Some links relating to Apple's book plans.
Start with this nifty wee guided tour of iBooks (you'll have to pick iBooks out of the left column menu).
The there's Apple's attempted end-run around Kindle and self-publishing. Unlike BNET, I don't think this is a big deal. Amazon has many arrows in their quiver. Just wait.
Also, some stuff about Apple's e-book pricing. As I always knew it would, most pricing is going to go where Amazon first pointed.
It's all getting very interesting. The literary future is, as I've said a zillion times, all about e-publishing. The trades (the Big Six) are struggling to keep up. They're failing, in my opinion. Oh, some of them will still be around for years to come (because economies of scale work, and most people still read paper books). But how many? Something's going to give in a couple of years. Amazon is, I think, the only retailer of any size currently growing. (Apple will make two, of course.) As we've seen, Amazon and Apple don't like to play by Big Six rules.
In other words, publishing is unstable. Fault lines are shifting. Earthquakes are coming. As always, I'll be watching with interest.
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I just wonder how long it will take for all of this to shake out. Eventually a price point will be found which will support authors and all the other stuff needed in publishing to get their books to market, but how many people will not be able to adapt in time?
ReplyDeleteThe iPad may save magazines if people will pay for content. Someone has to pay for people to do investigative news stories. Else how will they get done.
And what if I want to read outside? What's an iPad going to do for me then? I amazes me that people don't understand the importance of e-ink (or similar) technology. Most people I talk to don't even know what it is or that the Kindle has that.
Relatively soon we'll have other choices in that arena, but the iPad and Apple will be on a roll by then, and I'm thinking that will make it take even longer for newer/better screen technology to kick in. But maybe not. :)
Fun times ahead after a rocky road to get there.
I'm not sure there is such a thing as 'shake out' anymore. Things change too fast. Sigh.
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