Kindle Lending Library Coming Later in 2011

Amazon's Kindle Lending Library, debuting later in 2011, is a notable step for Amazon, which will offer more than 11,000 of its Kindle ebooks for loan via libraries throughout America.

Anyone with a Kindle or free Kindle app on their smartphone can borrow an ebook, make annotations and highlights, and find those same notes when they re-borrow the ebook or purchase it.

“Normally, making margin notes in library books is a big no-no,” said Jay Marine, director of Amazon Kindle. “Your notes will not show up when the next patron checks out the book. But if you check out the book again, or subsequently buy it, your notes will be there just as you left them.”

One thing I particularly like about the Kindle Lending Library initiative is that it keeps public libraries in the loop, instead of bypassing them. That's a smart move by Amazon.

OK, Barnes & Noble, it's your turn to respond. Whaddya got? 

Amazon Kindle Library Lending Coming Later in 2011

The Association of American Publishers just released sales figures for February of this year, revealing that e-book sales have surged over 200% since February 2010. In fact, e-books were the highest selling category of adult and children's trade books. In the children's/young adult market, print sales were down over 16%. While the AAP attributes the high e-book numbers to post-holiday sales (people loading up their e-readers they got as gifts), the numbers are still staggering. And since e-books are cheaper to buy than than print, I think it's safe to assume those e-readers will continue to be replenished at a rate that surpasses last year.

In a related article, the American Library Association announced that two-thirds of all US public libraries now lend e-books, and a third of school libraries lend e-readers to their students. Since school budgets are being cut and school library spending is down, look for more cost-effective e-book options in schools.

So, what do you think? Are you on board with these trends? And, more importantly, is your work e-book ready? Let us know your thoughts.

More confirmation of the seismic changes in publishing, this time from Barnes & Noble VP Marc Parrish at the recent GigaOm Big Data conference in New York:

"The book business is changing more radically now, and quicker, than movies or music or newspapers have, because we're doing it in a matter of months…In [the] next 24 months is when this business will totally shift."

B&N predicts that, for 2011, the company will sell 18 million ereaders. That's compared with the 900,000 they sold in 2009.

For more on Parrish's comments, go to http://goodereader.com/blog/electronic-readers/barnes-and-noble-claims-ebooks-will-reign-supreme-in-2-years/

Publishers Weekly has just published 2010 sales figures for top-selling children's books in hardcover, paperback and e-book format. Some trends to note: most of the best-sellers are either part of a series, or a licensed character/TV/movie tie-in. And the series are generally by established, name-brand authors. While this really isn't a surprise, it will be interesting to watch if more smaller publishers start doing series by lesser-known writers. It's clear that once readers find something they like, they want more of the same.

The positive take on these numbers is the sheer volume of the sales. We're talking millions and millions of books sold, for all ages, in a questionable economy. And if you look at the e-book best-sellers, they're often the same titles as on the print best-seller lists. More evidence, I think, that e-book sales don't take away from print, but just expand a book's audience.

 I know that many writers are concerned that eBooks and apps will lead to their work being downloaded and passed around without recompense. Fair enough. But then there's this, from musician Martin Atkins during a speech at the recently completed South By Southwest festival:  

"It's not a problem if 20,000 people 'illegally' download your music. It's a problem if they don't."

And this, from author Cory Doctorow:

I recently saw Neil Gaiman give a talk at which someone asked him how he felt about piracy of his books. He said, "Hands up in the audience if you discovered your favorite writer for free ­­ because someone loaned you a copy, or because someone gave it to you? Now, hands up if you found your favorite writer by walking into a store and plunking down cash." Overwhelmingly, the audience said that they'd discovered their favorite writers for free, on a loan or as a gift. When it comes to my favorite writers, there's no boundaries: I'll buy every book they publish, just to own it (sometimes I buy two or three, to give away to friends who must read those books). I pay to see them live. I buy t­shirts with their book­covers on them. I'm a customer for life.

The point? If you spend all your time worrying about people stealing your stuff, you'll probably succeed in preventing it. That's because you most likely wouldn't have spent enough time building an audience who would care enough to do it in the first place.

Loosen up. Build your tribe. Worry less.  Connect more.

We're pretty excited about the future of children's publishing.  To spread our optimism, we've just created a new blog that will focus solely on the brave new world of ePublishing — and the opportunities it will bring for authors.

It's eWriting4Kids.com, and it's online right now.  Head on over to http://eWriting4Kids.com and have a gander!

As a writer, you know how important it is to study the market and read books that target the same audience as your manuscript. And the same applies if you're developing a children's book app. But if you've spent any time at the Apple store, you know that searching for and sorting through available children's book apps can be frustrating at best. Now Kirkus Reviews has come to the rescue. Kirkus is launching Discovery Engine in March, a free, web-based search tool that allows users to sort through children's apps based on various criteria, such as age, gender or subject. Designed for parents and teachers, this nifty search engine will make children's book writers and illustrators happy as well.

In the meantime, you can peruse Kirkus reviews of over 50 children's book apps on their web site.

Hi, I'm Josh Jones; Jon & Laura  invited me to do a semi-regular column about the ebook world and how it pertains to children's book writers! Why me? A little over a year ago I founded ePub Bud (www.epubbud.com), a free online service for making, converting, publishing, and sharing ebooks for children. More recently I've also been working with Scribble Press, a real-world store in Santa Monica and New York City where children can make their own books. They're using ePub Bud software to make digital versions of the work kids make in their stores, and I'm basically their guy in charge of everything e. Before all this I founded DreamHost Web Hosting. I like programming and am sort of an "early-adopter" of nerdy gadgets. I had a US Robotics Palm Pilot back in 1997 and a Kindle whenever the first week was those came out. I had an HD DVD player when those came out. My dad had a Betamax.

In summary, I don't know why Jon picked me.

But here goes!

I started ePub Bud back in April 2010 because the advent of the iPad got me realizing we were at the cusp of a very interesting time in children's book publishing… the dawn of the mass-market, COLOR e-reader. The kindle had already paved the way for mass acceptance of ebooks, but it was a silly black-and-white affair with awkward little turn-the-page buttons and slow refresh rates. The iPad promised to be a larger, full-color, touchscreen device that EVERYBODY on the planet (and by planet I mean San Francisco) was going to own within two years. It practically screamed "children's ebooks!" to me.

To shut it up I started making ePub Bud, launching it April 12th, 10 days after the iPad. It's been tough being an early adapter in this arena, because the standards and devices are in constant flux. Early on I decided on the ePub file format to be the one I would use at ePub Bud. It wasn't just because of the catchy domain name it lent itself to either. Mostly because of the domain, yes. But it was a TEENSY bit because as far as I could tell, .epub was to books what .mp3 was to music. It was the open standard, it was the most flexible, and with the announcement that it was the only format the iPad's iBooks app would read, it was clearly to me the format of the future.

ePubs are funny, they're actually just a .zip file (renamed to .epub), with certain specific files inside. The files are just a table of contents along with the book content in the form of HTML web pages (plus any images, audio, and video files for those web pages)…. meaning a .epub is essentially just a zipped up website! And epub ebook readers are essentially zipped-up web page browsers! Read more

Whenever a group of children's book authors gather together, the conversation inevitably turns to the current state of publishing. More to the point: What exactly is a children's book these days? And — perhaps the most important question of all — Do I have to join the e-book craze?

No, you don't have to jump into the deep end of the cyber pool, but it wouldn't hurt to get your feet wet. And don't despair; you'll have lots of company in the shallow side. Authors of all levels (along with agents, publishers and bookstores alike) are trying to get a clear picture of the growing and evolving electronic publishing industry. Some embrace it and manage to weave every new development into their publishing platforms; others are content to let their publishers issue electronic versions of their current print books. But everyone can agree on one thing: e-books are here to stay.

The way I see it, authors have two choices: wring their hands and wax nostalgic about the good old days when there was one sanctioned way to get published, and an author's job was to write, period; or open their minds to e-publishing and use it to their advantage. We're on the brink of a revolution here, one that will change who's in control, how much power the gatekeepers have, and how level this new playing field really is.

This conversation's just beginning, and it won't end for a long time. But to get things started, author Laura Ruby elegantly sums up the newest e-publishing trends, statistics, pros, cons and fears of the apocalypse in her post "It's the end of the world as we know it, and I feel…?" on the e is for book blog. Read her post, follow the terrific links, and then think about where you fit into the revolution.

Oh, and the writing part? Authors still have to learn their craft, polish their prose, and revise like crazy, just like in the old days. Some things, thankfully, never change.

Wanna see something cool?  Have a gander at the Kno – a gadget that's currently being marketed to students and educators as a textbook/notebook replacement.  The current incarnation is pretty expensive and much more than an e-reader, but imagine the possibilities of this thing stripped down a bit and used for children's books: