Sunday, August 09, 2009

More E-Reader News

I keep talking about e-readers (even though I don’t have one, unless you count my iPhone). That's because things keep happening. We talked about Amazon and their e-reader, the Kindle, and Barnes & Noble's new eReader and then the Apple reading tablet and Google’s building of a digital book ecosystem. Most of us seemed to agree it would be really helpful if books could be made available on all these competing systems so you could download any book to whatever type reader you had.

There’s hope on the horizon.

Yesterday, I read an article about LibreDigital, which started up in 1999 with $70 million in venture capital as NewsStand to provide digital copies of newspapers. In 2006, it relaunched itself with $7 million from Harper-Collins Publishers and other investors to focus on the electronic book publishing market.

According to the Austin American-Statesman article,
LibreDigital will use the new investment to further the development of its technology, which lets publishers deliver content to readers across a range of platforms, from electronic book readers to digital phones.
It’s still delivering digital newspapers, but is now also working with six of the top 10 publishers, including HarperCollins, Hachette Book Group and Simon & Schuster.
LibreDigital CEO Russell Reeder said "knitting together traditional and new content sources with the various mobile devices consumers use can be daunting for any publisher. We're making the entire process seamless, no matter what device or content source publishers need to feed."
According to the article, chairman of LibreDigital says,
the market for e-books and electronic editions of newspapers is projected to exceed $2 billion by 2012.
So companies are starting to jump into this field of making books available across different platforms. There’s hope that what readers and authors want to happen is in the works.
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13 comments:

  1. That's good news, and thanks for keeping up with the industry and sharing. I'm waiting to also see when ebooks will be internet based so text can be hyperlinked. Also the introduction of color and graphics. If and when that happens I may pub my first book that is ONLY in ebook format - the Adventures of Adam Atom.

    The Old Silly

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  2. Great job keeping us up-to-date, Helen. Thanks.

    I think text books will be the first book genre to go fully digital. My son (whose backpack is always about 50 pounds), was glad to be able to access some of his middle school books via internet and teacher pin number last year.

    Elizabeth
    Mystery Writing is Murder

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  3. Marvin, I know they're working on graphics and color - and I don't see why ebooks aren't able to have live links. That, to me, just seems like a given.

    Elizabeth, I know college kids are happy that a lot of textbooks are now available as eBooks. I hadn't heard it was also happening in middle school. That's terrific. That generation may grow up learning via eBooks. What a change!

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  4. Wonderful!

    Now hopefully they will work with all sizes of publishers, not just the big dogs...

    L. Diane Wolfe “Spunk On A Stick”
    www.circleoffriendsbooks.blogspot.com
    www.spunkonastick.net
    www.thecircleoffriends.net

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  5. whose backpack is always about 50 pounds

    I don't know... sometimes it seems the only exercise a lot of kids are getting, is from lugging all those books around.

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  6. I seriously used to worry about the weight of my daughter's backpack. I swear it weighed more than she did. Both of my kids were active in basketball in school. Perhaps there needs to be more organized sports for kids.

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  7. ebooks are getting so popular. i wish rwa would recognize them more.
    great blog. i'm following you now. you should pop on over to mine. i have all things books...
    nice to meet you.
    xo

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  8. Hello Kelly. Thanks for stopping by and following. I am off to visit your blog now.

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  9. I'm so glad you keep us up to date on these readers. I see articles but can never keep straight which is which and which does what. Except the Kindle, which belongs to the Big A.

    When readers can accept multiple formats with instant downloads all around, I think we'll be there. And I'll start looking.

    I agree kids need more organized sports. Exercise and discipline.

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  10. That would be great, Carol. I like the idea of buying whatever reader works best for me and still being able to download any book.

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  11. I would love to be able to download my book in one format for ereaders instead of trying to figure so many of them out!

    Morgan Mandel
    http://morganmandel.blogspot.com
    http://www.morganmandel.com

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  12. I am so glad you are keeping up with all the news about these e-readers. I would love to have one, but it will not, for me anyway, take the place of traditional books. It is simply an additional format I will have for the convenience and portability, but that, will play an important role in my ability to read more.

    Nancy, from Realms of Thought…

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  13. Glad to read that there might be a universal platform for e readers. Would make a lot of sense to have that.

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