somersault

In multiple articles and videos, PBS’ MediaShift (@mediatwit) describes how digital technology is disrupting the book industry. “The rise of ebooks is poised to overtake sales of print books soon, and people are reading books on Kindles, iPads, Nooks and more. Plus, the equation for authors is changing, as they get more tools to go around traditional publishers and go the self-publishing route.”

In "Ebook Publishers Must Provide Flexible Access to Avoid Media Hell," Dorian Benkoil (@dbenk) says

Trying to consume an ebook can be an infuriating experience.

Consumers like me want to enjoy the digital version of a book when, where and how we want. We love to be able to read it from multiple screens, search it automatically, share annotations, even have the text read aloud as we drive or do dishes.

In theory that's the promise of the new world of book publishing. But in practice, we're blocked at many turns and end up looking for other solutions. For publishers and booksellers, that's not a good thing, and can even be quite costly.

Read the article in full.

Other articles in the series are:

• “The Book Publishing Industry of the Future: It's All About Content” by Felicia Pride
• “5 Reasons Ebooks Are Awesome, Even for the Very Reluctant” by Jenny Shank
• “How a Novelist Bypassed His Publisher and Raised $11,000 on Kickstarter” by Simon Owens
• “5Across: Beyond the Book - Ebooks and Self-Publishing,” a video roundtable discussion moderated by Mark Glaser
• “Is Amazon Short-Changing Authors?” by Jon Peters
• “Mediatwits #25: The 800 Pound Gorilla of Ebooks: Amazon,” an audio podcast hosted by Mark Glaser and Rafat Ail

See the “Beyond the Book” special report section.

Let Somersault (@smrsault) help you navigate the churning waters that are 21^st century publishing.

The Infographic below is from the report, Publishing in the Digital Era (pdf), by Bain & Company (@BainAlerts). From the introduction:

The written word — incised in clay, inked with a quill, printed on presses or transmitted as electronic bits in email — has always been at the heart of capturing and disseminating human knowledge.

Now it’s moving to dedicated e-readers, multipurpose tablets, and other digital devices that could be in the hands of 15% to 20% of the developed world’s population by 2015.

This new format will trigger a profound change in the publishing ecosystem and spark new trends in content creation itself....

Whatever the sector, the emergence of new reading devices suggests an interesting evolution in writing itself. Creating long-term value will not come from simply reformatting print content into digital words. Rather, the greatest opportunity lies in experimenting with such new formats as nonlinear, hybrid, interactive and social content, electronic modes that add motion, sound, and direct reader interactions through technologies [discussed in the report].

Read this report in full (pdf).

The above Infographic is by Visual Loop (@visualoop).

The above Infographic is by Visual Loop (@visualoop).

In a deal that will unite the country’s two largest religion book publishers, HarperCollinsPublishers (@HarperCollins), parent company of Zondervan (@zondervan), has reached an agreement to acquire Thomas Nelson (@ThomasNelson) for $200 million. HC expects to close the purchase before the end of the year. Here’s the report by Publishers Weekly (@PublishersWkly):

HC CEO Brian Murray said the publisher was attracted to Nelson because of its “great content and great authors.” He sees Nelson as being more broad based than Zondervan, pointing to Nelson lines in such areas as business and leadership. Nelson, he added, “is a leader in the inspirational market and we are always looking for good content.” Nelson has had one of the bestselling books of the year in Heaven Is for Real. The area where the two are in the most direct competition is the Bible category. Nelson and Zondervan are the dominant Bible publishers in the Christian market, and they license or own translations that compete head to head.

HC also has a religion imprint called HarperOne (@HarperOne) and its Avon (@avonbooks) romance imprint has a Christian fiction line called Avon Inspire.

Read the PW report in full.

Read the news release.

Read coverage by The New York Times.

Read coverage by The Wall Street Journal.

Read coverage by Christianity Today.

See "Perspective on the Sale of Thomas Nelson Publishers" by Steve Laube of The Steve Laube Agency (@stevelaubeagent).

Humor columnist W. Bruce Cameron (@wbrucecameron) takes on the electronic ereader industry with this essay:

Move over, Kindle: Cameron Industries, a mono-national corporation headed by CEO W. Bruce Cameron (no relation), announced today it will soon be marketing the "next generation" of portable readers. Dubbed the "book," Cameron predicts it will take the world by storm.

As described by Cameron, the book will mark major advances in current reader technology. Among them:

Battery life: While some manufacturers boast that their reading machines can have as much as 150 hours of battery life, Cameron claims that the (pat. pend.) "always on" technology used by the book means the battery life is actually longer than human life.

Read it in full.

It makes us think of another humorous look at the printed format: the Bio-Optical Organized Knowledge Device (BOOK):

Introducing the new Bio-Optical Organized Knowledge device, trade named B.O.O.K.

BOOK is a revolutionary breakthrough in technology; no wires, no electric circuits, no batteries, nothing to be connected or switched on. It's so easy to use, even a child can operate it. Compact and portable, it can be used anywhere -- even sitting in an armchair by the fire -- yet it is powerful enough to hold as much information as a CD-ROM disc.

Here's how it works.

BOOK is constructed of sequentially numbered sheets of paper (recyclable), each capable of holding thousands of bits of information. The pages are locked together with a custom fit device called a binder which keeps the sheets in their correct sequence. Opaque Paper Technology (OPT) allows manufacturers to use both sides of the sheet, doubling the information density and cutting costs. Experts are divided on the prospects for further increases in information density; for now, BOOKs with more information simply use more pages. Each sheet is scanned optically, registering information directly into your brain.

A flick of the finger takes you to the next sheet.

BOOK may be taken up at any time and used merely by opening it.

Read this in full.

According to CBC News (@CBCNews), Canadian-based ebook seller and ereader Kobo (@kobo) is following in Amazon's footsteps and will create a publishing arm sometime next year that will deal directly with authors.

Like Amazon, which announced two weeks ago that it would be publishing 122 original titles this fall, Kobo will be offering complete publishing services for authors, including book editing and design.

Read this in full.

Also see our previous blogpost, "Amazon Signs Up Authors, Writing Publishers Out of Deal."

Here’s a new facet to enhanced ebook publishing. Booktrack (@Booktrk) is a new technology that synchronizes a customized soundtrack of ambient audio, music, and sound effects to written text of ebooks in a way that’s automatically paced to the reading speed of the user to create an immersive entertainment experience.

This article in The New York Times (@nytimes) says, “Amazon.com (@amazon), the online retailer, has long competed with bookstores; now it's starting to make deals with authors, bypassing the traditional publisher.”

Amazon will publish 122 books this fall in an array of genres, in both physical and ebook form. It is a striking acceleration of the retailer’s fledging publishing program that will place Amazon squarely in competition with the New York houses that are also its most prominent suppliers….

“Everyone’s afraid of Amazon,” said Richard Curtis, a longtime agent who is also an ebook publisher. “If you’re a bookstore, Amazon has been in competition with you for some time. If you’re a publisher, one day you wake up and Amazon is competing with you too. And if you’re an agent, Amazon may be stealing your lunch because it is offering authors the opportunity to publish directly and cut you out."

Read the full article.

Also see International Business Times (@ibtimesnews), “5 Reasons Kindle Fire Tablet May Kill Barnes & Noble.”