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"With this update, we're providing specific information about Amazon's objectives. A key objective is lower e-book prices. Many e-books are being released at $14.99 and even $19.99. That is unjustifiably high for an e-book. With an e-book, there's no printing, no over-printing, no need to forecast, no returns, no lost sales due to out-of-stock, no warehousing costs, no transportation costs, and there is no secondary market -- e-books cannot be resold as used books. E-books can be and should be less expensive. It's also important to understand that e-books are highly price-elastic. This means that when the price goes up, customers buy much less. We've quantified the price elasticity of e-books from repeated measurements across many titles. For every copy an e-book would sell at $14.99, it would sell 1.74 copies if priced at $9.99. So, for example, if customers would buy 100,000 copies of a particular e-book at $14.99, then customers would buy 174,000 copies of that same e-book at $9.99. Total revenue at $14.99 would be $1,499,000. Total revenue at $9.99 is $1,738,000. "

"How much should an e-book cost? Publishers set the retail price for a current e-book, like James Patterson's "Invisible," at $14.99. That's a lot less than a hardcover copy of the book ($25.50), but it's still more than Amazon thinks a reader should be paying for an e-book; Amazon says the price tag should be $9.99. "A key objective is lower e-book prices," Amazon wrote in a blog post last week. The company made its case for $9.99 e-books, explaining that "For every copy an e-book would sell at $14.99, it would sell 1.74 copies if priced at $9.99." Certainly publishers would like to sell 1.74 times as many books as they do now. And Amazon provides an example that sounds very tempting: "if customers would buy 100,000 copies of a particular e-book at $14.99, then customers would buy 174,000 copies of that same e-book at $9.99. Total revenue at $14.99 would be $1,499,000. Total revenue at $9.99 is $1,738,000." What author doesn't want to make $1.7 million? But before running to cash that hypothetical check, let's look at what Amazon, which declined to respond to our questions about the statement, is and isn't saying."

"The Canadian publishing industry has been embracing digital in a big way. In a few short years almost everyone is putting out e-books the same day the print version is available. Booknet Canada released new information and the report states that the percentage of publishers producing e-books in 2014 increased slightly to 93% (vs 89% in 2013). Of those producing ebooks, close to half have digitized more than 50% of their active titles, and almost a quarter have converted over 75% of their backlist titles. The majority of publishers (65%) choose to publish print and e-book formats of a title simultaneously, while 29% delay the e-book edition until after the print version is available. When asked for the main reasons to publish ebooks, the most popular response was to increase sales (77%), followed closely by to meet customer demand (63%). Only 5% cited "as a mechanism to lower costs" as a reason to produce e-books-a noticeable drop from 15% in 2013. The development of enhanced e-books and apps remained fairly steady from 2013 to 2014, whereas more publishers are publishing digital originals: from 27% in 2013 to 35% in 2014."

"One of the best things about the internet is that it makes everything available. The down side of that is how you navigate 'everything' to find what's really good and will resonate with you. This is a real issue when it comes to finding books and explains why we rely so much on the recommendations of people whose opinions we know and trust. The internet may be changing publishing but the way we choose the books we read still relies on that same principle. Of course lots of websites now give you the chance to read reviews of books that other people have read but unless you know more about the individual reviewer and their own perspective there's a limit to how valuable their opinion, whether positive or critical, will be. There is a way of making everyone's opinion resonate with you no matter how their tastes and backgrounds might differ from yours however, and that's if they were only allowed to recommend their very favourite books to you and explain in each case why that book matters so much to them. There's no guarantee that you will share their passion for any one particular book but that personal insight will give you the context for that opinion and it may be enough to persuade you to give that book a try."

"The Salon du Livre - Paris Book Fair is a leading book fair that welcomes visitors around the world and allows them to delve into the world of books. The book fair has gained international recognition and showcases the culture and heritage of the region. Paris Book Fair Booth On Monday March 23rd, an all-day series of panel talks took place at the Paris Book Fair. The purpose of the panel was to discuss the challenges and opportunities presented by accessible publishing in France. The event was organized by the French Ministry of Culture and Communication. They actively support open, interoperable standards."

"The Book Elf ouvre ses portes le 19 juillet. Ce réseau social risque de faire grand bruit sur la planète livre numérique puisqu'il propose aux lecteurs de partager leurs ebooks en toute légalité (lire notre article). En direct de Brooklyn aux Etats-Unis et en exclusivité pour la France, Greg Belvedere, fondateur de The Book Elf nous explique comment va fonctionner cette plateforme. "The Book Elf est dans un premier temps, un lieu où les lecteurs vont pouvoir chercher, télécharger et partager des ebooks gratuitement. Nous avons créé une super interface permettant notamment de chercher les livres du domaine public stockés dans la base Internet Archive. Les utilisateurs peuvent trouver des livres de cette manière mais aussi via leurs contacts sur le réseau en consultant leur « bibliothèque virtuelle personnelle ». [...] Je veux rendre le partage d'ebooks aussi facile que le partage d'un livre papier mais ceci en accord avec la loi. [...] Les auteurs et les éditeurs devraient comprendre à terme que ce que nous proposons est une nouvelle façon de promouvoir leurs contenus. Mon objectif est de faire en sorte que tous les livres puissent être partagés sur The Book Elf. Je ne sais pas si tous les auteurs et éditeurs vont adhérer mais certains sont prêts à signer"."

"An indie author today released the 250,000th book on Smashwords. In the last 30 days, over 9,000 books were released at Smashwords. In 2008, we released 140 books in the first year. The 250,000 books comprise 8.5 billion words. Imagine the millions of hours of love that went into these books. Imagine the cultural treasures that are now available and discoverable to future generations."

"Don't you think it is more crucial to make the web ready for books, than to make books ready for the web ? To make the web ready for books will improve it. To try to make books perfectly ready for the web will make them run the risk of losing what makes them books. The real challenge is to keep the best of both worlds, not to merge them. And if new forms are invented, new kind of ways of sharing thoughts - and it's already the case : that's perfect."

"This week, ebook lovers got yet another reminder of why DRM (Digital Rights Management) is terrible for ebooks. While attending a library conference in Singapore, Jim O'Donnell lost access to the titles in his Google Play Books app. Apparently, the app detected that he was in a country where Google Books aren't available and subsequently denied him access to his books. Stories like this crop up every now and then, each time highlighting some crazy ebook restriction or policy that most people aren't even aware of. The way things are set up, you kind of need to protect the digital books you buy from the companies that sell them. There are a growing number of ways and reasons why Amazon, Google, or a book publisher might strip you of your digital library. The best way to protect yourself is to break the DRM on your ebooks for the purpose of keeping a local, personal backup."

"Authors are upset with Amazon. Again. For much of the last year, mainstream novelists were furious that Amazon was discouraging the sale of some titles in its confrontation with the publisher Hachette over e-books. Now self-published writers, who owe much of their audience to the retailer's publishing platform, are unhappy. One problem is too much competition. But a new complaint is about Kindle Unlimited, a new Amazon subscription service that offers access to 700,000 books - both self-published and traditionally published - for $9.99 a month. It may bring in readers, but the writers say they earn less. And in interviews and online forums, they have voiced their complaints. "Six months ago people were quitting their day job, convinced they could make a career out of writing," said Bob Mayer, an e-book consultant and publisher who has written 50 books. "Now people are having to go back to that job or are scraping to get by. That's how quickly things have changed.""

"On December 31, Douglas County Libraries (DCL) acquired 10,000 e-book titles from the world's largest distributor of self-published works, Smashwords, bringing the total number of e-book files that DCL owns to 21,000. All of the content purchased from Smashwords, including books in popular genres such as fiction, romance, mystery, and science fiction, is available for borrowing by library patrons."

"Le cabinet d'audit Pricewaterhouse Coopers (PwC) et Media Outlook prévoient que les e-books représenteront la moitié du marché global du livre aux Etats-Unis d'ici 2016, le marché lui-même étant estimé à 21 milliards de dollars, contre 19,5 milliards en 2011. PaidContent a eu accès aux données de l'entreprise et a analysé les évolutions du marché de l'e-book dans le reste du monde. Si les ventes globales de livres en Amérique du Nord sembleront stagner, avec 1,1% de croissance entre 2011 et 2012, la part de l'e-book augmentera rapidement jusqu'en 2013, compensant le déclin des ventes de livres papier. Selon PwC, aux Etats-Unis "environ 30% des adultes détiennent un appareil de lecture portable (type liseuse ou tablette) au premier quadrimestre de 2012"."

"Commandée par The Bookseller et menée par Voxburner auprès de 900 jeunes de 16 à 24 ans, une nouvelle enquête présente les habitudes de lecture de la jeunesse au Royaume-Uni. L'étude montre d'abord que les livres imprimés sont préférés aux livres électroniques à hauteur de 73%. 31% des jeunes interrogés affirment même ne jamais acheter d'e-books. D'après Luke Mitchell, directeur de Voxburner, une raison à cela pourrait être le coût des e-books jugé trop élevé : "Lors de notre enquête, 70% des jeunes interrogés ont dit que 6,99 £ était un prix raisonnable à payer pour un livre de poche, mais seulement 10% étaient prêts à dépenser autant pour un e-book". Pour 43% des jeunes un e-book devrait coûter moins de 3,80 €. Parmi les jeunes qui ont lu des livres électroniques, 39% utilisent une liseuse, 37% optent pour leurs smartphones et 36% préfèrent lire sur tablette. L'étude montre également que les jeunes sont "aussi intéressés et investis dans les livres que par le passé". Ainsi 81% d'entre eux utilisent leur propre argent pour acheter des livres. Amazon est le fournisseur préféré (75%) mais les librairies le talonnent de près (73%). Parmi les répondants, 44% fréquentent régulièrement une bibliothèque de lecture publique et 66% une bibliothèque d'étude. Plus de la moitié des jeunes (53%) affirment qu'ils emprunteraient des livres électroniques dans les bibliothèques publiques s'ils étaient facilement accessibles."

"When John Ashbery, the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet, first learned that the digital editions of his poetry looked nothing like the print version, he was stunned. There were no line breaks, and the stanzas had been jammed together into a block of text that looked like prose. The careful architecture of his poems had been leveled. He complained to his publisher, Ecco, and those four e-books were immediately withdrawn. That was three years ago, and digital publishing has evolved a lot since then. Publishers can now create e-books that better preserve a poet's meticulous formatting. So when Open Road Media, a digital publishing company, approached Mr. Ashbery about creating electronic versions of his books, he decided to give it another chance."

"It's beach time, and you've probably already scanned a hundred lists of summer reads. Sadly overlooked is that other crucial literary category: the summer non-read, the book that you pick up, all full of ambition, at the beginning of June and put away, the bookmark now and forever halfway through chapter 1, on Labor Day. The classic of this genre is Stephen Hawking's "A Brief History of Time," widely called "the most unread book of all time." How can we find today's greatest non-reads? Amazon's "Popular Highlights" feature provides one quick and dirty measure. Every book's Kindle page lists the five passages most highlighted by readers. If every reader is getting to the end, those highlights could be scattered throughout the length of the book. If nobody has made it past the introduction, the popular highlights will be clustered at the beginning."

"Créé par l'agence brésilienne FCB, Trip Book Smiles propose un concept innovant de lecture numérique. Equipée d'un GPS, cette liseuse d'e-books s'adapte à l'endroit où le lecteur se trouve. En effet, le texte de l'e-book change en fonction de la position géographique et s'adapte au décor et à l'environnement de la ville où le lecteur le consulte. Vous commencez une histoire sur votre lieu de vacances, l'histoire de votre roman s'y déroule ; de retour de vacances, le récit se sera adapté et les personnages se trouveront dans le décor que vous venez de rejoindre !"

"My dream bookstore would sell browser-based, open, standardized, interoperable, web-enabled ebooks. But right now, customers don't know they want that. It may be that Amazon is building towards some of these features (without the ISO and W3C standards, of course, because they don't want a platform that makes it easier for customers to buy their books at other stores). Amazon is a world unto itself. And customers seem to like it that way. [...] Another thing is that we were 20-odd bookish people in the room (with more watching via webcam). And we couldn't figure it out. We are insiders - collectively, there must have been hundreds of years of experience in the book business sitting around that table. As with most cases of disruption, it isn't going to happen from inside. But the third thing I realized is that Jeff Bezos was "not a book person". He may love books, but until he founded Amazon, he didn't work in the industry. Now he actually is in the industry, and has been for 20 years. He's one of us. If a major disruption is not going to happen from inside, then "inside" includes Amazon - and any major disruption by definition will disrupt Amazon too."

"Lancé par la Haute École de gestion de Genève, en partenariat avec l'enssib, la bibliothèque de l'UNIGE (Université de Genève) et la CLP (Communauté de travail des bibliothèques suisses de lecture publique), le projet de recherche Calliopê.ch s'est déroulé entre janvier 2014 et juin 2015. Cette étude visait à analyser « la réception et l'usage de dispositifs mobiles de lecture (…) en bibliothèque, de manière à formuler des préconisations sur la mise en place d'une offre numérique globale ». Se basant sur les résultats d'une enquête en ligne et les retours d'expériences d'usagers, le projet a abouti à l'élaboration des préconisations suivantes : Proposer des dispositifs de lecture pré-chargés. Proposer des accès personnalisés aux livres numériques. Proposer des listes d'e-books téléchargeables. Informer sur les e-books. Former et encourager l'auto-formation des usagers à l'utilisation des livres numériques. Communiquer efficacement sur les e-books."

"Un juge fédéral américain balaye d'un revers de main le droit de propriété des auteurs dans l'affaire Google Books et donne raison à Google. Google vient de remporter une grande victoire aux Etats-Unis devant les tribunaux américains sur l'affaire qui l'oppose aux auteurs à propos du projet Google Books. La firme de Mountain View avait numérisé des livres sans la permission des ayants droits. Le juge fédéral Denny Chin a rejeté la demande de l'ouverture d'un procès par un groupe d'auteurs de l'Authors Guilde pour violation de la loi sur le copyright. Le juge salue les efforts de numérisation des livres de la part de Google. Selon lui, le fait de montrer des extraits de livres dans le moteur de recherche tombe sous la règle « Fair Use ». "

"Ocean, Google Print, Google Book Search, Google Books Library Project, Google Books, Google Editions, Google Livres, ... Autant de noms que d'étapes par lesquelles Google est passée pour concevoir, prospecter, discuter, numériser, mettre en ligne et faire évoluer son offre bibliothèque mondiale en ligne avant de concrétiser son projet de maison d'édition numérique. Un projet ayant pour objectif, selon son créateur, d'organiser l'information dans le monde et de la rendre universellement accessible et utile."