The Word “Book” Now Up For Grabs

In fact, all things bookish are about to change, according to Penguin’s CEO John Makinson.

Here I sit (so Dec. ’09) still debating Nook or Kindle when along comes the iPad. Will one publisher get cozy with just one particular digital reader? It seems so, and that’s unfortunate for the consumer. Penguin is latching onto the iPad, due for release April 3rd. This week Makinson teased the digital media world with a preview of some of the interactive ebooks it will be publishing. This worries me.

Currently, I and millions of other bibliophiles own countless books that “do” one thing. Well, okay, I take it back. They don’t actually do anything. They are done unto. To think that I may wish my books to someday perform amazing feats that my (future) digital reader can’t facilitate…I can’t even go there yet. Nevertheless, I believe I’m going to want one sooner than the dust settles in the skirmish between publishers, writers, available technology, and booksellers.

Amazon, publicly fuming over Macmillan raising its ebook prices, removed the blue Buy button from all of Macmillan’s available titles — even the  hard copies. In an agreement which seems to satisfy publishers, who learned from the TV and music industries’ pricing frustrations with itunes, and to benefit Apple, to the extent that the iPad/iBookstore will be able to compete with the favored Kindle/Amazon products, the Internet behemoth reluctantly announced the higher prices.

I also read last year that a woman was enjoying a 19th century classic on her Kindle when the ebook suddenly vanished. Her oh-so-readable, indistinguishable-from-paper screen simply went blank. Apparently there had occurred some unsettle-able copyright dispute over the version she was reading, in which the two parties decided then and there to snatch it right out from beneath the unsuspecting, rather hip bluestocking’s nose, poor thing. Can you believe it? The original was written over 100 years ago; you would think the publisher and the bookseller could come to some civilized agreement without disrupting their customer’s leisure — post-purchase, no less!

Also take into account the significant difference between self publishing an ebook vs. [insert name of large publishing house here] publishing your ebook at a higher price (thriller writer J.A. Konrath reveals his various ebook income rates over the last year in this interesting blog post), and you begin to get the idea that the ebook situation is far from settled.

Yet, in spite of all this disgruntlement, I want to play. Never mind reading. (Please Lord, let there always be books made of paper and glue and ink, so that we flighty and distracted types may never lose the one absorbing hobby that provides quietude and focus.)

Finally, if you’re like me, you’re wondering how your small business could apply this medium. Cookbooks, book clubs, how-to books, prayer books, travel guides, field guides, picture books: Oh my.

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