5 reasons why independent bookstores shouldn't count too much on Google Editions

Wall Street Journal reported yesterday that Google "is in the final stages of launching its long-awaited e-book retailing venture, Google Editions, a move that could shake up the way digital books are sold" (more details in the video at the bottom).

According to the New York Times, "Google Editions will allow users to buy e-books from Google or from the Web sites of independent bookstores, which have yet to find a way to compete with Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Apple on the electronic front."

The American Booksellers Association (ABA) reported that more than 200 independent booksellers could sign up. It looks like booksellers are happy about this new option that for many of them wasn't available until now. It's a great addition to independent bookstores, but we believe independent bookstores shouldn't cont too much on Google Editions. Here's why:

1. Competition with Google and other sellers - According to the WSJ, "users will be able to buy books directly from Google or from multiple online retailers—including independent bookstores". It makes sense that most ebook buyers will just google the title they want to purchase and then go to the first result they receive on their search or the cheapest one. None of these will probably be independent bookstores. This sort of competition with Google itself and other sellers with more internet and SEO expertise means that most traffic to the independent stores' websites will be from their own loyal customers.

2. Google has no real incentive to support sales in Independent stores - Google is making more money of each sale made directly from Google, as they need to share the revenue with the bookstores if the purchase is made through their website. Therefore, Google doesn't have a real incentive to support sales in the stores and won't help them to win more sales as it will be eventually on Google's account.

3. It won't help their brick and mortar sales - Google Editions may provide them with some more income, but still far from compensating for the continuing decline in sales at the stores. It doesn't provide customers with any incentive to go to the stores and therefore doesn't help the owners in figuring out how to transform the stores from a liability back into an asset.

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4. Amazon will fight back - The main threat here is to established retailers like Amazon that will surely fight back to keep its customers at Amazon.com. And when the fight is between Google, with no experience whatsoever in online retailing and the independent bookstores on its side and Amazon, maybe the most successful online retailer, I'm not sure if I'd put my money on Google.

5. It's too small to stop the bleeding - Cathy Langer, the lead book buyer for the Tattered Cover bookstores in Denver, told Julie Bosman of the New York Times she had been waiting for the introduction of Google Editions with "great anticipation." “I always say that indies need to be players in all parts of the game, so this is going to be great to bring us into the e-book game in a reasonable, affordable way,” she said. “We would like to make a little money off of it. But we have got to stop the bleeding.” She's right - the Google Editions is no more than a small bandage given the relatively small market share (yet) of ebooks and the small chance this platform will bring new customers to the store. For the independent bookstores, the search after the right bandage is still far from an end.

Google's long-awaited Google Editions online bookstore appears closer to coming online. Rex Crum talks with Amir Efrati of the Wall Street Journal about what Google's entry means for the online book market.

For more information on Google Editions see the WSJ video with Rex Crum talks with Amir Efrati of the Wall Street Journal about what Google's entry means for the online book market:

More related articles:

Is there a future for Barnes & Noble and Borders bookstores? Is it a green one?, Eco-Libris Blog

Can monetary incentives + local benefits generate a brighter future for independent bookstores?, Eco-Libris Blog

You can find more resources on the future of bookstores on our website at www.ecolibris.net/bookstores_future.asp

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Promoting sustainable reading!

What 7 percent of the owners of Amazon Kindle are doing with their Kindle?

An interesting survey was published yesterday showing how the e-Reader market has essentially become a two horse race between the Amazon Kindle and the Apple iPad.

ChangeWave’s latest survey of more than 2,800 consumers found that the Amazon Kindle (47%; down 15-pts) is hanging on to a rapidly diminishing lead over the Apple iPad (32%; up 16-pts) among current e-Reader owners. However, the iPad’s share of the overall market has doubled since the last time ChangeWave surveyed e-Reader owners in August.

One of the interesting questions in the survey was 'Which of the following types of content do you currently read with your eBook Reader?' As you can see from the graph below with the results, only 76% of iPad owners read e-books with it. This is not a big surprise as only 10 days ago media and publishing market forecast firm Simba Information has estimated about 35% of iPad owners haven't used the devices to read e-books, based on the preliminary findings from a nationwide survey of over 1,800 respondents.

It just makes me wonder if we are really comparing here apples with apples or the iPad is actually an orange and shouldn't be compared with the Kindle, Nook and the rest of the e-readers.

What's even more interesting is the Kindle's reply with 93% reporting they read ebooks with their Kindle.

So I was wondering what the other 7% are doing with their Kindle? Is it just newspapers and magazines they read or they just have it but don't really like it? Any ideas?

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: plant a tree for every book you read!

3,000 trees will be planted in Africa for the Swedish edition of Muhammad Yunus' new book 'Building Social Business'

We are happy to announce on our latest collaboration with the Swedish publisher BookHouse Editions. We have the privilege of collaborating on a special book of a special author - 3,000 trees will be planted to balance out the Swedish edition of the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus' latest book: 'Building Social Business: The New Kind of Capitalism That Serves Humanity's Most Pressing Needs'.

The Swedish edition of 'Building Social Business' (In Swedish it is 'Socialt företagande') is released today by BookHouse Editions and can be purchased on their website. 3,000 trees will be planted with Eco-Libris in Malawi, Africa by our planting partner, RIPPLE Africa, on behalf of the publisher to balance out this edition. Inside the book you can also find our logo and details on our vision and operations.

This is the second book of Prof. Yunus we're collaborating on with BookHouse Editions. In 2008 we balanced out the Swedish edition of his book 'Creating a World Without Poverty: Social Business and the Future of Capitalism'.

What's the book about? (from the Yunus Centre's website):

This third book by Professor Yunus, following Banker to the Poor and Creating a World Without Poverty, is dedicated solely towards the concept of social business, its implementation, and its maintenance. Social business is an innovative business model which promotes the idea of doing business in order to address a social problem, and not to maximize profit. As the title suggests, this complement to traditional capitalism truly can serve humanity’s most pressing needs, especially poverty. Each and every social business creates employment, good working conditions, and of course, addresses a specific social ill such as lack of education, healthcare, and good nutrition.

In simple terms, a social business is a non-loss, non-dividend company dedicated entirely to achieve a social goal. In social business, the investor gets his investment money back over time, but never receives dividend beyond that amount. The Grameen Bank is a prime example of social business, with the Grameen borrowers themselves being its shareholders!

Building Social Business consists of case studies, anecdotes, and solid advice from Professor Yunus himself. This “Social Business Manual” is a must read for anyone who wants to use his or her creativity to make a positive impact in their neighborhood, town, country, and world.

About the author (from the Nobel Prize website): Professor Muhammad Yunus established the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh in 1983, fueled by the belief that credit is a fundamental human right. His objective was to help poor people escape from poverty by providing loans on terms suitable to them and by teaching them a few sound financial principles so they could help themselves.

From Dr. Yunus' personal loan of small amounts of money to destitute basketweavers in Bangladesh in the mid-70s, the Grameen Bank has advanced to the forefront of a burgeoning world movement toward eradicating poverty through microlending. Replicas of the Grameen Bank model operate in more than 100 countries worldwide.

Born in 1940 in the seaport city of Chittagong, Professor Yunus studied at Dhaka University in Bangladesh, then received a Fulbright scholarship to study economics at Vanderbilt University. He received his Ph.D. in economics from Vanderbilt in 1969 and the following year became an assistant professor of economics at Middle Tennessee State University. Returning to Bangladesh, Yunus headed the economics department at Chittagong University.

From 1993 to 1995, Professor Yunus was a member of the International Advisory Group for the Fourth World Conference on Women, a post to which he was appointed by the UN secretary general. He has served on the Global Commission of Women's Health, the Advisory Council for Sustainable Economic Development and the UN Expert Group on Women and Finance.

This is a very interesting book on a fascinating subject that is relevant more than ever - the social business model and its potential to harness the entrepreneurial spirit to address poverty, hunger, and disease. Certainly worth reading, and if you can't read Swedish, you can check out the English version of the book published by Public Affairs.

In this video you can see Muhammad Yunus talking with Tina Brown of the Daily Beast about his book:

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: plant a tree for every book you read!

What are you buying this holiday season: a paper book or an e-book?

No matter what choice you make (although if you choose e-books we recommend to check out post on which e-reader is the greenest one), we would like to offer you to green up your gift with Eco-Libris!

Yes, Eco-Libris has a special offer for you: Plant trees to balance out the books your loved ones read. We will send them a beautiful holiday card and Eco-Libris stickers to display on their books’ sleeves. Just change the shipping address on the PayPal payment page to the address of the gift receiver (or send us a separate email to info@ecolibris.net with the details) and we will take care of the rest!

If you're buying books as gifts, you can also add the stickers and the card, making it a great green gift (And if you're looking for an idea for a "green" book, you can find plenty of ideas on our green books campaign).

The holiday greeting cards we send are made by Doodle Greetings (see picture abvoe). Not only these cards come with a beautiful design, but they are also eco-friendly - printed on 100% post-consumer recycled paper and are made chlorine-free and acid free. Sounds like a good fit with Eco-Libris stickers, which are also made of recycled paper!

This is also very affordable gift offer, starting from $6.50 for 5 trees/stickers and a holiday card!
Interested? go to our holidays gift page and check it out.

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Promoting green reading!

Award finalist for Mind Body Spirit Children's Book published by our Aussie partner Pick-a-WooWoo!

We just got great news from our partner, the Australian publisher Pick-a-WooWoo, announcing that their book KC the Conscious Camel was a finalist in the Mind Body Spirit Category for Children - 2010 Best Books, USA Book News Awards.

Kudos to Pick-a-WooWoo! KC the CONSCIOUS CAMEL is a story of being conscious of your own emotions and of employing spirituality and personal power to be the best that you can be. It even shows the children how to do this through meditating.

Eco-Libris is collaborating with Pic-a-WooWoo to plant trees for most their recent titles. 625 trees for were planted for KC the Conscious Camel.

Here's some more information about the book:

When K.C.'s dear friend, Sticky the Pig, is ridiculed by the class bully, Ginger the Red Fox, for an unfortunate mud puddle incident, KC shares with Sticky the tools to owning an emotion and then moving beyond it. KC demonstrates the need for acting instead of reacting. Throughout the day, the precocious camel points out opportunities for he and his friends to tune in to their inner peace, joy, and unconditional love. KC shows them how to stay connected to these productive and positive emotions through meditation.

KC and his classmates ultimately demonstrate to their teacher and to each other that they are capable of complex spiritual evolution...and a harmonious day on the playground!

Author: Suzanne McRae
Illustrator: Alexander Mortimer

More information on other titles published by Pick-a-Woo Woo can be found on their website - http://www.pickawoowoo.com

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Promoting sustainable reading!

Which e-reader is the greenest one - Kobo, Sony, Nook or the Kindle? An holiday gift buyer's guide

Black Friday is a good time to get to the second part in our analysis of purchasing an e-reader as a gift this holiday season. In the first part we discussed the question in which cases it can be considered an eco-friendly gift. Today we try to determine which e-reader is the greenest one.

We compared 4 popular e-readers - Amazon Kindle Wireless, Barnes & Noble Nook Wi-Fi, Kobo Wireless and Sony Reader Pocket Edition. As you can see we didn't include the iPad, as even after the discounts Apple is offering now, it costs $458, which I guess makes it less likely that it will become a popular gift. The other 4 e-readers cost $100-$150, which is a more reasonable pricing for a gift.

One obstacle we had is the lack of information. Unfortunately, the only company that publishes a detailed environmental report on its eReader is Apple. Therefore some important information that can change the results is still missing and we hope it will be available soon. We believe it is the responsibility of the companies selling these e-readers not just to provide quality products, but also to be more transparent and provide customers with information on the e-readers' environmental and social impacts.

We compared the characteristics of the 4 e-readers in 11 categories. Each e-reader that won a category got 1 point. In couple of categories there were more than one winner (for example, recycling) and then each of them received one point. So without further due let's go to the results:

Kindle - 4 points for winning the categories of battery life, ability of user to replace the battery, memory (storage) and recycling.

Sony - 4 points for winning the categories of weight, ability of user to replace the battery, availability of book lending from libraries and recycling.

Kobo - 3 points for winning the categories of ability of user to replace the battery, availability of book lending from libraries and toxins.

Nook - 2 points for winning the categories of capability to loan ebooks to friends and availability of book lending from libraries.

So technically the Kindle and Sony Reader share the first place, but among the two, the Kindle has better results as the 2 points Sony Reader got for ability of user to replace the battery and availability of book lending from libraries do not actually have any environmental impacts (they are more socially-oriented, which is also important, but at the same time do not have any influence on the footprint of the device).

The full comparison can be found at http://www.ecolibris.net/holidayguide.asp

So the bottom line is this: We still know too little on the environmental impact of e-readers, but from what we do know, if you went through the test we offered last week and still thinks e-reader would be a good fit for the person you want to buy it to, then from a green point of view the Kindle is your best choice.

More resources on the e-Books vs. physical books environmental debate can be found on our website at www.ecolibris.net/ebooks.asp.

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Promoting Sustainable Reading!

Borders is closing stores, adding Google tools and teaming with MeetUp - Is this a winning strategy? Probably not..

I read yesterday on GalleyCat that Borders Group plans to close 17 Borders superstores nationwide after the holidays including one in Michigan. They also mentioned that Borders announced "they will use Google’s Local Availability tool and Meetup Everywhere to create a more interactive shopping experience."

The reason Borders is taking these steps is obvious - Borders is in trouble (On the second quarter Borders Group lost $46.7 million - this was the fifth time in six quarters they posted a loss) and is trying to cut costs and find a strategy that will transform its brick and mortar stores back into an asset.

But is using Google's Local Availability feature and teeming with Meetup the strategy that will make Borders' remaining stores stronger and revive the company's profitability? I don't think so.

Mike Edwards, CEO of Borders explained these steps in their press release:

"Borders has recently introduced a number of customer-focused programs designed to create an exceptional shopping experience both in-store and online. Google's Local Availability feature is yet another great service we're offering that enables our customers to quickly search for a book at their local Borders store. We're making it easier than ever for customers to find the perfect gift when they are on the go this holiday season.

We're also excited to team with Meetup to provide our customers with the ability to find our enriching in-store events and organize their own activities at Borders. Our stores are natural community hubs, where our customers gather together to celebrate books — our participation in Meetup will be a great avenue for fostering an even stronger sense of community around the joy of reading."

The Google feature can be valuable, but it has more potential to boost online sales rather than sales at stores. The collaboration with Meetup is also a nice idea, but Borders stores as 'natural community hubs'? somehow it sounds more natural when we're talking about local independent bookstores and not stores that belong to the second largest book retailer in the U.S. I can understand why Borders wants to become a local hub, but I really don't think it will happen as is not a natural part of Borders' DNA, no matter how you look at it.

In all, my conclusion is that Borders is still far from having a solid strategy for its brick and mortar stores. They're trying, no doubt about that, and it looks like they're even trying harder than B&N, but it's not enough. To maintain their position in the book retail market they'll have to come up with a much better strategy. Until then, we'll probably see more Borders stores closing.

More related articles:
Is there a future for Barnes & Noble and Borders bookstores? Is it a green one?, Eco-Libris Blog

Can monetary incentives + local benefits generate a brighter future for independent bookstores?, Eco-Libris Blog

You can find more resources on the future of bookstores on our website at www.ecolibris.net/bookstores_future.asp

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Promoting sustainable reading!

Yours,