The publishing industry is experiencing an new and booming business in e-books. According to Forrester Research, consumers spent $1 billion on e-books in 2010. That number is expected to triple by 2015. In the US there were about 10 million e-readers in circulation in 2010, triple that of 2009.

The two leading players in the e-reader market are Amazon (AMZN) with its Kindle and Barnes and Noble's (BKS) Nook. With these readers a single reader can use the reader or a friend can be added as long as they know each other's email, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Continue reading e-Book Lending -- the Next New Thing

e-Book Lending -- the Next New Thing originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 11 Mar 2011 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

There's a new industry in the making. It's in the way we buy and read books. Electronic books, or e-books, are taking the book market by storm. Here's a mind blowing statistic. Barnes & Noble (BKS) announced that in December its e-book sales exceeded print books, as reported in MSNMoney.

The two big leaders in the e-book market are Amazon.com (AMZN) and Barnes & Noble with the Kindle and Nook readers respectively. Both companies said that e-readers are their best-selling product of all time.

Continue reading E-book Sales Expected to Quadruple

E-book Sales Expected to Quadruple originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sun, 06 Feb 2011 09:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Google's (GOOG) management philosophy is to launch quickly and then to iterate. However, in the case of its eBook project, the process has been fairly slow. But after several years, it is finally open to the virtual public.

All in all, it's a pretty good resource, with three million books from over 4,000 publishers. Roughly two-thirds of these titles are free (since they are now part of the public domain).

Continue reading Google Finally Launches Its eBooks Biz

Google Finally Launches Its eBooks Biz originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 06 Dec 2010 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Borders gets an e-book play with an investment in Kobo

Borders gets an e-book play with an investment in Kobo originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 16 Dec 2009 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Scribd: A threat to Amazon.com's e-book ambitions?

Scribd: A threat to Amazon.com's e-book ambitions? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 12 Jun 2009 15:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Amazon.com's (NASDAQ: AMZN) Kindle shows that there is a clear business opportunity in the e-book market. And Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) is taking notice.

According to the New York Times, the search-engine giant indicated at the BookExpo convention that it wants to make a grab for this market.

OK, Google won't launch a handheld device. Instead, the company wants to make it easy to sell e-books via its own website. With Google's current infrastructure, it should be relatively easy to pull this off. In fact, over the years the company has been scanning millions of books (although, this has raised concerns with the U.S. Justice Department).

Continue reading Google to move on Amazon's ebook franchise?

Google to move on Amazon's ebook franchise? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 01 Jun 2009 11:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

This post is part of AOL Money & Finance's Best & Worst in Money 2008 feature.

The digital revolution? The frugalista movement? Social networking? Or As-seen-on-TV products? 2008 has changed the landscape of how we recreate, communicate, shop, and dream. What product would you consider the Best Breakout Product of 2008?

Amazon Kindle

Amazon's (NASDAQ: AMZN) Kindle is not the first attempt to replace the paper book with an electronic reader, but it has succeeded (and how -- even now, over a year since its launch, the wait time for a new unit is a couple of months) where others failed for several reasons. The first is the reading experience. The Kindle's cutting-edge electronic paper technology provides crisp, clean print in any light conditions. The device is thin and light enough to carry anywhere, and can store hundreds of books at your fingertips.

The second reason for its success is the access to a huge library of literature, which can be accessed via a built-in wireless link (no computer needed) through the Sprint cell phone system. Virtually all new books are available in Kindle format, and many, many others (190,000 and counting). Top newspapers such as the New York Times also offer Kindle subscriptions, and schools are beginning to adopt it as the platform for electronic versions of textbooks. In the race to lead the transition to electronic books, Amazon's Kindle has broken free of the pack.

Continue reading Best & Worst in Money 2008: Breakout product of the year

Best & Worst in Money 2008: Breakout product of the year originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 04 Dec 2008 14:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Since the announcement on Oprah's television program that Suze Orman's financial advice book Money & Women would be available for free as an e-book from Oprah.com, more than a million copies in English have been downloaded, as well as an additional 19,000 in Spanish, according to a statement released Saturday. This puts it the same league as such other free download sensations as the 9-11 Commission Report and Stephen King's "Riding the Bullet."

Yet, the offer hasn't kept people from buying the version of Money & Women published by a division of Random House last year. The book was ranked number 6 on Amazon on Saturday, behind Oprah Book Club selection A New Earth and just ahead of Barack Obama's The Audacity of Hope. The 9-11 Commission Report remained a bestseller for months despite its availability for free online.

The big publishers remain skeptical about providing content for free online. While some see it as a valuable marketing tool, others suspect that it harms sales of traditional books. But the tide may be turning, albeit in baby steps. HarperCollins has announced plans to make available free electronic versions of some of its books, or portions thereof, the New York Times reported last week. They will not be downloadable, however.

Providing some free content is "like taking the shrink wrap off a book," said a spokesperson for HarperCollins, which will allow consumers to sample the content. "I didn't grow up buying every book I read," added fantasy novelist Neil Gaiman, author of some of the free content. "I read books at libraries, I read books at friend's houses, I read books that I found on people's window sills."

Suze Orman suggests that sales are a secondary concern for her in the Oprah offer. "This was not about getting people to buy the book, but getting them to read it, and that was the intention behind this offer."

Oprah Effect works for business books too -- especially when they're free originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sun, 17 Feb 2008 10:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Amazon.com ready to launch the Kindle?

Amazon.com ready to launch the Kindle? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 16 Nov 2007 12:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Amazon (AMZN) to unveil new e-book reader - the Kindle originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 07 Sep 2007 14:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.