover last fall. Since his first novel in 2007, Patterson's books have sold more than 205 million copies.

There's no third-party monitor of e-book sales, so Hachette used its own figures and checked other prominent authors. The publisher didn't find any others who had cracked the million mark.

Any other authors out there that you think might be close to the million mark?

In an interview with Fortune, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos says that Amazon's Kindle stands on its own merits as an e-reading device, despite the onslaught of Apple's iPad. In addition, Bezos continued to exert pressure on publishers when it comes to eBook pricing:

First of all, there are a bunch of publishers of all sizes, and they don't all have one opinion. There are as many opinions about what the right thing to do is as there are publishers. So you're seeing that some of them are being very aggressive on prices, pricing their books well below $9.99. Others are trying to do everything they can to make prices as high as possible. And what you're going to see is a share shift from one group of publishers to this other group of publishers.

Who would that other group of publishers be...?