Is there somebody out there who can help us figure this guy Ronald Burkle out?

Here’s what’s got us flummoxed: The world’s biggest bookstore chain announces it’s putting itself up for sale.  The press declares the triumph of digital bookselling and even speculates that Amazon will acquire its tottering rival. This observer, who takes pride (perhaps too much) in his appreciation of the evolving nature of the publishing industry, writes an obituary for Barnes & Noble. The company is swirling around the crapper on its way to the Great Brick and Mortar Septic Tank, right?

So go figure why, instead of bailing, the guy who owns the biggest chunk of stock in this horse and buggy chain has stepped up his campaign to take over the company, even threatening to take it to the stockholders in a proxy fight? What does he know that dumb investors like us do not?

There can be only two explanations.  The first is that he is a financial genius who will leverage the struggling company in some super-sophisticated Enron-ish play that will make him billions but leave investors bankrupt, gut the firm’s assets, shutter some 1400 retail and college bookstores and write the epitaph for the once-great civilization that was printed books.

The other is that he is a cockeyed optimist who passionately believes in the future of paper and has a scheme for reviving the faltering retailer with a dose of digital technology and marketing knowhow. Maybe he’s thinking of installing kiosks in those 1400 stores that would enable shoppers to select among a million titles and download their choice into their Nook or print it on an Espresso machine while they wait? Then he can take all that leftover real estate and convert it into condominiums. We wrote about kiosks a while back (See Today DVDs, Tomorrow Books?) and have been wondering when someone would see a way to make them work.

Read Michael J. de la Merced’s New York Times article about Burkle’s bid for B&N and tell us if you have any bright ideas about what he’s up to: Billionaire Investor Nominates 3 Directors in Fight Over Barnes & Noble

Richard Curtis

As we recently noted in our review of the Pfleeber, we’ve become so conditioned to reading on screen that we’re starting to forget the e-book’s paper progenitor.  Children’s book author Lane Smith was inspired by this notion to write It’s a Book. It deserves to be embedded in every Nook, iPad and Kindle, and it will absolutely embed itself in your heart.  Look for it in September, published by Roaring Brook.

Below is an animation.If you don’t get it you must be fifteen.

RC

Last spring we wrote that students at a number of universities such as Wisconsin had reported unhappy experiences using Kindles as textbooks.  (See Students Give E-Textbooks Failing Grade)

Now another school, New York City’s Pace, has reported a failed experiment. Pace is one of seven colleges trying to shift textbook use from print to digital, so Pace’s bad trip could be symptomatic of negativity among students to shifting to e-books.

“Initially, there was a lot of excitement about using digital course materials,” a Pace educator is quoted in Can the Kindle and Its Ilk Ease Textbook Inflation? by the Village Voice‘s Fahmida Y. Rashid. “Pace offered the Kindle to students in the selected classes with the appropriate course materials already preloaded on the device. Students had the option to buy the Kindle (at a discounted price) at the end of the course.”

“But By the end of the year, Rashid says, “the excitement had waned. ‘The experiment did not really go well,’ says Dr. Karen Berger, associate dean and director of undergraduate programs at Pace University’s Lubin School of Business. ‘Two students bought the [print] textbook within a month of the start of the course.’ Student complaints ranged from difficulties in taking notes to clumsy navigation controls. The electronic annotation feature was especially ‘slow and cumbersome,’ she says, requiring students to manipulate a tiny button to underline passages and type notes on the Kindle’s ergonomically unfriendly keyboard.

“Berger also feels the textbook used in her class was not as effective on the Kindle as it was in print. The photos, pictures, and diagrams in the e-textbook were all black and white, she says, and the image quality was not quite as sharp as it would have been in print.”

Navigation is a really big issue: “It’s one thing to read a mystery or novel on the Kindle” says another Pace executive, “but the way you read a textbook is different. You are flipping back and forth while reading, and navigation was cumbersome, even with bookmarks.”

Universities and students hoping to save money by dumping printed books may have to wait until educators get an advance degree in Paradigm Shift 101.

Richard Curtis

Every Blogger owes a debt of gratitude to newspapers and magazines. This posting relies on original research and reporting performed by the Village Voice

“Damn!” we wrote last month. “The Cool-er may die before we  learn how to pronounce its name.” We were never able to ascertain if it sounded like “Col-or“ (it had a black and white screen).  Or was it supposed to suggest that the device was cooler than, say, the Kindle. Or were we obliged to come to a full glottal stop, thus: Cool. Er. We will never know.

And now we learn from Tech Chronicles that Plastic Logic’s Que has been canceled. Sigh… We were never told how to pronounce that one, either.”Que Es Esto?” we asked when the top-secret-your-eyes-only-need-to-know name was finally released. “Esto Es Un Que!” But then someone told us it was not pronounced “kay” but rather “Cue”. Alas, today we are instructed not to bother to “queue” up to buy the Que because it will not see the light of day. Its manufacturer, Tech Blogger writes, “said it was scrapping the thin, business-focused reader because the delays and the fast-moving market have forced it to move on.”

It’s too bad, because the device’s slim flexibility made it perfect for reading newspapers and magazines. On the other hand Plastic Logic priced itself out of the market with a price tag way higher than its rivals.  It all goes to prove that you can indeed be too thin and too rich.

“This was a hard decision,” said Plastic Logic’s CEO “but is the best one for our company, our investors and our customers, We plan to take the necessary time needed to re-enter the market as we refocus, redesign and retool for our next generation ProReader product. We continue to perfect our core plastic electronic technology and manufacturing processes that are central to our product’s unique value proposition.”

Read the reasons in depth in Que ProReader is dead as Plastic Logic looks to launch new reader.

Richard Curtis

About a year ago we wondered: You can Google Bing But Will You Bing Google? The answer seems to be…kind of.  Microsoft’s search tool has grabbed a respectable 12.7% share of the search engine market.  But Bing is far from achieving the most important branding benchmark of all: becoming a verb.

By that criterion there is only one branded search engine.  We still google information with a lower case “g”.  But we don’t bing with a lower case “b”. Until “to bing” joins “to Xerox”, “to TiVo”, and “to Madoff” in the short list of iconic names that have entered the grammatical pantheon, it will never be more than just another face in the lineup.

That said, Claire Cain Miller and Ashlee Vance report in the New York Times that Google is getting a little nervous about some of Bing’s innovations. “While no one argues that Google’s dominance is in immediate jeopardy,” Miller and Vance write, “Google is watching Microsoft closely, mimicking some of Bing’s innovations — like its travel search engine, its ability to tie more tools to social networking sites and its image search — or buying start-ups to help it do so in the future.

“Google has even taken on some of Bing’s distinctive look, like giving people the option of a Bing-like colorful background, and the placement of navigation tools on the left-hand side of the page.

“The result is a renaissance in search, resulting in more sophisticated tools for consumers who want richer answers to complex questions than the standard litany of blue links.”

Details in Bing and Google in a Race for Search Features

Richard Curtis

This is speculation but in a survey conducted by The Street.com more than 37% agreed that Amazon represents the most logical choice” to take over the sinking Barnes & Noble book chain.

“Amazon has been a thorn in Barnes & Noble’s proverbial side since its inception in 1995, when it was solely a purveyor of books,” writes Jeanine Poggi. “B&N has consistently lost market share to its non-bricks-and-mortar rival, which has bested it on lower prices for hardcovers.

“Now the battle has gone purely digital. While Amazon took the lead, launching its Kindle e-reader back in 2007, Barnes & Noble is playing catch up, rolling out an e-bookstore last summer and introducing its Nook e-reader in October 2009.”

We weren’t among the polled but for whatever it’s worth we think it’s an intriguing idea. With all due respect to its recently acquired e-tailer Fictionwise, Barnes & Noble desperately needs a digital component, and Amazon would love to have a brick and mortar presence. What would happen to the Nook?  Well, what happened to the Auk?

For background read Barnes & Noble Succumbs to Digital Disintermediation.

RC

Question: What’s the difference between Dorchester Books and E-Reads?

Answer: None, now.

We reached this conclusion after Jim Milliot of Publishers Weekly broke the news that “Mass market romance publisher Dorchester Publishing has dropped its traditional print publishing business in favor of an e-book/print-on-demand model effective with its September titles that are ‘shipping’ now.” Dorchester, an excellent but undercapitalized publisher of mass market paperbacks in such popular genres as romance, horror, thrillers and westerns had been struggling for some time as returns hammered it relentlessly and digital books ate further into its margins.  Milliot reports that the editorial team will remain intact but in all likelihood the monthly releases will drop from 30 to 25.

If Dorchester follows its digital decision, monthly releases are not the only thing that’s going to drop. Everything about the company’s operation will shrink if not implode. And yet, oddly, that will not necessarily be a bad thing. In the new paradigm, direct-to-consumer publishing means higher profits because all intermediaries (distributors, bookstores, etc.) are eliminated. E-Reads knows this: we’ve been doing it since 2000.

Although a number of trade and mass market publishers have occasionally experimented with original e-books, Dorchester is the first to take the plunge into pure e-books and no retail bookstore distribution. The mass market format will be dropped in favor of trade sized paperbacks and these will be printed on an on-demand basis. That is, customers interested in buying the print version of a Dorchester title can order a trade paperback on Amazon.com and it will be printed and shipped directly to them.

Dorchester’s move raises the question: how does Dorchester now define itself compared to mass market paperback houses like Kensington or Harlequin?  In truth it is a completely different species. It is however one with which we here at E-Reads are all too familiar: our own.  Since its launch ten years ago E-Reads has been publishing in e-book and print on demand with no bookstore distribution.  We call ourselves a virtual publishing company and welcome Dorchester as a colleague in our space.

Since we have a one decade jump on Dorchester we’re happy to offer a few pages from our playbook to help our new playmate increase its profitability.

The first is to clear out of those expensive Madison Avenue offices and relocate to a smaller and less expensive space. Indeed, you could relocate in rural Vermont and and no one would know, because far more tasks will be outsourced and performed on the Internet. You won’t need all the staff you have now since you’ll be purely online. Now that you’re walking away from the struggle for shelf space you’ll be able to cut down on sales*, marketing and bookkeeping personnel. Your royalty accounting can probably be handled by one person, and, if you’re like us, you can begin issuing royalty statements on a quarterly basis instead of semi-annually as you do now. Why? Because the biggest headache of mass market publishers, returns, will be eliminated. You can also dump your art department and shift it to freelance designers working from clip-art archives.

By the way, what royalty will you be paying? We hope it will be 50% of net receipts, as E-Reads pays.  Gains in efficiency will enable you to double the current mingy 25% being paid by the leviathans of the Old Guard with their fancy midtown real estate – and 50% returns. Even doubling the royalty you should still be able to make a good profit because your operation will be so much leaner and more efficient.

Dorchester’s CEO John Prebich said “We felt like we needed to take some chances and make a bold move.” When the realities of going virtual sink in, Mr. Prebich will find out just how bold the move is. After all those intermediary functions are streamlined, he may not even recognize the brick and mortar publishing company he guided into the 21st century.

* Update: Publishers Lunch reports that Dorchester “laid off its sales staff of seven people.”

Richard Curtis

Every Blogger owes a debt of gratitude to newspapers and magazines. This posting relies on original research and reporting performed by Publishers Weekly.

“Too Big to Fail Goes to the Beach.” God, I wish I’d come up with that log line to describe Alexandra Lebenthal’s hot summer novel The Recessionistas.  But it was coined by New York Magazine’s Jessica Pressler in an interview with the author, a wealthy businesswoman and beautiful socialite. The novel is published today.

Here’s an excerpt from Pressler’s interview, 58 Minutes with Alexandra Lebenthal:

“Alexandra Lebenthal, a beautiful, wealthy, influential socialite from Manhattan’s Upper East Side has written a blockbuster novel about …beautiful, wealthy, influential socialites from Manhattan’s Upper East Side.”

Here’s another rave, this from the New York Post:

“If the crash of ’08 was bad for you, just imagine how difficult it was for the ladies who lunch at Fred’s and dine at Swifty’s — the Upper East Side social set accustomed to a certain lifestyle, financed by their husbands’ money.

“’The Recessionistas,’ the upcoming chick-lit-meets-recession novel by Alexandra Lebenthal, provides a glimpse into their lives, as well as a healthy dose of schadenfreude over the hilarious financial woes of the book’s characters.

“Imagine having to take a cab because you had to get rid of your private driver. Or having to schlep to the salon to have your night-out makeup done for $250 because you no longer can afford to have it done in the privacy of your home for $500. Forget the humiliating indignity of losing your job — what if you had to fire the maid? Whatever would people say?”

We hail Alexandra Lebenthal on publication date of The Recessionistas.

RC

Homesmind is an intelligent force that guides the fates of the inhabitants of the extraordinary world created by Pamela Sargent in her Watchstar trilogy, brought to you for the first time in e-book by E-Reads. Each novel focuses on another female, and in the climactic novel the stories come together in a comet-like blaze. Though it’s categorized as young adult it crosses over into a thrilling read for mature audiences too.

In the first novel, Watchstar , Daiya is faced with a dilemma that will determine her fate. If she fails, her life will be spent with the feared Merged Ones. Confused and torn between worlds near and far, she harbors a secret and must find a way to move to a safe place where she can survive.

In the second Eye of the Comet, young Lydee had always known this strange comet-world to be Home. She had always felt the presence and control of the omnipresent Homesmind. Struggling with her future, she discovers the destiny she is meant for–the fate she will fulfill within her community. And it frightens her…. She will act as a bridge between her comet Home and her species’ native Earth.

In  Homesmind, the capstone of the trilogy, Anra is a solitary, born without the power to mindspeak – communicate in unspoken thoughts. In the past, she would have been killed at birth but the arrival of the Wanderer, the comet controlled by the cybernetic intelligence known as the Homesmind has changed everything. The people of the comet, the skydwellers, now supply solitaries with implants that allow artificial mindspeaking. The solitaries are sequestered in a single village willing to care for such children.

Anra and her new brethren are thought to be the possible bridge between the people of Earth and the skydwellers but the gap may be too great: the people of Earth consider solitaries an abomination – and the skydwellers as soulless.

Click here to see other Pamela Sargent titles offered by E-Reads including her famous Venus trilogy.

Journey to the treacherous and tempestuous Highlands of fifteenth century Scotland in Hannah Howell’s Highland Bride, a passionate tale of a feisty beauty determined to uncover the softer side of the iron-willed warrior who has wed her, bedded her…and stolen her heart.

Though she has yet to be courted by any man, spirited Gillyanne Murray decides the time has come to visit the dower lands gifted to her by her father’s kinsmen. She arrives to find the small keep surrounded by three lairds, each one vying for her hand…and property. Though resolved to refuse them all, the threat of battle on her threshold forces her to boldly choose a suitor: Sir Connor MacEnroy, a handsome, daring knight of few words. As his wife, Gillyanne is stunned by his terse, cold distance–and her own yearning to feel passion in his arms. Now, bringing her healing touch to a land and a keep ravaged by treachery and secret enemies, she dares to reach out for the one thing she fears she may forever be denied…her husband’s closely guarded heart.

E-Reads boasts fifteen captivating highland novels by Howell. Make it your summertime project to read them all!