Ebooks, Publishers, Authors, and Vendors

"Walmart to stop selling Kindles as Amazon threat grows"
"Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is phasing out the sale of Amazon.com's Kindle Fire tablet and Kindle e-readers, the second major retailer to stop offering the items in six months."

Mines the recent news that Walmart has pulled Kindles from its shelves does not startle most as Target removed them earlier.
Notes that Walmart sites the need to provide low priced products, while maintaining a profit margin at the same time, the reality does not lie far below the surface. Amazon is strong competition.  Walmart continues to sell similar products from Apple, Sony, and, most revealing, Barnes and Noble.
Interested? Click the text or image to read on.
Source is The Christian Science Monitor.
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"Print books preferred to iPad ebooks by both parents and kids in survey"
"Despite their convenience, not everyone prefers ebooks to print, and a new survey offers further evidence that traditional books may not be going away so soon. "

Mines the survey performed by the Joan Ganz Cooney Center on just over a thousand parents on which they and their prefer - iPad versus traditional print books.
Notes that around 70% of parents and 50% of children prefer print books to iPad versions. Important to notice that the results refer specifically to iPad readers and not any others such as Kindles and Nooks. Also, a major flaw in the study is that the children's preferences were interpreted through the point of view of the parents. The children do not seem to have been surveyed. Both of the limitation to the iPad and to the parents clearly distort the report findings.
Interested? Click the text or image to read on.
Source is The Verge.
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•  A different question would strengthen the survey. Do you prefer print format over ebook format? What do you think?

"Are Consumers Sensitive to E-Book Prices?"
"Consumers believe that e-books cost very little to produce and therefore should cost very little to purchase — and, certainly, e-books shouldn’t cost $12.99 or (gasp!) $14.99. It’s just a file, right?"

Mines the trends of consumers in paying for ebooks, exploring what they are willing to pay for titles they really want.
Notes that consumers seem to enjoy the ebook format enough that they are willing to pay what may seem relatively high prices, considering there is no printed text. Also points out that if consumers know what they want, they can often purchase the books at lower introductory prices.
Interested? Click the text or image to read on.
Source is Forbes.
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•  Are prices for some ebooks too high in your opinion?

"10 Tips to Boost Your Ebook Sales"
"First time authors wonder how to sell a ebook(s) they have worked hard on? Accomplished author’s face a new challenge thinking how can they increase ebook sales."

Mines the most effective strategies for marketing your own book independently, stating that the advice is relevant for both new and veteran authors.
Notes that you should make an investment to produce a professional cover, try to market your book through more than one store, find reputable individuals to review your book, and create an SEO sales page on your website for the book.
Interested? Click the text or image to read on.
Source is Dukeo.
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•  What marketing techniques have you found successful?

"William Gibson on Why Sci-Fi Writers Are (Thankfully) Almost Always Wrong"
"William Gibson, one of science fiction’s most visionary and distinctive voices, maintains that he and his fellow writers don’t possess some mystical ability to peer into the future.

Mines the largely lacking future predicting power of science fiction writers, suggesting that our reality could be catastrophic were it not so.
Notes that for William Gibson, who was the first to use the term cyberspace, the ability of his fiction to predict the future is among the least important traits in his writing. Also, in order to write powerfully strange science fiction a writer must first come to grips with how deeply weird real life is.
Interested? Click the text or image above to read on.
Source is Wired.

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• Do you agree that science fiction has little predictive power or that the quality is irrelevant?