Reading Nicholson Baker’s long piece in the August 3rd New Yorker while on the beach last week, got me thinking about the role of Amazon in the future of print book publishing. Mr. Baker, a novelist, is coming to terms with his new Kindle – its benefits and as well as its drawbacks. While I don’t get a few of his observations (especially his preference to read on the much smaller and much harder-on-the-eyes LCD screen of the iPhone), one comment made about the Kindle struck me as particularly eye opening. Read the rest of this entry »
Ceci n’est pas un ebook
It was perhaps the most significant news to break since the launch of the Kindle. Google rolled out its inevitable and longstanding plans to enter the digital content selling arena at BEA, which it has dubbed, Google Editions. Google Editions is cleverly named because it explains what it isn’t (ebooks), where you get it (Google), and, by putting the word Google together with an assumed possessive plural of “Editions,” there is an implied unique quality to these editions that is not found anywhere else. These are not ebooks, these are Google Editions. Read the rest of this entry »
17 Responses to “Ceci n’est pas un ebook”
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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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Kate
on Jun 4th, 2009
@ 11:18 am:Perhaps this could also just bring an end to the entire question about DRM. Lets be done with DRM and let books be sold and delivered anywhere, read online, offline, on a device, whatever.
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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 pmWhile 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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Corey Podolsky
on Jun 4th, 2009
@ 2:22 pm:It’s one thing to read a book on a computer or laptop, but a quite different experience reading books on a Kindle. The logical next step will be the development of e-ink/e-book devices that support Google Gears and Google Editions content. I would not be surprised if announcements were forthcoming…
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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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Bjorn Jonasson
on Jun 5th, 2009
@ 8:50 am:This does not address the need for a personal copy, to annotate in. This applies well to leisure reading (at least when the Pixel Qi people hit the market), but will not answer the need for interactive textbooks. Maybe we are to fixated on “copying” the “book” instead of inventing a new medium for conveying information.
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Evan Reply:
June 5th, 2009 at 9:30 amI agree that this is not for textbooks and yes, the Pixel Qi is certainly one of several new or forthcoming devices taht will do so… but that is an apples v oranges discussion. Google Editions by its very nature and collection of content primarily about trade, academic, and other non-textbooks.
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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 [...]
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Links for 6th June 2009 | Velcro City Tourist Board
on Jun 7th, 2009
@ 9:03 am:[...] Ceci n’est pas un ebook [...]
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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 [...]
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trav
on Jun 10th, 2009
@ 3:32 pm:I think this is where Google has been going since day one of the Android platform. It has supported in app purchases since then. It wouldn’t be hard to roll out your proposed access/payment system there.
I don’t see why this wouldn’t work for text books though?
Services like BookGlutton.com are already allowing people to make their own notes and share with self-selected other users.
I could see a class all dialing into their accts and viewing the same text and making notes, a notes-stream which could even be viewable by all in real-time.
If publishers would tie in some of the gps-specific features they could even serve up reader/demographic specific ads, such as wowio.com has done with pdf’s.
So many options for publishers in the near term! (Great post, btw.)[Reply]
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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]
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Google’s Cloud Publishing Plans | Find eBook Readers Blog
on Oct 18th, 2009
@ 2:43 pm:[...] Recommended Reading: For an interesting and in-depth article about cloud publishing and Google see Blackplasticglasses.com’s post. [...]
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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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Chris Eastvedt : Google Editions Wants to Cloud Stream your eBooks
on Nov 10th, 2009
@ 4:26 pm:[...] good to see publishing technology is still moving forward. The latest hipster on the scene is cloud streaming (cloud publishing, cloud computing), where content is stored in a central server on the net rather than saved to a device. The [...]
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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“. [...]
Leave a Reply
Tags: Amazon, Digital Publishing, DRM, ebooks, econtent, Evan Schnittman, Google, Google Book Search, Kindle, publishing, XML
I know three people with Kindles. My work...
Aaron Pressman
on Aug 3rd, 2009
@ 6:23 am:
I think you may be off-base here on your assessment of what Amazon is up to by not including results for dead tree versions of books when you search the KINDLE STORE either from a Kindle or the Kindle section of Amazon’s web site. Originally, Amazon did display print versions available on the Kindle pages for books. From the point of view of customers, there’s both a good and a bad reason explaining why Amazon changed the layout and neither is really about losing sales. Amazon is not in business to forgo any sales. They constantly change and tweak everything on their web site to maximize sales.
First, the positive. Almost always when I’m on my Kindle and I want a new book, I want a Kindle ebook to start reading. I don’t want search results showing me non-Kindle books because I’m looking for something to read on my Kindle. It’s actually annoying to click through to a search result that isn’t available on the Kindle. When I’m on Amazon’s web site and I go to the trouble of limiting my searching to “Kindle books,” I REALLY only want a Kindle book. In a minority of cases, when I’m looking for a specific book, it’s trivial to broaden the search by clicking on the “any department” line.
I think there is also a nefarious rationale for why they changed the policy. Amazon has been creeping up the prices of ebooks and frequently displaying a made-up “digital” list price. With some older books, they’ve actually priced the ebook edition above the price of available paperbacks. By “hiding” the prices of those competing, dead tree editions, Amazon is hiding information about relative pricing and doing a disservice to its customers. This is tilting a sale towards digital and away from print but only in cases where there’s a Kindle edition available. It’s not forgoing a sale completely, as you suggest.
You final point about the coming wave of competitors is right on. I think the growing and, hopefully, heated competition will improve things for us customers.
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Evan
on Aug 3rd, 2009
@ 6:38 am:
They are books, not dead tree editions.
As to ebook pricing, I think you fail to understand the impact of low ebook pricing. Its the death of ebooks and the sooner publishers establish control over pricing and payment terms, the sooner they can rescue this fledgling industry.
Finally, I don’t think Amazon is hiding anything nor do I think they are inching up prices. They are testing pricing and seeing what works. Don’t confuse price testing with price manipulation.
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Scott
on Aug 3rd, 2009
@ 12:20 pm:
Great post. I too have noticed the absence of other versions on the Kindle side of the Amazon store. I wonder if it is an attempt to show publishers/authors that if a book is not in Kindle edition then it won’t be seen (and therefore won’t be purchased) by a growing set of consumers. While some consumers (those who know exactly what book they want) will then search and buy on the print side of Amazon or search for the book elsewhere, others may simply find an alternative book in the Kindle format.
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The Daily Square – From Her Fingers Edition | Booksquare
on Aug 3rd, 2009
@ 4:30 pm:
[...] Quo Vadis, Amazon?Evan Schnittman on Amazon’s apparent strategy to steer customers to the Kindle store and keep them there. Yes, indeed, why is a company so devoted to choice in other areas trying to force customers into a single choice? [...]
Anthony S. Policastro
on Aug 10th, 2009
@ 12:34 pm:
I would have to agree with Evan’s assessment of Amazon. Now wouldn’t it be nice when you searched for a book on your Kindle and it said not available in Kindle format you could order the print edition right from you Kindle and have it delivered anywhere you want?
Because of the small and slower access to the Kindle catalog on a Kindle, I would keep the catalog with Kindle books only. But, if the book was not in the Kindle format I would have just those books presented as print books and be able to purchase it from the Kindle.
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Tracy
on Jan 7th, 2010
@ 9:30 pm:
I suspect that long term Amazon is training a new customer base to want digital and buy digital. Selling ebooks is a way easier business than stocking and shipping paper books all over the place. Digital sales also have the potential for a better profit margin. This is likely Amazon’s dream and goal.
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