One of the challenges publishers and authors face with e-books is that no one knows what anyone’s reading. Without eye-catching book jackets displaying the author’s name prominently, the potential for word-of-mouth marketing is virtually lost.

GelaSkins, a company that makes covers for every imaginable mobile device and all the major e-readers, could offer a solution to the branding dilemma of e-books. You can currently buy ready-made GelaSkins for devices, or custom design something unique; the options for design are endless.

An author could create a GelaSkins cover of her latest book and offer it as a giveaway to readers. Or publishers could host a contest, like an iPad draw, and cover the prize with a custom-designed book skin. Authors could also sell skins alongside their books to generate extra revenue. With any of these scenarios, the consumer gets a visual cue as well as protection for their e-reader, and the author and publisher get their names displayed for the world to see.

At about $20 per skin this isn’t exactly an inexpensive option, particularly since e-books still come in below that price. But if e-reading continues to grow like it has, authors and publishers will be looking for creative ways to brand their books. GelaSkins might be a product to do it.

Give us your take: Would you pay $20 for a skin that looks like your favourite book cover?

Image credit: Bookshelf design for Kindle 2 by Colin Thompson

March 8 -14 is Read an E-Book Week. In keeping with the spirit of the event, I thought I’d try to summarize what an author should know about Kindle, the e-reader from Amazon.

I’m going to assume that you’ve heard about the Kindle but you don’t really know too much about it. My aim with this post is to provide enough information for you to evaluate the market and figure out if it’s worth pursuing. So let’s get started.

What Is the Kindle?

• The Kindle is a dedicated e-book reading device, meaning it reads e-books, along with some newspapers and magazines, but not much else. Version 2 of the Kindle was released in February of this year.
• It uses E ink technology for the display. E ink is very different from a computer screen or the screen on, say, an iPhone. It is not backlit and so the experience of reading on a Kindle is very much like that of reading off paper. There’s no eye strain and it can be comfortably used for long periods of reading.
• The Kindle is relatively small and lightweight. It weighs just 10.2 ounces and has a 6″ screen on the diagonal. It’s very convenient for carrying, and many users appreciate its portability over heavy books.
• The Kindle 2 can hold about 1,500 books at a time.
• The device currently sells for $359 USD.

There are many video reviews online that will give you a more detailed look at the Kindle and its features. Here are a few good videos I have found:

• Kindle 2 first impressions from Michael Hyatt, CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishers
  
• CNET Kindle 2 review
• Kindle 2 user feedback video from Amazon

Who Uses a Kindle?

• Amazon will not release any sales data about the Kindle devices so no one really knows how many they have sold or who is buying them. Guesses from industry watchers range from 300,000 units sold to as high as 500,000.
• Contrary to what you might intuitively guess — that the biggest users are kids of the ‘Net generation — anecdotal evidence points to users 40 years of age and up as the primary market. This older audience appreciates the resizable type, the light weight and portability, and the convenience of instant access to content. Typically, they also have more money and are able to afford the $359 ticket price.
• Oprah Winfrey endorsed the Kindle on her show in October 2008, raising the device’s profile with the public in a big way. Demi Moore twitters about how much she loves her Kindle.
• Right now, the Kindle is only available in the United States. There is some speculation that version 3 will be available in other countries, but Amazon has yet to confirm that this is true.

What About the Content?

• There are about 245,000 book titles currently available in the Kindle format, including 102 of 111 current New York Times bestsellers.
• Amazon reports that Kindle books have been selling briskly, now accounting for about 10% of sales for titles where both print and Kindle editions are available.
• Kindle books are proprietary files. The files are wrapped in DRM (Digital Rights Management) technology, meaning they are encrypted. They can only be read on a Kindle or on the Kindle app for the iPhone. There is a great deal of debate and criticism in the publishing industry over Amazon’s choice to encrypt its files. Many publishers are pushing to standardize e-books around an open file format called ePub. (More on that in a later post.)
• The typical price for a Kindle book is about $9.95. Amazon keeps a 65% commission on each sale. This is higher than the 55% commission they keep on print book sales.

What’s the Upshot?
While Amazon has taken its share of criticism over the Kindle for a variety of reasons — some of it well deserved — it can’t be denied that the device is helping bring e-books to the mainstream and creating new opportunities for book sales.

If you are an author with an existing print book, or one in production, publishing a companion Kindle version is pretty easy and inexpensive. For a small additional investment, you can make your book available to an audience that craves new content and wants it quickly. This audience is relatively small right now but will continue to grow over time. It’s almost certainly a good investment to make.

The e-books are coming, the e-books are coming! I know, I know, you’ve heard this before. About 10 years ago, e-books tried to fight their way into the marketplace. Some e-readers, like the Rocket eBook, came to market…and then quietly disappeared.

If any single e-book format could be considered popular or well-used in the 1990s, it was PDF. In fact, as recently as 5 years ago, I was still advising would-be e-book authors to publish in PDF. These PDF files were read primarily on a PC screen or downloaded and printed out.

But e-books are coming back with a vengeance, and this time it’s different. No longer the domain of early adopters, and no longer confined to PDF editions, e-books are easing their way into the everyday life of everyday folks. Perhaps nothing has helped push them there more than Oprah Winfrey’s endorsement of the Kindle, the e-reader from Amazon. In an instant, e-books went from minor curiosity to major cause.

If you’re a self-published author and you’re still focused on print books, it’s time to get your electrons stirring. E-books are becoming an increasingly larger piece of the book market.

At the O’Reilly Tools of Change for Publishing Conference in New York earlier this month, Russell Wilcox, president and CEO of E Ink Corporation, made some predictions. Wilcox believes:

• Within the next 18 months, 2 – 3 % of Americans will own a dedicated e-reading device, such as a Kindle or Sony Reader. This will be the tipping point into widescale and mainstream use.
• E-book devices priced under $200 will begin to emerge from China within the next year. Right now, a relatively high price point is one barrier to adoption. The more the price comes down, the more people will be able to buy one.
• In 2009, a variety of e-reader sizes will emerge, some small, some large, each one suited to a different need.
• 2009 will also see the commercial launch of flexible screens that can roll up or bend like plastic film. Touch and stylus interfaces will also proliferate.
• In 2010, there will be more flexible screens on the market and colour will be introduced. (Right now, E Ink devices are black and white only.) Colour will continue to improve over the next decade until e-readers will be able to deliver a reading experience similar to that of today’s glossy magazines.

E Ink Corporation is the technology used by many of the big e-readers on the market today, so it’s in Wilcox’s best interest to be bullish on the market. But even if his sales predictions are aggressive, it’s clear that e-books are a technology whose day has come. They aren’t going to fade away like they did last time, and they aren’t going to be a nice little sideline to the main business of publishing, either.

Seven or eight years ago, the big publishers would look at their print list and choose a small number of titles to also bring out as a digital edition. Today, many publishers produce both print and e-book versions of every title as a matter of course. Someday, and maybe not a day too far off, the default will be to publish digitally, and only select titles will be printed on paper.

In future posts, I’ll take a look at different e-readers and some of the practical issues around publishing e-books.