UPDATE - July 13, 2010 - Well, it’s happened already. Sony just broke the $100 e-reader barrier. Looks like there will be e-readers for everyone this holiday season! - R.S.

May 1st was a big day for the e-reader market. That’s when the Kobo, at $149, became the cheapest and most stripped down e-reader you could buy. Soon after, Borders started selling a competitive but cheaper reader, the Aluratek Libre for only $119.99. Now Barnes & Noble has a version of the Nook at $149, and Amazon Kindle promptly slashed its price to $189. Sony, not to be left out of the fun, has also dropped their prices. What’s really going on here? Is it simply competitive pricing, or something more?

Let’s look to the printer and toner pricing structure for a possible answer. Each day, printers are sold with more features, and at lower prices. The catch is the toner: It continues to be ridiculously expensive. I break out in hives when I have to buy toner cartridges for my colour printer. I even purchased a new printer once because it was cheaper than buying the toner! Don’t worry, I found the old one a new home at a recycling charity. Seems e-books are the new toner, and e-readers the new printers.

The first e-readers were expensive ($359 for the first Kindle), and e-books were cheap (typically about $9.99 per book). The publishers didn’t like it, but they had to live within a model where the retailer set the price. When Apple’s iPad launched this spring they forced a change that swept the industry, and now retailers have less discount wiggle room. Not surprisingly, e-books prices have shot up to the $12 range today.

The only lever left to support the rapid rise of digital book sales (and save the publishing industry) is for e-reader prices to continue to drop. Cheaper means much more accessible, and the number of people who own an e-reader will explode. Back to my printer and toner analogy, almost anyone can buy a colour printer these days, but the toner is a whole other story. We need to keep an eye on e-book pricing, and take bets on which e-readers will survive the price wars (the iRex has already filed for bankruptcy protection in the USA), and which ones will go down with last year’s colour printer models.

As Bette Davis/Margo Channing said in the movie, All About Eve, “Fasten your seatbelts. It’s going to be a bumpy night!”

The e-book self-publishing world is about to get a little more crowded. With the launch of Pubit! this summer, Barnes & Noble (B&N) has inserted itself directly into the publishing process, joining other retailers like Amazon and Sony. Pubit! is a DIY option for independent publishers and authors to deliver their works digitally through B&N’s site and e-book store.

While this may on the surface seem like great news for the indie publishing crowd, there are definite issues. For example, B&N has been noncommittal up to this point about royalty information, which makes it difficult to know if Pubit! can offer a more attractive deal or not. Another challenge authors and publishers face with an ever growing list of retailers offering self-publishing is how to choose. Which retailer might offer the best audience and reach? Does it make sense to manually publish with every major retailer, one by one, to make sure the playing field is covered despite the time and effort?

In order to make this really work, and work well, we’re going to have to see some consolidation happen. A company that is already running ahead with this is Smashwords. Publish with them and they do the distribution for you to their own site, as well as Kobo, Apple, Amazon, Sony, and even B&N. One site, one process, and one revenue payment makes it simple and transparent. What a concept! Big book retailers like B&N should consider taking a page out of Smashwords success manual.

Amazon has recently announced two changes to its Kindle publishing program that will be of interest to self-published authors.

1] International authors now have access to Kindle publishing.

Up until last week, only US publishers were able to create and sell Kindle versions of their e-books through the Amazon site. Now the Kindle publishing option is available to publishers worldwide. Payment to all international publishers is made by cheque, direct deposit still being available only to those in the United States.

2] Amazon will soon offer publishers royalties of 70% on e-books.

Yesterday Amazon announced a new program that would allow publishers and authors to earn 70% of their e-book’s list price, net of Amazon’s delivery costs. Currently, publishers earn 35% of list on Kindle books. At first blush, the new program seems generous — which it is — but it’s also Amazon’s way of enticing publishers to play by its rules about pricing and availability. To qualify for the new royalty rate, the e-book must meet certain criteria:

• Have a list price between $2.99 and $9.99
• Be priced 20% below the lowest physical book price
• Be made available for sale “in all geographies for which the author or publisher has rights”
• Participate in a bundle of features, including text-to-speech
• “Be offered at or below price parity with competition”

Both the old and new royalty programs will exist side-by-side and publishers will be able to choose which one they wish to participate in. The new program comes into effect on June 30, 2010. Note: the 70% royalty option will initially be available to US publishers only.

Bowker, the agency that administer ISBNs in the United States, has cut its prices on ISBNs blocks. A block of 10 ISBNs is now $250 instead of $400.

The Bowker website states that the price cut was made in response to publishers requiring so many more ISBNs because of multiple formats and editions. Many books are now published not only in hard cover and soft cover, but in a wide variety of e-book formats as well.

Bowker recommends a different identifier for each e-book format, so that your Kindle edition, for example, would have a different ISBN than the Sony Reader edition. There has been heated debate about this practice in the industry. Many small and independent publishers say they simply can’t afford to use so many ISBNs for each title, and that a single ISBN for all e-book formats is appropriate.

Others remain firm in their opinion that different numbers for each format is the best way to help sales channels and consumers know what they’re getting. Industry consultant Laura Dawson, who runs a weekly Twitter chat about ISBNs, states it succinctly:

ISBNs are for saying “this one is not that one”.

So which way should a self-published author go? We recommend giving each format a different number. A block of 10 ISBNs, which now costs just $250, should be enough to handle all the different versions of a single first edition title. It’s a worthwhile investment to keep confusion to a minimum.

Every day on Twitter is an education.

As news breaks in Twitterville, it gets passed around, discussed, dissected, analyzed, blogged and retweeted. There’s so much good information circulating there that I’ve decided to do a weekly round-up of book & publishing news that I’ve tweeted in the past 7 days. I’m hoping this will give you an at-a-glance summary of some of the big stories & issues as they emerge.

Leave a comment and let me know what you think of this round-up format. Useful or no?

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24 Jul 09
NiemanLab: Good morning! The Associated Press comes out and says it: They think a headline and link require a license http://tr.im/tQmL

Wow, I just … wow. Does AP really think this is an appropriate and feasible strategy in 2009? Jeff Jarvis, Shel Israel, Matthew Ingram, and a host of other journalists, authors, and bloggers tweeted out about AP’s announcement.

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22 Jul 09
RT @FernReiss: Forbes, Fortune, BusinessWeek…Which will fold? Analysts predict at least 1 dead in next 6 months: http://is.gd/1HBgL

The beleaguered magazine industry continues to take major hits. This week’s crystal ball reading says one of the three big business publications won’t make it through 2009.

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21 Jul 09
RT @electricbook: Point-by-point comparison of Kindle Store and B&N eBookstore http://bit.ly/ugMtu

On Monday, Barnes & Noble announced the launch of what they’re dubbing the “world’s largest e-book store.” The chain says it currently offers 700,000 e-book titles and that number will rise to more than 1 million in 2010. B&N has also announced a partnership with the as-yet-unreleased PlasticLogic e-reader.

For more on the announcement, try ZD NET, the Washington Post, and the Post again.

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21 Jul 09
See @unmarketing test TwitCam live Twitter video feed http://twitcam.com/1wp What are your thoughts on Twitter video?

Buzz is beginning to build around a few different apps (including TwitCam) that allow people to stream live video through their Twitter feeds. The technology provides some intriguing possibilities for authors to build relationships with readers. Who will be the first author to give a reading over Twitter video?

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21 Jul 09
Bard Press giving away 20,000 free ARCs of its new diet book: http://is.gd/1GyZv That’s a lot of books!

Speaking of buzz, how do you get people talking about your book? How about giving away 20,000 free copies. While this tactic is beyond the reach of most self-published authors, it will be interesting to see how well it works for Bard Press. I learned of the promotion outside of Twitter and so far, I haven’t seen anyone talking about it — neither the campaign nor the book. What are your thoughts on it?

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20 Jul 09
RT @sarahw: Entertainment Weekly launched a book blog called Shelf Life: http://is.gd/1FvU0

TSIA (tweet says it all)

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19 Jul 09
RT @bookoven: le book de la future: http://bit.ly/R4WdO

This intriguing 9-minute video explores how we might write, publish, and read the book of the not-too-distant future. The video is in French but if you don’t speak the language you can still understand the essence of what’s being portrayed. The only thing that perplexed me was why the creators thought the public would still go to a bricks & mortar bookstore, which stocked print books, only to scan a barcode and take away an e-book version.

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19 Jul 09
Foldable Readius ereader bankrupt before launch: http://bit.ly/WOev2 (via @liza)

News of the Readius’ parent company… um … folding before launch slipped quietly by with hardly a ripple. With the e-reader market still in its infancy, we can expect a lot more devices to come and go like this before the dust settles.

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And that’s the world as I tweeted it for the past week. You can also follow me on Twitter (@jennifertribe) for news and discussion as it happens.

Amazon today unveiled a new addition to its Kindle line of e-reading devices, the Kindle DX. The most notable feature of the DX is its larger screen size — nearly 10″ on the diagonal versus the Kindle’s 6″ screen.

Amazon is touting the device as a comfortable reader for newspapers and text books, as well as e-books. Three major US newspapers — the New York Times, the Boston Globe and the Washington Post — have signed on to offer subscriptions at reduced prices.

The Kindle DX is priced at $489, $130 more than the Kindle. And yet, apart from the larger screen size, there’s not much more to love. It’s still a black-and-white display. There’s still no ePub or WiFi support.

Early reactions to the release of the DX has been lukewarm at best. Here’s at peek at some of the commentary from the publishing world circulating on Twitter this morning:

SmartBitches: Dear Amazon: please, keep it coming. I’m enjoying this way too much. I can has moar fail plz? Kthxbye!” #dud #amazonfail

paperhaus: Wondering why Amazon bothered with Kindle 2 at all. It’s not like they cooked up a 8.5×11 screen in 2 months.

ljndawson: $489 Kindle with 16 shades of grey and no discounts on subscriptions if you’re in the paper’s area = lead balloon. #dud

wmacphail: The Kindle needs to be WAY cheaper. Apple is going to kick this thing’s ass.

sarahw: Not getting over the $489 price tag. In a recession. Two months after Kindle 2 unveiled. Like reissuing bare-bones DVD w/ one or 2 extras.

kirkbiglione: No ePub, no WiFi. Kindle closed system continues and it won’t hurt Amazon one bit.

Only time will tell whether consumers agree and bypass the DX, or whether the large screen size will prove an enticement.

Following this week’s announcement that Amazon had acquired Lexcycle, makers of the Stanza e-reader app, industry watchers have weighed in with their perspectives. Here are three good commentaries on what the acquisition means for publishing:

Kassia Krozser remarks that the Lexcycle acquisition is not “the end of the world as we know it,” but neither is it great news for publishers and readers.

Consumers are slowly being locked into a single vendor. Publishers are being backed into Amazon’s corner. Yet, yet, yet, I ask again: where are the publishing initiatives, the fresh thinking, to protect the free market?

BookNet Canada offers a Canadian perspective on the deal and suggest three actions publishers can take to keep Amazon from a market stranglehold.

This market is developing at a fevered rate. If you want to help shape the forces that are going to in turn, influence the way you create, sell and acquire books in the future, then now is the time.

Mike Shatzkin believes the real issues brought to light by the deal are pricing and making books discoverable by readers. He calls for the big publishers to come together to develop an online bookstore of their own.

The current effort by several general trade publishers to drive traffic to their own house-branded web sites is misguided and doomed. But Amazon (and Shelfari, GoodReads, LibraryThing, and our new entrant, Filedby.com) have demonstrated that sites with information across the trade book spectrum have real consumer appeal.

Amazon has extended the reaches of its empire once again.

Late yesterday afternoon, news broke that Amazon had acquired Lexcycle, makers of Stanza, a popular e-reader application for the iPhone. Within minutes of the announcement being picked up in the New York Times, the Twittersphere was buzzing with speculation.

So far, what’s known is that Amazon has acquired Lexcycle. And … well, that’s all that’s known for sure right now. No word on the purchase price. More importantly, there remain a lot of unanswered questions as to what this acquisition will mean for the emerging e-book market.

Stanza is one of the most popular e-reader applications for the iPhone and iPod Touch. With a user base of more than 1.3 million, the app outstrips Amazon’s Kindle in market penetration. Last month, Amazon launched a Kindle app for the iPhone, allowing Kindle owners to also read books on their mobile device. However, like the Kindle itself, the app was only available in the United States. Now, with the acquisition of Stanza, Amazon has instant access to a worldwide mobile user base.

The sticky question is what Amazon will do with the Stanza software. To date, Stanza has offered support for open e-book formats. The application reads ePub files (the book format that the publishing industry has been to trying to standardize around) and files not protected with DRM technology.

Amazon, on the other hand, has been building a supply chain around its own proprietary Kindle format. Kindle books can only be read on a Kindle device or with the iPhone Kindle app. So it seems unlikely Amazon will allow Stanza’s continued support of open formats.

Here’s a summary of some of the commentary now circulating:

• Michael Cairns points out that now is the time for the publishing industry to get behind a common e-book standard. If publishers don’t act now while the e-book market is still in its infancy, they will become increasingly powerless against retail behemoths like Amazon.
• Mike Cane provides some compelling analysis on why the acquisition is bad, bad news for the industry.
• Paul Biba shares some thoughts on the acquisition’s negative implications for the “little guy.”
• Karen Templar summarizes some of the big questions the industry now faces.

At least one major publisher is on board with a strategy that Seth Godin, Jeff Jarvis and other industry observers have been advocating for a while: shaking up the single serving model of book sales.

Thomas Nelson announced yesterday that readers who buy certain of its hard cover titles will automatically gain access to the audiobook and e-book versions at no extra charge. Buy the content, choose your containers — an appealing offer, don’t you think?

The third annual Tools of Change for Publishing conference from O’Reilly took place in New York City last week. More than a thousand people drawn from all corners of the globe and the industry — from publishers and authors to programmers and bloggers — convened to discuss and debate the future of the book.

Over three days of keynotes, tutorials, and sessions, several themes began to emerge and repeat; top among them were conversation, collaboration, and community. These themes are important for authors to understand because they signal a fundamental shift in how you will write and publish your work in coming years.

Conversation, Collaboration, and Community
The notion of “book” is evolving. In the last 500 years, “book” has meant a static collection of words, printed and bound between covers. Now, the e-book and Internet have changed all that.

The way it used to be:

• A book as an object, fixed in time and place
• The author as the sole authority
• A silent readership

What is emerging:

• A book as a process
• The author as one of many voices, the leader of a conversation
• A vocal and participating readership

Writing a book is becoming an increasingly public and collaborative process, one that involves readers from the start and encourages their input into the product. Readers are enthusiastic about being involved in the development of a book. Several conference keynoters made observations along these lines:

• Jeff Jarvis, author of What Would Google Do?, described how he had blogged about some ideas that had come up for him during his research for the book. His readers disagreed with his post and told him so. Their feedback reshaped the chapter that Jeff ultimately wrote and published in the book.

• Tim O’Reilly, CEO of O’Reilly Media, discussed O’Reilly’s Rough Cuts program. Through Rough Cuts, readers have access to some of the company’s books in draft form and are able to chip in with their comments. After these books are published, sales of the titles outpace titles that weren’t put through Rough Cuts by 2 1/2 times.

The theme of community and conversation also applies, not just to the development leading up to the book, but to the ongoing process of consumption that occurs after the book is published. Networks of readers connect through blogs and social media to review, critique, and advance the content.

Bob Stein from the Institute for the Future of the Book may have said it best when he proposed a new definition of “book”: a place where readers (and sometimes authors) congregate. Non-fiction authors become leaders of communities of inquiry, and publishers serve to help build and nurture these communities.

Here’s my visual interpretation of the book-as-process idea:

How are you working conversation, collaboration, and community into your authoring process? Leave a comment and let us know.