Lost Today But Found Tommorrow?

Last week The Bookseller reported that Bloomsbury were to launch a "lost classics" list and that Vintage are continuing to build their "classic crime" list. To some this fuels the realisation that there is a real potential of pickings to be made from ‘orphans’. We also have Faber and Faber and many others looking to adopt these lost souls and explore the treasure trove of out of print material. With a bit of due diligence and little cost, orphans can be grabbed and claimed back. After all, we could soon see Google’s scanning programme of orphans being both stepped up and given the US legal pardon.

The mining of this wealth of material is not new and many have made a healthy living in spotting the gems, doing due diligence on rights and packaging nostalgia. Add a 50’s looking jacket and a new typeface and you have a new book, a potential POD title and of course a cheap ebook, all for less than many new title advances, with little editorial effort, just a new ISBN and a refreshed copyright notice.

As publishers trawl the orphan pile they know one thing that they don’t with the slush pile – someone once backed it. Whether it is a winner is another challenge and knowing what was a good seller in its day is hard to establish. It isn’t down to reviews or Bookscan as they don’t exist. Even ABE and Alibris don’t really offer a real light on winners. Those individuals who have a great track record in this area are often independent or not around today.

So we believe we shall see more orphans brought back into print, some will be under the nostalgia label and some will merely slip in as new. Those who belief these titles have had their day are probably the same ones who thought their was little to be made out of public domain classics and that back list are not publishing, but the reality is that whatever happens in the Google settlement, many have woken up to the vast published and forgotten pile of books that are now coming to everyone’s attention.

We just hope that they aren't merely taken and that due dilegence is undertaken and royalties where due are paid.

iPhone App eBook Readers

o the new world is about who has the smartest mobile application. It may appear that these have been around for ever but the reality is they haven’t. We have yet to really see the RIM, Android, Palm, Symbian applications and what once was the territory of Microsoft is now clearly owned by Apple and its ‘I’ family. Its interesting to note that some apps are free whilst others charge a nominal fee. Perhaps with such a low entry point the consumer will download the lot and then choose which they like today and user churn will happen around upgrades. So where is the glue that will retain user loyalty or is it just open season for all?

Nintendo is even reported to be eyeing up the iPhone and success of the Apple Apps Store and looking to compete using its stable of game developers. Nintendo already has its DS Shop and DSi Ware services, to accompany DSi when it launches next month in the US. However is it now seeking non-gaming applications for the DSi to complete head to head with Apple? Alternatively are they now also aiming to try and head off the likes of Apple and Android off from their games market?

So who are the ebook mobile application players today?

The free Stanza reader from Lexcycle is the reader of choice of many and now is fully integrated with Adobe’s ACS4 so offering DRM protected Adobe eBooks and epub files. It has a very customisable user interface especially with the type font and a landscape library view. The app also sorts books by title, author, subject and your latest reads. Stanza enables you to download books from many different sources including Fictionwise and also import your own library using their desktop application and interfaces with Digital Editions.

The Kindle app is part of Fortress Amazon and can only read books from Amazon’s 250,000 titles but offers the best price value and widest range of titles. If current content is what you are after then the Kindle is probably the answer today. However, it offers minimal type customisation other than sizing and its files can’t be transferred anywhere other than to a Kindle.

The free eReader from Fictionwise, or should that now read Barnes and Noble, clearly has the right name and has been around longer than many. It supports many file types, including its own and with it new eager parents, is certainly going to be around for the long haul. It is not clear how the exclusive deal with Ingram now pans out, but like their recent tiff with Overdrive, it will probably get sorted in the background. The eReader application wins many over with its navigation, highlighting, annotations and search. Some would argue that it doesn’t offer the same level of font customisation as others but it still remains very user friendly. The only negative appears to be on performance especially when an ebook is downloaded from another source and read on eReader. This may be seen by some as a feature, not really recognised by others and a pain and frustration to many who have seen comparable readers.

As we have seen through their emailing programme, it often pays to wait until the weekend, or for a discount offer, when buying from Fictionwise as they seem to have one every few days to celebrate nothing except a discount offer.

Bookshelf is not a free app and is from Zachary Bedall. It uses Apple’s networking to let readers set up and manage their own “shelf servers” and supports a wide range of e-book formats. Although it does offer more than 20 scalable typefaces, a range of background colours and its scroll feature works well the application isn’t that consumer friendly in its appearance and feel.

The iFlow reader is a reader in a book as opposed to a book you apply a reader to. They offer tens of different book collections. So you buy multi-volume sets of books with a reader, priced anywhere from free to $10. The text scrolls like a teleprompter that you control by tilting the screen. You cannot import your own books and there isn’t a single instance of the application.

The Classics reader launches a bookcase, you simply tap a jacket and the book opens, tap a page and the page turns. Today there are only a few titles but you can arrange the shelves to your taste. On finishing, a crimson bookmark slides down the left side of the page and the book closes. Fun but limited.


So what will determine the winners from the losers and can a free reader that is not tethered to content make it. Alternately why pay a few dollars for a reader when another is free? Apart from Fictionwise, today there still appears to be many features missing such as annotations, highlighting and personalisation. The mobile platform offers so much and if the larger iTouch becomes a reality these readers will certainly be the ones to watch.

Nothing New Here!

It is often interesting how we all join up dots differently and that we know what we know but all too often don’t know what we don know. Today we were alerted to a recent piece in the Los Angeles Times ‘Reprints are King in Parts of the Book World.’

The report questioned, ‘whether the increasing number of reprints is because of reader dissatisfaction with contemporary literature or the flowering of an archivist, curatorial instinct, they are certainly part of the decentralization of literary culture.’ And also reported that, ‘Reprints may be how new novels that surely deserve larger audiences may finally find the readership they should have had the first time around..’

The lack of understanding of reprints, repackaging, classics, public domain works was clear.

There are those publishers that specialise in bringing back books into print that for whatever reason deserve to be available. Some may be literary classics, other erotica, or mystery, or romance, or war and military. The majority are public domain but others are published under licence and some are publishing orphans that are adopted. This is nothing new its been around as long as many can remember it has merely become easier to do.

Recent articles in the Bookseller have referenced a new Erotica list of Victorian titles, goulish tales both by Penguin and Wordsworth and Faber’s modern classics on demand and specialist lists by the likes of Persephone. Penguin’s value added digital extras also present a new twist and others have re-jacketed the Austin classics to look like chit lit! The list of publishers is significant and includes; Everyman, OUP, Penguin, Wordsworth, B&N, CRW, Studio, and many many more. But reprinting is not new neither is it a adverse reaction to modern literature. It is however interesting to see the variance in list price for what is often the same free text.

The new digital world makes it easier to find titles, digitally capture them and bring them back both digitally and imprint. The primary skill lies in the selection and understanding the potential winners. The next is to understand what needs to be done to represent and repackage them. The largest risk it that some may make a land grab and adopt orphans that are still in copyright because they can.

The consumer rarely picks up a book and looks at the copyright page and says, ‘I can’t read this its not new!’

Classic Audio, Read by Class Acts at Great Prices

Silksoundbooks.com have launched a new digital download venture with 60 titles and expects to have 1,000 within three years.

There are several interesting aspects to this. Firstly it is being backed by top tier actors such as Bill Nighy, Judi Dench, Richard E Grant, Jane Horrocks who may take shares in the venture in lieu of fees. This certainly gives them an edge and a vested interest in making happen. Secondly the focus is on unabridged English classics an obvious approach and one which aligns known names with known actors. Thirdly the price is a flat rate £7.95, a clear logical price point and one that will be attractive to many. Fourthly the files will be on MP3 and iTunes compatible formats, keeping it simple and aligned to where the players are. Fifthly they don’t need the overheads of the physical channel and have some graet names to advertise the wares to a wide audience.

This is a significant step and is equal to when the likes of Wordsworth classics first put out the £1 classic. This is common land and it will be interesting to see how the high price points currently given to audiobooks will survive this broadside. Well done!