Since then, we conducted a Q&A with Lansdale about the e-reading trend, and what it means to authors.

Lansdale says he’s never done anything directly to e-book in the past, though much of his back list has moved to e-book.

He says he’s not sure of the advantages of going e-book only, but plans to try it and see.

“I think that some people are reading only e-books, and if you want to be discovered by new readers, and stay in the game, e-books have to be a serious consideration,” Lansdale tells WebProNews. “I prefer hard copies, and hope everything of mine will eventually be contained that way, but I do want to experiment and see if there’s a different market out there.”

“I’ve stayed in the game by not only trying to write as well as possible, but trying to keep up with the changes in the industry,” he continues. “The pulps aren’t coming back, and soon paperbacks will be gone, and they won’t, in any way that matters, come back either.”

“At least not the lower level paperbacks,” he adds. “I think the larger style paperback, like VINTAGE books uses will be around for awhile.”

Given his lack of experience in going e-book only, he says he can’t speak to how well they help authors reach new audiences. “But it looks to me that they can be an aid, and for some writers, a career,” he says. “Some writers seem to speak to that medium more than others. I’m not sure why that is. It’s like some writers did well in hardback, not paper, or in limited editions, and some it was just the opposite. It’s like certain actors who can command great attention on TV, but get lost in film.”

When asked if he reads e-books, Lansdale tells us he’s read three (he uses a Nook rather than a Kindle).

“I don’t prefer it, but I’m sure I’ll read others in time,” he says of e-books. “My wife has read a few e-books. It seems nice for trips. I think the advantage to these kind of devices is to the casual reader who doesn’t keep books, or who doesn’t have room to store books.”

“I think books are going to be around,” he says. “Too many people like them, and there will be new readers who like them as well. But its slice of the market will become smaller. In some ways, I think more people are reading because of e-books, and that’s a good thing. These are people who don’t go to bookstores, but love to look through listings on their computer and load up without having to leave their house.”

People like to share good books with their friends. When asked about this thoughts on this in relation to the e-book format, he says, “The problem with sharing an e-book is that it may be too easy to copy. Where someone could loan a book around, this way they can really loan a book, cutting into a writer’s sales. This will change writing, how it’s done, and what writers get paid. Which for many isn’t that much to begin with. It has its negatives.”

In a recent Facebook update, Lansdale said, “I think there will always be real books, but they are going to be a smaller, and probably more collector type of market. Some publishers are even considering moving that way more and more, so this could be good for small presses, as far as real books go.”

When asked more about this, Lansdale tells WebProNews, “I just think the market will shrink, but it will become more valuable to small presses who will now have a market for those who want this kind of book, especially if the main houses limit their number of paper books.”

“I also think it’s obvious that small presses don’t have to make the large amounts of money big publishers do to survive,” he continues. “I think in fact this situation will cause their markets to grow. What led to the e-book isn’t just technology, its greed. Book companies didn’t just want to make a profit anymore, they wanted to make vast fortunes. They wanted fewer writers and more best sellers. They turned books from common entertainment to luxury entertainment.”

“The same has been done with movies and comics,” he says. “Too high a price for people to afford. This opened the door for cheaper books. I don’t think there has ever been enough readers to sustain the kinds of sales these companies needed, but what’s odd, is, as I said earlier, I think readership is growing because of accessibility. It’s like the paperback revolution which changed everything in the last century.”

So how long will it be until e-book reading is more common than print book reading?

“I have no idea how long it will be,” Lansdale admits. “Some of it is fad, and it will ebb and flow, and then it’ll find its balance. It is happening fast, though.”

Meanwhile, Lansdale appears to be embracing the e-book market more than ever, offering his previous writings in the format, including all of the “Hap and Leonard” books, which he said in a Facebook update today are available from Vintage Books, a division of Random House.

He also has several titles available in the Kindle Lending Library, which can be read for free by Amazon Prime members. One of them is The Nightrunners – my first experience with Lansdale’s writing, and the one that got me hooked on his work.

Source: booksofhorror.com via Chris on Pinterest

Visit Joe’s site here.

Still, people are creatures of habit, and change doesn’t always come easy. Did you know that many feared the invention of the printing press? Previous to the press, books were unique hand-written works of art which were most commonly read aloud in performances and sermons.

The Bible was the first “pressed” book. It was most commonly read and interpreted by religious figures and scholars. A predominant fear of its mass production was that the layman would begin to consume and interpret its meaning without the guidience of church officials and draw their own conclusion about the content. Not good as far as the church saw it.

Regardless, books became common enough that they were not just for public performance or religeous sermon any more. Everyone knows books are for everyone and are an excepted way to pass on knowledge, learn facts, document history, and entertain us. More recently, we have the evolution of the book, the e-book, and some have anxiety about its role in society.

Let’s look at what book lover’s are thinking on both sides of the coin: For and against e-books domination of the market.

Pros For E-Books:

1). Real books are heavy and cumbersome. Often it is hard for them to stay open on their own and readers have to fidget with them to get comfortable.

2). Real books are expensive. Not only for consumers but also to manufacturers. The books have to be printed, packaged, and distributed. These processes consume materials and resources not to mention what the consumer has to go through to get it from the retailer.

3). Real books can easily be lost or damage. While an e-reader is expensive at first, many books can be read and saved on the device. Even if the reader was damaged, the contents of the publication can be accessed by a replacement reader more easily than a water damaged box of books can be replaced.

4). An e-reader offers much that a book cannot. A dictionary, a clock, internet access, the list goes on. A book is just a book. It has more uses than just reading however; those uses are relatively limited.

5). Privacy. People cannot see what book you are reading. In fact, you can have one e-reader and be reading several books at once. also, if your e-reader is password protected, no one else can even open your book.

Pros for Real Books:

1). A physical book is yours to own and use as you see fit. Make notes in the margins, write your name in it, display it on your bookshelf, cut out pictures from there pages, ect. You own the book.

2). You can loan a book in physical form and not have to worry about infringement of any kind on the authors intellectual property or right to be payed. Physical books allow you to “by hand” pass on the information inside of it and share the experience with others.

3). Physical books offer an experience that extends to more senses than just sight. Well worn books especially might have this effect. The smell, feel, weight of a book offer a feast to more of the senses. Perhaps the pictures offer more in physical print than those of digital format.

4). A book is a single purpose object. You won’t be distracted by clocks, software updates, or other tasks you can perform on the book. For those hoping to escape reality for awhile and enjoy a good book, this may come as a comfort.

5). A book can be purchased used. Used books offer an opportunity to access material at a discounted cost. Digital versions remain pristine forever and may never be discounted or the opposite, disappear from servers altogether. This could be a disadvantage for readers of older publications.

Conclusion:

So a lot of what fans are saying about the pros and cons of e-books are in direct opposition of one another. I guess it really just comes down to what you need the publication for, where you plan to read it, and what kind of budget you’re on. The same debate could take place for digital versus cd or record format music. A lot of hardcore music lovers still swear by the record for sound quality and overall listening experience.

Joe LansdaleAbout the Hap and Leonard book I’m planning. It’ll be shorter than a usual book, but I’m going to try it at ebooks first, but I’m not ruling out print. But, books are changing, and both formats are valid, even if I prefer the real books. I think there will always be real books, but they are going to be a smaller, and probably more collector type of market. Some publishers are even considering moving that way more and more, so this could be good for small presses, as far as real books go. 17 hours ago · 55 likes · 38 comments

Joe LansdaleOkay, there will be a hard back and a limited of the new Hap and Leonard book when I do it. Just made plans with a publisher. But it will be small press. Again, it will be a short book. Longer than HYENAS and the forthcoming DEAD AIM, but not a full length novel. 2 hours ago · 38 likes · 13 comments

Original Article: Popular (at least cult following-wise) author Joe Lansdale said in a Facebook status update this morning that he is considering an e-book-only format for his next “Hap and Leonard” novel.

Joe LansdaleI’m thinking of a Hap and Leonard novel done only in E Books, at least originally. 1 hour ago · 51 likes · 38 comments

Hap and Leonard are a couple of characters that Lansdale has based a number of his works around. They are always getting into some fun (and often bloody) adventures that are usually so bizarre that to try to describe them here would really not do them justice. But they are certainly the typical Lansdale fare, if there is such a thing. There’s really nothing typical about Lansdale’s writing, which is a big part of what makes it so fun to read.

If you’re not familiar with any of his writing, perhaps you’ll recognize the film Bubba Ho-Tep, which is based on one of his short stories. It’s about Elvis Presley’s adventure in a nursing home with an African American fellow who believes he’s John F. Kennedy, and they have to team up to fight a mummy. This may sound absurd, but Lansdale has a knack for making the absurd not only entertaining, but less absurd – another trait that is often on display in his writing.

Lansdale’s fans have already expressed mixed reaction to his e-book-only decision, in the comments on his update. The reactions range from “that’s awesome” to “no, not e-book only!”. However, there are quite a few indicating that this will be a reason for them to actually buy a Kindle or other e-reading device.

Really, this is a prime example of how authors can push the e-reader industry even further (as if it needs any help). Not only is Lansdale putting out a book e-book-only, he’s doing so with a chapter in an established series, which is a fan favorite.

Other Hap and Leonard stories include:

Savage Season (1990)
Mucho Mojo (1994)
Two-Bear Mambo (1995)
Bad Chili (1997)
Rumble Tumble (1998)
Veil’s Visit (1999)
Captains Outrageous (2001)
Vanilla Ride (2009)
Devil Red (2011)
Hyenas: a Hap and Leonard Novella (2011)

If you haven’t read any of Lansdale’s work, and you liked to be entertained (and don’t have a weak stomach), do yourself a favor and start digging into his works.

Now it looks like positive buzz isn’t the only reaction Apple has gotten to the announcement. According to Global Equity Research (via AllThingsD) Apple sold 350,000 textbooks in the three days following the announcement. The report also showed upwards of 90,000 downloads of iBooks Author.

Though these numbers could be a surge due to the newness of the product, if they remain consistent it could be a major boon both to Apple and to textbook publishers, as well as to education in general. Much depends on Apple’s ability to persuade schools to adopt their textbook program, though. It will be interesting to see how this progresses in the coming months and years. The timing of Apple’s announcement is helpful, however, as it gives school boards and teachers plenty of time to weigh implementation before the beginning of the 2012-2013 school year.

But after is was revealed that since the Kindle Fire costs just a little over $200 to make and sells for only $199, Amazon is actually losing a few bucks on each sale ($2 to $3), some began to wonder about the profitability of the tablet. Could Amazon’s long-term strategy of recouping these losses with e-book, app, and video sales turn the Fire into a highly profitable venture?

According to RBC Capital analyst Ross Sandler, Amazon’s Kindle Fire is probably more profitable than you think.

Here’s what he had to say in an research note:

Our assumption is that AMZN could sell 3-4 million Kindle Fire units in Q4, and that those units are accretive to company-average operating margin within the first six months of ownership. Our analysis assigns a cumulative lifetime operating income per unit of $136, with a cumulative operating margin of over 20%. We believe these insights could ease some investor concerns around operating margin compression per Kindle Fire unit in 2012, which bodes well for Amazon shares.

It appears as though the apps, e-books and even Amazon Prime membership sales will work generate a not-to-shabby profit for Amazon.

Their research found that over 80% of Kindle Fire users used it to purchase e-books, and that’s one of the first things they do with the device. 58% of users reported buying at least three e-books within 15-60 days of purchase. If each user buys 5 e-books per quarter at $10 a piece (estimates), that would be $15 in e-book revenue each quarter.

As far as apps go, 66% said that they had bought at least one app and 41% bought at least three. If you assume three app purchases each quarter, you can expect $9 in ad revenue per user per quarter.

After you tack on things like videos, subscriptions, and the Amazon.com purchase every now and then (51% increased those purchases because of owning a Fire), you can see how the Kindle Fire is projected to be proiftable during its lifetime.

It had previously been announced that the Steve Jobs biography was the top selling print book of 2011, but of course that list didn’t take into account Kindle sales. According to Amazon, even when you factor in e-books, Isaacson’s book still takes the top spot.

“After the year of recommending books to our customers, it’s always fun to see what books really resonated with them,” said Chris Schluep, Senior Editor of Books, Amazon.com. “We chose ‘Steve Jobs’ as one of the Top 10 best books of the year, and even though it was published in October, the sales have been phenomenal in both formats. And we’re really excited that Kindle Direct Publishing authors have taken two of the top spots this year for book sales overall.”

Those “Kindle Direct Publishing” books that he mentions are “The Mill River Recluse” and “The Abbey,” which were able to crack the top 10 overall bestseller list without any print sales – only Kindle sales.

Here’s the complete list:

1. “Steve Jobs” by Walter Isaacson
2. “Bossypants” by Tina Fey
3. “A Stolen Life” by Jaycee Dugard
4. “The Mill River Recluse” by Darcie Chan
5. “In the Garden of the Beasts” by Erik Larson
6. “A Dance with Dragons” by George R.R. Martin
7. “The Paris Wife” by Paula McLain
8. “The Litigators” by John Grisham
9. “The Abbey” by Chris Culver
10. “Inheritance (The Inheritance Cycle)” by Christopher Paolini

Amazon also has most in-depth best-of lists including the 100 best-selling print books of the year and the 100 best-selling Kindle books of the year.

Amazon has also released an editorial list of the “best” books of the year. Topping that list in “The Art of Fielding” by Chad Harbach. They describe it as “confident, intimate, unpredictable, and wholly memorable.”

“Steve Jobs” released on October 24th. It is currently the second best-selling print book and 14th best-selling Kindle book in the month of December. It has been in the Amazon top 100 for 94 days.

The specific focus of the investigation will be the agreements between the publishing groups and Apple, and on the companies’ business practices, both of which the Commission suspects of being designed to smother competition. To that end, the Commission initiated investigative proceedings in March by conducting unannounced inspections of several of the companies named. The British Office of Fair Trade had been conducting its own inquiry in parallel with that of the EC, but has since concluded that investigation in order to collaborate with the Commission’s probe.

The Commission’s press release is silent on one important point: it does not say how, specifically, the companies are suspected of violating antitrust laws. The Commission gives no hint as yet to which practices or agreements cause concern. The Commission was also careful to point out that the opening of this investigation does not constitute a judgment of guilt on any of the involved companies, only that the Commission is now making this investigation a priority.

Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal has published brief statements from the Pearson Group (owners of Penguin), HarperCollins, and Verlagsgruppe Georg von Holtzbrinch, all denying any wrongdoing and pledging to cooperate fully with the investigation.

The Spanish Kindle Store contains most of the bestsellers from Spain – both fiction and non-fiction. Amazon also boasts that the store has the most complete selection of Catalan, Basque, and Galician titles around.

“We are excited to introduce the new Spanish Kindle Store which features the most best sellers in Spain, the leading selection of titles in Catalan, Basque and Galician and also includes unique and exclusive titles from Rosa Montero,” said Gordon Willoughby, Director, EU Kindle. “Kindle is already the best-selling e-reader in the world. It comes with an electronic ink display that reads like real paper, with no glare, even in bright daylight and it offers the convenience of downloading books in less than 60 seconds. Kindle is so small and light that it disappears in your hands, which is just what you want when you are reading a great story like ‘El puente de los asesinos,’ by Arturo Pérez-Reverte.

“El Puente de los asesinos,” one of Arturo Pérez-Reverte’s Captain Alatriste novels, will run readers 9.49 Euros or about $13.

The Spanish Kindle Store’s vast selection of content in a wide range of categories includes popular titles from best-selling authors such as Mario Vargas Llosa, Julia Navarro and Carlos Ruiz Zafón, as well as short form content from El País and La Vanguardia, uniquely available on Kindle. In addition, the store will launch with three exclusive self-published books from award-winning author and journalist Rosa Montero, using Kindle Direct Publishing.

Amazon also unveiled the first Spanish language Kindle, which is available for 99EUR (about $133).

¡Lee!

Well, if you have an Amazon Kindle and/or, are holding out for the Kindle Fire, and are a member of the Amazon Prime service, you’ll soon be able to borrow e-books instead of making a full purchase. The service is called the Kindle Owner’s Lending Library and it does pretty much what it says. If you’re a member of Amazon Prime and have a Kindle — and only a Kindle, no other tablet devices apply — you’ll be allowed to take part in the book-borrowing service, one that, according to the Wall Street Journal, has some publishers balking at Amazon’s book-lending strategy.

Apparently, only libraries are “allowed” to lend books, at least in the eyes of the publishers at odds with Amazon’s new service. Before that, however, here’s a little more information about Amazon’s Lending Library:

Kindle owners can now choose from thousands of books to borrow for free, including over 100 current and former New York Times Bestsellers — as frequently as a book a month, with no due dates. No other e-reader or ebook store offers such a service.

Now for the between the lines information: Even though other tablets can open Kindle-formatted e-books, they will not be able to do so with the books being lent out. These borrowed files can only be viewed on a Kindle device. The WSJ article clarifies:

The new program, called Kindle Owners’ Lending Library, cannot be accessed via apps on other devices, which means it won’t work on Apple Inc.’s iPad or iPhone, even though people can read Kindle books on both devices. This restriction is intended to drive Kindle device sales, says Amazon.

As Amazon’s introductory text indicates, those who take part in the Kindle Owner’s Lending Library service will only be able to borrow one book at a time, and only one book per month.

Keep that in mind, speed readers.

To access the lending library, potential users have to be enrolled in Amazon Prime, which costs $79 a year. Granted, the Prime membership gives customers access to more than just e-books to borrow — Prime members get special shipping rates and access to Amazon’s library of streaming movies and TV shows — but you still have to pay to play in Amazon’s digital lending library. For those who are interested in taking advantage of the service, Amazon has a pictorial how-to regarding the acquisition of new titles:

Regarding the publisher backlash towards Amazon’s e-book lending service, the WSJ has more:

None of the six largest publishers in the U.S. is participating. Several senior publishing executives said recently they were concerned that a digital-lending program of the sort contemplated by Amazon would harm future sales of their older titles or damage ties to other book retailers.

Apparently, I’m being naive because I’m having a hard time seeing how increased exposure to these products is a bad thing. What if someone like the book/author enough to actually purchase the work(s) related to the e-book being borrowed? Does that hurt future sales or are these publishers worried that once people start borrowing, their desire to own will completely go away?

Whatever the case, Amazon’s Kindle Lending Library is now live, but don’t forget about the Amazon Prime membership, which is also a requirement.

“Starting today, millions of Kindle customers can borrow Kindle books from their local libraries,” said Jay Marine, Director, Amazon Kindle. “Libraries are a critical part of our communities and we’re excited to be making Kindle books available at more than 11,000 local libraries around the country. We’re even doing a little extra here – normally, making margin notes in library books is a big no-no. But we’re fixing this by extending our Whispersync technology to library books, so your notes, highlights and bookmarks are always backed up and available the next time you check out the book or if you decide to buy the book.”

The following Kindle book features apply to library check-outs:

• Whispersync technology wirelessly sync your books, notes, highlights, and last page read across Kindle and free Kindle reading apps
• Real Page Numbers let you easily reference passages with page numbers that correspond to actual print editions
• Facebook and Twitter integration makes it easy to share favorite passages with your social networks
• Popular Highlights show you what our community of millions of Kindle readers think are the most interesting passages in your books
• Public Notes allow you to share your notes and see what others are saying about Kindle books

“This is a welcome day for Kindle users in libraries everywhere and especially our Kindle users here at The Seattle Public Library,” said Marcellus Turner, city librarian for The Seattle Public Library. “We’re thrilled that Amazon is offering such a new approach to library ebooks that enhances the reader experience.”

Last month, Amazon launched an HTML5 web app called Kindle Cloud Reader, which is essentially a web-based version of the Kindle reader, so you can read the books on the web.

Amazon is expected to launch a Netflix-style book service as part of Amazon prime. Members would reportedly have access to a library of older titles as part of the $79 a year membership.

This month, Amazon also started pushing AmazonLocal deals to Kindle devices.