Quotation for the Week of July 25

"Time spent with cats is never wasted."
-- Colette

Clash of the Titans?

Random House, the country's biggest trade publisher, announced today that it will no do more English-language business with the Wylie Agency. This parting of ways was brought on by Wylie's decision to launch an e-book line through Amazon alone.

At the heart of this dispute are e-rights to books that were published before e-rights became an issue.

Kindle Nation Daily has a take on this that's well worth the reading.

According to them: "Random House, which owns the print rights to many of the newly published ebooks, sent a letter last December to literary agents claimed that it owned digital rights to the entire Random House print catalog even if those rights weren't specified in the publisher's contract. While that sounded like a warning salvo from Random House foreshadowing litigation against authors and agents' disaggregation efforts concerning ebook rights, the publisher has yet to file any lawsuits and has instead focused on negotiating agreements with agents to publish backlist titles in digital form."

Hmm. Asserting ownership of unspecified e-rights? Sounds like the e-version of a land grab to me.

So, not exactly a huge surprise that Random House hasn't filed suit and is focusing on negotiating agreements on e-rights (after the fact).

Wylie's move has been called "visionary" by other literary agents. To quote Steve Ross, a former publisher who now works as an agent with Abrams Artists Agency, "As e-book sales continue to grow and platform and distribution options continue to evolve, the role of the agent as a provider of full service to their clients is going to have to evolve with it."

Uh, yeah, I'd think so.

As for Amazon, what else could you consider this except a smart business decision?

UPDATE: Here's Amazon's press release about this. Notice the slightly different spin.

You're Invited to an Ebook Launch

In case you don't read my other blog, My Life on the Mid-List, I just wanted to inform you all that I'll be having an Amazon book launch for my ebook short story collection. The book is called FIVE UNEASY PIECES and you're hereby invited to attend. The launch starts tomorrow (July 20, 2010) and will be an all-day online event (all-day for me, anyway lol).
BTW, if the ebook hits #1 in the Kindle Store before the end of the day tomorrow, there will be a random drawing to give away prizes to one lucky winner.
If you're interested, just click here for details about the launch, the prizes and how to enter the random drawing.
Then feel free to follow along as I post the book's rank every hour on Facebook and Twitter (look for the hashtag #5UP), as well as mention significant developments on my other blog.
And, with any luck, the book's launch will go something like this ...

Thanks! Hope to see you.

Quotation for the Week of July 18

"If all the world's a stage, I want to operate the trap door."
-- Paul Beatty

Death to the Dedicated E-Reader?

Well, despite the amazing success some authors are having selling ebooks for Kindle, at least one person (and probably more) is predicting that dedicated e-readers are going to be history soon. In fact, the article says they'll be gone in a year, if not sooner. Well, good heavens.

Part of the reason is that whatever a dedicated e-reader can do, the Apple iPad can apparently do better (or so this writer says), plus it does much more.

Now, having said that, the writer does acknowledge the matter of cost. On this point, the article states:

"Of course, an iPad is expensive. In fact, it's a lot more expensive. The cheapest iPad is $499 compared to the new Nook's bottom line of $149 and the Kindle's lowest priced model is now $189. But, it's not going to stay that way. Historically, Apple drops the price of its earlier models when it introduces a new one."

Along with that, Borders is setting up its e-bookstore so the downloads offered are "device neutral," i.e., capable of being read on any device. By doing so, Borders hopes to secure "about a 17 percent eBook market share by this time next year."

The Christian Science Monitor poses the question: can Borders do it? While Borders may be late getting into the game, is it better late than never?

I don't know, but Borders' recent ebook giveaways may help.

Whatever happens, I have to agree with Paul Levine when he says "move over Gutenberg!"

Quotation for the Week of July 11

"If I had to live my life again, I'd make the same mistakes, only sooner."
-- Tallulah Bankhead

E-Readers and Apps: Gloves Off Competition

For a while now, things have been heating up on the e-reader front. However, now they're getting red hot. When Barnes & Noble announced it would drop the price of its Nook reader device below $200, Amazon responded by undercutting them.

Both of them, of course, are reacting to the threat the iPad poses. Even so, what's to worry? Both companies have iPad apps for their ebooks. However, Kindle and Nook apps are just two of many.

Hey, even Borders is trying to get in on the act with its Kobo reader.

Meanwhile, Sony is lagging behind the B&N and Amazon behemoths. And the even smaller fry are suffering more.

Even so, PocketBook has come out with its own line of e-readers (one of which is priced under $200).

And, if you think that's a great deal, then check out Books-A-Million. Giving away an e-reader a day throughout July. Talk about competitive.

Quotation for the Week of July 4

"Hard work never killed anybody, but why take a chance?"
-- Edgar Bergen

Be on the Lookout for B&N's PubIt!

A word to the wise for all you ebook authors. Be looking out for Barnes & Noble's launch this summer of the ebook publishing platform called PubIt! (Yes, the exclamation mark is part of the name.)

As many of you probably know, B&N announced its intent to provide a digital publishing platform similar to that of Amazon's not so long ago. I don't know about you, but I await this with eager anticipation.

Not only will PubIt! provide yet another means to create and distribute ebooks, but it will provide competition to Amazon -- with the clout of B&N behind it. This clout should be considerable.

Why? Well, apart from the fact that B&N is (self-described as) the world's #1 bookstore and reportedly holds 20% of the ebook market, ebooks on PubIt! will be readable on a wide variety of devices. (Matching Amazon's availability for Kindle and through apps for other devices.)

According to PubIt!'s FAQs, "Customers will be able to read your eBooks on hundreds of devices, including NOOK by Barnes & Noble, PC, Mac®, iPad(TM), iPhone®, BlackBerry®, and more."

So, even if Amazon has a leg up on B&N in the e-reader device department, if the NOOK should catch on (not to mention B&N's apps for all those other devices), things could get really interesting.