Sony

With the steady increase in e-books sales and the growing demand from consumers for this format, many publishers have had to adjust their business models and production processes to provide their books as e-books. According to May sales figures released this week by the Association of American Publishers and the International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF), e-book sales increased nearly 163 percent for the month, and year-to-date e-book sales increased 207.4 percent over the same period last year.

In recognition of Library Advocacy Day, Sony today unveiled the Reader Library program, a new initiative to support the work of public libraries as they expand and promote their eBook collections.  The program provides public libraries with training on digital reading devices, educational materials to help readers learn about the eBooks and digital texts available to them through their local libraries, and digital reading devices for library staff use.

Kohlberg Ventures increased its investment in Open Road Integrated Media LLC (www.openroadmedia.com), a digital content company that publishes and markets ebooks by creating connections between authors and their audiences. The venture capital firm invested an additional $4 million in Series A financing, building upon its original $3 million investment in August 2009.

Sony expects ebook sales to overtake sales of print books within five years, as we reported yesterday. Steve Haber, president of Sony's digital reading business division, told me: "Within five years there will be more digital content sold than physical content. Three years ago, I said within ten years but I realised that was wrong - it's within five."

Although it seems that all we ever talk about these days is the tablet--how gorgeous the iPad is, how the tablet will kill off the netbook, a little bit more about the iPad--the more dynamic market of the moment is e-readers. Not a day goes by without the launch of a new model--latest being Asus's Lumibook, and with Marvell muscling in on the Chinese market--and, to be honest, it's all a bit confusing.

(Press Release) Austin, Texas, May 20, 2010—LibreDigital Inc. today announced that it has closed an $8.1 million Series C funding round led by new investor S3 Ventures with participation from existing investors Adams Capital Management and Triangle Peak Partners. The company's other key investors include HarperCollins Publishers, The New York Times Company and Noro-Moseley Partners. The new capital infusion will be used by LibreDigital to expand e-book services for publishers looking to capitalize on the unprecedented demand for e-books, which is being driven by the release of new devices like the Apple iPad. In addition to being a top Apple e-book aggregator, LibreDigital also powers the delivery of content to other digital devices and marketplaces, including Barnes & Noble NOOK, Amazon Kindle, Sony Reader, Google Editions and many more.

(Press Release) Cleveland, OH, May 19, 2010—OverDrive (www.overdrive.com), a leading distributor of eBooks, audiobooks, and digital content for libraries, schools, and retailers, announced that it will release a series of apps that will combine eBooks, audiobooks, and interactive and multimedia content into one user-friendly application. The apps will be available for both mobile and desktop operating systems, including Windows, Mac, iPhone, iPad, Android, Windows Mobile, and BlackBerry. Millions of end users will benefit from a single software solution for all OverDrive-supplied content, as well as on-the-go access to eBooks from OverDrive-powered library and retail catalogs.

I had a lot of fun last week speaking at the SIIA’s Brown Bag series on a panel called “Beyond the eBook” with a few colleagues, new and old (the relationships, not the people). But there was an interesting element to it that I thought was funny, and would like to share.

With tongue planted firmly in cheek, I quickly became labeled as the “curmudgeon” or “technology cynic” because of a number of factors, all of them self-inflicted. Again, it was all good natured, but my unwillingness to rush out and buy an iPad transformed me into the technology curmudgeon in the room. I absolutely I loved it.

Smashwords, a leading publisher and distributor of ebooks, now offers independent authors access to the new iBookstore through a distribution agreement with Apple.

Smashwords currently publishes nearly 10,000 original ebooks from over 4,000
authors and 150 small independent publishers.

Publishers are faced with strategy decisions like never before. As publishing options continue to grow and business models shift seemingly every few months with the introduction of new digital devices or growth of some external pressure, publishers must plan for the future while reacting to the present—a tough situation even without the need to deal with the effects of a down economy.