Amazon Reveals Kindle Ebook Prices
(Kindle default font)
Newsweek has a long and informational interview with Jeff Bezos of Amazon.com. In the interview Bezos reveals new information about pricing, confirms features and explains the benefits of digital to authors.
Pricing: The Great News
“Amazon prices Kindle editions of New York Times best sellers and new releases in hardback at $9.99. The first chapter of almost any book is available as a free sample.”
New releases for $10 and older books for $2, brilliant.
The overarching goal of Amazon and Kindle seems to be set to deliver a large back catalog of books in the near future at affordable prices.
Features:
Nothing really new from the leaked specs but the confirmation of EVDO from Sprint is confirmed as is a battery life of 30 hours. I hope that the EVDO service doesn’t require a contract and huge monthly fee from Sprint to use.
Benefits to Writers:
For argument’s sake, let’s say cutting the price in half will double a book’s sales—given that the royalty check would be the same, wouldn’t an author prefer twice the number of readers? When I posed the question to best-selling novelist James Patterson, who was given an early look at the Kindle, he said that if the royalty fee were the same, he’d take the readers. (He’s also a believer that the Kindle will succeed: “The baby boomers have a love affair with paper,” he says. “But the next-gen people, in their 20s and below, do everything on a screen.”)
Overall I still think $400 for the Kindle is too much. I hope that Amazon will allow users to purchase these books for Windows Mobile devices and the iPhone.
Reinventing the Book - Newsweek
Print is Dead the Book
I found this picture of real hardcover book called “Print is Dead
The book discusses:
Now, for the first time since the Middle Ages, all that is about to change. Newspapers are struggling for readers and relevance; downloadable music has consigned the album to the format scrap heap, and the digital revolution is now about to leave books on the high shelf of history. In Print Is Dead, Jeff Gomez explains how authors, producers, distributors, and readers must not only acknowledge these changes, but drive digital book creation, standards, storage, and delivery as the first truly transformational thing to happen in the world of words since the printing press.
You can also get, Print is Dead: Books in Our Digital Age as an ebook. The problems in the ebook environment today ring loud and clear for “Print is Dead” and add to the irony of a hardcover book declaring print to be deceased.
- The Hardcover is cheaper.
- Purchasing the ebook requires you to download special software.
- No Mobile client for reading (Sony Reader doesn’t count).
- The book won’t work in Your favorite Ebook Reader TM.
The book covers an interesting topic and I’ll be trying to track down a print copy from my local library soon. You can read the more about Print is Dead and the author at Printisdeadblog.com.
An Author’s Take on Ebooks
Tobias Buckell, author of Crystal Rain and Ragamuffin had an interesting post today about the similarities between the current ebook environment and the music industry as well as what e-rights mean to many authors. If you have been reading imjosh.com for any length of time, you already know I am a huge proponent for ebooks and outspoken on how they should be used. It pains me to pass on books because I cannot find them in an affordable ebook format, especially when they come recommended on BoingBoing or other great sites. For my purposes affordable would be at least $5-10 off hardcover price on day one of release with decreases over time just as paper books do. I think the marketplace in many digital arena’s fails to take the age of an item into account for pricing but that is an entirely different rant.
Tobais writes:
This weekend I was at a B&N and looked at the latest Sony book reading device. Overpriced, too large, and slow, I wouldn’t buy it. But the screen, this new digital paper, nailed it. It’s only a matter of several more iterations before they take that display quality, slap it on a smaller pocket-sized product, lower the price, and get something. I also view the iPhone as an already existing book reader (both for its connected properties and the sharp screen).
I’m also amused at the number of writers who use the exact same words as former record execs (such as needing to inspire ‘fear’ in people who attempt to consume books in a non-controlled manner, when it’s more the lack of providing them with what they want that leads to this behavior). The closest we have to an iTunes is Fictionwise.com. We have no version of Rhapsody.
I’m not, however, particularly worried about the book transition. It took 10 years to shake things up.
He Also explains why the e-rights and money from ebooks are an important piece of income for authors who are “mid-listers”and how he hopes to gain use of his future e-rights.
In a way the lack of ebooks has helped my financial situation. If I could have grabbed an affordable copy of each of the interesting books I have seen reviewed at BoingBoing and other sites I would need to take on a second job.
TV Execs: Digital Is/Isn’t Making us Money
In case you can’t tell I am sick of the crap the Networks are trying to sell about the internet being promotional and without money earning potential.
I fail to understand how the executives and networks as a whole continue to deny that the magic of shows starts with the writers. Yes actors are talented but where do they gain their direction and lines from? The scripts people! I used to think the infinite monkey theorem was humorous but all it does is degrade what writers create. I also read last nite that unfortunately the final season of The Shield has also been interrupted by the network’s continued denial of fact and outright greed, which is going to annoy me more than the possibility of LOST ending early. I find it slightly humorous that the networks try to mount a campaign against the writers which is not based on truth in today’s age.. I think it illustrates just how they don’t grasp the reach of the blogosphere its ability to inform more consumers about the reasons behind the strike through, gulp, digital methods.
Class of 2010 in Ohio Getting Personal Finance Class
Starting with the class of 2010 all high school students in Ohio will be required to take a personal finance class. As an Ohioan and someone who has learned the hard way about how to deal with student loans all I can say is, “Bout damn time.” Learning the basics about personal finance can’t come early enough as noted by Ohio Treasurer Richard Cordray.
It’s a fact of life for many students at Bowling Green State University and other schools. They’re in debt.
Last year alone, BGSU students borrowed $129 million to attend school. Their debt worries don’t end here. Many are piling up bills they can’t pay on credit cards.
The solution: mandatory personal finance classes in high school. That’s going to happen in 2010, the result of a bill sponsored by Ohio Treasurer Richard Cordray.
While I am sure some people will argue that the students may not take the classes seriously or pay enough attention to the material, if the classes help even a few students the time and money will be well worth it.
Cordray could kick the classes up a notch by adopting a “Scared Straight” approach, bringing in recent college grads from that specific school system to stress the need for learning about personal finance and the importance of owning your personal finance. Someone buy Richard a drink for sponsoring this bill.
WTOL 11- Ohio high schools to include personal finance courses
Halo 3 Soundtrack Preview
Bungie announced earlier today that the Halo 3 soundtrack preview site has gone live. Currently the site only allows for short samples of each song on the 2 disk set with some commentary, however much more is to come. The Halo 3 soundtrack releases November 20th and is available for pre-order the Halo 3 soundtrack at Amazon right now
On December 1st a special section of the soundtrack site will go live called, “Marty’s Playground”. This section will give fans access to many in game sound assets. If this isn’t exciting enough the playground adds an exciting feature. According to the description,
Using this system, you can “score” in game footage in real time.
This feature could be as simple as mixing the score for preset campaign moments, but I am thinging much bigger. Imagine if you could use the same audio assets as Marty to create a soundtrack for that killer multi-player match you just watched in the theater! With the current setup for watching in game footage this feature would apparently rely on the 360 if you mixing a “score” in real time. Until December one chalk this part of the implementation up as speculation on my part.
Why the Writers Guild is Striking
In case you aren’t aware the Writer’s Guild of America is striking. This is why the TV shows you love are in danger of delayed seasons (Lost), cancellation (24) and reruns (Late Night Talk Shows). I could tell you that the strike is about respect and a small amount of pay for residuals, but the Youtube clip below will do a much better job.
I will miss the shows we tune into each week but I am whole heartedly behind this strike. I think it is telling of the networks intelligence that for the longest time they doubted the power of the internet, and now they are doubting the power of their writers and the fans. I urge you to share the reason behind the strike with your friends and co workers.
I think the fans know that the magic starts with the writing.
3D Stikfa Wall Hanging
While cleaning off my desk at work Friday morning I came across a broken picture frame which I had meant to glue back together some time ago. I was just about to through it out when I noticed a pack of 3M wall hanging adhesive strips, commonly used for posters. I started to look around the office for something I could place in the frame. I have loads of pictures in need of a frame but pictures in frames are so flat …so passe. I settled on an Alpha Male Stikfa figure I got last year.
With a few minutes of labor I was able to add some depth to my office walls. I think the hanging fits in well between my Kandinsky and a shot I took in NYC.
And closer, from an angle.
You can find a great selection of Stikfa action figures at an Imjosh sponsor, SchoolDelay.com. School Delay provides text and other alert systems for schools and organizations. They also have a webstore chock full of toys, what else would you need on a snowday? Right now you can get 10% off your order by using the code “game” when you checkout. Click the add to the left or visit the SchoolDelay.com Webstore.
Josh Smith is a blogger, database manager and adjunct professor of business and technology. 
