First, a free kindle book on Water -

1. Out of Water by Colin Cartres, Samyuktha Varma. The full title is Out of Water: From Abundance to Scarcity and How to Solve the World’s Water Problems. It seems pretty good and text to speech is enabled.
   

   From cities to biofuels, competition for water is accelerating. Climate change threatens to intensify the onset and severity of the water crisis in several regions of the developing world: this is already happening throughout much of Asia, the Mediterranean, southwestern Australia, and the southwestern US. Along with water shortages, unsafe water becomes an increasingly widespread problem, too.

   As water crises trigger food and health crises, billions may slip further into poverty, leading to greater social and political unrest, new wars, and worsening national security.

   Out of Water doesn’t just illuminate the coming global water crisis: it presents innovative solutions in agriculture, engineering, governance, and beyond, including state-of-the art techniques for integrated water management.

Water is definitely going to be a huge issue in the near future. Everyone is focused on Oil even though a Water Crisis would make a lack of Oil seem trivial.

There are also two free extended samples – A Taste of Irrationality which has sample chapters from Predictably Irrational and Upside of Irrationality by Dan Ariely, and Daniel X: Demons and Druids by James Patterson (no links because they are just samples).

More Kindle free books from around the Web

Next, we have more free books (plus some offers courtesy MobileRead) -

• The Familiars by Adam Jay Epstein and Andrew Jacobson is free to read online. Courtesy Harper Collins. 
• Aftermath by Peter Robinson might be free for Kindle owners in Canada. NOT free in the US.
• The Gospel in Dostoyevsky is free at The Plough.
  

  An excellent introduction to one of the world’s most important authors, this volume vividly reveals – as none of his novels can on their own – the common thread of the great God-haunted Russian’s questioning faith.

  Drawn from The Brothers Karamazov, The Idiot, Crime and Punishment, and The Adolescent, the seventeen selections are each prefaced by an explanatory note.

• Jon Spoelstra is offering a free Kindle Noir Thriller, Red Chaser, in a roundabout way – He will send you a gift card. It’s about the Cold War and the Brooklyn Dodgers and rated 4.5 stars on 46 reviews.
  

  If you want to read it for free just email me at findjon@msn.com and say, “Yes, I’d like to read Red Chaser.” I’ll have Amazon email you the gift card for Red Chaser.

  * Red Chaser is a Kindle book. I’ll have Amazon email you a gift certificate.

Hopefully there was a book you liked in that list.

Kindle Book Deals

Finally, we get some interesting kindle book deals -

1. The Best Known Works of P. G. Wodehouse. Rated 5 stars and includes 9 Wodehouse novels.
   

   The Adventures of Sally
   The Clicking of Cuthbert
   Death at the Excelsior
   The Girl on the Boat
   Love Among the Chickens
   Man Upstairs
   My Man Jeeves
   Right Ho, Jeeves
   Three Men and a Maid

2. The Complete Works of William Shakespeare - Just $1 for 43 plays and 154 sonnets. The reviews say the value for money is incredible and the formatting is incredibly bad so you might want to try out a sample first.  
3. Ghost Shadow by Heather Graham is $5.76 and sounds interesting.
   

   There are those who walk among us who are no longer alive, but not yet crossed over. They seek retribution…vengeance…to warn. Among the living, few intuit their presence.

   Katie O’Hara is one who can.

   As she’s drawn deeper and deeper into a gruesome years-old murder, whispered warnings from a spectral friend become more and more insistent. But Katie must uncover the truth: could David Beckett really be guilty of his fiancée’s murder?

   Worse–the body count’s rising on the Island of Bones, and the dead seem to be reenacting some macabre tableaux from history.

4. The Killing Hour by Lisa Gardner is $4.99, and rated 4 stars on 78 reviews.
   

   It has been a while since a vicious murderer killed Kimberly Quincy’s mother and sister and put a gun to Kimberly’s own head, but rage and guilt are Kim’s constant companions, isolating her even as they toughen her in the struggle to become an FBI agent.

   After she literally stumbles on the body of a woman who looks very like her dead sister, her tightly controlled emotions spill into a furious search for a serial killer that compromises her career.

   In concert with an equally dedicated (and attractive) Georgia law enforcement officer, her estranged father (a former FBI profiler), and a handful of forensics specialists, she pursues clues to solve a deadly game, the prize for which is a kidnapped young woman. The forensic detail is great, and Gardner works in some genuinely creepy moments, especially when she zeroes in on the victim struggling against horrific odds.

5. The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett. Probably getting a lot of attention now that an 8 part mini-series is being made on it. Priced at $7.99.
   

   … chronicles the vicissitudes of a prior, his master builder, and their community as they struggle to build a cathedral and protect themselves during the tumultuous 12th century, when the empress Maud and Stephen are fighting for the crown of England after the death of Henry I.

   The plot is less tightly controlled than those in Follett’s contemporary works, and despite the wealth of historical detail, especially concerning architecture and construction, much of the language as well as the psychology of the characters and their relationships remains firmly rooted in the 20th century.

Trying to think of a movie that was a decent interpretation of the book and The Road comes to mind – mostly due to Viggo Mortensen.

Filed under: free books

The Atlantic has a beautiful post on the potential impact of new ebook entrants on the Kindle and the eBook market. The most attractive part is the little thread on how independent bookstores will sell ebooks and have their own little websites.

Here’s a little bit from the post -

the American Booksellers Association, the trade association for the independents, has contracted with Google to be an e-book supplier and infrastructure back office.

So far, 225 of the ABA’s 1,400 members have signed on to the program, and more surely will over time.

Each of these stores will have their own website façade that will feature the full catalog of Google’s titles as well as features specific to the community being served.

 Here’s an ABA spokesman with his thoughts -

“For the first time, e-book buyers will be able to take full advantage of their local independents for the same reasons they always have: trust, knowledge and selection. . . .

Now you can buy e-books from someone you love.”

There’s also this final gem -

As a wholesaler for the independents, Google’s plan is to provide retailers with a single digit share of the revenue generated.

Let’s take a moment and take that all in.

Local Bookstores are not the path of least resistance for ebook buyers

First, let’s dispel the notion that lots of readers (or even half the readers) are going to stroll over to their local bookstore to buy ebooks.

Here’s the effort involved – if at home get dressed and drive out, if at work take time out and drive over. Here’s the cost – opportunity cost of your time, car life and gas. Here’s the annoyance – getting it on your Kindle, figuring out whatever system they use. Here’s the lack of instant gratification - it’s not a 60 second download like Kindle books are.

There is no reason a reader would prefer walking to their local bookstore to buy an ebook over downloading it wirelessly.

However, we’re saying that readers love their local bookstore so much they will sacrifice for it. They’ll waste their time and money and delay gratification to walk over. That’s one huge assumption.  

No matter how much people love their independent bookstore convenience wins out

You just finished a great book and want to read the next in the series – Do you wait till your next trip to your local bookstore? Do you get dressed and head out to buy the ebook right now? Do you download it to your Kindle and get it in 37 seconds?

The third option is easily the most appealing - it’s instantaneous, easy, and takes close to zero effort. No matter how much people love their local they are not going to wait till it’s next open to buy a book they want to read now. No matter how much readers care about local bookstores they are not going to exclusively buy from their local bookstore.

As far as local bookstores vs Amazon.com it’s worth pointing out that the 4 special, magical qualities of the independents mentioned by the ABA (trust, knowledge, selection, love) are matched by Amazon and B&N for the most part.

The gap isn’t as huge as the ABA would like to believe. Even if there were a huge gap it wouldn’t matter because convenience wins out. So we can forget the notion that people will stroll over to their local bookstore to buy ebooks.

No one’s going to buy ebooks from a Local Bookstore website

Second, let’s get rid of the wishful thinking that rather than download books directly to their Kindle or browse Amazon.com for reviews users are going to go to their local independent bookstore’s website and buy ebooks from there.

Local bookstores think users are going to learn how to use a brand new website, figure out how to get those ebooks working on their Kindles and Nooks, and then stick with these new websites and the hassle of trasnferring books over. That’s a pretty huge assumption (we’re beginning to see a pattern) and a particularly unreasonable one.

The current ebook delivery system is almost perfect – Both Kindle and Nook have in-built stores that wirelessly deliver ebooks instantly. There’s no market demand for a new system. There’s no room for an alternate delivery mechanism. To think that users would choose a less elegant delivery system because they love their local bookstore is madness.

What about eBook value add features?

Are the local bookstores going to provide syncing of notes? What about a Cloud users can access their ebooks from? Are they going to offer free Internet browsing and free Wikipedia access?

Local bookstores can’t provide all these value-add features. They’re bringing a knife to a gunfight.

How are local bookstores going to survive on a single digit share of revenue?

Last, let’s look at the enormous reward local bookstores get for teaching their customers to switch to ebooks and eReaders – A single digit share of revenue.  

Why are local book store owners not realizing that their prize is a puny 9% of book revenue?

How is that going to sustain them? Would have loved to listen in on the conversations that sold local bookstores on selling ebooks.

You know how you get 30% to 40% of list price on books. That isn’t sustainable. Everything is moving to ebooks and they’re already at 8.4% market share.

You should help hasten the switch from 91.6% physical books to 25% physical books.

You get only 9% of revenue instead of 40% – However, let’s not dwell on that.

The only thing local bookstores are providing is trust and their brand. The rest is outside their control - they don’t have the expertise or knowledge to build an ebook delivery system or an eReader themselves. They’re just helping move their customers from a system they excel in (physical books) to something they have no clue about (eReaders, eBooks).

Bookstores must be truly desperate and blinded by fear - Why else would they help accelerate the switch from physical books to ebooks?

Filed under: Reality

After a really long time we have people waking up to the fact that Kindle, iPad can coexist.

Mr. Bezos’ ‘giving you figures without really giving you figures’ announcement seems to have been enough to get people to realize that the iPad doing well doesn’t mean the Kindle automatically has to do poorly.

James McQuivey thinks Kindle, iPad can coexist

Amazon’s announcement that Kindle sales are up despite the iPad and that Kindle ebook sales are beating hardcover sales at Amazon.com has convinced Mr. McQuivey that the Kindle isn’t going to die by 2011 or by 2012 or anytime soon.

In fact, he commits the heresy of thinking eReaders will sell more than the iPad next year (though he thinks Tablets will overtake eReaders in 2012) -

We’re so confident of the long ramp Amazon still has ahead of it that our latest eReader forecast shows that for at least the next year, eReaders of all flavors will outnumber iPads in the US.

we enter 2012, tablet PCs like the iPad will surpass eReaders. At that point, a healthy 15.5 million adults in the US will own an eReader.

More on the 2012 figures later.

Kindle is built for readers

It’s such a relief to see analysts and the main stream media FINALLY understand the Kindle is doing just fine because of dedicated readers -

… business seems to be going just fine for Amazon. 

Amazon has only barely begun to penetrate the one-fifth of online adults that read more than two books a month. These people love books enough to want a device optimized to provide the ideal digital reading experience, including finding, buying, carrying, and reading books.

That device is the Kindle.

Couldn’t agree more. People who read a lot will tend to prefer dedicated reading devices for reading.

All the ‘iPad will kill the Kindle’ arguments are simply opinions of people who don’t read that much or who are LCD compatible. Furthermore, they are never supported by facts of any sort – It’s usually their favorite telepathic Martian beaming down a vision of the future that is devoid of the Kindle and other dedicated reading devices.

Users don’t have to limit themselves to one device

It’s fun to pretend we live in an imaginary world where people have to choose just one device – They don’t. Lots of people own Kindle, iPad (or iPhone), and a PC and read across all three devices. Lots of people own multiple eReaders (‘reading doesn’t deserve a dedicated device’ people are probably shuddering at the thought). 

We don’t have to choose between an oven, a microwave, and a cooking range – we can have all three. Yet people are pretending that buying a smartphone or a tablet means users can no longer own a dedicated reading device. People have a lot of devices scattered around their houses – TVs, radios, music players, music systems, computers, phones, cameras, eReaders, video game consoles.

There is no ‘Only one device in a house’ rule. There isn’t even an ‘Only one device per person rule’.

People are beginning to realize the potential of the Kindle Store + Kindle Apps

Mr. McQuivey thinks Amazon intends to be the bookseller that captures customers (readers) for the long run – He’s absolutely right.

Amazon really are treating eBooks and eReaders as two separate businesses and they are focusing more on eBooks. The Kindle eco-system, the Kindle Store, and the various Kindle Apps are all built with the aim of taking over all of reading.

The people happily predicting the death of the Kindle are oblivious to the fact that not only is the Kindle not dying the Kindle store is actually taking over non-dedicated eReaders. The money eReader haters and anti-reading people spend on their ‘it does more than just read’ devices is being funnelled back into the development of dedicated reading devices. How deliciously amusing.

James McQuivey isn’t the only person who’s realized Kindle, iPad can coexist

Paul Verna at eMarketer.com points out that Kindle vs iPad was probably an imaginary battle to the death -

The Amazon figures also suggest that predictions of a head-to-head battle between the Kindle and the Apple iPad may have been overstated.

Jefferies & Company managing director Youssef Squali suggested as much when he said Amazon’s announcement was “clearly an indication that the iPad is complementary to the Kindle, not a replacement.”

Two people (an analyst and a marketer) might not seem like much – However, just a few days ago nearly everyone in the main stream media thought the Kindle was already dead. It doesn’t take much to change public opinion, especially opinion based on misconceptions, and these two people are a sign that things might be changing.

Why were people thinking Kindle, iPad couldn’t both survive?

The first mistake people had been making was assuming that a $499 device that specializes in not being specialized was in direct competition with a $189 device custom-built for reading.

The second mistake people had been making was thinking that everyone would want a device that treats reading as a side-pursuit. They found it hard to believe that people really do want to read on a dedicated reading device.

That’s changing now that James McQuivey and several other journalists and analysts are beginning to realize there is no direct contest. It’s a relief we’ve gotten so far. At the same time it’s interesting that people are still thinking small when it comes to the future of eReaders.

Analysts are still caught up in the ‘eReaders are a limited market’ mentality

Here’s Mr. McQuivey on future prospects for the Kindle and for eReaders -

By 2015, we see the eReader market starting to cap at just under 30 million US adults. That’s nearly all the people who read 2+ books a month.

Well, by 2015 we’ll actually see eReaders begin to replace paper, take over in offices and schools, and increase the number of people who read. We’ll see 50 to 100 million eReaders in the market just in the US and probably another 50 to 100 million eReaders outside the US.

It’s easy to look back at 5 million eReaders sold by the end of 2009 and think there’s no way eReaders grow 20 times in the next 6 years and hit 100 million units. However, no one knows what’s going to happen.

100 million eReaders by 2015 isn’t just possible it’s likely

There are a few major mistakes people make when they either predict the death of Kindle and eReaders or predict that it’s a market with some imaginary cap (let’s say 30 million eReaders total) -

1. They assume eReaders will stop evolving. We are a long way away from the $399 Kindle 1 of 2.5 years ago. Tablets may evolve and get dual-mode screens – However, eReaders will evolve too. 
2. They assume the market for dedicated eReaders is people who are serious readers. The market is actually replacing paper – both for reading and writing. The market includes work, college, school, notebooks, part of printing, reading, newspapers, documents, and a lot more.
3. They discount the distraction and focus factors. Consider a company buying devices for its employees or a school buying devices for their students – Would they rather get a device specialized for wasting time (consuming, surfing, games, video, TV) or a device specialized for productive use of time?
4. They assume that compromising the reading experience is OK. For most people it’s not.
5. They leave out all the people who are LCD incompatible. Just because a lot of tech journalists are very comfortable reading on LCDs doesn’t mean the entire world is. For a multitude of reasons (weak eyesight, being LCD incompatible, not wanting to lose sleep at night, not wanting the extra eye-strain, treating their eyes better) people want a device that’s easier on their eyes.

eReaders are a much better option for replacing paper than Tablets. This is especially true in cases where you want to primarily replace paper for what it does now. There are lots of times when you don’t want your critical business document or your school exam to have the capacity to transform into a TV or a handheld gaming device.

My money’s on eReaders hitting 100 million units in circulation before 2015 and doing it before any Tablet (or all Tablets) do. Kindle, iPad will coexist and Kindle and eReaders will outsell the iPad.

Filed under: kindle

In the wake of Amazon’s still-hard-to-believe ‘we’re selling more ebooks than hardcovers’ announcement there are a lot of people claiming it’s all sleight of hand. Here are the various things being written -

1. That the entire increase in ebook sales is due to Kindle ebook sales through the iPad. These are the same people who thought no one would use Kindle for iPad because it didn’t have pretty revolving book shelves. 
2. That Amazon has lost out a lot of the hardcover market. They’re trying to rationalize some strange phenomenon that caused hardcover sales to migrate from Amazon to another site.  
3. That most of the sales are of self-published books under $5. If true, this should be exceptionally worrying to Publishers – not only are they losing hardcover sales to ebooks, they are losing them to ebooks from self-published authors.

Everyone’s trying to come up with a theory that lets them rationalize away reality and go back to being complacent.

The reactions highlight why Amazon should continue to keep Kindle sales figures and Kindle book sales figures secret.

You cannot fight what you cannot see

Consider all the enemies Amazon has and how they’re completely clueless about the eReader space -

1. Barnes & Noble had no idea how many Nooks to produce and sold out during Christmas season 2009. They handed over the single most important shopping season in the history of eReaders to Amazon. 
2. The Press have no idea how many Kindles have been sold so they can’t attack. The Press take even positive figures and find a way to paint them as negative. Without numbers they are completely powerless.  
3. Apple has no idea of how many Kindle books are being sold via Kindle for iPad and Kindle for iPhone. If Amazon did in-app purchases then Apple would know. If Amazon revealed Kindle sales figures or Kindle book sales figures then Apple could try to extrapolate figures and decide whether to cut out Kindle Apps.
4. Sony also had no idea of market demand and sold out of the Daily Edition during Christmas season 2009. 
5. Publishers know ebook sales are increasing – they don’t know which parts of the Kindle ecosystem are contributing the most and they don’t know what share smaller publishers and indie authors are getting.
6. Companies that are thinking of entering the eReader space have no idea whether they should build apps or build a dedicated device. They might enter with a dedicated device and find Kindle Apps for PC and Mac are the biggest sources of ebook sales.
7. Companies entering the eBook space have no idea what the most important channels are. Imagine you’re trying to sell ebooks and you have no clue whether to invest in iWhatever apps or PC apps or to build your own reading device.

It really helps that both B&N and Sony are also refusing to discuss figures. This means we currently have zero idea of what’s going on.

Of course, you can guess and there was a very intelligent comment by eal which estimated 4.4 million Kindles sold so far -

so if we assume say 20% of Kindle owners bought a Patterson ebook (and they each bought just one) you have ~4.4M Kindles in circulation. Other assumptions will give you other ballpark SWAGs at Kindle volumes.

That’s probably pretty close to being accurate. Thankfully, the Press and Amazon’s enemies seem incapable of doing basic guesstimates. At some level, even intelligent guesses might not be enough.

Uncertainty paralyzes

Uncertainty really throws people off. It seems like it’s not a big deal but the reason it kills planning is that we are wired for a world where not knowing the exact location of the prehistoric tiger meant you couldn’t go hunting. The ones who did – well, their genes aren’t around to fearlessly take on uncertainty.

People feel compelled to eliminate uncertainties before they proceed. If they assume 4.4 million Kindles and produce 3 million they might be left with 2.5 million on hand. If they assume 1.5 million and it’s actually 4.4 million they may sell out and lose out on this holiday season.

The situation is so bad reporters are trying to use the argument that more people are reading Nook reviews than Kindle reviews on CNet.com and claiming that means Nook must be selling more than the Kindle.

Think about that for a second – People are using the number of times reviews are accessed on a non-Amazon site to try to figure out how well the Kindle is selling.   

Amazon doesn’t need social proof with Readers

A lot of the times companies flaunt their sales figures because their products are products that sell on social proof. If 5 million people have bought it it must be good.

People who read are different. If their sole focus in life was following the herd they wouldn’t be reading books. Plus reading books makes people pretty resistant to marketing and influence in general. What marketer can write as well as Shakespeare?

Of course, Amazon keeps throwing in little assurances every 3 months – millions of Kindles sold, ebooks selling more than hardcovers. However, you almost feel it’s more for the stock price than for readers.

There are very few markets that care as little about numbers

Readers are very indifferent to trends and popularity – If they were fixated on doing the ‘popular’ thing they would have all left to go watch TV. Their only concern is whether the Kindle adds value and whether it’s going to be around and not disappear with their books. Those concerns are addressed by the Kindle being very good value for money, Mr. Bezos saying there’ll be a Kindle 10, and by the fact that there are a constantly increasing stream of Kindle Apps (which you can read your books on) acting as insurance.

As far as readers are concerned the whole ‘social proof’ thing doesn’t really matter. So secrecy isn’t hurting Amazon’s sales and it’s helping it throw off competitors. 

Secrecy gets Amazon lots of free publicity and it gets its enemies upset

Any Kindle announcement by Amazon is covered twice – First, the articles by people who are surprised Kindle and Kindle store are doing well. Second, we get a round of articles claiming it’s all a magic trick.

It’s tens of millions of dollars of free publicity. An article that uses some ridiculous argument to try to fight off the Kindle’s relentless rise is the best advertising. It instantly makes people wonder about the product and check it out.

A nice side bonus is that it gets anti-Kindle people really upset.

Emotional enemies are weak, stupid enemies

When the Press and other anti-Kindle people get upset good things happen - Their anger clouds their thinking and they end up showing their inherent biases and negativity.

Take the person who’s trying to use traffic at CNet.com to gauge Kindle vs Nook sales or the person who’s saying all the increased sales are due to indie authors – Those are two people who’ve shown that they will try to use any ridiculous argument to attack the Kindle.

Any one reading their posts is going to think – The Kindle must be doing well if they are using such vague, irrelevant arguments against it.

Secrecy might help Amazon win the 2010 Christmas Season

There are a lot of things Amazon is hiding -

1. Kindle sales.  
2. Kindle book sales.
3. When Kindle 3 will come out.
4. When Kindle will get color.
5. When Kindle App Store will be released.
6. The Kindle ecosystem is a moving target. It’s always adding new features. It’s always providing more value for money.
7. Amazon’s long-term plans are a secret.

Now consider the impact on all the eReader and eBook contenders -  

• Barnes & Noble and Sony don’t know how many units to produce.
• The various eReader entrants don’t know how many eReaders to manufacture.
• Tablet companies don’t know how much effort to focus on readers.
• eBook companies have no idea what to expect.
• No one knows where to attack Amazon – the Kindle? Kindle for iPhone? Kindle for PC?

We’re 2.5 years into the eReader market and the only thing we know is that the same Kindle that was supposed to not even sell 40,000 units has sold millions. That’s our single data point.

Secrecy is an amazing strategy

Your opponents know less about you than you know about them. Your enemies don’t know what to target. Rivals tend to overestimate you and fear you.

Lots of potential rivals never find out how promising your niche is. Let alone investigate the market they don’t even know it exists. The really dangerous companies stay out of your market longer than they otherwise would.

The Press gets obsessed and keeps writing and speculating about you. You get a ton of free publicity.

Keeping Kindle sales figures secret has been one of Amazon’s smartest moves and it’s almost certainly going to keep the numbers secret in future. Perhaps when Amazon’s position in eReaders and eBooks is secure (or when it can no longer hide the incoming profits) it’ll reveal details. For now, it’s happy to be playing the Press for fools.

Filed under: thoughts

Bright of the Sky by Kay Kenyon is free and it’s brilliant - Well, just by virtue of not being about the spirit or the flesh. It’s Science Fiction and Book 1 of the ‘Entire and the Rose’ series. Rated 4.5 stars on 27 reviews.

Bright of the Sky, Kay Kenyon’s seventh novel, took critics by surprise.

Compared to works by Frank Herbert and Philip Jose Farmer, this impressive first installment in a planned four-part series won them over with its riveting plot, vividly imagined alternate universe, and exotic alien denizens.

Titus Quinn is a charming anti-hero, fully fleshed-out and likable; Kenyon’s secondary characters are also convincing and memorable. One critic felt that some narrative jumps were confusing, and the Washington Post compared Kenyon’s early chapters on 23rd-century Earth to “a kind of retro (1950s) view of the future,” but these were considered minor complaints.

With elegant prose and a solid grounding in real-life physics, Kenyon has conjured a spellbinding, action-packed planetary romance.

Perhaps there will be more free books soon and hopefully they will be in genres that have been mostly ignored so far (mystery for example).

Excellent Update on Sharp eReader

Thanks to this comment from Benjamin that better explains why Sharp are trying for their own format -

The most important thing for this Sharp reader is that it’s going to have Japanese language books on it. That’s a market that isn’t really served by anyone else (even Sony) at this point, and Sharp will probably be very successful with it.

I wouldn’t be entirely surprised if they’re simply forced to make their own document format. I’m not entirely sure about the technical details of ePub or Mobi or whatever, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they don’t work with CJK characters, which are obviously necessary for Japanese language books.

And while Japanese is frequently written in horizontal left-to-right lines nowadays, books are still written in vertical lines, starting from the right side of the screen and moving to the left. This would probably take a lot of hacking to get working with current ebook file formats, and is most likely the biggest obstacle to a Japanese Kindle.

It’s certainly a big enough market for an e-reader. There are about 130 million people in Japan and they have both disposable income and a well-known love for gadgets. I bet a lot of people would be willing to buy an e-reader to read on the train to and from work.

Basically,

• Their use of a new format might be to support Japanese. 
• Japan is not served by any dedicated eReader at the moment (not even a LCD one).
• There’s a large enough market (130 million people) to release a device.

Plus Sharp can build on their success in Japan (if they do succeed) to expand outside of Japan. If Sharp with its Sharp eReaders ends up being the first company that makes eBook Readers popular in Japan then it will deserve a lot of credit.

Filed under: free books

Let’s start with a free erotic romance novel -

1. All in Time by Ciana Stone. Thanks to ‘Happiness creating Reader’ Joyce at the official Kindle forum for the heads up on this and some of the rest. It’s Erotica and 222 KB so a novella or a novel and not just a tease.
   

   Part of The Hussies series.

   Sara’s life is filled with mysteries. Why did her parents abandon her as a baby? What’s behind the baffling blackouts she suffers and the frightening images she creates while she’s out? Who is the strange woman claiming to hold the answers, and why does she keep calling Sara a Hussy?

   Morgan’s got a few mysteries of his own. What was his father going to give him on the day he died – the gift he said would change Morgan’s life? Who is this bewitching woman who keeps passing out and creating pictures of his past and future – and why was she sent to save his life?

   All they both know from the moment they meet is that the bond between them is stronger – and more passionate – than anything either has ever known. And that fate has brought them together for a very important reason. If only they knew what it was.

Next, we have new short stories (of the Erotic Romance genre) added by Ellora’s Cave and Cerridwen Press -

1. Ellora’s Cave have 38 free romance shorts. They had started out with 33 so there are some new ones in there.
2. Cerridwen Press have 20 free romance shorts. They had started out with 12 so there are new ones in there too.

Finally, we get some good book deals -

1. Swallow by Tonya Plank. It’s just 99 cents and rated very highly – 4.5 stars on 18 reviews. It’s a legal thriller and also about anxiety disorders.
   

   Sophie Hegel is a shy New York lawyer from small-town Florence Arizona, known not for the Renaissance but for housing a large prison. She’s just graduated from Yale Law School and landed her first job when, one evening she feels a fist-like ball form at the base of her throat.

   Diagnosed with the psychological condition Globus Sensate, this “fist-ball” wreaks havoc on her life, causing difficulty eating, speaking, and eventually breathing.

   With a cast of characters that includes a pornographer father, a sister with a knack for getting knocked up by denizens of the town pen, a tough-talking fashion maven, a painter of male nudes, an eccentric Sing Sing-residing client and a bevy of privileged Manhattan attorneys and judges, Swallow is a dark comedy about the distance that can separate fathers and daughters, and about a young woman’s struggle to survive in a world of pedigreed professionals for which she has no preparation.

2. The Perfect Husband by Lisa Gardner. Rated 4 stars on 167 reviews and at $5.99. 
   

   What would you do if the man of your dreams hides the soul of a killer?

   Jim Beckett was everything she’d ever dreamed of…But two years after Tess married the decorated cop and bore his child, she helped put him behind bars for savagely murdering ten women. Even locked up in a maximum security prison, he vowed he would come after her and make her pay. Now the cunning killer has escaped—and the most dangerous game of all begins….

   After a lifetime of fear, Tess will do something she’s never done before. She’s going to learn to protect her daughter and fight back, with the help of a burned-out ex-marine. As the largest manhunt four states have ever seen mobilizes to catch Beckett, the clock winds down to the terrifying reunion between husband and wife. And Tess knows that this time, her only choices are to kill—or be killed.

3. Can You Keep A Secret by Sophie Kinsella is $5.59. It’s rated 4.5 stars on 538 reviews. Mentioned this before in January – It’s in the Movers and Shakers Chart again and perhaps it interests you now.
   

   The author of the Shopaholic trilogy offers up a delightful new novel, filled with her trademark wit and humor.

   When her plane en route from Glasgow to London experiences horrible turbulence, Emma Corrigan is convinced she is going to die. She babbles all of her most intimate thoughts and secrets to the handsome American man sitting next to her. But the plane lands safely, and Emma bids him an awkward good-bye. When she enters the office on Monday and learns the CEO of the company, Jack Harper, is in for a visit, Emma is horrified to learn Jack is actually the man in whom she confided on the flight.

   He knows everything, including that she hates her job and that she is not quite sure she loves her boyfriend. But Jack does not fire her on the spot; instead, he quietly replaces the office coffeemaker she hates and gives her advice about her personal life, which she finds infuriating.

   So why can’t she stop thinking about him? Kinsella has another irresistible hit on her hands.

4. Kill the Story by John Luciew. Rated 4 stars on 19 reviews. Just $1.99.
   

   A serial killer known as “The Reader” is murdering journalists in the manner of their most famous stories. Dubbed the “Media Murders” by the press, the killings baffle authorities, turn once-aggressive reporters into prey and shock the country in what soon becomes a national story.

   The cunning killer’s first strike is cleverly disguised as a political assassination, mirroring John Hinckley’s attempt on Ronald Reagan. As it turns out, the fallen reporter had covered Reagan’s shooting. It’s the first of several bizarre killings with eerie similarities to sensational stories the murdered journalists once covered.

5. To Speak for the Dead by Paul Levine. It’s the first book in the Jake Lassiter series and just shot up to 122nd in the Kindle Charts.
   

   Dr. Roger Salisbury knew seductive, beautiful Melanie Corrigan way back when she was a nude dancer in a seedy Miami bar. Now she’s accused him of malpractice in the death of her wealthy husband, and, when that fails, she frames him for murder.

   As he hunts for the real murderer, narrator Jake Lassiter–Salisbury’s sympathetic, witty, and nonconformist lawyer–falls for the dead man’s attractive daughter, enlists the aid of a brainy ex-medical examiner, and narrowly escapes death himself. A finely tuned plot from first novelist Levine, who orchestrates his tense courtroom and medical scenes with expert panache, fluid prose, and sly humor.

Why are most free books either religious or romance?

Is there a message in there somewhere?

The Kindle 2.5.4 upgrade?

Apparently, the rumors are true. From the official kindle forum we know -

1. There is most definitely a 2.5.4 upgrade and people have been getting it wirelessly. 
2. It’s only for Kindle 2 US – or so say the people who’ve gotten it. Serial Numbers for the US-only Kindles start with B002 and can be found on the back of the Kindle.
3. There is no manual download.
4. Customer Service told a Kindle owner that it’s being pushed out over the current few weeks.
5. People are saying that the update might have increased the screen contrast (though some don’t notice any difference) .

It’s all very interesting and the best guess seems to be that K2 US owners get 2.5.4 and K2 Global owners get 2.5.3 as the latest upgrade.

Filed under: free books

Sharp is set to jump into the eReader market by end of this year and set up an eInk Kindle vs Sharp eReader confrontation.

Reuters has the scoop on Sharp’s eReader plans -

Sharp plans to offer an e-book distribution service and launch compatible reader devices this year that will also allow users to watch video and listen to audio content.

It said it had the backing of various publishers in Japan and overseas.

However, there’s a lot more to it.

Kindle vs Sharp – What are Sharp’s eReader Plans?

The AFP adds some details as Sharp seem pretty confident in their eReader plans -

1. The Sharp eReader will handle text plus video plus audio. Sounds more like a tablet.
2. It uses Sharp’s proprietary XMDF format (ever-extending mobile document format). Talk about a disaster in the making – Do we really need yet another new format?  
3. There will be one Sharp eReader which resembles the iPhone and one Sharp eReader which resembles the iPad. Sounds even more like a tablet.
4. Sharp wants to launch by end 2010 and take advantage of the current focus on the Book Publishing business (whatever that means).
5. It has signed deals with major Japanese publishers and newspaper companies.

AFP’s article says the Japanese ebook market is estimated to be worth $500 million with cellphones and PCs responsible for most of the sales.

Is Kindle vs Sharp a valid comparison?

Quite frankly, it’s not. 

The Sharp ‘eReader’ is a color LCD device that also does Video. SlashGear has some Sharp Reader photos and there’s no way the Sharp ‘eReader’ is an eReader. It’s pretty much an iPad and iPhone clone.

Basically, it’s the same old trick – The eReader market is exploding so let’s take our device and pretend it’s an eReader and steal customers. 

Sharp is trying to do it with iPad/iPhone knock-offs that have 5.5″ and 10.8″ touchscreens. The use of the XMDF format lets it mix text, audio, and video - Basically, it gets to make a giant mess of books and reading. The intent to mix video and audio into books should destroy any illusion of this being a device suited for reading books.

SlashGear also report that Verizon will be providing Sharp support in the US for both the hardware and the ebook store.

Sharp’s eBook Store

PC World chimes in with more details on Sharp’s eReader plans -

1. Readers for the XMDF format (the format Sharp eReader will be using) are available for PCs, Sharp electronic dictionaries, handheld PCs, cellphones, and Sharp’s Aquos televisions. Good luck getting people to read books on their TVs.
2. Sharp has an online store with 29,000 ebook titles from major Japanese Publishers. That’s not a bad start.
3. Launch in Japan by end of the year and US launch soon after that. It’s talking with Verizon Wireless. 
4. Audio and Video will be embedded into ebook pages.
5. Sharp says it hasn’t decided whether it will support formats other than XMDF.

Chances are the US release of the Sharp eReader gets delayed and we don’t see Kindle vs Sharp until 2011.

Why do Tablets keep pretending they are eReaders and books need video and audio?

There are two things about the iPad and the Sharp eReader’s posturing as eReaders that don’t make much sense -

1. If they are eReaders why are they specialized for video and for doing 1,000 different things - Shouldn’t an eReader be specialized for reading?
2. If they are devices focused on reading books why are they promoting adding video and audio to books? Doesn’t that make them akin to the multimedia CD-ROMs that were being bandied about in the 1990s?

It’s almost as if every single Tablet company has decided that there isn’t enough of a Tablet Market so let’s just pretend we are eReaders and steal that market. By the time users realize we aren’t as good for reading as dedicated eInk screen eReaders it’ll be too late.

Will Tablets be able to convince readers they are eReaders?

The entry of so many Tablets pretending to be eReaders is awesome. It basically blows away the illusion that a Tablet is suited for reading – especially as lots of Tablets only thought about reading when they were finalizing their marketing.

There is absolutely nothing in the design of the iPad that says it’s been customized for reading. You can take the most amazing software in the world but it doesn’t change what the device is suited for and what it was built to be.

It’s the same with Sharp’s LCD screen eReader which is trying to mix audio and video with text and introduce a brand new ebook format. Readers get a multitude of reasons to run away from the Sharp eReader as fast as they can – LCD screen, not readable in sunlight, the company thinks books need audio and video, they are creating a mess by introducing a new format, not designed as a reading device.

It’s purely a marketing play – pretend to be an eReader and get a share of a market that is exploding. Apple did it very, very well. However, now that every Tablet company is starting to do it the illusion will wear off. There will always be a percentage of people who are fine with LCD screen pretend-eReaders. However, most readers can afford to put up $189 for a device that is built for reading. Kindle vs Sharp isn’t even a worthwhile comparison – If you must buy a tablet at least don’t buy one like the Sharp ‘eReader’ which is a blatant knock-off.

Filed under: kindle vs