The proof of the pudding is in the tasting, and the proof of the e-book reader is in the reading.  Nick Bilton of the New York Times sampled numerous readers including that tried and true gadget called the paperback, and in  Deciding on a Book, and How to Read It presents his conclusions.

Reading one chapter on each device, he reached the following conclusions:

Kindle: “A joy in many respects…It is a dedicated e-reader, so you can’t hop off to the Web to look up facts…Kindle software works on almost every device with a screen and an Internet connection… [The keyboard] seems like a waste of space.”

Mobile phones: “Simple and satisfactory.”

Apple apps: “Big downside for many is that you can read them only on Apple devices…iBooks looks beautiful, with a design that feels more like a traditional book, with sepia-toned paper and stylistic typography, again, it is available only on Apple devices.”

Google eBookstore “Wasn’t quite as satisfactory as I’d had with the Kindle…its design felt a little too rigid and even clunky.”

iPad 1: “Too heavy and feels more like a dumbbell than an e-reader.”

iPad 2: “Lighter and feels snug in your hands… Both iPads offer an immersive reading experience. I found myself jumping back and forth between my book and the Web, looking up old facts and pictures… I also found myself being sucked into the wormhole of the Internet and a few games of Angry Birds rather than reading my book.” [Make up your mind, Bilton. Is iPad immersive or distractive?]

Barnes & Noble Color Nook: “Unlike Amazon’s device it allows you to surf the Web. It is a little slow, though, and that sometimes frustrated me…Like the Kindle software, the Barnes & Noble reading application is downloadable to several devices. It also offers some neat features that separates it from its competitors.”

Print paperback: “It took barely a paragraph for me to feel frustrated. I kept looking up things on my iPhone, and forgetting to earmark my page.” Obviously Bilton wasn’t familiar with the Floppatronic Fleeber, reviewed in these pages a while ago, but it’s my personal favorite way to read.

Notable in its omission from Bilton’s article is the Sony eReader, which may in itself be a statement of where that device stands – or falls – in the pantheon of choices.

Richard Curtis

Jeff Mayersohn and his wife Linda Seamonson own the Harvard Book Store in Cambridge, Massachusetts. As might be expected, it carries some very old books. What is not so predictable is that it carries 4 million of them. It happens that they installed an Espresso print on demand press.

Customers access Google’s vast database of titles, many of which are facsimiles of antiquarian works worth a king’s ransom in the original but only a few dollars in replica. Writes Mayersohn: “The first book that we printed on Paige [the owners' nickname for their pet printing machine] was the Bay Psalm Book, the first book printed in English-speaking North America. The original was printed on Stephen Daye’s press in Cambridge, about a hundred yards from the location of our store, almost four centuries ago. There are 11 extant copies of Daye’s original printing. Now any customer can own a scan of the original book.”

Interestingly, though customers can download the Google  e-book versions of these editions free, they like the feel of a printed book in their hands, and the look of it on their shelves. “For many readers and for writers, the allure of paper remains,” says Mayersohn. ” Watching the joy on their faces leads one inevitably to the conclusion that we still cherish the experience of the printed word, preserved for eternity in the pages of a book.”

But reprints of ancient tomes are only one part of ye olde booke shoppe’s custom. Of the 1500 or so books that “Paige” prints monthly, three quarters are self-published works, Mayersohn explained in the “Soapbox” feature of a recent Publishers Weekly. You can read details in Hit ‘Print’: How One Bookstore Uses Its Espresso Book Machine.

You can expect to see more Espressos popping up in bookstores as the technology is perfected and miniaturized.  Indeed, as we recently pointed out, there’s no reason why POD kiosks need to be restricted to bookstores.  See I’ll Have Four Sesames, Four Poppy-Seeds, and One Copy of War and Peace

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.

It’s actually happened. Google Editions,  delayed for months while its developers built its stupendous inventory and refined its delivery system, has opened its doors under a new “DBA” (Doing Business As): Google eBooks.

You’ve been waiting so long that you probably need a refresher course in what it is that will make Google eBooks unique.

Earlier this year, PC World’s Ian Paul wrote: “Unlike Google’s biggest competitors, Amazon and Barnes & Noble, which rely heavily on restrictive DRM, Google’s store will not be device-specific – allowing for e-books purchased through Google Editions to be read on the far greater number of e-book readers that will flood the market in 2010″

Now you’ll be able to download Google’s vast library on just about any device available. Since most publishers have not given their content exclusively to Amazon or B&N, you’ll be able to find and buy it from Google editions and read it on whatever device you fancy. But the content will not be stored on your device or on the hard drive of your computer. It will be stored in what Google poetically calls “The Cloud” but more prosaically is simply Google’s server farm.

The royalty deal Google offers publishers is 63 % of gross sales. This compares favorable with the 50% offered by most e-retailers. But Google is also offering to partner with retailers. If you decide you’d like to open an e-book retail store but don’t know how and where to acquire the content, Google will furnish it. Your company would get 55 percent of revenues less a commission for Google.

“Google’s e-books would reportedly be indexed and searchable like many books are now through Google’s Book Search,” says Paul. “Unlike titles offered through e-readers, Google Editions books would not have to be accessed through a dedicated reader or special application.Instead, any device with a Web browser will be able to access a Google Editions book. After you purchase and access your online book for the first time, it will be cached in your browser making the book available when you’re offline.” (Details in Google Editions Embraces Universal E-book Format)

As counterintuitive as it may sound, Google eBooks may prove to be a bonanza to independent bookstores. Julie Bosman writing in the New York Times tells us that “Google Editions will allow users to buy e-books from Google or from the Web sites of independent bookstores, which have yet to find a way to compete with Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Apple on the electronic front. E-book customers would be able to set up an account for buying books, store them in a central ‘library’ online and read them on Internet-connected computing devices, including smartphones and tablets. Millions of books would be available free.”

E-Reads is loading its books into the Google’s bookstore and we look forward to partnering with them.

Richard Curtis
Every Blogger owes a debt of gratitude to newspapers and magazines. This posting relies on original research and reporting performed by the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times.

Google has  announced its first content partners for Google TV, which New York Times reporters Claire Cain Miller and Brian Stelter describe as the company’s ” effort to marry two mediums — the Internet and television.” That’s just great. But how about us book people? Where is Google Editions? What are we, chopped liver? The natives are getting restless for the launch, and who can blame them?

Self-styled Media Maverick Greg Sandoval, writing on CNet, asks Hey, what happened to Google Editions? . He points out that “if Google Editions doesn’t get off soon, doesn’t the store risk missing the holiday shopping season or falling further behind in an e-book sector filled with tough competitors, including Barnes & Noble, Amazon, and Apple?”

Sandoval is right. Back in May, when spring was in refulgent blossom, the Wall Street Journal reported that Google was to open its digital book store in late June or July. Five months later the leaves are falling but no Google Editions. Soon we will feel the chill breath of winter. Now folks are wondering if Google will even deliver by the end of the year.

To be fair, Google never announced a hard launch date, and that was smart. This is a company that takes pride in doing things right and doing them well, and they would rather risk frustrating the publishers that have signed up than go out prematurely.

Like our publisher colleagues we envision Editions as a potentially significant source of revenue. But we have a less obvious reason to see Editions launched and it has to do with the promise of reduced piracy. Since Google Editions will not be in the form of digital files transmitted across the Internet, but rather will be accessed in the so-called “Cloud” (a romantic way of saying stored on Google’s servers), it will be far harder for pirates to retrieve a Google Edition e-book.  They would have to hack into Google’s server bank. While that’s not impossible – China has already done it -  it will be difficult for casual hackers to steal the books.

At least we think so. But Teleread blogger Chris Meadows is skeptical.  “If there is a way for a computer to display data,” he writes, “there will be a way for the owner of that computer to access (and save) the data. It’s a truism of the Internet age—just look at all the YouTube stream rippers out there. It won’t take long for someone to make a Google Book ripper; the hackers out there will take it as a personal challenge.”

It’s hard to know until we see for ourselves.  So, Google?  When already? We chopped liver people want to know!

Richard Curtis

E-Reads has responded to the surge in new e-book retailers with an upload of more than 200 titles to Apple iPad, Kobo, Diesel and Google editions.  The ten year old publisher, a leading independent in the e-book and print on demand space, is currently converting its 1000+ title inventory to the specific specs of these and other newcomers in the retail field, as well as older customers.  And of course, you can visit your favorite retailer where you’ll eventually see all E-Reads titles on sale.

Among authors in E-Reads’ upload are Harlan Ellison, Greg Bear, John Norman, Dave Duncan, William C. Dietz, Fritz Leiber, Sean Williams, Janet Dailey, Nancy J. Cohen, and Hannah Howell. Click here for the complete list of June uploads. And remember, that’s just the first of many. So…watch this space for news of new uploads

In the Beginning: Science Faces God in the Book of Genesis – Asimov, Isaac
Mariposa – Bear, Greg
Beyond Heaven’s River – Bear, Greg
The Venging – Bear, Greg
Psychlone – Bear, Greg
Quantico – Bear, Greg
Women in Deep Time – Bear, Greg
Anvil of Stars – Bear, Greg
Blood Music – Bear, Greg
Dinosaur Summer – Bear, Greg
Eternity – Bear, Greg
Queen of Angels – Bear, Greg
Hardfought – Bear, Greg
The Jaguar Princess – Bell, Clare
People of the Sky – Bell, Clare
Happy Endings and More Happy Endings: Uplifting End of Life Stories (Two-In-One Volume) – Bell, Lorna
Ariel – Boyett, Steven R.
Great Siege, The – Bradford, Ernle
The Dream Compass – Bredenberg, Jeff
The Dream Vessel – Bredenberg, Jeff
Talking Back to Prozac – Breggin, M.D., Peter
Quipu – Broderick, Damien
Hyperthought – Buckner, M. M.
War Surf – Buckner, M. M.
The Coin-Giver – Buckner, M. M.
Hair Raiser – Cohen, Nancy
Murder by Manicure – Cohen, Nancy
Body Wave – Cohen, Nancy
Permed to Death – Cohen, Nancy
Highlights to Heaven – Cohen, Nancy
Died Blonde – Cohen, Nancy
Dead Roots – Cohen, Nancy
Killer Knots – Cohen, Nancy
Perish by Pedicure – Cohen, Nancy
The Coroner’s Lunch – Cotterill, Colin
Thirty-Three Teeth – Cotterill, Colin
How to Prosper In the Coming Apocalypse – Curtis, Richard
Tangled Vines – Dailey, Janet
Aspen Gold – Dailey, Janet
A Land Called Deseret – Dailey, Janet
A Lyon’s Share – Dailey, Janet
A Tradition of Pride – Dailey, Janet
After the Storm – Dailey, Janet
Bed of Grass – Dailey, Janet
Beware of the Stranger – Dailey, Janet
Big Sky Country – Dailey, Janet
Bluegrass King – Dailey, Janet
Boss Man From Ogallala – Dailey, Janet
Dakota Dreamin’ – Dailey, Janet
Dangerous Masquerade – Dailey, Janet
Darling Jenny – Dailey, Janet
Difficult Decision – Dailey, Janet
Enemy in Camp – Dailey, Janet
For Mike’s Sake – Dailey, Janet
Giant of Mesabi – Dailey, Janet
Green Mountain Man – Dailey, Janet
Heart of Stone – Dailey, Janet
Heiress – Dailey, Janet
Kona Winds – Dailey, Janet
Land of Enchantment – Dailey, Janet
Lord of the High Lonesome – Dailey, Janet
Low Country Liar – Dailey, Janet
Night of the Cotillion – Dailey, Janet
Northern Magic – Dailey, Janet
One of the Boys – Dailey, Janet
Reilly’s Woman – Dailey, Janet
Savage Land – Dailey, Janet
Sentimental Journey – Dailey, Janet
Show Me – Dailey, Janet
Six White Horses – Dailey, Janet
Sonora Sundown – Dailey, Janet
Southern Nights – Dailey, Janet
Strange Bedfellow – Dailey, Janet
Summer Mahogany – Dailey, Janet
That Boston Man – Dailey, Janet
That Carolina Summer – Dailey, Janet
The Bride of the Delta Queen – Dailey, Janet
The Homeplace – Dailey, Janet
The Indy Man – Dailey, Janet
The Mating Season – Dailey, Janet
The Thawing of Mara – Dailey, Janet
The Widow and the Wastrel – Dailey, Janet
Tidewater Lover – Dailey, Janet
To Tell the Truth – Dailey, Janet
Valley of the Vapours – Dailey, Janet
Wild and Wonderful – Dailey, Janet
With a Little Luck – Dailey, Janet
No Quarter Asked – Dailey, Janet
The Inquest – Dando-Collins, Stephen
Starrigger – DeChancie, John
Galactic Bounty – Dietz, William C.
Imperial Bounty – Dietz, William C.
Alien Bounty – Dietz, William C.
McCade’s Bounty – Dietz, William C.
Bodyguard – Dietz, William C.
Drifter – Dietz, William C.
Drifter’s Run – Dietz, William C.
Drifter’s War – Dietz, William C.
Snake Eye – Dietz, William C.
The Reluctant Swordsman – Duncan, Dave
The Coming of Wisdom – Duncan, Dave
The Destiny of the Sword – Duncan, Dave
Past Imperative – Duncan, Dave
Present Tense – Duncan, Dave
Future Indefinite – Duncan, Dave
Strings – Duncan, Dave
Hero! – Duncan, Dave
Budayeen Nights – Effinger , George
Gentleman Junkie – Ellison, Harlan
Memos from Purgatory – Ellison, Harlan
Paingod and Other Delusions – Ellison, Harlan
Shatterday – Ellison, Harlan
Spider Kiss – Ellison, Harlan
Web of the City – Ellison, Harlan
Ellison Wonderland – Ellison, Harlan
I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream – Ellison, Harlan
Approaching Oblivion – Ellison, Harlan
Children of the Streets – Ellison, Harlan
An Edge in my Voice – Ellison, Harlan
Dangerous Visions – Ellison, Harlan
City on the Edge of Forever, The – Ellison, Harlan
The Deadly Streets – Ellison, Harlan
Deathbird Stories – Ellison, Harlan
From the Land of Fear – Ellison, Harlan
No Doors, No Windows – Ellison, Harlan
Harlan Ellison’s Movie – Ellison, Harlan
Partners in Wonder – Ellison, Harlan
Sleepless Nights in the Procrustean Bed – Ellison, Harlan
Stalking the Nightmare – Ellison, Harlan
The Beast That Shouted Love at the Heart of the World – Ellison, Harlan
Strange Wine – Ellison, Harlan
Love Ain’t Nothing But Sex Misspelled – Ellison, Harlan
Over the Edge – Ellison, Harlan
Again, Dangerous Visions – Ellison, Harlan
The Harlan Ellison Hornbook – Ellison, Harlan
Vic and Blood – Ellison, Harlan
Troublemakers – Ellison, Harlan
Rewind – England, Terry
Lot Lizards – Garton, Ray
The Loveliest Dead – Garton, Ray
Sex and Violence in Hollywood – Garton, Ray
On Killing – Grossman, Lt. Col. Dave
Fractured Emerald: Ireland – Hahn, Emily
Floating Worlds – Holland, Cecelia
Highland Bride – Howell, Hannah
Highland Destiny – Howell, Hannah
Highland Champion – Howell, Hannah
Highland Angel – Howell, Hannah
Highland Groom – Howell, Hannah
Highland Hearts – Howell, Hannah
Highland Knight – Howell, Hannah
Highland Savage – Howell, Hannah
Highland Wedding – Howell, Hannah
Highland Vow – Howell, Hannah
Highland Promise – Howell, Hannah
Highland Warrior – Howell, Hannah
Highland Honor – Howell, Hannah
Highland Conqueror – Howell, Hannah
Highland Wolf – Howell, Hannah
EMT: Beyond the Lights and Sirens – Ivey, Pat
Chase the Lightning – Jones, Linda Winstead
Let Me Come In – Jones, Linda Winstead
No Angel’s Grace – Jones, Linda Winstead
The Incredible Voyage – Jones, Tristan
Seagulls in My Soup – Jones, Tristan
Outward Leg – Jones, Tristan
Somewheres East of Suez – Jones, Tristan
The Improbable Voyage – Jones, Tristan
Yarns – Jones, Tristan
AKA – Jones, Tristan
Science Says – Kaplan, Rob
Season of Sacrifice – Klasky, Mindy
Creative Divorce – Krantzler, Mel
Lebenthal on Munis – Lebenthal, Jim
Swords Against Death – Leiber, Fritz
Swords Against Wizardry – Leiber, Fritz
Swords and Ice Magic – Leiber, Fritz
Swords in the Mist – Leiber, Fritz
The Knight and Knave of Swords – Leiber, Fritz
The Swords of Lankhmar – Leiber, Fritz
Swords and Deviltry – Leiber, Fritz
Big Time, The – Leiber, Fritz
Our Lady of Darkness – Leiber, Fritz
Profane Men – Miller, Rex
Assassin’s Play-Off – Murphy, Warren
Created, The Destroyer – Murphy, Warren
Sipping from the Nile – Naggar, Jean
Assassin of Gor – Norman, John
Hunters of Gor – Norman, John
Marauders of Gor – Norman, John
Nomads of Gor – Norman, John
Outlaw of Gor – Norman, John
Priest-Kings of Gor – Norman, John
Raiders of Gor – Norman, John
Tarnsman of Gor – Norman, John
Tribesmen of Gor – Norman, John
Slave Girl of Gor – Norman, John
Beasts of Gor – Norman, John
Rogue of Gor – Norman, John
Guardsman of Gor – Norman, John
Savages of Gor – Norman, John
Blood Brothers of Gor – Norman, John
Kajira of Gor – Norman, John
Players of Gor – Norman, John
Mercenaries of Gor – Norman, John
Dancer of Gor – Norman, John
Renegades of Gor – Norman, John
Vagabonds of Gor – Norman, John
Magicians of Gor – Norman, John
Witness of Gor – Norman, John
Prize of Gor – Norman, John
Imaginative Sex – Norman, John
Norman Invasions – Norman, John
Kur of Gor – Norman, John
The Godmother – Scarborough, Elizabeth
Scarborough Fair and Other Stories – Scarborough, Elizabeth
Song of Sorcery – Scarborough, Elizabeth
2,001 Things To Do Before You Die – Sherwood, Dane
The Parasite War – Sullivan, Timothy R.
The Martian Viking – Sullivan, Timothy R.
The Devil’s Sperm is Cold – Vassi, Marco
Slave Lover – Vassi, Marco
The Stoned Apocalypse – Vassi, Marco
The Saline Solution – Vassi, Marco
The Gentle Degenerates – Vassi, Marco
Contours of Darkness – Vassi, Marco
Tackling The Team – Vassi, Marco
In Touch – Vassi, Marco
The Sensual Mirror – Vassi, Marco
The Sky Warden & the Sun – Williams, Sean
The Stone Mage & the Sea – Williams, Sean
The Storm Weaver & the Sand – Williams, Sean
Showstopper! – Zachary, G. Pascal

I recently had the privilege of serving on a panel hosted by Publishers Weekly introducing Google Editions to an audience of publishing professionals. As reported by Calvin Reid in PW, Google executive Chris Palma presented his company’s vision of an online marketplace “where books can be searched for, bought and stored on the internet and read anywhere, any time, on or off line…Google Editions is a venture that combines Google’s overarching ability to aggregate millions of online consumers with ‘remote connectivity that allows the ability to create giant economies of scale.’”

Google Editions launches this summer.

After the event I reflected on what this means for authors, agents, publishers and readers and I realized that it is far more than simply another retailer jumping into the e-book space.  Far, far more. By moving the retailing of e-books into the cloud, Google has leapfrogged over its rivals, creating what may well be the last word in delivery of books to readers. If Google can bring it off it will level the lopsided advantage currently enjoyed by Amazon.

Of course, the idea that your book is stored in some nebulous nexus in the heavens beyond the reach of pirates, hackers and evil cyberwarriors is a myth. There actually is a there there; “The Cloud” is a bank of well guarded servers – very much located on terra firma – on which book content is cached for access by your browser.  But the image of pure, disembodied functionality is an immensely compelling paradigm, an ideal to strive for.  I call it virtual publishing.

I’ve been thinking about virtual publishing since the day I conceived E-Reads.  Given the slow but inevitable dissolution of a publishing industry based on tangible objects, and the disintermediation of anything that comes between author and reader, it stands to reason that a publishing operation could be reduced to a few servers managed by a handful of people, and that is the ideal I have striven to attain. Though it’s an oversimplification to say that a publishing company could be nothing more than an untended server, it’s not an absurd one. In  a virtual publishing model, information exits a server in the form of book content uploaded to retailers or customers; and information enters in the form of electronic fund transfers. Books out,  money in.

Admittedly it is far easier for a newcomer like E-Reads to achieve virtuality than for traditional publishing houses with their extensive legacies of brick and mortar editorial offices, printing plants, warehouses and a medieval distribution system depending on vehicles.  Nevertheless, Google’s cloud model points the way to a more virtual, efficient delivery method, one that reduces the number of human, physical and technical intermediaries between author and reader to a handful.

The flight to virtuality has been and will continue to be disruptive for traditional publishers.  But it is a necessary step in the evolution of a publishing industry struggling to transform itself.

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.

Sometime in the first half of this year Google will open the doors to its bookstore, called Google Editions. Ian Paul, in PC World, writes: “Unlike Google’s biggest competitors, Amazon and Barnes & Noble, which rely heavily on restrictive DRM, Google’s store will not be device-specific – allowing for e-books purchased through Google Editions to be read on the far greater number of e-book readers that will flood the market in 2010″

That spells good news for the makers of all those new e-reading gadgets that may be well engineered and loaded with fun features but are hard-up for content. Amazon has its Kindle, but because its system is closed (that’s what DRM means) you can’t easily get Kindle content on a non-Kindle device. Same goes for B&N and its Nook.

Now you’ll be able to download Google’s vast (half a million at launch) library on just about any device available. Since most publishers have not given their content exclusively to Amazon or B&N, you’ll be able to find and buy it from Google editions and read it on your Que, Skiff, Cool-Er, Flepia, or any other device. Just try not to be embarrassed when someone asks you the name of that e-book reader you’re holding in your hand.

The deal Google offers publishers is 63 % of gross sales. This compares favorable with the 50% offered by most e-retailers. But Google is also offering to partner with retailers. If you decide you’d like to open an e-book retail store but don’t know how and where to acquire the content, Google will furnish it. Your company would get 55 percent of revenues less a commission for Google.

“Google’s e-books would reportedly be indexed and searchable like many books are now through Google’s Book Search,” says Paul. “Unlike titles offered through e-readers, Google Editions books would not have to be accessed through a dedicated reader or special application.Instead, any device with a Web browser will be able to access a Google Editions book. After you purchase and access your online book for the first time, it will be cached in your browser making the book available when you’re offline.”

Details in Google Editions Embraces Universal E-book Format

Richard Curtis