Old Meets New - E-Book Rankings

The New York Times recently announced that it would begin publishing a bestseller list for e-books. This is an acknowledgement of how the publishing market has changed recently. According to the article, comparing the first nine months of 2010 to the same period during 2009, e-book sales increased nearly 190% to over $300 million.

This bestseller listing is an interesting intersection of old and new platforms. Including this bestseller list will lead to a redesign of the weekly printed Book Review section.

Although the sales figures are tallied from a variety of sources, it would be interesting if this were a more dynamic best seller that updated in real time (or more regularly than once a week) online. Since there aren't inventory updates to record, sales data for e-books should be available sooner. This could help readers see popularity trends and publishers understand the impact of having authors promote books on certain programs (in terms of an immediate impact on sales volume).

EBook Pricing Higher Than Bestsellers?!?

The New York Times had an article today about ebooks that are priced HIGHER than traditional paper books! Ken Follet's "Fall of Giants" was $19.99 for the ebook, compared to $19.39 for the hardcover... James Patterson's new book "Don't Blink" was $14.99 for the ebook, and Amazon priced the hardcover at $14. What's going on here???

" “What we are seeing is a sorting-out period as a new, very vibrant market for book content begins to develop with multiple platforms, multiple formats and multiple retailers,” said David Steinberger, the chief executive of the Perseus Books Group. “Ultimately as the competitive market develops and e-books go mainstream, pricing norms will develop. But that really hasn’t happened yet.” "

Apparently publishers negotiated a deal with Amazon earlier this year. This deal lets publishers set their own prices on ebooks, but Amazon continues to discount hardcovers from the list price. Amazon's trying to redirect customer anger and outrage at the publishers. However, this can't be good publicity for the Kindle. I know I would just go out and buy the hardcover instead of spending the same amount of money on the ebook. What about the rest of you?

rise of porn in eBooks

A bestselling book on The Kindle is called "Compromising Positions," and it's about an uptight businessman getting tangled up with a wild woman who introduces him to all sorts of interesting workouts (Sorry, I'm trying to keep this post relatively PG).

Anyway, you won't find the title on the NYT bestsellers list or Publisher's Weekly, but it's a topseller on Kindle. Why? It might have something to do with the fact that the book is available for free and it’s instantly downloadable. The publisher is doing this with hopes that readers will pay for future titles.

This article in Slate brings up many interesting points about the "Compromising Positions" phenomenon -- about the giveaway tactic, about the new genre of romance novel targeting men, etc. -- but what I found most interesting is the move of porn into this relatively new medium:

"Like the Kindle itself, the marriage of porn and e-reader is relatively new; much of this digital erotica has been added to the Kindle library in the last 18 months or so. From a technology standpoint, anyone who's seen Boogie Nights or Middle Men could predict this development. Every time a major new content platform—print, film, cable, VHS, DVD, the Internet, mobile phones—has experienced massive growth, it has either been driven by a porn boom or at least brought the porn industry along for the ride. (The biggest exception is probably radio.)"

This seems to support what my team learned while doing our IS-SI project on DivX. Not only is porn one of the most frequently watched type of content -- the industry has historically been among the first to use and support new technologies. It would be interesting to see what role (if any) adult fiction plays as eReaders become increasingly mainstream.

Which also makes one wonder, what does Netflix have against adult content?

Is Print really Dead?

Preparing for my next IS 714 class on a sunday evening, I started reading about how IT was impacting and transforming the publishing sector, especially the books, newspaper and magazine industries. I thought about how I spent most of my time getting the daily breaking news from my facebook friends who played editorial roles in providing me filtered information; or else reading the online edition of the wall street journal or business week on my smartphone; or else downloading an online edition of a textbook for school from Barnes & Nobel, for half the price, onto my laptop than buying the paper version.


I came across an interesting blog by Stephanie on a Penn Olson website. She talks about the same very changes in how the younger generation accesses information today. Alot of people while travelling in a subway,bus or flight use their iphones, ipads, tablets or kindles to get upto date information. We hardly see people picking up a newspaper and reading it when the internet is able to provide it to us for free, especially in wi-fi areas. But then there is also a large segment of the world population which isn't very tech savvy and would prefer the traditional way of getting information.

In emerging countries, paper based information is still very prevalent. But with latest technology entering those markets we see that content will no longer be limited to paper but graduate to electronic means. In the future, information will be in no shortage but how and through what means we view that information will determine the future and success of many businesses.


Saying that print is dead or not is very difficult. There are enough supporting points on either side of the argument.


Below are some interesting facts by Brian Young from Sketchee.


- A large percentage of U.S. citizens still read magazines – over 90%.


- Almost 60% of U.S. consumers plan to purchase a tablet in the next 3 years.

- Book sales aren’t decreasing, but e-book sales see a comparatively phenomenal growth of 204%

iPad and digital content

As a former journalist who watched many newspapers disintegrate in the face of the Internet, I have been interested in how certain newspapers have succeeded and others have failed. The Wall Street Journal has a target audience who will pay for content. It can keep itself close, and has been doing very well financially. Other newspapers, like the Boston Globe have been hemorrhaging, because no one wants to pay.

I was particularly interested when I saw a Charlie Rose PBS special about the iPad and digital publishing:
http://www.charlierose.com/view/interview/10952
A big-time European media mogul was thrilled when the iPad came out. The reason: it uses a paying model for content. That means that his German newspaper could charge for content, and it would, charging only 10% less than the paper version.

Of course, Apple gets a cut when you subscribe. A big question is whether newspapers want to be at the beck and call of Apple and other device manufacturers. A bigger question is whether they have a choice.