Why do ebooks cost so much?

Amazon says its ebook prices will fall after three book publishers agreed to change their model of pricing. But why do many ebooks cost almost as much as their physical counterparts? 

Many ebooks cost as much or more than physical books, despite there being no printing or distribution costs. This may seem strange, but in fact only 10 to 15 per cent of a book's price reflects its printing cost. However, there are other differences in the way that physical books and ebooks are priced.

Ebooks have VAT charged on them, while physical books are exempt, and the different formats have different pricing mechanisms.

The opening of Apple’s iBookstore in 2010 changed how ebooks were priced. Prior to Apple entering the market, most ebooks were sold via the “wholesale” model, in which retailers would pay the publisher a certain amount per book sold, but set the price themselves, sometimes making a loss. This is the same model as printed books have.

When Apple released the iPad and iBookstore in 2010, they offered publishers a different “agency” model, which allowed the publishers to set the prices of ebooks, 30 per cent of which went to Apple. Many publishers then forced Amazon to adopt the agency model.

Steve Jobs is quoted in Walter Isaacson’s biography of him saying: “The publishers hated [the wholesale model] - they thought it would trash their ability to sell hardcover books at $28.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/9216138/Why-do-ebooks-cost-so-much.html

Why Community-College Students Need Great Books

No president in recent memory seems to have paid as much attention to community colleges as Barack Obama has.

In his 2013 budget proposal, the president allocated $8-billion for partnerships between states and community colleges to train an estimated two million workers in high-growth and high-demand job areas. And last fall, the U.S. Departments of Labor and of Education paid out to community colleges the first $500-million installment of a $2-billion plan to improve career-development programs and train dislocated workers or those with obsolete skills.

This is good news for community colleges, especially during tough economic times when state financing is down, budgets are being cut, and enrollments have begun to decline after several years of steady growth. The Obama administration is not just sending the message that community colleges should be the job-skills training centers of the 21st century; it is giving them the money to fulfill this function.

http://chronicle.com/article/Why-Community-College-Students/131207/?sid=wb&utm_source=wb&utm_medium=en

Do E-Books Make It Harder to Remember What You Just Read?

Digital books are lighter and more convenient to tote around than paper books, but there may be advantages to old technology.

I received a Kindle for my birthday, and enjoying “light reading,” in addition to the dense science I read for work, I immediately loaded it with mysteries by my favorite authors. But I soon found that I had difficulty recalling the names of characters from chapter to chapter. At first, I attributed the lapses to a scary reality of getting older — but then I discovered that I didn’t have this problem when I read paperbacks.

When I discussed my quirky recall with friends and colleagues, I found out I wasn’t the only one who suffered from “e-book moments.” Online, I discovered that Google’s Larry Page himself had concerns about research showing that on-screen reading is measurably slower than reading on paper.
http://healthland.time.com/2012/03/14/do-e-books-impair-memory/?iid=hl-article-mostpop1

Publishers could face legal action over ebook prices

The five largest publishers, including Britain's Penguin Group, face legal action from the US Justice Department for colluding to raise the prices of electronic books, a source has told Reuters.
Several parties are said to have held talks to settle the potential antitrust case after an investigation into deals signed with Apple by Pearson-owned Penguin, Simon & Schuster, Hachette Book Group, Macmillan and News Corp's HarperCollins Publishers.
These publishers adopted an "agency model" in 2010 – around the time that Apple launched the iPad – allowing them to set the price of ebooks. In turn, Apple would take a 30% cut.
In December, the European commission said it was looking at the same five publishers in a potential price-fixing case.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/mar/08/publishers-face-legal-action-ebook-prices 

Joanna Trollope: iPads and Kindles will never replace the printed page

The best-selling author said it was impossible to furnish a room with a library of electronic novels in the same way as a study filled with bound works.

She also claimed the rise of e-books was “homogenising” literature by putting the works of Leo Tolstoy and Katie Price, the glamour model, on the same screen.

Trollope, known for so-called Aga sagas such as The Choir and A Village Affair, said that feeling the weight of a book in the hand and seeing its cover was a vital part of the reading experience. She is chairing the judging panel of this year’s Orange Prize for Fiction and read all 143 submissions in their printed form. 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/booknews/9133418/Joanna-Trollope-iPads-and-Kindles-will-never-replace-the-printed-page.html 

E-books banish being boring

Before you decided to click on the link that brought you here, was anything else vying for your attention? A shocking tale of celebrity indulgence? An amusing picture of a cat? Are you listening to music right now, or keeping a casual eye on email or Twitter updates?

Of course, BBC Future readers may not be sucked in so easily. But this kind of competition for attention has long been a staple of the “dumbing down” school of digital thought, which sees a surfeit of choices flattening culture into something close to its lowest common denominator.

http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20120301-e-books-banish-being-boring 

App: Literary Terms - Oxford Dictionary

Description

From Jacques Derridas differance to Henry Jamess ficelle , the vocabulary of literary theory and criticism can seem difficult if not opaque. To help remedy the average reader’s bafflement, this new Third Edition of Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms provides succinct and often witty explanations of almost twelve hundred terms, covering everything.
You can buy this app from iTunes.

http://itunes.apple.com/app/literary-terms-oxford-dictionary/id307263698?mt=8 

Enjoy Fine Literature On Your iPad With McSweeney’s App

The wonderful thing about iPads is that they can do (almost) everything. Not only can they simulate having a real computer, they can also simulate an e-reader. Along with having general apps to do this such as the Kindle app or iBooks, there is also McSweeney’s, an reading app that has the feel of sitting in a smokey coffee shop, that is if you could find one where smoking is still allowed. This app is by the same folks that run the McSweeney’s literary journal. The website explains it started in 1997 with the purpose of publishing only the literary works that were rejected by other magazines, but soon it became so known for this type of literature, that pieces were being written specifically for McSweeney’s. With a commitment to “finding new voice,” McSweeney’s has developed a following.

http://maketecheasier.com/enjoy-fine-literature-on-your-ipad-with-mcsweeneys-app/2011/10/03 

iPad Textbooks: Reality Less Revolutionary Than Hardware

Much as tablet computers went mainstream in the iPad’s wake, Apple’s latest educational project heralds an age of tablet-based schoolbooks.

That, at least, is the hope and hype surrounding iBooks textbooks, launched Jan. 19 at a promotional gala held in the Guggenheim Museum and advertised in terms as glowing as an iPad’s screen.

In coming years, schools worldwide will grapple with whether to adopt tablet-based materials, on the iPad or on other platforms. They’ll consider many factors — including cost, intellectual property issues and logistics — that may ultimately prove as important as the textbooks’ contents. But as learning is the ultimate purpose, the question remains: Will kids really learn more and better on tablets than existing media?

That’s far from clear now, and the reality may prove less revolutionary than the hardware. 

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/01/ipad-textbooks-learning/ 

Geboren 2012 2040 fließt Wissen frei durchs Netz

Der Buchdruck ist bald Geschichte. Das Wissen wird künftig keine Grenzen mehr kennen, schreibt Medienwissenschaftler Jeff Jarvis in einem Brief an ein Kind der Zukunft.

http://www.zeit.de/wissen/2012-02/geboren-2012-brief-jeff-jarvis 

library.nu Verleger machen E-Book-Raubkopierer ausfindig

Mehrere Verlage haben einstweilige Verfügungen gegen das E-Book-Raubkopieverzeichnis library.nu und den Filehoster ifile.it erwirkt. Die mutmaßlichen Betreiber sollen allein durch Werbung täglich 21.000 Euro umgesetzt haben.

http://www.spiegel.de/netzwelt/web/0,1518,815466,00.html 

Jonathan Franzen: e-books are damaging society

The author of Freedom and The Corrections, regarded as one of America’s greatest living novelists, said consumers had been conned into thinking that they need the latest technology.

“The technology I like is the American paperback edition of Freedom. I can spill water on it and it would still work! So it's pretty good technology. And what’s more, it will work great 10 years from now. So no wonder the capitalists hate it. It’s a bad business model,” said Franzen, who famously cuts off all connection to the internet when he is writing.

“I think, for serious readers, a sense of permanence has always been part of the experience. Everything else in your life is fluid, but here is this text that doesn’t change.

“Will there still be readers 50 years from now who feel that way? Who have that hunger for something permanent and unalterable? I don’t have a crystal ball.

“But I do fear that it’s going to be very hard to make the world work if there’s no permanence like that. That kind of radical contingency is not compatible with a system of justice or responsible self-government.” 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/hay-festival/9047981/Jonathan-Franzen-e-books-are-damaging-society.html 

Five Great Literature Apps for Your iPad

A brief list of some of the more innovative literature apps for your iPad.

The iPad app is doing for literature what the DVD has done for movie classics – providing a great platform for enriching the classics with all those extras such as author interviews, readings and documentary insights.  Who knows, the future of the book may be the app.  But the trend is just beginning and here are five of the best for you to test out.

Read more: http://bookstove.com/book-talk/five-great-literature-apps-for-your-ipad/#ixzz1kJ6CwycE

ReadMore: Der Lese-Tachometer für iPhone und iPad

Wie lange werde ich noch an den letzten 100 Seiten des Buches lesen? Wie viel Zeit benötige ich die Lektüre eines 500 Seiten starken Romans? Was habe ich im letzten Jahr alles gelesen?
ReadMore ist ein Programm für iPhone und iPad, das Ihnen hilft, Ihre Lesegewohnheiten besser zu analysieren. Wenn Sie damit Ihre Leseeinheiten aufzeichnen, sagt Ihnen die Anwendung genau voraus, wie viele Minuten Sie für die Lektüre benötigen und an welchem Tag Sie das Buch beendet haben werden.
ReadMore ist ein hilfreiches Lese-Logbuch, in dem Sie auch Notizen und Anmerkungen zum Buch oder zur aktuellen Leseeinheit erfassen können.
Mit der Zeit erhalten Sie einen wertvollen Überblick über Ihr Leseverhalten.

.http://www.literaturcafe.de/readmore-lesetachometer-iphone-ipad/

Hohe Literatur für iPad und Smartphones

Vor kurzem hat ein Gremium die Mitgliedstaaten der Europäischen Union dazu aufgerufen, ihre Kulturschätze zu digitalisieren und online zugänglich zu machen. Die britische Nationalbibliothek, die British Library, ist diesem Aufruf nachgekommen. Sie hat mit Treasures eine Applikation veröffentlicht, mit der Nutzer digitale Bestände der Bibliothek auf Smartphones und Tablets lesen können.

http://www.handelsblatt.com/technologie/it-tk/mobile-welt/hohe-literatur-fuer-ipad-und-smartphones/3761600.html

iPad apps take old literature to new levels

In the past two weeks, two re-creations of classic literature have launched on the iPad: an app for T.S. Eliot’s famous poem “The Waste Land” and another for Jack Kerouac’s “On the Road.”
The brash, rollicking road trip of Kerouac may seem a better fit for the hyperactivity of a multimedia device. Instead, Eliot’s dense, confounding poetry burst out on top of Apple’s best-selling book app list , offering an immersive experience that is surprisingly worthy of its $13.99 price.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/ipad-apps-take-old-literature-to-new-levels/2011/06/20/AGV6tXjH_story.html