More E-Book Quickies

I collected quite a little collection of E-Book stories this week. They include an interesting one on Joseph Lieberman’s book, \”In Praise of Public Life\”.

Welcome to the future!

I collected quite a little collection of E-Book stories this week. They include an interesting one on Joseph Lieberman’s book, \”In Praise of Public Life\”.

Welcome to the future!Read a Good E-Textbook Lately?
by Kendra Mayfield


Instead of standing in campus bookstore lines, lugging heavy texts to class, or copying lecture notes at the library, students can store volumes of electronic coursework in their back pocket or on their desktop computer. And they can do it without ever leaving their dorm room.


E-Publishing Empire Strikes Back
Reacting to skeptical comments by a print-on-demand publisher, electronic publishers released sales figures, some for the first time.
The release of the figures came after Xlibris CEO John Feldcamp was quoted in the July 27 Industry Standard, saying \”There are only eight people in the country buying e-books, and they\’re all CEOs of e-book companies.\”


\”Given that printed books have been around for 600 years,\” said Rance, \”and e-books have barely registered on the consumer radar yet, I think we\’re doing OK.\”


Prospective Veep\’s E-Book

The day after Al Gore announced the identity of his running mate, Joseph Lieberman’s book, In Praise of Public Life, was sold out in many books stores across the country. But the e-book version is available in an unlimited supply.


\”This is a great example of how timely and functional the e-book model is,\” said Adam Rothberg of Simon and Schuster.


The Emerging Role of E-Books

Current e-book hype notwithstanding, there are still many purposes for which they are not the right solution. From board books for toddlers to coffee- table books for adults, e-books are unlikely to unseat print completely as the format of choice. But there are also clearly places where they do fit and are increasingly likely to replace print books.


The Future of E-Textbooks

Currently, there are textbooks available on CD-ROM. But the big change will come in early 2001 when students start using their laptops to read interactive Web-based textbooks enhanced with multimedia content surrounded by tools for communication and study.

In three studies, Peter Navarro, a professor of economics and public policy at the University of California Irvine gave electronic textbooks a high grade. His findings show that students in a fully interactive, multimedia cyber course performed as well or better than a control group in the traditional lecture hall.

Napsterized Audio Books May Be Publishing\’s Next Big Headache

\’\’This type of thing is starting to happen a lot,\’\’ says Peter Costanzo, director of online marketing for Random House Audio Publishing Group, which releases both books in the audio format.


Although the audio book business is a two billion dollar-a-year industry, publishers have not yet fully embraced the implications of such piracy. According to an April 1999 study by the Audio Publishers Association, the average audio book \’\’reader\’\’ is married, college-educated and over 40. \’\’I\’m not sure our readers are technologically savvy enough to (pirate material),\’\’ Constanzo says.