Jay Huldeen
on Feb 20th, 2010
@ 12:44 am: 

Gooooogle: what happens when they ‘own’ digital copies of all non-copyrighted books? (or is it all books everywhere that they are trying to grab?) Will the world end? Or will mankind just continue to get stupider, once the original copies have been disposed of and there’s no way to tell what they’ve altered in the digital version?

For example, will 1984’s Winston Smith character one day become a kindly rescuer of lab rats liberated by animal rights activists, whose passion for maltreated rodents is assisted by a certain benevolent Internet company’s search engine features, which allows him to organize the movement much more quickly than if he’d had to rely on word of mouth or even yesterday’s electronic mass media?

Maybe more to your liking: what happens to your business and the business of other actual publishers with a history of making stuff out of paper, ink and leather once Goooooogle digitizes it all? I know there’s not much backlist market, (but then why is Gooooogle so hot to acquire this stuff?!?), but are there implications for the publishing business?

Looking forward to your soon return! Please include some morsels of your travels to exotic and faraway places, whatever you write about. It’s like adding a little garlic pepper sauce to your soup.

[Reply]

Jay Huldeen
on Feb 20th, 2010
@ 9:10 am: 

Evan,

I may be paranoid, but I am no Luddite (obviously). Still, it is disconcerting to see the paradigm shifting so rapidly. I — fear is not the right word — dislike is probably better — that a couple of college geeks who were essentially just bright code-monkeys have figured out, with their Boolean strings and webcrawlers, how to ride on the backs of the thousands of database administrators who built the web — database administrators who are basically people who build electronic library shelves. That’s not bad in itself, but now Gooooogle has transmogrified from this mildly annoying but harmless spinster librarian into a bald guy in an expensive but tasteless suit stroking a purring Angora cat on his lap as he plots world domination from his bunker. (Probably now they’ll publish all my personal information, once their bots find this post.) (Oh wait, they already have, and I didn’t get a dime for it.)

As for Apple, all I have to say is: http://www.cracked.com/article_18377_5-reasons-you-should-be-scared-apple.html

Looking forward to your thoughts on the real threats to publishing, and to news of the current state of Mexico City street tacos, and perhaps some descriptions of authentic curry from Bangalore, or figgy pudding from Warwickshire.

Also, and meaning no disrespect, but what is a ‘publishing ecosystem’ exactly? And where does OUP fit into that? Are you part of the canopy, perhaps?

Jay

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Mike Shatzkin
on Jun 4th, 2009
@ 10:00 am: 

Evan, this is a great post and a great explanation of how the tech works. In that way, at least, better than mine today on the same subject. I am going to write a comment on my blog telling people they should look at this post.

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jc
on Jun 4th, 2009
@ 12:47 pm: 

Great post. I think this will be a fantastic move in the right direction. In fact, I may reign in my Kindle book purchase until I get to evaluate the Google solution. As much as I like the Kindle and the reading and buying experience it offers me, the way it tethers me to one device (Amazon’s) and one retailer (Amazon) unsettles me. Google’s platform will undoubtedly be more open than that.

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Evan Reply:
June 4th, 2009 at 1:09 pm

While I understand your sentiment – I am not sure that sitting and not buying ebooks for a device you have made an investment is the way to go. There is a long path ahead for Google Editions and by the time you are ready to upgrade your Kindle, this world will have changed 20 more times… so keep buying and reading and let the market come to you.

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Roger Sperberg
on Jun 5th, 2009
@ 8:09 am: 

I’m just wondering … What device would not have a browser based on webkit or gecko? (Or to which a port could not be made?)

So, disregarding cellphones with screens smaller than the iPhone (and possibly too-limited OSes), I’d expect Google Gears and Google Editions to run on any handheld device used for reading, even those like Cybook, Cool-er and Be Book, which lack not only 3G but also WiFi and Bluetooth.

The Kindle OS is Linux underneath and readily hacked, so people will definitely be reading Google Editions on a Kindle, even if non-officially.

The instantaneity of access when interest in a book is roused does indeed generate warm thoughts about the goodness of e-books, Kindle and Amazon. We always speak of Apple’s success in its interface and how it didn’t stop until it made it easy to buy, listen to and navigate your collection of music. Amazon’s device-to-store interface is not in the same class, but Kindle’s success rests chiefly in how minimal the effort is that one must make to buy a book. (Including, of course, the effort to overcome paying uncomfortably high prices; also tackled successfully by Apple.)

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Google Enters the Ebook Market | Dear Author: Romance Novel Reviews, Industry News, and Commentary
on Jun 7th, 2009
@ 3:00 am: 

[...] or the life of the computer I used to authenticate the ebook reading software). Google stretches the concept of ownership of ebooks even thinner with its upcoming Google [...]

Cloud Publishing: O que o Google Faria se Fosse uma Editora? | PONTOLIT
on Jun 9th, 2009
@ 4:40 pm: 

[...] este ano, no mercado de venda de livros digitais. Com o lançamento do Google Editions (este é o nome previsto da iniciativa), é bem provável que tenhamos que repensar tanto o conceito de ebooks quanto o de [...]

Karen Carter
on Jun 21st, 2009
@ 8:16 pm: 

Evan, I learned a great deal from this post and link to it in a lengthy article on e-books. I’d appreciate it if (in your spare time, of course) you’d read E-Books: Where Literature and Technology Meet on The Know Something Project (http://www.knowsomethingproject.com) and let me know what you think of it. Thanks so much!

Karen Carter
Denver CO

[Reply]

Carmen
on Oct 23rd, 2009
@ 6:20 pm: 

Es ist eine Sache, ein Buch über einen Computer oder Laptop zu lesen, aber eine ganz andere Erfahrung Bücher zu lesen auf einem Kindle. Der logische nächste Schritt wird die Entwicklung der e-ink/e-book Geräte, die Google Gears und das Google-Content-Editionen. Ich würde mich nicht wundern, wenn Mitteilungen nicht zum Vorschein gekommen …

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Bonjour, je m’appelle… « teXtes
on Feb 12th, 2010
@ 11:22 pm: 

[...] Il est prévu que les sites de leurs membres vont travailler en partenariat avec Google, dans le cadre du programme Google Editions, ce qui leur permettra de vendre des livres numériques “on the cloud“. [...]

Shipping Online
on Jan 14th, 2010
@ 7:31 pm: 

I believe one of the main reasons that publishers don’t want there content test to speech enabled, is due to the fact that more then likely they will end up online as torrents. Freely downloadable by everyone on the net. Its a shame piracy stops dis advantaged people from using certen types of technology!

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Gary Arms
on May 11th, 2009
@ 5:43 am: 

As someone who teaches the Online Generation, I think it will happen the way it did with music and the way it is now happening with movies and TV shows. People with no ownership stake will put content on line so that others can “share” it. And so the dike will be breached. I agree completely with Evan’s analysis of the Online Generation and his prediction that they will increasingly ignore anything not in the cloud. Anyone who teaches knows it is increasingly difficult to get students to read books. There is a small but significant young audience for books, but a distressingly large portion of the younger generation will not read entire books unless required to do so by professors. When the online generation does research, they do it almost entirely online. Publishers and authors will continue to squabble. Again, I agree with Evan’s analysis; they will never come to general agreement. Meanwhile, the cloud will expand, gobbling up everything that exists in digital form. In music, it appears that artists will continue to make money but most of their revenue will come from live performance, the sale of tee shirts etc. To a considerable degree, the music industry has lost control of its product. “If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.” The success of Hulu suggests that TV and movies can make money selling ads on their own site, a site that is easy to use, reliable and free of viruses. A huge amount of print (especially periodicals) is already on line; the magazines sell ad space too. This is the single most important problem facing all content providers. The future will belong to those able to adapt to the new environment.

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Another copyright reshuffle that’s in the cards - The Shatzkin Files
on May 12th, 2009
@ 5:11 am: 

[...] Schnittman at Black Plastic Glasses posted the final chunk of a 3-parter yesterday that contained a real shocker (to me) at the end. The 3-part post shows through [...]

Jeroen
on May 6th, 2009
@ 3:04 pm: 

You’re asking two things here:
1) The question is whether we can deliver immersive reading in a manner that is relevant to Generation On-Demand.
2) What will we need to do as an industry to make that happen?

You already gave the answer: put it in the “clouds”. This will automatically lead to a “usage fee” instead of a “buying fee”. For the consumer than it is important to know what they’re paying for. Is it a product I’m paying for or is it the usage of the content? And is the content mine? Can I resell it or lend it to a friend? No, why not? Next to changing the contract structures I think the transition to e-reading involves a lot of communication to the consumer about what is possible and what is not.

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Jeff
on May 6th, 2009
@ 8:50 pm: 

Good analysis, though I think issues of reading need separating from issues of access.

Immersive reading might be slippery to define. Those of us who value long-form prose have always been in the minority throughout history. We just hate to confront that reality for fears of being called elitist. As far as “immersive reading” in digital media goes, everyone should look more towards documentary films than print as a content model though there’s obviously not much of a revenue model there. Intellectual property constraints will do more to limit creativity or new forms of “writing” in digital media than on reading and distribution.

I think you’re absolutely right in that the future is about on demand access to material. And that can be in the format of one’s preference (be it digital or print via print-on-demand or even traditional bookstores).

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