The scale of Wikipedia in print

NPR has a story about a group that is looking to create a print copy of Wikipedia to allow people to see a physical representation of how big Wikipedia is. Here is the estimate of how big a print version of Wikipedia would be - One thousand volumes, 1,200 pages each — more than one million pages in all — about 80 meters of shelf space.

The article has this additional quote about Wikipedia - "Nobody can imagine this number. It's only when you see this in print or in a physical form that you realize how large it really is."

What is ironic is that when you get this in physical form it is really not that big. The following picture shows a range of books in a library. In this picture there are 771 volumes. Each volume is 1300 - 1500 pages. If we use the low end of the page range and take that times the number of volumes - 771 volumes X 1300 pages = 1,002,300 pages.

Admittedly this is bigger than your average set of printed encyclopedias. So comparing the picture above to the picture below you get the difference between Wikipedia and a regular encyclopedia set.

But to the scale of a library Wikipedia is not that huge.

Synchronicity bookshelf

Synchronicity bookshelf 

 Go to your local library and randomly select several books. I have found 5 to be a number that works well. Then you check the books out and browse them during the checkout period. If you really enjoy the book you are welcome to read the entire book but you can also just reads portions of a book. Reading portions allows you to learn about things you might not have otherwise read about. The idea is to be exposed to new things.

Why do I call it a Synchronicity bookshelf?

Synchronicity is the experience of two or more events as meaningfully related, whereas they are unlikely to be causally related. The subject sees it as a meaningful coincidence, although the events need not be exactly simultaneous in time. (Definition from Wikipedia)

I have had numerous occasions where the brief blurbs I have read from a book have been useful in a conversation or project. What I find odd/humorous is that the smallest things I have pulled from a book become amazingly relevant.

Here is my one of my best examples of that. One time when I was selecting books one of the books that I picked up was a cultural dictionary. The idea behind the dictionary was to lay out the major terms and concepts that someone should be aware of as part of our culture.

I had opened the dictionary and read one entry. The entry was on the Summa Theologica, one of the best known works of Thomas Aquinas. The dictionary was doing it's job because before that moment I did not know anything about the Summa Theologica. The next day a person comes into the library and says to me that they are working on an analysis of Summa Theologica. I respond, "Ohh the major work of Thomas Aquinas." The person thought I was extremely knowledgeable because I knew about the Summa Theologica. I did disclose to them that I had only learned about it the day before.

Here are my current 5 synchronicity books:

The Art of Cruelty
Learned about Marina Abramović and her performance art - Rhythm 0
Book was not just about Ms. Abramovic but other artist as well.

The Octagon House Inventory
Book list octagon houses around the country. I learned about this book from the inventory book - The Octagon House: A Home for All. I even saw an octagon house in another city that I don't think I would have noticed. I was in another state visiting friends and while driving through the city I noticed what I thought was an octagon house. When I got home I looked at the octagon house inventory and the house was listed with a picture. The house was not in a prominent place so had I not read this book I don't think I ever would have noticed it.


My Secret Life on the McJob
I have read almost all of this book and will likely finish it. It is about a business professor that gets jobs at fast food restaurants to gain inside information on the businesses. It has been an interesting read so far. One major take away point is that fast food work is hard work and you should appreciate the people that work at these businesses.

The most they ever had
Book is about the people that worked in the textile mills. The parts of the book I have looked at so far focus on the closing of the mills in the late 20th century and the impact this had on the people. I found the book very engrossing and after reading it I felt a connection with these communities.

The Deviant's Advantage
This was the book out of the five that I thought I would pull the neatest things from. Currently I have not really connected with any of the sections of this book. The author created a term "devox" that is the voice, spirit, or incarnation of deviant ideas, products, and individuals. Really did not that they presented this concept very well. Term is mentioned all through the book but the description I listed above is the extent they seem to explain the term.

Availability of these books outside the library
Out of the 5 books the only one that I did not see on Amazon at all was the octagon house book  Not only are there no copies available but there is no record for the book at all. The book does show in Worldcat. Some things you can only get at your library. Three of the 5 books can be obtained as ebooks. The book - The most they ever had - is available for less than $6 as an ebook.

Additional comments on the Synchronicity bookshelf
If you try this; remember you do not need to read the entire book. You just look at each book to the extent that you want. I think it is useful to at least look over the table of contents, read the first and last chapter, and read anything you noticed in the table of contents that catches your interest. But in the end you make the rules and you engage with each book to the extent it keeps your interest.

Additional comments on selecting books
One major idea that I try to incorporate is that I am trying to look at books that I would not necessarily have looked at otherwise because the goal is to discover new things. When I am browsing library shelves I don't want to pick just what catches my eye because I may be picking things that are related to ideas I am already very familiar with. One way to address this is that I will go into a row and mentally pick out a location like - 3rd stack, one shelf from the top, and the third book from the left on the shelf. I then find that book and check it out. Then the selection is not because I found the cover pretty or the topic was something I knew. Because I usually select 5 books I use a little different process for each book. Usually two of the books are selected by the physical method location I just discussed but I will also pick some of the books by looking for ones that look interesting to me. The idea is to get a diversity of books to explore.

Fiction vs. Nonfiction
Personally I usually select just nonfiction books but I think it can be a good idea to select books from both areas.

Amazon might lose interest in total hegemony over the book business before they achieve it

The industry got the news that Amazon was probably reassessing its own publishing program a couple of weeks ago when it was announced that Laurence Kirshbaum was stepping down as the head of Amazon Publishing and being replaced by a 14-year veteran of the Seattle company, Daphne Durham. Whatever are Durham’s strengths and connections, they don’t include the familiarity with the New York publishing scene and agents that Kirshbaum brought.

While this certainly does not suggest an overall reduction in Amazon’s publishing activity, it does signal a change in tactics. It would appear that the unorganized but united stand by Barnes & Noble and independent bookstores to boycott Amazon-published titles and refuse to give them shelf space made it virtually impossible for Amazon’s publishing enterprise to compete with the big houses for brand name authors. The few that they tried — Penny Marshall and Timothy Ferriss wrote the high-profile titles that were watched — had disappointing results. Whether that was largely because the stores wouldn’t play along or for other reasons (not all books by famous authors or celebrities are equally edited or equally appealing), the overall environment did not leave agents or the authors everybody wants panting for an Amazon publishing deal.

Full piece at - The Shatzkin Files

Indie Bookstores Don't Take Kindly To Amazon's Kindle Offer

Amazon is asking independent bookstores to sell Kindles in exchange for 10 percent of the revenue from ebooks bought on the devices for two years. But the offer, under a program called Amazon Source, has been met with widespread derision.

This and other book news at the following NPR piece.

Hunt for Red October

Tom Clancy's first novel, The Hunt for Red October, was published by Naval Institute Press. This was the first novel ever printed by the press. Prior to this they only published nonfiction.

I wanted to share a little piece of trivia that would let you spot a true first edition of this book. On the back of the dust jacket there are blurbs giving recommendations. The true first edition has six blurbs. Later printings had eight blurbs on the back.

See this picture for a Naval Institute Press edition with the eight blurbs.

On used book seller sites you may come across people selling first editions of this book for $900-$1500. If the book has six blurbs on the back cover you have a true first edition / first printing.

House of Cards

Netflix purchases the rights to stream movies and television shows. If the owners of the rights decide to significantly raise prices or to not do business with Netflix the existence of Netflix streaming is in jeopardy  One strategy that Netflix is employing to address this problem is to create their own content. They spent $100 million to fund the series "House of Cards."

By owning the content Netflix can protect itself in different ways. The price cannot be raised for content they own and they can also keep content away from their competitors. Netflix is a subscription service and unique content can be used to draw new customers to the service.

In regards to ebooks libraries have similar problems to Netflix. Some publishers refuse to make ebooks available to libraries while others have significantly raised cost of accessing ebooks by libraries.

What if libraries had a "House of Cards?" If a consortium of libraries purchased the exclusive rights to a book they could draw users with this content. The book would not have to be restricted to the ebook format. Libraries could also have the book in print as part of library collections.

Penguin to Expand E-Book Lending

Major book publishers and libraries have been sparring for months over acceptable terms for making e-books available for lending. From time to time, they find some common ground.

The Penguin Group plans to announce on Monday that it is expanding its e-book lending program to libraries in Los Angeles and Cleveland and surrounding areas though a new distribution partner. In a pilot program that will begin this year, Penguin has worked with Baker & Taylor, a distributor of print and digital books, to start e-book lending programs in the Los Angeles County library system, which will reach four million people, and the Cuyahoga County system in Ohio.

Full article

E-reading still quite feasible without steady power supply

Teleread story about using an ebook reader due to the power outage caused by Hurricane Sandy.

I came home from the Charleston Conference with a couple of new thoughts

Publishing consultant Mike Shatzkin has this commentary after attending the Charleston Conference: I came home from the Charleston Conference with a couple of new thoughts

Librarian ‘Rules for Reading’ from 1937

Librarian Christian Sheehy posted some “Rules for Reading” she discovered in library archives from 1937.

Why Knockoffs Are Good For The Fashion Industry

Piece on NPR about knockoffs and the fashion industry. 

During New York Fashion Week, designers will present looks that you might find in a department store next spring ... or, as knockoffs at Forever 21. That's because copying fashion designs is perfectly legal — and that's a good thing, if you ask Kal Raustiala.

Raustiala is the co-author of a new book called The Knockoff Economy: How Imitation Sparks Innovation. He talks with NPR's Renee Montagne about who copies fashion designs, why it's legal and how copying ultimately benefits the consumer and the industry.

Your friendly logger says, "Buy the real thing - real books printed on real paper."

In 2000 Microsoft put out a timeline predicting what would happen the next 20 years with ebooks. It is now 2012 and you can see the prediction for 2012 below.

________________________________________

2000- Microsoft's Reader software for PCs and laptops ships. Customers buy more than one million eBook titles the first year it is available.

2002- PCs and eBook devices offer screens that are as sharp as paper, with 200 dpi physical resolution, and an effective resolution of about 500 dpi with ClearType.

2003- eBook devices weigh less than a pound and run for eight hours on a charge. Costs run from $99 for a simple black and white device to about $899 for the most powerful, color magazine-sized machine.

2004- The Tablet PC becomes a mainstream option for computing. It is a pad-sized device that supports writing as well as eBook reading, and runs powerful computer applications in a slate form factor. More than half of all eReading is done on PCs and laptops, but dedicated eBooks, handheld machines and now Tablets account for the other half.

2005- eBook title and ePeriodical sales top $1 billion. Many serial publications are given away free with advertising support that now also totals more than $1 billion. An estimated 250 million people regularly read books and newspapers on their PCs, laptops, and palm machines.

2006- eNewstands (kiosks) proliferate on street corners, airports, etc. As usual, airlines offer customers old magazines on the flight, but the magazines are now downloaded to eBook devices.

2008- eBook titles begin to outsell conventional volumes in most countries. The price of a new bestseller title is about $8-$10, but unit sales are much larger than average paper sales for similar titles a decade ago.

2009- Several top authors now publish directly to their audiences, many of whom subscribe to their favorite authors rather than buy book-by-book. Some authors join genre cooperatives, in which they hold an ownership stake, to cover the costs of marketing, handle group advertising sales and sell "ancillary" (that is, non-electronic) rights, including "paper rights." Major publishing houses survive and prosper by offering authors editing and marketing services, rather than arranging for book printing. Printing firms diversify into eBook preparation and converting old paper titles to electronic formats.

2010- Popular eBook devices weigh eight ounces, run for more than 24 hours, offer beautiful non-backlit displays, are available in flexible/foldable form factors, and hold more books and magazines than most university libraries. They cost less than $100 and are often given away free with the purchase of several books or a magazine subscription.

2011- Advances in non-volatile chip storage, including Hitachi's Single Electron terabit chip, allow eBooks to store 4 million books - more than many university libraries - or every newspaper ever printed in America.

2012- The pulp industry mounts its pro-paper "Real Books" ad campaign, featuring a friendly logger who urges consumers to "Buy the real thing - real books printed on real paper." 

2018- In common parlance, eBook titles are simply called "books." The old kinds are increasingly called "paper books."

2020- Ninety percent of all titles are now sold in electronic rather than paper form. Webster alters its First Definition of "book" to mean, "a substantial piece of writing commonly displayed on a computer or other personal viewing device.".

Getting books to #1 on Amazon

This book (Wicked Success Is Inside Every Woman) is currently #1 on Amazon. Amazon maintains a page of books that are movers and shakers and this book has moved up the most of any book I have ever seen. It went from a sales rank of 335,530 to 1. Amazon list this as an improvement of 33,553,000% increase.

A few things to note. The book is published by Wiley and at least once a year a motivational or get rich quick book published by Wiley jumps to #1 on Amazon. Here are two other titles that have done this in previous years:

Multi-Family Millions: How Anyone Can Reposition Apartments for Big Profits


Bailout Riches!: How Everyday Investors Can Make a Fortune Buying Bad Loans for Pennies on the Dollar

What surprises me is that they clearly have a system to kick books to #1 on Amazon. If they offered to sell this method it would be more useful than some of the fly by night get rich quick schemes being peddled by these books.

Like the other Wiley books the Wicked Success book has some similar characteristics. If you run searches online looking for media attention that might be driving the sales of these books you find none. One thing I have noticed with all these books is that they are able to go to #1 on the day they are released or the day before they are released. One of the other books mentioned above had gone to #1 and all you could do was pre-order it. I think the trick they do is order a thousand copies before the book is officially on sale on Amazon. This pushes the book up to #1 then they cancel all the orders. Amazon reflects orders into the sales rank within an hour or so of a sale so you would get the benefit of the sale for sales rank even if you cancelled the order. I am a little surprised that Amazon has not found a way to keep people from gaming the system like this.

Various models of a Netflix style book collection on Amazon

Some news reports have been announcing that Amazon is considering creating a Netflix style program for ebooks.

See:
Amazon eyes Netflix for e-books: A move to get more Prime subscribers

or

Amazon as a 'Netflix for Books'? How Reading Changes

I wanted to look at some of the options that Amazon could take in regards to creating a Netflix style book collection.

Model 1: Amazon would have a collection of several thousand books. People would pay a separate monthly fee to access this collection. If you pay the fee you have full access to the books in the collection. You could open and read any book in the collection while you are a member.

Model 2: Amazon would have a collection of several thousand books. People would pay a separate monthly fee to access this collection. You could access a selected number of books per month. Number you could access would likely be 2-3 books per month.

Model 3: Same as Model 2 but the 2-3 books you “access” would be yours to read in perpetuity on your Kindle. In Model 2 when you cancel your plan you would no longer have access to the books. In Model 3 the books you select you could continue to read after the plan ends.

Model 4: Amazon users that paid a monthly fee could access any two Kindle books per month including new releases. Example: You pay Amazon $10 per month. A new Kindle ebook is released and it cost $14.99. As a member of the plan you could read this book for no additional cost beyond your monthly subscription fee. Every month you could select any two books to read as part of the plan. Model 4 is different from Model 3 in that you would not be limited from selecting Kindle books from a specific pool but could select any Kindle book. I would assume that there would be some kind of limits. For example textbooks would likely be excluded from this plan.

Comments:
From some of the news stories I have read it sounds like Amazon is leaning towards Model 2. I am assuming that they are leaning towards this model because it would be less threatening to publishers.

I think that publishers would be fairly safe with Model 1 because you can physically look at only so many books per month. If you did not have access to the collection when you were not a member there would not be a fear about someone getting a 1 month subscription, downloading a thousand books, and then cancelling their subscription. On Netflix if you cancel your subscription you no longer have access to the collection. Models 1 and 2 reflect this Netflix style. (I would argue that Model 1 is closest to what Netflix currently has) Model 3 and 4 would allow having access to the books even after you were not a member. Neither Model 3 nor 4 allow you to download a huge number of books so there is not too much possibility for abuse.

Questions:

What model would you like to see Amazon adopt?

Have you thought of a model that is not listed?

What impact do you think this will have on publishing, book prices, and libraries?

The Pale King

To publicize the release of “The Pale King,” a posthumously published novel by David Foster Wallace that is set in an Internal Revenue Service processing center, Hachette Book Group created a marketing campaign centered on the traditional tax day: April 15.

Except that’s not really when it went on sale.

Amazon and Barnes & Noble were selling the book on their Web sites on Wednesday, long before many bookstores would receive copies. Nicole Dewey, a spokeswoman for Little, Brown, part of Hachette, said the official on-sale date for the book was March 22, but the publication date — when the book is available everywhere — remained April 15. (A countdown clock on the Hachette Web site ticks away the days, hours and minutes until April 15.)

“I don’t really understand the confusion,” Ms. Dewey said. “This happens all the time. There’s nothing unusual about it.”

Full article in the NYT

Judge Sets Trial Date in Georgia State University E-Reserves Lawsuit

Buried beneath the news of the Google Settlement’s rejection last week, a federal judge in Georgia has paved the way for publishers to go to trial in a contentious copyright case involving e-reserve practices at Georgia State University. On March 17, Judge Orinda Evans denied a GSU motion to dismiss the final count in the suit, setting May 16th as a trial date. The order comes after Evans denied all three of the publishers’ motions for summary judgment, while granting two of three GSU motions to dismiss, in October, 2010. She allowed the action to proceed on a single, more narrowly drawn charge of contributory infringement.

Full article at Publisher's Weekly

Kindlefish Turns Kindle Into Worldwide Translator

The 3G Kindle is The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Sure, you can read books on it, but with its web browser, you can also access Wikipedia from anywhere in the world. Until now, though, there was one thing it didn’t do so well — translation. That has been fixed by Kindlefish, made by Gadget Lab reader Nicholas.

Nicholas found that Google Translate is badly suited to the e-reader’s admittedly limited web browser. “Standard Google Translate doesn’t work for the Kindle,” he writes on his blog, “and the mobile Google Translate page returns text that is too small to be easily read, and a little clunky for use on the Kindle.”

To get around this, he wrote a new front-end called Kindlefish, a homage to the universally translating Babelfish from Douglas Adams’ five-part Hitchhiker’s trilogy. The interface is simple, letting you set three preferred languages for quick access, and one input language (English by default). You just type your phrase on the Kindle’s little keyboard and hit the “Translate” button.

Full article at Wired.com

Conn. Prisons Agency To Review Library Books

The state Department of Correction will review its library collections after learning that Steven Hayes, convicted in the 2007 Cheshire home invasion, read books in prison depicting violent murders and the burning of victims.
The new rules for Connecticut's prison libraries will be in place around July 1.

Full article.

What is the value of book?

How much do you think a good story is worth?  I don't mean a book necessarily since books can be collectible and that's not what I am getting at here, but how much do you think a novel length story is worth?

When deciding this you might compare the value of the read vs. other entertainments such as the cost of a movie rental? The price of a video game? The cost of a newspaper or magazine? The drop in fee for a local gym or that knitting class at the community center?  For me the value varies wildly depending on how much I enjoy (or expect to enjoy) the book.

With that in mind I have been thinking about the current "race to the bottom" debate in e-publishing that has been raging on the blogosphere. For those of you who are unaware it essentially boils down (in an inelegant way) to publishers claiming that self published authors are going to ruin publishing by offering eBooks at rock bottom prices; while the self-published authors are claiming that large publishing houses are bloated profiteers.

Full blog post at Bookfinder

The Three Largest Bookselling Chains Mapped

Publisher's Weekly has a map of the store locations of the three largest booksellers.