Law Librarian Blog

Lawyer2Lawyer Podcast on Case Law in the Public Domain

J. Craig Williams and Bob Ambrogi discussed case law in the public domain with Professor Thomas F. Bruce, Director of the Legal Information Institute at Cornell University Law School, Carl Malamud, founder of Public.Resource.org and Andy Martens, Senior Vice President of New Product Development, from Thomson West in a recent podcast episode of Lawyer2Lawyer: download the mp3 file. [JH]

Crawford on Kindle and eBooks

Walt Crawford, Director and Managing Editor of the PALINET Leadership Network, takes a look at Kindle and eBooks in the April 2008 issue of Cites & Insights. See Old Media/New Media Perspective: Thinking About Kindle and Ebooks [HTML | PDF of entire issue]:

• Amazon's Kindle (page 9 in PDF)
• Nine Models, One Name: Untangling the Ebook Muddle (page 16) (manuscript version of article that was published in American Libraries (Sept. 2000)
• Other Thoughts on eBooks (page 20)

[JH]

POD Publishers Outraged by Amazon's New Restrictions

"Some Print on Demand (POD) publishers are privately screaming 'Monopoly!' while others are seething with rage over startling phone conversations they're having with Amazon/BookSurge representatives. Why isn't anybody talking about it openly? Because they're afraid - very, very afraid..." That's how POD publisher Angela Hoy starts her recent post when she broke the story on Writers Weekly (check out the supplied links for POD industry reaction and commentary). Why? Because BookSurge, Amazon’s print-on-demand subsidiary, has told POD publishers that unless their titles are printed by BookSurge, the buy buttons on Amazon for their titles will be disabled. Apparently the buy buttons already have been disabled for some POD publishing houses.

Hoy is reporting that Amazon/BookSurge will be making money two ways on Amazon sales: first the fee for publishing the books and then 48% of the list price for each Amazon sale. While the initial catalog of books POD publishers can submit to Amazon/BookSurge is free, the contract states future books would cost $50 each to process (and the cost for individual authors to publish through BookSurge is considerably higher; the average publishing package cost is more than $1,000)

In Amazon Changes POD Tactics, Removes Velvet Gloves, Karria Krozser writes

It is not surprising that Amazon has told publishers that it’s their POD (print-on-demand) service or no sales through Amazon. It is surprising that, well, anyone is surprised. Did y’all think Amazon was buying Booksurge for the fun of it? What other outcome did you expect?

I am not joking. ... Amazon is amassing what is essentially a secret army. Amazon is a business, and like real businesses, engages in actions that further Amazon’s goals. Not yours…unless your goals dovetail with Amazon’s. ... Your content is being locked to their device. Your content is being locked to their service. They get to set the terms.

What's Happening Here: Amazon is using its eCommerce site's selling clout to generate more business for BookSurge. Acquired by Amazon in 2005, BookSurge has been trying somewhat unsuccessfully to cut into the market share of POD leader Lightning Source, the major provider of POD services for Amazon.com before this change. Provider no longer for Amazon? Apparently so. Lightning Source, by the way, is owned by the same firm that owns Ingram, the US wholesaler that fills those Amazon orders which do not go through an Amazon warehouse. Ouch!

I bet that larger POD publishers will use both BookSurge and Lightning Source for future titles to capture Amazon sales but will only convert BookSurge current titles that are popular. In general, expect higher prices for POD titles.

Publisher's Weekly reports that "an Amazon spokesperson explained that the new policy will allow the company to 'marry' books with other products that a customer might buy at Amazon." As in Kindle?

Endnote. Amazon does provide a sales option for POD publishers -- the Amazon's Advantage Program (which works on a consignment model) -- but it's pretty absurd. Besides having to pay Amazon 55% of a title's list price, POD publishers would have to send their books to Amazon for warehousing and shipment to customers. Wharehousing POD titles, is that how the publishing model is supposed to work? [JH]

Should Professional Librarian Journals Evolve into Blogs?

Marcus Banks argues that the traditional (hardcopy-based) journal model is too antiquated for sharing research and knowledge among librarians. I disagree. There's still a place in the structure of LIS literature for hardcopy serials but they can and are being supplemented by e-journals, blogs, digital repositories, and online companions to LIS hardcopy journals.

Hat tip to LISNews. [JH]

Chinese Communist Party Keeping Mao Zedong's Book Royalties

The Literary World of Party History estimated in 2001 that Mao Zedong's estate was worth about $17.6M from his Little Red Book and other publication royalties. According to the BBC, the Chinese Communist Party is refusing to give the money to Mao's relatives because his writings were not his own, but the "crystallisation of the party's collective wisdom."

Hat tip to Chinese Law Prof Blog. [JH]

Who Needs a Kindle?

Here's a video parody of the gizmo that is going to save reading. I enjoyed watching it. Hope you do too. [JH]

More on Law Reviews

An addendum to the previous post.  The law review institution is a hot topic for law professors as well.  Check out this via ELS.  The method by which their intellectual product is published (print v. e) is not yet a primary concern for most, but if law profs become increasingly vested in the publishing process, cost analysis and user access analysis will inevitably give them a good familiarity with these issues with which we grapple.  [JJ]

Do Book Blurbs Matter?

Maybe not much when the publisher drafts the blurb for your signature. See Stephen Dubner's post on Freakonomics. We all know this is a common industry practice, right? [JH]