At first, I was intrigued by the Amazon announcement of their new e-book reader Kindle. Then I didn’t follow much of the coverage since I don’t live in the U.S. and knew I wouldn’t have access to this new gadget. But Joe Wikert’s question, “How do you feel about paying $9.99 for an ebook?” made me think about Kindle a little more.

The price of books

Here in Buenos Aires English-language books are hard to come by. There are two bookstores in this very large city that specializes in English books, neither is anything near a Border’s in collection size (far from it, actually). Of the two bookstores I almost always go to the one that sells used books, partly because they have a very good literary selection. At the used bookstore in Buenos Aires I usually pay around $25- $35 pesos for a book. That’s about $7.94 - $11.11 given current exchange rates.

Given the limitations of buying books in English I would gladly pay $9.99 for an e-book. Indeed, I would be thrilled for the ability to purchase a wide variety of books that could be placed on a portable e-book reader at that price.

Reading digitally

Before moving to Buenos Aires I rarely read anything on the screen, almost always printing out everything I downloaded. Now, I tend not to print very much and over the last few years have gotten very used to reading on a screen. Having made that hurdle, I’m just waiting for a quality e-book reader to come along. Perhaps Kindle is it. I think it is getting very close and surely it’s just a matter of time before e-book readers become as common as portable audio players.

International use of the Kindle e-book reader

International use is where an e-book reader becomes a necessity. And I’m not talking about Canada, Australia, or the UK but places where books in English are not so easy to come across.

So, I thought, hmmm, maybe I should really consider getting a Kindle even with its current flaws. But the wireless device only works in the U.S. You can’t use the wireless downloads outside the U.S. I can live without wireless downloads if content could be transferred via USB from a PC. From reviewing the Amazon forums on Kindle, this question of international usage has come up a few times. Currently, Kindle only functions on the Sprint EVDO data network, which cuts out most of the world.

Yet, I’m certain these data access issues will become less restrictive in future versions of Kindle or with whatever new e-book device is next to appear. So, I keep waiting for that e-book reader, which for me down here at the end of the world, is a necessity.

And a word about product design

Obviously, I’ve not seen Kindle in person but the photo of Kindle makes it look like a cheap, plastic toy made for children ages 5 - 8. That becomes especially obvious when I pulled up the Amazon home page last night that displayed Kindle just above the Nintendo DS, which looks lovely.

If you travel a lot then you know the problem of carrying around guidebooks: they can be large and you often don’t use half the chapters in the book. A travel guide friend of mine actually recommends ripping out the pages that you don’t want from a guidebook in order to make it lighter, easier to carry around.

Lonely Planet is introducing downloadable chapters of its guidebooks. The price of each chapter varies but it seems to be around $2.50 or so. It reminds me of the TravelFish guides to southeast Asia that we wrote about last month.

So far, Lonely Planet only has chapters from its Latin American guidebooks available for download. This concept is particularly good for travelers on the road. In many countries it’s very difficult to find English-language travel books.

I was over at the Book Standard site, looking at their news entries, and decided that I wanted to subscribe to a feed of their news stories. On the main news page of Book Standard I looked around in vain for some indication of a news feed. Finally, when I clicked on one of the news items and got to the next page then I saw the RSS/XML indicator for the feed.

Okay, all is good, or so I thought.

Usually when you click on the RSS/XML label then you’re prompted to subscribe to the feed. News feeds generally start with the latest items, what the site is publishing today. I have over 400 feeds in my Bloglines and it’s my main way of keeping track of what’s happening on the net.

Yet, Book Standard doesn’t seem to understand the concept of feeds. At Book Standard when you click on the RSS/XML label you get a pop-up window that asks you which feed you want to subscribe to from VNU eMedia. Uh, I just wanted Book Standard, what the heck is VNU eMedia? (Actually, I know what it is but why do they assume everyone does?):

Here you get the options for most VIEWED stories, most EMAILED stories, most PRINTED stories, and most SAVED stories. Hey, I just want the LATEST stories…just like every other feed on the net. And, really guys, why do people care about the most printed stories? That might be an interesting statistic for internal use but you really think it needs a feed?

Why make it complicated?

And since I’m picking on the Book Standard, why did the Book Standard shut down Book Trailerpark?

I just worry about a publishing conglomerate that doesn’t seem to understand online publishing.

One new site (started in May) that I’m enjoy reading is Future Perfect Publishing by Tom Masters. The tag line for the blog is Exploring new trends & possibilities in book publishing and Tom is doing just that with some thoughtful articles.

From his very first post Tom set the tone for his blog:

Technology will no doubt create new opportunities in book publishing. This is why I am writing this blog. I am a bibliophile and a technology optimist. Here is my belief about the future of one of mankind’s most amazing and durable invention: As the democratization of publishing progresses, prepare for a renaissance in book writing, publishing and reading.

Interviews

Tom has been doing a very interesting set of interviews that feature a variety of insights:

Interview with Derek Armstrong - Publisher, Kunati Books

I coach our authors to review other novels on Amazon, to blog every day, to reach out to new friends on myspace and youtube aggressively. Some of our best quotes on our book covers, from NY Times best selling authors came from online friendships with authors-to-authors.

Interview with Dane Neller of On Demand Books - The Book Espresso Machine

Bookstores will be able to reconfigure their floor space to sell faster moving, higher margin inventory and rely on the Espresso for mid- and backlist books. Since the Espresso is a mini electronic book store, non-bookstore retailers will be able to use the machine to print all types of books, which will increase competition and probably reduce book prices. Also, self-publishing will become a profitable business for bookstores, libraries and other retail venues.

Virtual Book Tours: An Interview with Steve Weber

FPP: What is a virtual book tour?

Steve: It’s making a guest appearance on a blog that serves likely readers of your book. Sometimes it’s called a “blog tour” or “guest blogging.” So it’s a good way of popping up in front of your target market — by going to a place where they already congregate. Blog tours are especially valuable for authors who can’t travel or are uncomfortable with public speaking, and when touring is impractical because a book’s readers are widely dispersed. Exactly how it’s done depends on your preferences and the style of the blog. A plain-vanilla virtual book tour would be like newspaper editorials, but in the best case it’s an interactive affair, and the author provokes a discussion among the blog readers…..they’re becoming very popular among authors who handle their own publicity, and professional book consultants are jumping on the bandwagon too. Blogs are the place where people who are passionate about something gather to exchange ideas. So there’s no better place for an author to start a discussion and get people excited about his or her book.

I just wanted to highlight a section from each but you really should go and read all those interviews in full.

Podcasting, Blogs, & Blog Networks

Tom has a number of other posts about podcasting and blogging as tools for building readership. Overall it’s an outstanding start to a new blog and we’re looking forward to more great posts from Tom.

For years I’ve been thinking that we eventually will see machines in libraries and bookstores that will print books on demand. The Espresso Machine from On Demand Books is the current buzz that is trying to make that happen.

And perhaps all the buzz about the Espresso Machine from industry observers and publishers is causing the Web site of On Demand Books to exceed its bandwidth this month. Or, it just shows the power of an Endgaget post.

We’re all in favor of devices like the Espresso Machine and fully believe that these types of machines will be an inevitable presence in bookstores and libraries. Yet, I do get a little worried about a technology-based company that can’t handle the basics of keeping a Web site operational.

Sure, a publicity crunch brings a lot of traffic but this is why technology planning is important. Anyway, we wish Espresso Machine a lot of luck and will be thinking about the implications of these machines for book design…more on that in a future post.

update:

Design the Web Site Before Launching Your Product

Well, I guess I should have been in no hurry to look at the On Demand Books Web site since there’s very little information there.

Somehow, I thought that a company that is utilizing technology in an attempt to revolutionize publishing would have had a striking Web site filled with information about its system. There’s a lot of potential there but, again, for a company that says it is “finalizing technology to access a vast network of content”….well, there’s something to be said about first impressions. And I’m saying that not just as someone who manages a graphic design firm but also as a person who spent years developing digital libraries and managing IT in academic libraries.

A type of on demand book machine is needed and, eventually, will be a reality but it looks like there’s still a long road to travel. Anyway, again, I’m still wishing OnDemandBooks the best success.