FutureBook

Anthony Gladman, Editor at Taylor & Francis Books gives us his review of Kindle 3: With the launch of the Kindle 3 and the UK’s own version of Amazon’s Kindle store, it seems we’ve reached a tipping point for ebooks. Of course ebooks have been around for ages, especially in academic publishing, but it’s only now that they look set to expand into the general reading market. Given that, it seemed untenable to work in publishing and not to have experienced this important development first hand, so just a couple of weeks ago I finally caved in and ordered one. Read more »

Just before the Frankfurt Book Fair I heard a lot about how books weren't like music, and that the growth in digital sales would not hit printed book sales in the same way as the rise of digital music hit CD sales. Part of the reason was that music could be unbundled (people want singles, not albums), whereas books simply have to be downloaded in their entirety to be appreciated. Read more »

One of the most in-demand events at this year’s Frankfurt Book Fair was Friday’s round-table discussion: The eBook Business: Who’s in Control? Entry was so carefully restricted that even panel member Victoria Barnsley, Chief Executive of HarperCollins, struggled at first to make her way past security and into the venue. Read more »

One of the best things about the Frankfurt Book Fair was that we finally got round to discussing whether enhanced e-books were really all that. I thought SourceBooks' Dominique Raccah had it right in her Tools of Change talk in a speech I wrote up earlier this week for theBookseller.com:
Raccah calls time on book publishers. Read more »

Google Goggles have landed on the iPhone...

French publishers have made a stand over digital rights, and I wonder where this leaves the agent Andrew Wylie. Read more »

Unless you are Apple or Amazon and want a captive market, DRM (Digital Rights Management) is useless. In fact they are chasing a lost cause because:

DRM is easily removed and therefore pointless, costly and a barrier to sale.
DRM does not stop piracy, it is restrictive and therefore it promotes piracy. Read more »

I have been at Tools of Change Frankfurt since 8.30 this morning, and these are my initial thoughts towards the end of the day. Read more »

The Bookseller's Tom Tivnan speaks to George Lossius, CEO of Publishing Technology.

"Digital is not the demise of publishing," George Lossius says. "There is a really bright future for the publishing industry if they embrace it and have the right infrastructure in place." Read more »

Last week design and innovation consultancy IDEO released their thoughts on the Future of the Book  in a neatly executed video. The industry response was mixed – ranging from ‘seen it all before' to ‘wow, how clever'. Read more »