Vice President / Principal Analyst at Forrester Research
and author of the forthcoming Digital Disruption: Unleashing the Next Wave of Innovation
Interview Starts at 11:46
Trying to sue your way through into the future has not worked so far, and I think that’s what the book publishers learned. They could very easily have dug in their heels when digital started to finally catch up to them in 2008, but they didn’t. Instead they jumped into the future and attempted as best they could to say “What does my customer really need, and how do I give them more of it?” And that’s really the way you approach digital disruption, regardless of what industry you’re in. And I think book publishers are to be commended for–yes, even though they had a few misgivings–they still jumped into it with both feet in the best interest of the reading public.
Show Notes and Links
News
Amazon press release (1/23/13) announcing that Paperwhite and Kindle now available to customers in Canada
Amazon press release (1/24/13) announcing acquisition of IVONA Software
Macmillan to begin eBook library lending pilot - Publishers Weekly story
OverDrive press release
Tech Tips
Kindle Paperwhite update to 5.3.3
Kindle Software update to version 4.1.1
James McQuivey Interview
James’s blog at Forrester Research
Digital Disruption: Unleashing the Next Wave of Innovation by James McQuivey – $7.99 for Kindle preorder, delivery on 2/26/13
Zeo sleep monitor
Books on disruption by HBS Prof. Clayton Christensen
Content
YouTube video of James Blanco’s Inaugural poem, “One Today”
Los Angeles Times’s coverage of Inaugural poem
Place of Mind chapbook of Richard Blanco’s poem, Kindle edition for $3.99
Guns by Stephen King, a 99-cent Kindle Single
“What Technology Wants” by Kevin Kelly – Citia free sample at iTunes store for iOS devices
“What Technology Wants” by Kevin Kelly – full Citia app for $9.99 at iTunes store for iOS devices
The Fear Project: What Our Most Primal Emotion Taught Me About Surfing…and Love by Jaimal Yogis
Comments
Amazon AutoRip for books? - Business Insider story on 1/10/13
An innovative bookstore promo for Kobo
Music
Music for my podcast is from an original Thelonius Monk composition named “Well, You Needn’t.” The usual version is “Ra-Monk” by Eval Manigat on the “Variations in Time: A Jazz Persepctive” CD by Public Transit Recording” CD, courtesy of IODA Promonet.
This week’s outro music: “Well You Needn’t” performed by Jon Sass and Sabine Hasicka for Tuba and Tap Dancing - YouTube video uploaded by louieshotpants
Upcoming Interviews
TKC 235 Next week: Peter Meyers, vice president, editorial & content innovation at Semi-Linear (creator of Citia app)
TKC 236 on Feb. 3 Feb 8: Jamail Yogis, author of The Fear Project: What Our Most Primal Emotion Taught Me About Surfing…and Love
TKC 237 on Feb 10 Feb 15: “Kindles in Paradise” – a conversation with my wife Darlene on St. John, USVI
Kindle Fire Sweepstakes
Next week I will award my slightly used Kindle Fire 7″ to someone selected at random who leaves feedback about this episode or the podcast in general. You can leave your feedback as a comment on this post or you can email it to me at PodChronicles AT Gmail DOT com. I look forward to hearing from you!
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Comments 34
Len, you forgot to mention in the show notes that King’s Single “Guns” is available for Free on the Kindle Lending Library for Amazon Prime members, unless they want to pay the 0.99 and have it go to the charity cause.
Posted 26 Jan 2013 at 3:56 am ¶Len Love the Pod cast! Always look forward to see what you have up for the next one. Very informative. Keep up the good work!
Posted 26 Jan 2013 at 6:49 am ¶Stephen, thanks for pointing that out!
Posted 26 Jan 2013 at 8:20 am ¶Hi Len, I really like the mix of info you provide in a short time-have you on my Kindle and computer. A shout out for Amazon-they provided a mp3 for a CD I bought in 2009! per the new “autorip”
Posted 26 Jan 2013 at 11:53 am ¶Thanks, Renee. That’s pretty amazing – to receive a free mp3 for a CD bought four years ago. If Amazon does that with books we will be happy campers!
Posted 26 Jan 2013 at 11:56 am ¶I appreciate that, Michelle. Good to hear from you!
Posted 26 Jan 2013 at 11:57 am ¶Thanks for the show as always Len. Keep up the good work. And I agree. If Amazon would give us Kindle versions of all the books we have bought over the years, I would be a very happy camper!
Posted 26 Jan 2013 at 12:07 pm ¶Me too, Brett. I hope that I have a chance to see you this summer if my visits with Jeff Bezos turn into an annual celebration of the TKC anniversary in July!
Posted 26 Jan 2013 at 12:35 pm ¶Hi, Len. Longtime podcast listener here. I’m on my 3rd Kindle (now a Paperwhite). Wondering why it takes so long to get a software update. I let it update via wifi because it’s easier (for me). It always takes several weeks or even months after an update is announced. My wifi is always on. I wish there was an option under the settings tab to click “update now”. I’m sure there’s a reason that option isn’t available but a girl can dream
Posted 27 Jan 2013 at 7:57 am ¶Thanks for a great podcast and the chance to win your Kindle Fire.
TKC value is measured by Word of Mouth. I point a few people to all or part of the weekly on a regular basis. The omnibus mix of tech, literary, a personal topics is appealing. Keep up your quest for better reading and thinking experiences on this road of life.
Posted 27 Jan 2013 at 8:58 am ¶Len, the book you mentioned last week APE, is being reissued after initial publication, appears to be a major rewrite of the book. What’s going on?
Posted 27 Jan 2013 at 10:25 am ¶I love your podcast and look forward to it each Friday. I pick it up on Stitcher.
You’ve got a great interview style; the podcasts are always informative and your choice of guests give an added depth to each program.
Thanks for all of the work you do to get it on air.
Therese Flanagan
Posted 27 Jan 2013 at 11:58 am ¶What’s going on with APE? The APE is being reissued on as required basis to quickly reflect the changes in the publishing industry…kinda like a “live blog”…you think?
Posted 27 Jan 2013 at 12:24 pm ¶Mary, that’s a great idea – to have the option to update by WiFi from a menu. Perhaps this would result in crashing the system, if everyone chose to activate at the same time. By rolling it out in waves there may be system efficiencies. I will pose this idea to the next person at Amazon I have a chance to interview. Thanks!
Posted 27 Jan 2013 at 1:25 pm ¶Well said, Guven. I appreciate your support on the quest!
Posted 27 Jan 2013 at 1:27 pm ¶I’m not sure, Tom. I did see Guy Kawasaki at Google+ saying how happy he was that Amazon was able to issue an update so quickly. My hunch is that he is a perfectionist on typos and any other errors and that he heard about enough of them in the early days after publication that he wanted to fix them. It’s too bad there isn’t a way to see the new material highlighted when you update the book. Also, I learned that I couldn’t get the update because I had borrowed APE through Kindle Owners’ Lending Library. There is a glitch in the system, because they emailed me about the update even though I couldn’t get it without buying the book, which I did. It’s a fantastic resource, IMO.
Posted 27 Jan 2013 at 1:30 pm ¶Thanks, Therese. I am impressed with Stitcher and am glad you are able to listen to TKC with it. I’ve been interviewing people ever since I published a neighborhood weekly called The Claypit Flyer in Wayland, Mass., when I was 8 years old, so whatever interview style I have has been developed over a long time. Every time I’m getting ready to connect with someone for an interview I feel lucky to have found this way to learn and share new experiences. Good to hear from you!
Posted 27 Jan 2013 at 1:35 pm ¶I will try to find out more about this, Tom. Good question. (Also see reply to earlier comment below.)
Posted 27 Jan 2013 at 1:36 pm ¶I must say I am surprised by the statement from James McQuivey, that starting in 2008, when digital started to catch up to them they(the publishers) “jumped into it with both feet in the best interest of the reading public”. If that were true then why did the U.S. Department of Justice feel it was necessary to sue Apple and the biggest publishers for conspiring to fix prices. They (the publishers and Apple) tried to deal with it in a very old fashioned way by rigging the game in their favor” They were not looking out for us!
Posted 27 Jan 2013 at 5:03 pm ¶That’s a fair point, John. McQuivey might respond that, even in the midst of that high-profile screwup by the publishers, the Big 6 had plenty of people working on digital books, preparing a way forward for the industry that aligned better with customer’s evolving reading patterns. I was a bit surprised that he took such a sanguine view of the industry myself, but I was also surprised to see what publishers are actually doing in this space that’s creative and of benefit to digital readers.
Posted 27 Jan 2013 at 5:50 pm ¶I have not had a chance to use a Kindle Paperwhite. How does the Kindle Paperwhite experience compare with the Kindle Fire experience for reading books if you turn the brightness on the Fire all the way down in low light or no light situations. P.S. I would love to win the Kindle Fire you mentioned on your show. Thanks!
Posted 27 Jan 2013 at 7:59 pm ¶John, one difference is the Fire weighs a lot more so is not as comfortable for reading in bed, I’ve found. In low light or darkness, I used to us an app to dim the Fire screen even further than its minimum; not sure if that’s true of the latest Fires. Probably. Paperwhite slider for front light gives you more control to adjust brightness in dark settings.
Posted 27 Jan 2013 at 10:06 pm ¶Your name is in the hat. Seventeen now entered, so odds are decent. I plan to have Darlene draw the winner in a video I will post on Wednesday. Good luck!
@Mary – its probably best to download the update file for your Kindle from the Amazon update site and manually updating it yourself as it does take a long while for them to push ou the updates, sadly.
Posted 27 Jan 2013 at 11:40 pm ¶to John Aga, I don’t take the DOJ’s action against the book publishers as proof of anything meaningful. How much we were disadvantaged as consumers can be measured in a few dollars per user, even for those of us who buy books all the time. This is in stark contrast to other media in history: The music industry refused to make legal downloads possible for several years, suing music listeners along the way. The TV business rejected YouTube and Viacom even sued the company for $1billion. In the case of books, all publishers were all in, even if they didn’t like the pricing model. And look, the market corrected itself (with the help of the DoJ, of course) rather quickly, so it’s hard to argue that the book business tried to stall digital.
Posted 28 Jan 2013 at 9:34 am ¶Well said, James. Thanks for this enlightening response!
Posted 28 Jan 2013 at 10:14 am ¶TKC is one of my “must listen” podcasts. James McQ is a great guest with tremendous insight into the world he reports on.
If I were to nudge one category up a notch, it would be for reviews of indie fiction — perhaps a review or two each month.
Posted 29 Jan 2013 at 11:17 am ¶Good suggestion, Jim. If you spot a good prospect for an indie novelist to interview, please pass it along.
Posted 29 Jan 2013 at 12:06 pm ¶Another wonderful podcast. I am glad you covered Stephen King’s single but I chafe at the culture of celebrity in our world. “Hey look – here is someone who writes best selling books/makes movies/sings song on the radios so let’s all pay attention to their (largely uninformed and usually completely unresearched) opinion on this important matter of public policy.” Meanwhile people who actually know something about the topic at hand are ignored. Sigh.
Posted 29 Jan 2013 at 1:14 pm ¶That’s a fair point, Mark. Stephen King certainly would have many other avenues for getting his ideas out there.
Posted 29 Jan 2013 at 1:22 pm ¶Len, have you seen this http://www.powells.com/biblio/0681495000470?utm_source=specials&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=spec_kobominisale%200213_20130128&utm_content=Kobo%20Mini&j=58350680&e=tomwelchpmp@gmail.com&l=724544_HTML&u=483922949&mid=48972&jb=0
Posted 29 Jan 2013 at 4:36 pm ¶I hadn’t seen that, Tom. Powell’s is really taking hold of the Kobo connection!
Posted 29 Jan 2013 at 4:47 pm ¶Great episode Len! I liked that the ep was dense with info and had updates about the B/W kindles. I don’t yet have a color one. Please keep giving tips for the non-color kindles. I find them very useful and they keep me learning about them even though they are less exciting to some than the color ones.
Posted 30 Jan 2013 at 5:36 pm ¶Thanks, Todd! Unfortunately your comment arrived just after Claire drew the winning entry from a hat. I am working on the video that will reveal the winner and hope to have it up here soon.
Posted 30 Jan 2013 at 5:43 pm ¶John, congratulations – you won the Kindle Fire! I sent you an email and need your address so I can send it to you. I’d love to ship it tomorrow (Thursday) before we leave for Boston. Thanks, Len.
Posted 30 Jan 2013 at 10:37 pm ¶Post a Comment