You don’t pay that much moola unless you have plans. B&N’s plans are a reality. They’ve launched an e-store. You can buy titles that can be read on the iPhone and the iPod Touch, the BlackBerry smartphones, and on most notebook and desktop computers. B&N’s titles won’t be compatible with the Kindle, though.
They’ll be offering more than 700,000 titles, including new releases. That number is expected to increase to 1 million next year.
At the moment, clearly Kindle has the hammer lock on ebooks, but that could change. More and more people are buying iPhones. Even I have one now. Depending on how easy it is to read a book on the iPhone screen, B&N may be on to something here. If I can comfortably read a book on my iPhone, I’d be less likely to pay the huge bucks for a Kindle to lug around. I already carry my iPhone with me. Why dig out room in my purse for a Kindle, too?
We’ll have to see how this works and how easy it is to download and read. But on the surface, it seems to me that B&N has made a smart move here. What do you think?
Considering how many people were already reading E-Books on their phones & computers before the Kindle even existed, I think it's a smart move. I don't want my E-Books limited to one medium - or give Amazon the ability to wipe it clean if they so chose! I like my E-Books to be simple little pdf files.
ReplyDeleteI say go get 'em B&N!
L. Diane Wolfe
www.circleoffriendsbooks.blogspot.com
www.spunkonastick.net
www.thecircleoffriends.net
The more options, the more avenues for books, the better. The kindle actually sounds a little limited, after reading your post and the varying ways to read bn's e-books. I like this progress!
ReplyDeleteI wish all of the readers were compatible with each other. It is so frustrating at times.
ReplyDeleteI would be nice, I agree, if they could all play together. Then you could read an e-book on whatever device you wanted.
ReplyDeleteAnd Diane, I hear you. I could not believe it when Amazon went in and wiped books from people's Kindles that they had paid for!
The books amazon wiped should never have been sold in the first place. Amazon would have left themselves open to legal action if they hadn't wiped them, when they clearly had the power to do so. Whether they should have that level of control is a different matter. If you don't like that Amazon knows what's on your Kindle, then obviously don't get one.
ReplyDeleteThe B&N ebookstore has 700k titles, but that includes half a million public domain titles through the Google scanning project. They have their own proprietary software and they use DRM. Just what ebooks need, more confusion.
There's also been talk about leap-frogging the Kindle install base by aiming at the smartphone/iPod market, of which there are, what? a hundred times as many in the wild as there are Kindles. But a fraction of those people will want to buy e-books, compared to pretty much every Kindle owner.
I'm just hoping this won't affect the availability of multi-format ebooks at Fictionwise.
Amazon may have realized they were selling books illegally, but the people who bought them did so in good faith. Then Amazon went in and removed those books from the Kindles of the people who had paid for the books - without telling the buyers they were going to do that. That Amazon did that and had the right to do it, certainly gave pause to others thinking of buying a Kindle. It certainly has made me less anxious to buy a Kindle.
ReplyDeleteI find it interesting that these B&N books aren’t kindle compatible. A completion thing, I guess--or too expensive to get a license. Odd because, apparently, the Kindle is a huge hit and has a growing market, as the thing is constantly shipping on a delayed basis due to not enough to meet demand. Additionally, they sure wouldn’t do the bigger Kindle (DX?) if the first one was a bust.
ReplyDeleteI don’t own any portable reader—though I’d like to--but seems like reading a full novel on a small phone screen would get kinda laborious after a bit. I already spend too much time reading my computer screen…and, though it’s a laptop, talk ablaut lugging something around--not to mention security issues, as in having it stolen. All aspects of my life are stored on the thing, so I’m very care to safeguard it.
I guess my rambling point is, if I did anything portable, it would be the Kindle…or something Kindle-like. i.e. bigger screen. Most B and N options seem to be smaller screen.
Best Regards, Galen
Imagineering Fiction Blog
I have a Sony Reader these days, but read for years on a Palm PDA. Still do in fact. Gray text on a black background, and turn the brightness right down, is easiest on the eye when reading off TFT screens.
ReplyDeleteThe publisher that had sold the books in error told Amazon to remove the books and they obliged. I agree I don't like the idea that Amazon has the Kindle phone home and allows that amount of "remote control", but they don't have a monopoly on ebook readers so the choice is there to give someone else your money. It's just that the majority of stories I've seen about this haven't made an effort to get the full facts.
And the whole Amazon removing books has sort of blown over, hasn't it? I think most understood why Amazon did it; they just weren't happy it happened without being told ahead of time - and I think a few were shocked that Amazon could do that.
ReplyDeleteI think e-books are the future of publishing, for sure. This sounds like a smart way for B&N to have a presence in the market.
ReplyDeleteElizabeth
Mystery Writing is Murder
I could see how it would work out better...but I can't see how it would be easy to read a book on the iPhone. My boyfriend has one and we tested out the application that allows you to read books. It was nice to be able to read that way but I can't imagine reading an entire book on that tiny screen.
ReplyDeleteWell, thank you for letting us know what you thought of reading on a phone, Stephanie. Kinda makes me think twice.
ReplyDeleteI think this is very interesting and why I am coming out with a novella series designed specifically for the i phone users. The series will be posted on kindle hopefully later tonight.
ReplyDeleteBeth Gray
I think it's a very smart move, and they have a good chance of successfully competing with Amazon head to head. Add to that, they are inking a deal with Plastic Logic who's ereader is slated to come out in 2010 - you just might have a winner. The plastic logic device will be wireless (the big slam against the Sony reader) and use AT&T, which all iPone users already use. That's a pretty good set up for success.
ReplyDeleteIt's not so much that B&N titles are incompatible with the Kindle as the Kindle is incompatible with open ereader standards. Short sighted on Amazon's part. I think if the B&N effort takes off Amazon may open up the Kindle to other formats and we may get closer to interchangeable readers.
Any way you look at it, ebooks are in for a big boost.
~jon
I think it is a smart move for B&N - though I can't see me using the application yet - I can see how it might be nice to always have something with you to read if you left your 'real book' at home.
ReplyDeleteThis is a great blog and I will come back many times. I have started two new blogs also and hope they do well. I hope to learn from this one.
ReplyDeleteBeth Gray
http://www.bethgray.us
http://www.howtobecomeabetterhooker.info
Thanks Jon for the information.
ReplyDeleteI'm hoping it is a smart more and will open things up. It would be so helpful if you didn't have different formats for different readers.
Welcome Beth! I'll zip over to your blogs - gotta go see if "howtobecomeabetterhooker" is for writers or knitters.
I think it's a very smart move, especially if they offer the variety that Kindle doesn't. I don't like any company that has a headlock on a particular market as Amazon does. A little more competiton will take them down a notch or two and they need it.
ReplyDeleteAt this point, any e-books I read is on my computer. I just haven't been able to justify the cost of a reader.
Jon, I appreciated reading your information too. Interesting times ahead.
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ReplyDeleteThis reminds me of the whole VHS vs Beta, Mac vs PC shakedowns that we always get with new technology. I'm glad that B&N is moving forward--the more competition, I believe, the more is going to be e-published.
ReplyDeleteI think I shouldn't have bought a Kindle. :) (And wouldn't have if I didn't have books of my own on Kindle).
ReplyDeleteI'm all for it. The more serious competition Amazon gets the better.
ReplyDeleteThe Old Silly
Smart move by B&N. When my book Breakthrough was released, I opted not to have an e-book version. Now its too late. Unless I change publishers, I can't go back.
ReplyDeleteHowever, for my next two books I will definately make them avaialble in e-books as many friends would like to purchase Breakthrough this way.
Lesson learned" e-books are becomeing a vety popular medium for purchasing books.
Stephen Tremp
As writers, we are living in exciting times. New technology is really changing the way we do business!
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ReplyDeleteB&N is working hard to compete with amazon, and I appreciate that. For one thing, I carry my laptop, camera, and phone on trips so am unlikely to tote another reading tool like Kindle with me. And even if only 100,000 of the 700,000 books B&N has available are new releases, I bet I can find something in that 100,000 that's on my reading list.
ReplyDeleteThere's another reason I'm a big B&N online fan at the moment -- they are discounting many of the books available for pre-order (even a bigger discount if you're a member). With my book buying binges, and gift buying habits for the holidays, this is fantastic.
I hear you Patricia! My laptop is a big honking PC that is so heavy, I finally had to stop using a shoulder bag. I got a rolling computer bag. So much easier when I'm running through an airport.
ReplyDeleteSometimes I feel like putting on a helmet and hiding in the corner until the ebook shakeout is finished (of course, that could be years or decades).
ReplyDeleteOther times, I feel like diving into the fray with sharpened elbows, trying to make sure my book(s) are released in all the right formats.
Right now, I'm mostly in wait mode, trying to stay abreast of all the developments.
Alan
A Million Blogging Monkeys
One of the more accepted formats is the MobiPocket .prc e-book. It can be read by the Kindle and by any PC and most of the PDA's and Smartphones.
ReplyDeleteTh only current fly in the ointment is it doesn't run on MAC. I have been successfully converted a friends SciFi magazine, M-Brane SF, and having it up on the MobiBook Base and loaded onto Amazon.com
Very good discussion going here and glad you got it started, Helen. I wonder if the same kind of discussion went on in salons when paperbacks were first introduced. Be interesting to know.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure I would like to read on a small phone window, but some of the phones I've seen recently have larger screens than my old Motorola. I do have a handheld reader - an eBookwise, but have not sprung for a Kindle. Nor will I, I don't think.
At some point these companies are going to have to stop with the proprietary languages and platforms and have something accessible no matter what kind of reader you have. That way an e-book would be a book that could be read by anyone who wanted to purchase it in that format.
Oh, if only I ruled the world.... :-)
Since I don't have any control over these things, I'd just like people to buy my ebooks, I have them on Kindle and on Fictionwise, so it's not to hard to find one and download it.
ReplyDeleteMarilyn
http://fictionforyou.com
Interesting move - anyone buying sounds good, and more ways to sell books sounds good too.
ReplyDeleteMarilyn, you echo the sentiments of most writers!
ReplyDeleteSeveral writers posting on Crimespace said they're selling significant amounts on Kindle, so it's worth a try - getting your books up there, that is, not necessarily buying one. Reading books on an iPhone sounds difficult for me - I can barely read my Blackberry.
ReplyDeleteHelen, I gave you a plug on my blog today in my post on print-on-demand and self-publishing. Morgan Mandel recommended you as an editor.
Julie Lomoe's Musings Mysterioso
http://julielomoe.wordpress.com
I think this is wonderful news. It is definitely an electronic age - although nothing will ever replace traditional books. I love to have options. Let's face it, we are a society on the go and it is so easy to bring our reading with us electronically!
ReplyDeleteNancy, from Realms of Thought…
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ReplyDeleteThank you Julie!
ReplyDeleteYou're right, Nancy. It is great to have options.