The Most Anticipated Books of 2010
Posted on December 31, 2009 |
As part of my research for a feature story on the future of books, "e-Books: Averting a Digital Horror Story," I reached out to book agents, publishers and other industry experts to spotlight some of the most anticipated books of 2010 and how they will be released. Here they are:
NON-FICTION
War by Sebastian Junger, Twelve (May 11, 2010).
The Hachette imprint plans to release an electronic version of Junger’s book about American soldiers in Afganistan complete with video clips. But Hachette has said it will release certain e-books well after the hardcover debut to avoid cannabilizing sales, and Junger’s book is a likely candidate for such treatment, given his popularity.
Overhaul by Steven Rattner, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (Fall 2010)
The former auto czar for the Obama Administration is likely to release hardcover and digital versions of his memoir of the auto bailout simultaneously.
Valley of Death: The Tragedy at Dien Bien Phu that Led America into the Vietnam War Ted Morgan. Random House (February 23, 2010).
This 700-page history book by a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter will probably be released in hardcover and digital forms at the same time.
The Language of Life: DNA and the Revolution in Personal Medicine by Francis Collins, Harper (January 5, 2010).
The director of the National Institutes of Health will likely release the hardcover and digital versions of this science book simultaneously.
Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard by Chip and Dan Heath. Broadway Business (February 16, 2010)
The authors of the best-selling Made to Stick have already decided to have the hardcover and digital versions of their next book released at the same time.
FICTION
The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest by Stieg Larsson, Knopf (May 25, 2010)
The Swedish author’s final installment of his Millenium Trilogy will likely be released first as a hardcover and later in digital form because of the popularity of his previous books.
Private Life by Jane Smiley, Knopf (May 4, 2010)
The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of A Thousand Acres will probably get a simultaneous release for hardcover and digital versions of her upcoming book.
The Pregnant Widow by Martin Amis, Jonathan Cape (May 11, 2010)
The best-selling English author will probably see delays in the release of this book’s electronic version given his track record of strong sales
Parrot and Olivier in America by Peter Carey, Knopf (April 20, 2010)
The Australian author of Oscar and Lucinda and the True History of the Kelly Gang could see delays in the digital release of his upcoming novel.
The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell, Random House (June 29, 2010)
The cult fiction writer will likely see simultaneous releases of this upcoming book in hardcover and electronic form.
OTHERS TO WATCH:
Here's a list of books suggested by the American Library Association's Booklist Magazine.
Adult Fiction:
Jonathan Franzen. Freedom (Farrar)
David Foster Wallace. The Pale King (Little, Brown)
Scott Turow. Innocent. (Grand Central Publishing)
Roddy Doyle. The Dead Republic (Viking)
Henning Mankell. The Man from Beijing. (Random House)
Ian McEwan. Solar. (Doubleday/Nan A. Talese)
Adult Nonfiction:
David Kirkpatrick. The Facebook Effect (Simon & Schuster)
Jonathan Alter. President Obama: Inside the Early Days (Simon & Schuster)
Laura Bush. Spoken from the Heart. (Scribner)
Nicole LaPorte. The Men Who Would Be King: An Almost Epic Tale of Moguls, Movies, and a Company Called Dreamworks. (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
Ian Johnson. A Mosque in Munich: Nazis, the CIA, and the Rise of the Muslim Brotherhood in the West (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
Children's and Young Adult:
Suzanne Collins. Hunger Games #3 (Scholastic)
Rick Riordan. The Kane Chronicles, Book One: The Red Pyramid (Disney-Hyperion)
Jeff Kinney. Diary of a Wimpy Kid #5 (Abrams/Amulet)
Jon Scieszka and Francesco Sedita. Spaceheadz (Simon & Schuster)
-- Spencer Ante also publishes the Creative Capital blog. Click here to see more.
Late Fees for Barnes & Noble’s Nook
Posted on December 21, 2009 |
Over the weekend, bookseller Barnes & Noble notified some customers who ordered the Nook e-book reader that the device wouldn't arrive in time for the holidays. Its consolation gift, $100 toward online purchases for each late Nook, is only part of the cost the company is likely to pay for the blunder.
Barnes & Noble has taken orders for as many as 50,000 of the $259 readers, estimates Forrester Research analyst James McQuivey. He guesses the company will miss shipment on about 2% to 4% of the devices, adding up to $100,000 to $200,000 worth of gift certificates. That's store credits and not cash, so Barnes & Noble will no doubt recoup some of that investment. Still, it's not an insignificant cost and "It certainly doesn’t give them any ground against Amazon and Sony," McQuivey says.
Sony says it will avoid a belated Christmas, announcing on Monday that all orders of its $399 Daily Edition reader that were placed by Dec. 20 will begin shipping Dec. 23 and arrive "in-time for the holidays." Meanwhile, Amazon has shown no signs of supply issues for the Kindle, despite the company's claim last week that the e-book reader is having its best month of sales ever.
For Barnes & Noble, the late fee that's harder to measure is the damage done to its credibility as a device maker, say analysts. The company's inability to meet consumer demand suggests to Forrester's McQuivey that the product was rushed to market. "The perception is going to be that they don’t have their act together," he says. Barnes & Noble blames the delay on unexpected demand.
With the e-reader category evolving so rapidly, the Nook's tardiness could also rob it of the momentum it will need to face off against the next generation of devices. During January's Consumer Electronic Show, at least two hyped e-book readers are expected to be shown off to potential buyers: the dual-screen Entourage eDGe and the sleek, flexible Plastic Logic QUE. Though such devices may run into startup snags of their own, they are likely to raise the bar for any would-be buyer of the Nook.
Sorry, Kindle: WSJ Warms to Sony
Posted on December 17, 2009 |
News Corp. chief Rupert Murdoch has made no secret of his disdain for the Amazon Kindle business model, punctuating recent earnings calls with remarks that the e-commerce giant pockets too much of the subscription fees for the Wall Street Journal and other content. On Thursday morning his company's actions spoke louder than words, as it announced an exclusive deal with Sony, Amazon's top rival in the e-reader business.
Sony's Daily Edition device will be the first to receive automatic wireless updates of The Wall Street Journal, New York Post, and the MarketWatch Web site. Subscriptions will be offered for a monthly charge of $15 for The Journal, and between $10 and $20 for the other options. For an extra fee, subscribers can choose to receive an update when the markets close in the afternoon, in addition to the morning news.
News Corp. already makes The Journal available for $15 per month on the Kindle, but users of the device cannot receive updates more than once a day. In theory, automatic updates could be made available to the Kindle -- but Murdoch's belief that his company's cut of $6 to $6.50 is barring any such arrangement. Some speculated News Corp. would walk away from the Kindle altogether, but the new "exclusive" agreement for automatic updates on Sony readers appears to be the best counter the company could muster.
"There [were] issues with Kindle and Sony has been been very understanding of those concerns," said Robert Thompson, editor of the Wall Street Journal, during a meeting with journalists. "If it wasn’t a better deal I wouldn’t be here today."
Google Books: Scan First, Ask Questions Later
Posted on November 14, 2009 |
In a revision to the Google Books Settlement filed in federal court late Friday night, Google and the Authors Guild made concessions to industry groups, regulators and others who have vocally opposed the plan. But the search giant refuses to budge on one of the agreement's most controversial points.
So-called orphan works, millions of books for which copyright laws still apply but whose rights owner is unknown or cannot be located, will still be scanned and sold in an online registry. New revisions to the plan call for an independent trustee to collect revenues generated from orphan works for up to 10 years, or until the rights holders are found. After 10 years, that money will be donated towards the continued effort to seek out copyright owners.
In September, head of the US Copyright Office Marybeth Peters said Google's initial "opt-out" proposal to scan orphan works before attempting to find rights owners amounted to a throwing out of "fundamental copyright principles." Though the most recent revisions stipulate more rigorous steps for collecting and distributing money to authors and publishers, the proposed agreement is still opt-out, as Danny Sullivan pointed out in his blog Search Engine Land. Peters is still likely to object.
Other revisions which are likely to sway some critics include a new geographical limit to the the deal. Now, the Google Books Settlement applies only to U.S., Canada, U.K., and Australia. That will please the governments of France and Germany, who have objected to the plan.
In the next week, U.S. District Court Judge Denny Chin is expected to schedule a fairness hearing to hear arguments for and against the revised agreement. Expect to hear from groups like the Open Book Alliance, the coalition led by former Microsoft antitrust watchdog Gary Reback, which has already objected to the new agreement in a blog post.
Barnes & Noble Taps Kindle Designer For Its Athena e-Book Reader
Posted on October 14, 2009 |
Yes, it's true. The much-anticipated device from Barnes & Noble, which has been eliciting oohs and ahs since leaked photos appeared on Gizmodo , was designed by Ammunition Partners, a San Francisco firm headed by former Apple design chief Robert Brunner.
Although Amazon has never confirmed this, two sources tell me that Brunner's team also designed the initial Kindle for Amazon in 2007. Back then, the Net giant had yet to design a hardware product of its own, so relied heavily on Ammunition to come up with the look and feel for the device. Brunner, among other things, is famous for overseeing design of Apple's first laptop.
Actually, Ammunition worked with Project 126, a secretive Amazon subsidiary that's holed up just down the street from Apple in Cupertino. The group's staff is chock full of experts in wireless technology, software interface design and other disciplines. It's president is Greg Zehr, a former vp of engineering for PowerBooks at Apple. The group's charter, according to its website, is to "develop easy-to-use, highly integrated consumer products to serve Amazon customers." The first of those was the Kindle.
For whatever reason--could it be the decidedly negative reviews of that initial effort?--Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos soon decided to show Ammunition the door. Instead, he hired his own internal industrial design team, to be led by an alumnus of frogdesign, the famed Silicon Valley design shop created by Hartmut Esslinger. Indeed, many frog alums are also at Lab 126, says the blog Kindle Review.
Word is that the Athena will be announced sometime next week. A Barnes & Noble spokesperson declined to confirm this, nor did she say whether Ammunition was involved in the design of the unconfirmed product. Amazon also declined to comment for this story. So did Brunner.
Here's an excellent side-by-side comparison of Kindle and Athena, from the blog Kindle Review.
