Archives: December 2003
Happy eBook New Year!
Happy New Year to you!
I've been on vacation for a week and went completely unplugged. It was hard, but I did it.
I hope 2003 was a good year for you and that 2004 will exceed your blessings from last year.
I'll be back on the eBook news, analysis and commentary next year (tomorrow! :-) ).
Meanwhile, have a happy and SAFE new year eve celebration, wherever you may be!
Self Publishing
For many prospective authors of eBooks, they don't realize they are entering the world of what is called "self publishing".
This letter to the editor of the Rocky Mountain News gives a very apt description of what and why authors choose to self publish.
What a concept: the author chooses to self publish.
This trend is growing. It is what Knowledge Download is all about.
However, our focus is self publishing online via the Internet, not in print.
The motives and reasons for self publishing in the letter to editor above hold true for self publishing, either in print or online.
If you have any type of experience, expertise, methods, processes, ideas, or concepts that even one other person may want or need or could benefit from knowing about, you should get busy writing.
In future blogs, I'll be sharing some of the secrets of self promotion and revenue maximization from your ebook content.
Adobe Makes Another eBook Run
Adobe Software, maker of the famous PDF Distiller (PDF maker) and Acrobat Reader software, has re-entered the eBook business.
And, in a pretty big way too.
Adobe's PDF eBook Reader never took off. They were unable to gain wide spread market share for it. Both self-publishers and buyers of PDF based eBooks simply used the free Acrobat Reader.
Adobe Digital Media Store is where you can go to see their linup of eBooks for sale. This is an entirely new venture for Adobe, where they have now become a bookseller, in essesence.
digitalmediastore.adobe.com
Adobe is using OverDrive’s Content Reserve library, which seems to fast becomming the defacto standard for Digital Rights Management (see below).
In order to fulfill their vision, and to leverage the massive installed base of the free Acrobat Reader, Abobe has built in portions of the previous Acrobat eBook Reader into Acrobat 6.0.
In this article, the Sr. Business Development Manager, Tom Prehn talks about how the new eBook reader will launch once a specified eBook has been downloaded and attempted to open.
pdfzone.com
What I find as a very positive move, is that Adobe has built in to the new eBook Reader (embedded into Acrobat Reader) software called Digital Rights Management, or DRM.
DRM is one of the keys in gaining wide spread adoption of eBooks as a viable publishing method. DRM is one of the most effective means to eliminate digital theft.
As an eBook analyst and forecaster, I once again continue to predict a wide spread adoption of eBooks as a viable, economical method to distribute literary, educational and novels to very broad markets.
Free Christmas idea eBook
This eBook offers some interesting, if not wacky, gift ideas.
Ideas include kangaroo poo ear-rings, oppossum fur nipple warmers and an electric golf seat cover. This hilarious book also tells readers how to buy an acre of the moon or a mini-ranch of their very own (available in Texas for just $19.95). And for the ultimate in personalised gift-giving, it shows where to go to have an actual star named after a friend, or your DNA stored in a tin.
You have to give up your name and email address of course. While I didn't read the terms of subscription, I'm sure you are giving your permission to receive other emails from the promoters.
None the less, there's still time to get some cool gifts for your friends and family. This eBook might just give you the right ideas!
Free eBooks
If you own a Palm PDA, you may be in luck.
Palm's Digital Media unit is offering a free eBook download each day up thru Christmas eve.
Today's free title was The Scarlet Pimpernel. A nice choice if I might say.
And don't think these are your typical 'viral', give-em-away to make affiliate sales types of eBooks.
These are legitimate titles of popular literature and books in print.
The only catch is that you have to go to their website each day to download your copy.
Libraries move into eBook mainstream
This is fabulous news.
Public libraries are now adopting selected Overdrive technologies to afford the public consumer the opportunity to check in and out ebook titles of their choice.
The substantial impact of this on the overall eBook market cannot be ignored.
While at the vendor level, there continues to be upheaval among the proprietary hardware sector, clearly software companies who offer DRM (Digital Rights Management) and other similar solutions, are making considerable headway.
To help push the trend, next time you think of it, why not ask you local librarian if they have eBooks available for checkout? And if they don't, be sure to tell them you would like them to and ask when they will have them!
eBook Protection
I had an interesting conversation today with a brilliant software developer. Specifically, this fellow is a world class Flash developer.
Our chat covered many topics.
Of key interest to you, my ebook authors, was relative to digital theft.
Whether you are selling ebooks or Flash components; streaming audio or video. Software or articles, we all face the same prospect: the potential theft and unauthorized re-distribution or resale of your digital goods.
In the digital goods sales space, there are a certain number of protections you can take. Beyond that, your efforts to protect your digital goods will have diminishing returns.
eBooks and other digital goods can benefit from all forms of password protection, license agreements, IP capturing, ecommerce matching of data, encryption schemes, digital rights management (DRM) and more.
The bottom line is: sooner or later someone is going to steal your stuff and give it to their friends or family. More evil types of people will try to sell your ebooks.
Shy of hiring a detective to keep an eye on the market, you should simply acknowledge the situation and stop worrying about what you cannot control, and focus on growing your sales.
Record eBook Sales
The Open eBook Forum reports that over 1 million eBooks have been sold through the first 3 quarters of 2003.
This is fabulous news and certainly shines a positive light on year-over-year estimated sales.
Natch, the reports of ebook sales come from Open eBook Forum members. The list of some of those publishers is in the press release.
The fact that barnsandnoble.com and Gemstar have eliminated ebook offerings, the unit sales are even more surprising.
Additionally, I find the stat of 74% increase in number of titles sold to be of interest. My analysis is this figure means more authors and buyers are joining the ebook phenomena.
I would also suggest these figures are likely half of the total market. There are few if any direct marketers who report into the Forum. Direct marketers, in spite of what anyone may feel about their sales tactics, sell a lot of ebooks.
That as many, or perhaps more, than 2 million ebooks have been sold this year is fantastic news for those prospective authors who have been wondering if there is a market for them!
Gone but not forgotten!
I've been unavailable the last couple of weeks. It's been hectic on the one hand, and painful on the other.
I've been collecting lots of good info that I'll be publishing here over the coming days and weeks. Stay tuned!
Meanwhile, I've had many emails inquiring about the tools or process necessary to get your ebook into or onto handheld devices. I'll try to spend some further research time on that task.
A good first step would be to consider the Microsoft Reader as I wrote in an article here:
MS Reader & Palm OS.
Time is moving along. It's been more than a year since I published that article.
We've found a nice way for the do-it-yourself types of authors out there:
Overdrive ReaderWorks.
So if you haven't added a mobile version of your ebook yet, get going! You're missing out on a great new channel of sales and distribution.