Although it was only alluded to once by Mobipocket in public, the Mobipocket iPhone application is potentially Amazon’s best weapon for indoctrinating more Kindle customers and pulling the Mobipocket format away from obscurity. So, where is it?

At the IDPF conference in May, 2008, I watched Martin Gorner of Mobipocket state to the audience that they had plans to release the Mobipocket reader for more platforms, including the iPhone, before the end of the year. Mobipocket is tightly leashed by their owners, Amazon, so this was great news for Mobi fans. Mobipocket has never really supported any Apple OS before, and my brain enumerated the possibilities of a Mobi iPhone app. My first thought was that this could be the start of some really wonderful synergy for Amazon’s Kindle, because they’d be foolish not to join forces in a new application. And besides adding Apple support, maybe they planned to really update the Mobipocket Reader software and create a user experience on par with the Kindle’s user-interface or Adobe’s Digital Editions.

Just imagine that you could have a similar Kindle experience on your iPhone, shopping for books wirelessly, using a built-in dictionary, taking notes, etc, and at the end of the session all your book data would be sync’d with your Kindle account and back to your Kindle (through the Kindle’s wireless connection), if you had one. Amazon would sell more books, people might upgrade to Kindle devices for the larger screen real estate, and the Mobi format would really come alive, too, if its DRM was supported. It would just require Mobi and Amazon to allow readers to keep both their Mobi and Kindle purchases in the same library and allow for note/bookmark data in the cloud (on Amazon’s internet servers), so that customers’ libraries could be re-downloaded and synchronized across devices. Add special location aware services (via the iPhone’s GPS), special note export features (for bibliographies and personal footnotes), and then I’d be impressed.

Well, by the end of 2008 this never materialized. In December, Chris Meadows of the blog TeleRead surmised that Amazon put the whole project in the deep freeze so it wouldn’t undermine Kindle sales (“The mysterious case of the missing iPhone Mobipocket reader” and “Is Amazon sitting on the Mobipocket iPhone client after all?“). An anonymous source apparently told Chris that “Mobipocket had its iPhone reader complete and ready to ship as of August—but Amazon.com did not permit them to release it.” That isn’t hard to believe, but I hope there’s more to that story. I’d like to know why. Does Apple have secret ebook plans that Amazon is aware of?

In the meanwhile, other contenders have stepped up to the plate, offering E-Book software for the iPhone that comes close to the full potential, but not without limitations. For readers who take the time learn how to crack the DRM on their purchased E-Book files, BookShelf is an iPhone application that can read Palm .PDB and Mobi .PRC files, as well sync with “Shelf Servers,” which are libraries of content on the internet or on your computer (there are E-Reads’ books at Baen Webscriptions‘ Shelf Server). And, of course, there’s the popular Stanza iPhone application, that is a wireless Fictionwise storefront (with access to your Fictionwise eReader library bookshelf), as well as a terrific E-Book reader for growing ePub format. Yet despite supporting over a dozen other formats, too, eReader’s .PDB is the only DRM that works with Stanza, at the very least because of Fictionwise’s support.

Has Mobipocket lost too much time? It’s hard to tell. E-Book sales are still ramping up across all the major platforms (Sony, Kindle, eReader). Our expectations are that iPhone readers are adding to sales, not cannibalizing from other devices. The iPhone has something that the Kindle and Mobipocket should be envious of: popular mindshare with 18-35 year-olds. Every day Mobipocket or Amazon isn’t a part of that zeitgeist, it sets them as outsiders and it counts as lost revenue in the current quarter. Maybe Amazon is gambling that when they do enter Apple’s market, it will make up for all their time hemming and hawing. Maybe they just don’t see the money there, yet (but I doubt this). However, no one has delivered the perfect E-Book reader application for the iPhone yet, either. Let alone for Google’s Android or the new Palm Pre. It’s still Amazon and Mobipocket’s game to win or lose. At the very least, they can sell some ebooks. They just have to show up.

- Michael Gaudet

Having maligned the legal profession last week, I hope to return to grace with some high praise for one branch of the species.

It may be hyperbolic to refer to the legal counsels of publishing companies as “grey eminences,” a term one usually assigns to the shadowy power brokers who manipulate the controls of vast corporate or political networks. But it would be no exaggeration to state that tremendous influence resides in the hands of the attorneys who counsel publishing executives on the legal aspects of their companies’ operations. Few significant corporate decisions are made without clearance by a publisher’s lawyers, and no book is published that has not somehow been affected by procedures originating in the firm’s legal department. To the degree that the men and women of those departments are seldom colorful, their eminence may indeed be depicted as grey. But it must never be underestimated, because the power they wield over the fate of your book is both total and final. However headstrong the chief operating officer of a publishing company may be, he or she will override a house counsel’s advice at the utmost peril.

Read more.

Just when we thought the financial status of Barnes & Noble could not be more perplexing – it got more perplexing. B&N-watchers will recall that in November B&N czar Len Riggio announced the worst holiday season in memory and predicted the affliction would continue well into 2009. Why then did media mogul Ron Burkle buy an 8.3% stake in Riggio’s company, as announced last week?

But wait, it gets even more mystifying: according to Publishers Weekly, “Pershing Square Capital Management has dumped its entire stake of Barnes & Noble stock.” That comes to 11.8%.

In short, if things are so terrible, why is someone buying in? And if things are so wonderful, why is someone cashing out?

To add to the intrigue, PW speculates that this move now puts William Ackerman, Pershing’s head, in a position to put his “entire focus on Borders” and possibly take the chain private. Yet for some time Borders’ pulse has barely been fluttering.

Where is Lewis Carroll when you need him?

La commedia di B&N non e finita, so watch this space for Act II, Scene 2.

RC

Robert S. Miller, President and Publisher of HarperStudio, the HarperCollins imprint that recently announced a nonreturnable distribution arrangement with the Borders bookstore chain, has responded to Richard Curtis’s post, “Is There a Better Way to Compensate Authors?” It’s reprinted in its entirety below, and we invite authors and publishing people to comment.

Just Desserts: Going Non-returnable in the Search for a Bigger Pie

I read Richard’s blog entry yesterday about returnable/non-returnable with interest, since—as Richard mentioned—one of HarperStudio’s goals is to go non-returnable. It is indeed a tough puzzle to solve, one that has frustrated previous efforts. But I’m hopeful that we’ll at least make some progress on this front. As Richard mentioned, Borders has already agreed to give our non-returnable terms a try, and several other large accounts have expressed interest as well, though they prefer to do so in confidence. Many others—especially small independents—can’t afford the risk of increasing their unsold inventory, so we’re offering all booksellers a choice between the traditional returnable terms and pretty generous non-returnable terms. But we’re encouraged by the response so far.

Richard points out that the difficulty in previous attempts stems from the publisher’s inability to be generous enough in their non-returnable discount to make it worthwhile for booksellers. This is where the hope lies in our model, since we are working on a 50/50 profit share with our authors, not a royalty. So unlike in the Fawcett example, where the publisher offered its authors a choice of royalties, we are able to offer the deal that makes the most sense to booksellers without needing to adjust our royalties at the other end. Our calculations show that even at an aggressive discount for booksellers who go non-returnable, we’ll end up with a larger profit to share with our authors, since we’ll be reducing wasted printing and shipping of unsold copies.

Our hope is that at the end of 2009, the booksellers who have gone non-returnable with us will see that they have been more profitable—and more efficient—by doing so, and that we can use their example to convince others to give it a try. And we’re convinced that the more we can get booksellers to go non-returnable, the more money we’ll make for our authors, in spite of the discount. It may seem counter-intuitive to suggest that we can make more money for booksellers and authors at the same time, but remember that our business currently has an average 40 percent return on new adult hardcovers; the more we eliminate that waste, the bigger the pie grows, and the more pie there is for us all to share.

Robert S. Miller
President and Publisher
HarperStudio

We recently reported that the Borders bookstore chain had agreed to retail a publisher’s (HarperStudio) books on a nonreturnable basis.
Whether they will achieve it depends on how effective is the publisher’s strategy of according a higher discount to the chain. However, previous attempts to implement this business model do not give cause for optimism. How can publishers possibly raise discounts higher than they already are without cutting even further into slim profit margins? Has something been overlooked?

As a matter of fact, something has. It happens to be the way royalties are calculated. Read about a proposal for radically reconfiguring the way publishers compensate authors.

Read more.

Joe Hynek was the only male in an experimental garment design class, and not surprisingly he passed up the opportunity to design dresses. Instead he created a purse for women “interested in projecting power,” according to Rachel Aviv in the New York Times.

Hynek’s purse projects power all right, enough to recharge a variety of electronic devices. It’s covered with solar panelettes which absorb the sun’s energy and charge a battery which in turn recharges a cell phone, music player or camera. (Battery included).

How does the purse function on a cloudy day? Hynek thought of that. You put your keys, wallet and tissues in it.

He’s developing other solar-powered articles of clothing like ties. The article doesn’t mention hats or parasols but let’s see if the Power Purse carries the $350 price he contemplates charging for it.

RC

Here’s another hot purse, the Swarovski Power Minaudiere Purse, an elegant clutch covered with dazzling crystals. Oprah says, “They call this crystal mesh clutch with removable chain a power bag. A good name for such a high-voltage accessory.” Unlike Joe Hynek’s Power Purse, this one works on cloudy days and even at night. And if you want to look like a million dollars it will cost you only $650.00.

The only thing is, it doesn’t have solar panels or a battery. You can put your cell phone, camera or iPod into it, but it won’t recharge them. You simply carry this glittery handbag to a night club or expensive wedding, flash it at friends and watch them them smolder with envy. Other than that, it seems to be good for nothing except luxurious beauty.

Beauty for its own sake? What the hell is the point of that?

RC

Overdrive, a leading digital media service provider specializing in e-library sales, reports a record-busting 5.3 million checkouts, according to Publishers Weekly. How high over the bar did OverDrive fly? How about a 76% increase over 2007!

Most popular download? Here’s a hint: the first word is “Stephenie” and the second is “Meyer”.

The content wasn’t just e-books but music and video as well. Some 150,000 items in these media are available in OverDrive’s catalogue, which is offered to some 8500 libraries. The company’s founder Steve Potash, a great visionary and prime mover in the e-book industry, deserves kudos for navigating through the many challenges of creating an e-business model for libraries. Think about some of them. Unlike brick and mortar libraries, e-libraries don’t necessarily have a locus. Are their patrons loyal to a specific branch or can they traverse cyberspace to find the item they want to borrow? How does a library “lend” an e-book or tune or video? How does a borrower “return” the checked-out item? How do publishers make money on e-books they place with libraries? Do they sell just one “copy” or, if’ it’s a hot bestseller, do they sell multiples? Once an e-book is sold to a library, is that it? Forever? Or does the license have to be renewed?

It’s worth spending a few minutes exploring the OverDrive website to learn about the firm’s resources.

RC

Three different women at three different stages of life, yet possessed of one thing in common: their fiery passion. Virgin Fire, Bride Fire, and Widow’s Fire display Elizabeth Chadwick’s intimate familiarity with the west — and with the hearts of the women who lived, loved, suffered and triumphed there.

In Bride Fire young Cassandra, stranded in the wild, is rescued by a muscular mustanger named Alex Hart – rescued for a while, anyway. But a determined Indian, Counts Many Coup, has other ideas. Cassandra is stranded again, this time torn between two loves.

Read the sister volumes to Bride Fire as well as three other Chadwick novels, all available on Chadwick’s author page.

RC

Jeff Segal and Rob Cox, blogging on the breakingviews website, crunched some breathtaking numbers in an effort to project a valuation for Amazon’s Kindle. They projected clear into the stratosphere (or “blue sky”, as quixotic speculations are often referred to), suggesting that billions of dollars is by no means an unrealistic number.

You can trace their thinking on the breakingviews.com blog, but in essence they calculated that out of Amazon’s $24 billion market capitalization, “$9 billion of value is apparently unaccounted for. Could that be the ‘Kindle premium’?”

Segal and Cox assume that Kindle sales will expand as exponentially as iPods have done, which means sale of over two million Kindles in 2009. They further assume that Kindle owners would then buy two $10 books every month. These are assumptions that Don Quixote himself would shake his head over. If only we loved books a fraction as much as we love music!

But then Segal and Cox drop an intriguing number and the laughter stops. Pointing out that Amazon is developing a student version of the Kindle, they wonder if that could be “an attempt to snag part of the $5.5 billion annual United States college textbook market.” Now you’re talking, gentlemen. The student market is ripe for the E-Book Revolution, and a ten-digit revenue projection is completely in the realm of possibility.

But – there’s another whopper of an assumption here, namely that is that Kindle is the only dog in the hunt. Knowing that a lot of big, well heeled companies – Apple for instance – are developing tablet-sized readers for the educational market, Amazon will have to produce a killer gadget to realize the kind of profits being bandied about.

For that reason I wouldn’t be too quick to propose putting Jeff Bezos’s picture on the billion dollar bill. But it certainly quickens the heartbeat to hear the B-word kicked around.

RC