Kindlerama

For readers, there is one easy win to come from the current fight between Amazon and publishers over how to price and sell ebooks, and it is that at least one of the publishers demanding a change in terms has said that it will stop delaying ebook releases if it can practice variable pricing.

Young said the company would release e-books simultaneously under the new model–Hachette USA had been one of a number of US publishers to window new releases because of the price they were being offered for sale on Amazon.com’s Kindle device.

The second bit of good news, although this is more for authors, is that the new model gives authors and their agents room to demand higher royalty rates for digital sales. Publishers Weekly reports that Macmillan has already announced it will bump up digital royalty rates from 20% to 25% moving forward.

The bad news, which you already know, is that the next new ebook release from Macmillan or Hachette might be $15, as there’s no guarantee that Amazon will be the cheapest ebook store in town anymore. Unfortunately, thanks to digital rights management (DRM) across the marketplace, for now at least you won’t be able to comparison shop from your Kindle.

“Hachette moves to ‘agency model’ in the US” [The Bookseller]
“Sargent Says Deal is Closer; Macmillan Royalty Rate to Rise” [Publishers Weekly]

(Photo: Jandro S)

This whole issue of how ebooks are priced, what they’re worth to consumers, and how to make money off of them is actually pretty complicated. It’s also fascinating, at least to someone like me; for the first 18 months after I bought a Kindle I demanded that no publisher ever go above the $10 mark. (I’ve since softened my stance somewhat for new releases, although personally I don’t buy ebooks over $10 regardless.)

Two of the best explanations I’ve found come from published writers who have an obvious interest in what Amazon and publishers end up doing:

Read “Amazon, Macmillan: an outsider’s guide to the fight” by Charles Stross

Read “Why my books are no longer for sale via Amazon” by Tobias Buckell

Bonus! Read “Kindle Numbers: Traditional Publishing Vs. Self Publishing” by Joe Konrath for an alternate take on earning money from ebooks if you’re a midlist writer.

Set aside 10-15 minutes and read these two (or three) guys for some great insights, for example on Amazon’s reasons for holding to the $10 price point (hint: it’s not really for our benefit), on how much it costs to publish a high quality ebook, and on how to price more efficiently to take advantage of what different customers are actually willing to pay (hardcore fans are usually willing to give more support to their favorite authors).

(Photo: kretyen)

It’s probably safe to assume there will be a touchscreen Kindle some day, but it’s been hard to make any educated guess as to when. Adding touchscreen capability is a matter of finding technology that’s affordable, that can work with the current screen/display technology, and that isn’t locked down by a competitor via patents. Amazon has possibly found a way to meet all three requirements with its acquisition of Touchco, a startup that began as a project at New York University.

Nick Bilton at the New York Times wrote a feature on Touchco in January, before anyone knew about Amazon’s acquisition. He describes demos he saw at their offices, including the one in the video below where a Touchco employee manipulates a desktop interface using a touchscreen prototype.

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Sometimes something seems so obvious that you forget to mention it, and that’s what keeps happening with Calibre. I’ve suggested it in passing in other posts, but it finally dawned on me that I’ve never come right out and said, “You should use this program to manage your ebook library.” So…

You should use Calibre to manage your ebook library.

The simplest way to describe it is that it’s an iTunes for ebook files–you can organize your ebooks, and then connect a device to your computer and automatically copy them over.

Read more…

There was some drama over the past few days between Amazon and Macmillan Publishers (see photo illustration above), perhaps spurred on by the whole Apple iPad announcement, concerning the pricing of Macmillan ebooks on the Amazon Kindle store. It all came to a close on Sunday evening, when Amazon announced that from now on it will let Macmillan set the price of new releases and bestsellers in the $13-15 range.

Amazon posted a strongly worded announcement on its own forums to let customers know what went down, and to make it clear that it disagrees:

Read more…