Archive - March 14, 2012

This piece was in the New York Times on March 6, 2012. It is a fascinating look at what the “next new wave” (for prose) will be. • Miniature E-Books Let Journalists Stretch Legs By Dwight Garner The Kindle Single is not a promising name. It sounds like a new kind of prefabricated fire log, or a type of person you might meet on the dating service eHarmony – perhaps a lonely independent bookstore owner put out of business by Amazon.com. Here’s what Kindle Singles actually are: probably the best reason to buy an e-reader in the first place. They’re works of long-form journalism that seek out that sweet spot between magazine articles and hardcover books. Amazon calls them “compelling ideas expressed at their natural length.” If I didn’t loathe the word “compelling,” I’d think that wasn’t a half-bad slogan. I recently sat down and read 15 of these boutique minibooks. . . .

I got this from mediabistro: eBook sales increased 17% in 2011 according to research from R.R. Bowker. In a presentation at the Digital Book World conference this week, Kelly Gallagher, VP, publishing services at R.R. Bowker, shared this data. Interestingly, 74% of book buyers have never bought an eBook, though 14% of these people own either a tablet or an eReader. “They may have gotten them as a gift, but haven’t used them yet,” said Gallagher. According to Gallagher, eBook sales vary across genre. Fiction carried eBook sales representing 26% of eBook sales in the third quarter of 2011. Cookbooks on the other hand only represented about 3%. Interestingly, about a third of buyers are driving about two thirds of overall purchases. These power readers buy at least 4 books a month. “We’ve got to keep our eyes on these folks if we want to see the growth,” said Gallagher. Gallagher said . . .