Nate Hoffelder

Thanks to a couple court rulings, it’s currently as legal to resell ebooks in the Netherlands as it is to resell music in the US, but that doesn’t mean that publishers are happy about the situation.

Now someone (it’s not clear who) is sending sellers of used ebooks threatening letters, and is accusing them of committing a felony. The sellers are being threatened with jail time, and fines up to 19,500 euros.

TorrentFreak beat me to the story, and published a report which left out about half of the important details:

With this kind of opposition in mind it was no surprise that yesterday several media outlets began reporting that sellers of used eBooks in the Netherlands had received legal threats from aggressive copyright holders.

In an email titled “Illegal dissemination of digital books”, sellers of pre-owned eBooks were warned, apparently by Dutch anti-piracy outfit BREIN, that their activities were illegal.

“The Brein Foundation acts against piracy of music, film, interactive software and digital books on behalf of rights and stakeholders such as authors, performers, publishers, producers and distributors,” the email begins.

“We’ve detected that you are distributing digital books without permission being granted by the copyright holders. This practice is unlawful towards the rights-holders and if you infringe you are liable for the damage they suffer as a result.”

I’ve looked into this myself, and I can add a couple details.

One, the operators of the used ebook marketplace Tom Kabinet are aware of the story. A rep told me that "I have seen the article but have no clue on who is sending the emails. Our sellers haven’t received any so far, as far as I know."

Two, the Dutch anti-piracy outfit Brein has vehemently and rudely denied sending the emails (or at least that’s the impression I get from reading the Dutch-language tweets from a Brein rep).

That was puzzling until I dug a little further and learned that the threatening emails were being sent through a site called marktplaats.nl. This is the Dutch equivalent of Ebay, which leads me to conclude that anyone who got the email may have been selling ebooks on the site.

The subject line of the one email I saw mentions a Dutch book from 2012, which was probably the book being sold. However, I didn’t find that ebook for sale on the site, so I can’t say for sure.

Three, I also can’t say who is sending the emails. Nos.nl reported thatMarktplaats.nl was trying to find out who sent the mail. The site told Nos.nl that Brein was actively trying to prevent the sale of second ebooks, and that therefore hardly any ebooks were being sold on the site.

Brein has a reputation for threats and bluster, but they’ve never in the past denied sending a threatening letter. That raises doubts that they are behind this email, and without additional detail there’s no way to know for sure.

So at this point we don’t know if this is a valid legal threat, a publisher trying to scare consumers, Brein’s left hand not knowing what the right hand is up to, or if this is some type of scam or shakedown operation (a la RightsCorp).

In the absence of new information, I lean towards the last option.

In any case, the issue of used ebook sales will be back in Dutch courts next week. The publishers are appealing the January 2015 ruling which said that Dutch consumers could resell ebooks, no matter what the license agreement said.

We won’t be hearing about the results f this court battle for several months, but I will report on it when it is handed down.

image by clementchene

The Bookseller has a report one of the more ridiculous aspects of UK copyright law:

A legal change made in 2013 to the Copyright, Designs & Patents Act (technically, the repeal of Section 52) is set to reinstate the full term of copyright protection (70 years) to 2D representations of 3D artistic works. Previously the duration of the term was 25 years. This means many images previously free to use would now incur fees, applying to any book stock sold or published after the legal change is implemented.

Now the government has changed the transition period for the new legislation to take effect from five years to six months, following a judicial review brought in the UK by three furniture manufacturers— US-based Knoll, Italy-based Cassina and Switzerland-based Vitra—with the clock ticking for publishers to comply by October 2016.

Leaving aside the issue of arbitrarily extending the copyright on existing works and the fundamental unfairness of the abrupt transition, did you catch the point about who owns the copyright?

To clarify, under UK copyright law, the photo of a copyrighted object is itself copyrighted, and whoever owns the copyright on the object also owns the copyright on the visual "reproduction" of that object.

So if you bought a designer chair, and wanted to publish a photo of said chair, you would have to pay a designer a fee for the "reproduction" of the chair.

Given that a photo cannot serve as a replacement for the object, I don’t see how it can be called a "reproduction".

That’s just nuts, and if you disagree then I would like to invite you over next week so we can discuss it. I’ll serve a "reproduction" of dinner (photos of my lamb ragout are to die for).

Seriously, folks, this law is that absurd, and the abrupt change is going to hurt the book publishing industry.

"It’s had this terrible knock-on effect on publishers who publish 2D images of design objects,” said Natalie Kontarsky, associate director for legal and business affairs at Thames & Hudson. “The government has actually said ‘you are collateral damage’ in a very sanguine, offhand way. The dark end of the spectrum would be to take books out of circulation and have to pulp. Obviously no one wants to look at that. Licensing images retrospectively is likely to be a very expensive prospect—in terms of actual licence fees to rightsholders, working out who actually owns the rights and the cost of getting picture researchers involved and people like me on the legal side… It’s very complex."

And sadly, this madness is spreading to the US.

This UK ruckus reminds me of a similar situation here in the US where a sculpture sued the USPS for using his work, the Korean War Memorial,  on a stamp. The sculptor argued that the photo used for the stamp infringed on the copyright of his original work, the statues.

Here’s the stamp:

The argument sounds crazy on the face of it (the photo was obviously transformative, and this fair use). And while the district court judge ruled against the sculptor, his lawyers convinced the appeals court for the federal circuit to overrule the lower court (Techdirt):

The Federal Circuit has ruled on the appeal and stunningly decided that this isn’t fair use, claiming that it’s not, in fact, transformative. I’m somewhat amazed — as is law professor Peter Friedman in the post linked here. The two works are quite clearly extremely different, but the court felt that since they both were designed to honor soldiers killed in the Korean War, it couldn’t be seen as transformative. The fact that the photographer took hundreds of images before settling on this one apparently didn’t matter. On top of that, the fact that the snow totally changes the character of the image was dismissed by the court as being just "nature’s decision."

And so thanks to a court, the US is encumbered with a copyright law very similar to the nonsense in the UK. Luckily for us, this hasn’t been codified into US law, so there’s a chance that the Supreme Court might inject some sanity into the situation.

Is it any wonder that so many of us have so little respect for copyright law?

image by PugnoM

Judging by its most recent quarterly statement, Barnes & Noble’s plan to become a niche retailer has hit a snag.

B&N released the quarterly statement for its second fiscal quarter late on Thursday. The retailer reported that revenues declined 4.5%, to  $895 million.

With a lost off $20.5 million, the EBITDA was also in the negative but also included a $10.5 million charge related to the spin off of B&N Education. The second quarter net loss from continuing operations was $27.2 million, compared to net loss from continuing operations of $5.1 million in the same quarter last year.

Retail revenues totaled $861 million, down 3.1% "due to lower online sales, store closures and a 1 percent comparable store sales decrease", which makes sense given that the recently relaunched website is still pretty fucked up.

And then there’s Nook, which continued to circle the drain. Digital revenues accounted for $43.5 million, down 32% from a year ago, with an EBITDA loss of $21.3 million. And just to put this into perspective, Nook revenues have shrunk so much that B&N has stopped citing both hardware and content sales and instead shared just the one figure (that’s going to make it harder for us to tell that Kindle Unlimited generates more revenue, but it probably still does).

It makes you wonder why Barnes & Noble launched a new Glowlight Plus and a new Galaxy Tab Nook last quarter, doesn’t it? Why not just shut the service down?

While it’s not costing B&N a lot of money to keep the lights on in the Nook dept, the persistent loss is still a drain on resources. Is putting off the bad publicity from the closure really worth the ongoing expense of keeping the service open?

Over the nearly 3 years since the Penguin Random House merger was announced, the newly formed conglomerate has been slowly merging operations in the US, Canada, and elsewhere, and now the consolidation efforts have spread to the library ebook market.

Starting 1 January 2016, all ebooks published by Penguin Random House will be sold under the same terms currently offered by Random House.

PRH currently licenses Penguin titles to libraries under an expiring one-year term, and sells Random House titles to libraries at premium prices with no expiration. Starting next month all of the ebooks will be sold under the premium price model, and libraries will continue to enjoy the right to transfer ebooks from one library ebook platform to the next.

“We want this transition to our new terms to be as easy and as smooth a process as possible for our library partners, and my team and I have been working closely with all the various digital aggregators who sell our titles to libraries to achieve this. Any Penguin or DK titles purchased prior to January 1, 2016 will be honored under the existing one-year loan cap,” Skip Dye, VP of library sales for Penguin Random House, told LJ.

At the same time, PRH also plans to cut the library ebook price cap from $85 down to $65. Current prices start at "under $20 per title" (meaning $19.95), and in the statement PRH said their "suggested pricing of ebooks for libraries will be variable and flexible." They’re also promising to hold periodic sales.

Those high prices are the main reason why library ebook adoption lags. Depending on which survey you look at, as few as 38% of Americans know that their library has ebooks (when in fact over 95% of public libraries offer ebooks) and only 6% have checked out a book.

But PRH is not solely to blame; the other Big Five publishers demand similarly exploitative terms. Hachette also sells ebooks to libraries at a steep markup, while S&S licenses ebooks under an expiring one-year license (or two years, for 150% of the price). Macmillan manages to combine the worst of both models; they charge a premium price and limit libraries to a two-year license.

image by michael_d_beckwith

Publishers Weekly has the details on a new survey report from BISG, but I’m not sure how far we can trust the numbers.

The Book Industry Study Group, in partnership with the ALA, conducted a survey earlier this year on US library usage. A total of 2,000 US adults were surveyed, and the report found:

The newest industry report from BISG, “Digital Content in Public Libraries: What Do Patrons Think?,” found that even though over half of library patrons surveyed are aware that their local libraries carry e-books and digital audiobooks, relatively few had borrowed them in the previous year. Only 25% of patrons reported that they had borrowed an e-book within the past year, and even fewer (9%) said they had checked out a digital audiobook.

The low rates came despite the fact that 58% of patrons said they know that their library offers both e-books and digital audiobooks. Library patrons also borrowed digital content less frequently than they use it outside libraries; 44% of patrons said they had read an e-book in the past year, while 12% had listened to a digital audiobook.

I can’t speak for you but I was surprised to read the results – not because they were so low, but because the numbers were so high.

You see, I have been following the survey reports released by the Pew Research Center. Those reports, which are based on surveys conducted semi-annually, show a much lower rate of awareness and usage.

The most recent Pew survey into library ebook usage was released in September 2015, and it found:

People are increasingly aware that they can borrow e-books at their public library. Some 38% say their public library has e-books, compared with 31% who said this in 2012. Those more likely to be aware that their library has e-books are college graduates (52% say they are aware of e-book lending), parents (44%) and those in homes where the annual income is over $75,000 (44%).

Only 16% of the 38% have checked out a library ebook, which means that only 6% of library patrons are making use of a service that many libraries offer.

In comparison, the BISG found that  a far greater percentage of respondents (58%) were aware of library ebooks and had checked one out in the past year (25%).

Does anyone else wonder why the numbers are so different? better yet, does anyone else know why the numbers are different?

My current working theory, which I am still trying to confirm or deny, is that the BISG study was conducted online, while the Pew survey was conducted both offline and online.

That distinction is important because, as Pew showed us in September, results from an online survey are biased towards respondents who are richer, more technologically sophisticated, and better educated.

If I am correct about the BISG survey then it would mean that the BISG inadvertently selected the survey group for those who would be more likely to use ebooks and be familiar with their library’s digital offerings.

Alas, I do not know if I am right; I have queried BISG, and Jim Milliot at PW, but neither has responded with any info.

I will update this post with more information when I get that response.

Edit: Jim Milliot has confirmed that the BISG survey was conducted online only.

O O O

Just so we’re on the same page, even if this report should prove flawed that doesn’t mean it’s not useful.

It has also affirmed that many people aren’t happy with their library’s digital offerings. To name one example, 90% of respondents were happy with the catalog of print adult titles, but only 51% were happy with the selection of ebooks.

The approval rating for print and digital newspapers and magazines were similar.  While 65% of patrons were satisfied with the range of print magazines, and 63% were happy with the selection of print newspapers, only 39% of respondents indicated they were pleased with the selection of digital magazines and newspapers  at their public library.

image by uberculture

Around this time every year Amazon likes to generate free advertising by showing off some shiny new tech that everyone simply has to write about. This year, like in 2013, Amazon is showing off a new delivery drone.

On Sunday Amazon unveiled what its latest generations drones look like. Gone is the faintly spiderish fixed-arm design with six motors and a helicopter like base; in its place we see a design that more closely resembles a model plane:

Narrated by television show host Jeremy Clarkson, the video shows a family receiving a set of emergency replacement soccer shoes which replace the one chewed up by its dog. "In time, there will be a family of Amazon drones. Different designs for different environments," Clarkson says.

The video shows the delivery box containing the shoes slotting seamlessly into the body of the drone. It then rises vertically on four propellers in VTOL mode, to nearly 400 feet, after which it engages a fifth propellor and starts to fly more like an airplane.

Amazon has not said when it hopes to have the drones in service, but the relevant webpage does mention that it has a 15  mile range, weighs 55 pounds, and can carry a 5 pound package. That’s a significant improvement over the drone Amazon showed us a couple years ago, which had a range of ten miles.

However, we still don’t know when the drones will see real commercial use. Amazon didn’t get permission to even test drones in the US until March 2015, and due to bureaucratic delays that approval applies to an obsolete model.

And to make matters worse, NPR reported last week that the FAA doesn’t currently have a timeline for finalizing regulations for commercial drone operations. 

So we probably won’t see Amazon Prime Air taking off anytime soon. And that’s a shame, because some of Amazon’s other ideas for using drones include neighborhood watch, surveillance, etc.

A couple days ago I published an open topic post where I invited readers to ask any question they wanted.

One reader asked me which device I thought was the best ereader on the market. That’s really not the type of question you can answer in a comment, so today I sat down and jotted out a few notes on what I think makes for the best ereader.

Hardly any new ereaders were released this year, but there are enough new and old models on the market that the few best devices stand out from their competition.

I haven’t covered all the possible bases, though; some questions, like the best cheap ereader, are difficult to answer. And then there’s the title of best Android ereader, a topic which I don’t feel I can answer (I’m not happy with any of the models I have tried).

Do you have a recommendation for best Android ereader?

Best All-Around eReader

This was an easy one.

Amazon’s newest Paperwhite, with its 300ppi screen, is hands down the best all-around ereader.

Its solid hardware is supported by reading software that combines very adequate formatting options with useful reading features like X-Ray, Wikipedia look-up, shared notes and highlights, vocabulary builder, Goodread integration,

The Paperwhite (2015) has the same screen resolution as on the Kindle Voyage, only for $80 less. That price difference also means you don’t get the Voyage’s flush glass screen, sleaker design, or its auto-adjusting frontlight, but I’m just one of many who think the tradeoff is worth it.

• Amazon ($139)

 Best Premium eReader

I think the Kobo Aura H2O is the best ereader among those with a $180 and up price tag.

I know that most people would go with the Kindle Voyage as the best premium ereader, but I’ve had my hands on both the Voyage and the Aura H2O, and I have to say that I prefer the latter.

The Aura H2O has a 6.8″ screen and provides the best balance of performance, software features, and hardware. It covers all the basic features, including highlights, notes, and bookmarks.

Also,the Aura H2O offers more formatting options than the Kindle Voyage, including margin and line with, setting custom font weights, and even installing your own fonts. And of course the Pocket integration means you can also read news articles with very little effort.

Plus, the Aura H2O waterproof, and has a microSD card slot (two features the Voyage lacks).

• Review
• Kobo ($179)

Best Large-Screen eReader

Over the past few years I have reviewed several large-screen ereaders, including models from Onyx, Bookeen, and Pocketbook.

The Pocketbook InkPad 840, with its 8″ screen, is far and away the best ebook reader larger than 6″. It has the best mix of features, speed, and format support. While it doesn’t run Android like the i86 HDML, the Inkpad is still faster, is nicer to hold, and has an all around better design.

Alas, it is also difficult to acquire unless you live in Europe or Russia.

• Review

Best Cheap eReader

Now this is a question which I don’t think I can answer. This title is a fast moving target which depends almost as much on which device is on sale this week as on hardware and software features. While I have tried several cheap ereaders over the past year, I don’t know that I can recommend one over any other.

Their chief value comes from their price, and not from software or hardware. While I found last year’s basic Kindle to be very usable, I don’t know that I would say it’s still the best cheap ereader – not when another model could go on sale in the next few months. (It is a safe choice, though.)

Updated: 8 June 2017

After stripping the DRM from their ebooks, the biggest concern for any ebook lover is how to store an ebook library so it is safe, secure, and easily accessible. For many that means storing their library online so it can be accessed from anywhere.

There are many options for online storage, including (as a reader reminded us yesterday) buying your own NAS and setting it up a file server on your own home network. One could also set up a LibraryBox, but that is more of a local solution than an online one.

And in any case, I for one prefer to look for the cheapest options available. And since I am looking for a solution this weekend, I thought it would be useful to share my notes.

So here’s a quick survey of the free service tiers for the major cloud storage providers. (Please let me know if I missed one, or if there’s a question I forgot to ask.)

The tl;dr version is that Amazon, Google, and Copy.com each give you 15GB of storage. Some limitations apply, so when you start browsing for a chosen platform, you should first ask yourself what exactly you want to do with it. Do you need an automatic sync? the ability to store huge files?

I just need a space to put my files so I can sync them every once in a while, but not everyone is so easy.

Amazon Cloud Drive

Amazon only has the two paid tiers. The first costs $60 a year and offers 1TB of storage, while the second costs $12 a year and lets you store as many photos as you like as well as an additional 100GB.

As for free service tier, Amazon gives free storage to their existing customers:

• Everyone who signs up for Cloud Drive gets 5GB free.
• Fire tablet owners get 5GB of storage to use as they wish.
• Amazon Prime subscribers get 5GB space plus unlimited space for photos included in their annual or monthly fee.

Apps – You can access the storage from most web browsers, as well as Cloud Drive apps for iOS and Android or the third-party Windows/OSX app oDrive.

Dropbox

Dropbox lists a single paid tier on its website: $99 a year for up to 1TB of storage.

• It also offers a free 2GB of storage to all users.

Apps – The storage can be accessed through a web browser, or through Dropbox apps for iOS, Android, OSX, or Windows. There’s also a host of third-party apps which add unique features and support for other devices.

Microsoft OneDrive

Microsoft’s offerings have changed since I first published this post. will sell you 50GB of storage for $2 a month

In June 2017, MS will sell you 50GB of storage for $2 a month, or 1TB for $70 a year, or 5TB for $100 a year.

Apps – You can find apps for Windows, OSX, Android, iOS, and XBox. The service is also accessible through most web browsers.

Google Drive

Google sells storage at 100GB for $2 a month or 1TB for $10 a month. There are more costly tiers as well as a different set of prices for Google Apps users.

Edit: A reader has pointed out that Google Drive mangles calibre’s folder structure, and so the two are not compatible.

• Anyone with a Google account gets 15GB of storage for free.
• Last year Google also gave away a free 2GB bonus storage to anyone who filled out an online security review checklist (we got to keep that extra 2GB forever).

Apps – Google has apps for Windows, OSX, Android, iOS, and Chrome.

Box

This company is more business oriented, so it has more business plans than personal plans, but the paid consumer tier costs $10 a month for 100GB.

• The free tier gets you 10GB, and a file size limit of 250MB.

Apps – You can find Box apps for Windows, OSX, Android, iOS, Blackberry, Touchpad, Windows Phonem and more. There are also third-party apps.

Copy.com

Copy.com shut down in mid-016.

Barracuda is a hard disk maker, but they also have other services, including cloud storage.  Its business service is known as CudaDrive, but the consumer-focused cloud storage can be found at Copy.com.

• Copy.com’s paid tiers start at $50 a year for 250GB ($100 a year for 1TB).
• All users get a free 15GB, to start.

Apps – The files can be access through apps for Windows, iOS, Android, OSX, Windows Phone, and Linux.

image by perspec_photo88

Disney’s schedule of trailer releases and planned leaks for  the upcoming Star Wars movie was rudely interrupted today when a tie-in children’s book leaked on Imgur.

According to MakingStarWars.net, the book reveals a number of details, including:

• Maz Kantata is apparently Han’s old mentor. Post-Return of the Jedi or as far back as the anthology film? He hopes she can help them with their mission to return BB-8 to the Resistance.
• Finn wants to rescue Rey before the Resistance destroys the base.
• A spy on Takodana tells the First Order the heroes are there. Phasma readies a surprise attack on the castle.
• During the battle of Takodana, Leia’s X-wing Squadrons save the day.
• Rey and BB-8 are captured on Takodana.
• D’Qar is the planet the Resistance is stationed on. Han, Finn, and Chewie crash the Falcon into the Starkiller base.

If you’ve only been following the trailers (like me) then many of these details won’t make any sense. Fortunately, MSW says they’ve already discussed some of these details in a couple earlier posts.

Alas, I can’t confirm any details due to the images being taken down from Imgur, apparently under threat from Disney. The related discussion thread on Reddit was also removed, although at least in this case the removal was documented.

I followed up with the original source, and was told:

@thDigitalReader under Disney copyright law I can’t. Sorry.

— ?Jared Sloan? (@JaredLSloan) November 24, 2015

That’s too bad. I was looking forward to reading the book and sharing the images with you all, but now it looks like we’re just going to have to wait.

I’m still following up on this story with Sloan, but if anyone else gets a copy of this SW book, or any other book, don’t hesitate to contact me. Any personal info will be kept strictly confidential.

P.S. And for the latest info on the new Star Wars movie, check out Reddit.

German news publisher Axel Springer has always taken a hard line on advertising. It has sued ad block developers, barred ad block users from Bild.de, was the last German news publisher to let Google use snippets for free, and now it’s back in court again.

TechCrunch reports that Axel Springer is targeting the developers of the iOS9 ad-block app Blockr.

Specifically, explains the law firm representing Blockr, Axel Springer wanted to prohibit Blockr’s developers from being able to “offer, advertise, maintain and distribute the service” which can be used today to block ads on http://www.welt.de, including the website’s mobile version.

Blockr’s lawyers argued in a hearing on November 19 that its software is legal and should be allowed to continue, and that it’s the user’s choice to use an ad blocker.

In the hearing, the court seemed to agree with the startup, and pointed out that Axel Springer has other options for handling how it wants to deal with ad blockers. For example, it could re-use its prior tactics that involve locking out users from a website when it detects that the visitor is using ad blocking software.

The final ruling, however, is not until December 10.

Considering that two similar rulings have already been handed down in Germany this year, including one where Axel Springer was the plaintiff, the odds of the media giant winning this time around range from slim to a snowball’s chance in hell.

But legal precedence is not enough to discourage Axel Springer, although it has made them craftier. Rather than directly sue the developers of Blockr, Axel Springer first sought an injunction at the district court of Stuttgart. Arguing that the software was illegally obstructing its digital content, Axel Springer asked the court to ban the app from being used in Germany.

It was at the hearing on 19 November that Lampmann, Haberkamm, & Rosenbaum, the lawyers for Blockr’s developers, successfully argued that there was no immediate need for an injunction.

The case is still ongoing, but it doesn’t look good for Axel Springer.

Edit: But perhaps that doesn’t matter to the news publisher. What if this simply a bid to harass developers into avoiding this type of app? (Fighting a lawsuit like this can get expensive.)

In any case, the media giant has other means to continue the fight.

About a month ago Axel Springer ran a pilot test where it erected a barrier on Bild.de, one of its news sites, which banned ad-block users from visiting the site without either disabling their ad blocker or getting a subscription.

According to Financial Times, this pilot test succeeded in reducing the proportion of readers using ad blockers from 23% to a single digit. Axel Springer hasn’t revealed whether revenues increased, although FT did report that the site had shown an addition 3 million "marketable" page views to visitors in the first two weeks of the pilot.

"The results are beyond our expectations,” said Axel Springer CEO Mathias Döpfner at the time. “Over two-thirds of the users concerned switched off their adblocker."

He added: “Our experience makes us optimistic that adblockers will not develop into a game-changer for the sector.”

Axel Springer isn’t the only publisher to take a hostile approach to ad block users. The Washington Post started testing a similar block in September, and just last week Yahoo started blocking some users from checking their email.

TechCrunch

image by n0nick

A new version of the Kindle app for Android hit Google Play yesterday. The update only added a couple new features, but what the changelog lacks in volume it makes up for in value.

First up is Word Runner, the speed reading feature which Amazon launched with the new Fire tablets this fall. Readers can now use what is arguably the second-best speed reading tech on the market to zoom through their books at a rate of 300, 400, or 500 words per minute.

The tech gives me and some other users headaches, but I’m told we’re the exception and not the rule. You can find more info on Word Runner here.

The second half of the update is Bookerly, the serif font that Amazon launched earlier this year on the Fire tablets (it was added to the Kindle iOS app in the summer).

Edit: And the third half of the update is the new KFX typography that Amazon added to the iOS app this summer. Thanks, John!

Bookerly was developed just for Amazon. It is more correctly termed as a slab-serif font that looks a little like Georgia, only better. I didn’t think much of it when it was first released, but it has grown on me.

The app can be downloaded from the Amazon Appstore or Google Play.

The Kindle Unlimited payout for October was 0.4809 cents per page, and as you can see from the chart to the right that is the lowest payment Amazon has offered since switching to the new model in July.

Amazon has deliberately allowed the payment to drop over the past 3 months by arbitrarily choosing just how much to boost the monthly payment pool.

Edit: a reader argues in the comments that this post is inaccurate. I disagree, but for the sake of completeness here is the counterpoint he made:

The KU payout per real book page (imaging a printed book) is about one cent per page. The KU payout of about half a cent is per KU KENP page, which is a constructed “page” to account for differences in paging in various ereader devices, phones, tablets, etc. KENP pages run about twice the count of real book pages. Also consider the following: a printed mass-market 300 page paperback book will produce a royalty in trade publishing of about 50 cents a copy–which is about 0.17 cents per page, much less than the 1.00 cents per page of KU for the same book.

Don’t forget: starting in November (this month), Amazon will adjust the payment based on the market where the subscriber is located. (I don’t know exactly what that means, either, and Amazon has declined to provide specific details.)

Here’s the running tally of monthly funding pools:

• May 2014: $1.2 million
• June 2014: $1.2 million
• July: $2.5 million (Kindle Unlimited launches early in the month)
• August: $4.7 million
• September: $5 million
• October: $5.5 million
• November 2014: $6.5 million
• December 2014: $7.25 million
• January 2015 – $8.5 million
• February 2015: $8 million
• March 2015: $9.3 million
• April 2015: $9.8 million
• May 2015: $10.8 million
• June 2015: $11.3 million
• July 2015: $11.5 million
• August 2015: $11.8 million
• September 2015: $12 million
• October 2015: $12.4 million

Thanks, Morris!

image  by 401(K) 2013

Google hasn’t seen fit to end the five months and running hiatus of its publisher portal, but that doesn’t mean they’ve abandoned plans for Google Play Books.

Earlier today comic book readers were gifted with an update that, while it doesn’t make for an awesome reading experience, does improve support for digital comics.

I tested the app both before and after the update, using the first volume of The Walking Dead. The update doesn’t add a guided viewing mode(*) like the one offered by Kobo, Kindle, or Comixology, but it does offer a new default zoom setting. When viewing in landscape mode, the app zooms until the page width matches the screen. Before, the app zoomed to fit both the width and height, and wasted screen space.

This update also adds a couple optional features. You can now tap to scroll the page, rather than swipe, and you can have the app remember your page zoom setting when you turn the page.

In related news, Google has also reorganized the comics section of Google Play books:

We’ve also made finding great comics and series really easy. Now we’re offering a new comics destination and a bunch of beautifully curated series pages on the Google Play Store that organize volumes, issues and other editions of the top comic series. You’ll also find new personalized recommendations for similar series to help you discover new stories and characters.

All in all, the updates are an improvement on the abysmal features provided before the update, but they’re still nothing to write home about. In all seriousness, they are on par with the features that Adobe Reader had on Windows CE a decade ago, or can be found in most PDF apps today.

But hey, any improvement is a plus.

The app can be found in Google Play.

P.S. Can anyone tell me if the app has a guided viewing mode? I didn’t want to buy comic books and go looking for it.

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