Kindle boasts success; Reader gets my Nod

Jeff Bezos is welcoming customers to the homepage today of Amazon today with news that the Kindle is back in stock. His cover note (.pdf) on the online seller's site links not only to the company's annual letter to shareholders, which is all about the electronic reader, but also boasts of the product's more than 2,000 reviews to date.

Apparently, the Kindle is living up to its hype - at least in terms of sales.

As I reported earlier this month, I finally caved to the groaning weight of manuscript pages and traded paper for a Sony Reader. And after a couple of weeks, I would say I qualify as a convert, but not an evangelist, for the whole idea of digital book.

Advantages first -- it's light, easy to use, and quick to download Word documents and PDFs. While I have yet to crack the manual (reading directions is not my strong suit), it is straightforward enough to figure out how to pop up the font size, browse through a selection of downloaded files and bookmark a page. I am currently carrying five books around with me and I love the ease of dropping one, slim, leather-bound gadget into my bag. The cover is a nice touch, too, by the way. Earlier versions of the Reader felt more like a PDA, or a Blackberry on steroids. For the book lover, it's nice to open an actual cover. For the multi-tasker, it's great to have more than one option of reading material when you are stuck at the DMV or waiting for a meeting to start.

The biggest downside for me is still the screen -- harder to read than a computer. Another glitch happens almost every time you hit the "next page" button. It flips quickly enough, but often repeats the first sentence or two of the previous page on top of the new page, something that can grow annoying rapidly. I have yet to figure out how to alter the screen's brightness (yes, I realize that the manual must cover this but I have not gotten that far).

I have started carrying the Reader with me wherever I am and conducting my own market research -- looking either for validation that it is the next iPod or evidence that the paper book will never cease to exist. From bankers to bloggers, the initial reaction is always interest. The more technically inclined tinker with it a bit and scan a page or two; the less digital tend to examine the packaging. The overall response -- mostly positive, but no one seems inclined to rush out and buy one.

All the opinions together are probably best summed up by 800-CEO-Read's Todd Sattersten who was in Austin last week and had a few minutes to fiddle with the Reader over breakfast and discussion of his just completed Portfolio book, The 100 Best Business Books of All Time. "They just aren't there with it yet," says Todd, whose office holds both an earlier version of the Reader and a Kindle.

As for me, I'm a convert for my work reading, but not sure I will ever feel the urge to download War and Peace. The skeptics say I'll change my tune on an overseas flight. But anyone who has been stranded without a power cord knows, the pages of a book never need a battery.

Publishers Do Their Part to Save the Planet

The publishing industry is doing its part to go green with two major publishers now equipping its staff with Sony Readers.

New York magazine reported that The Hachette Book Group has distributed the electronic gadgets to its editors and sent out the word to agents that it wanted digital files and not paper submissions. Publisher Jonathan Karp is quoted as saying that not only are they working, but that "people are evangelical about it."

Last week, Random House followed suit, according to a piece in PW Daily which reports that the publisher bought the devices for its sales staff to read each season's titles.

For the high tech crowd, this may seem a no-brainer, but for an industry whose lifeblood is printed words on physical page, I believe it's a quantum leap ahead. I've spent nearly twenty years in offices full of shelves that groan under the weight of paper manuscripts held in the center with a rubber band. Hardly practical, it was somehow part of the mystery and romance of being in the book business to read pages BEFORE they made their way into a book.

But it is clear time for romance to cede to practicality and to the needs of the planet.

My Reader is due to arrive next week and while I wish I could claim it was all due to the noble mission of environmentalism -- I do admit that the major factor in my decision is just the sheer pain of dragging manuscripts through security and onto airplanes during my twice-monthly commute to New York. My shoulders hurt at the memory of my last trip when my bag held one business suit, two shirts, and five manuscripts.

I am sure I will be pleased when my Kinko's bill plummets. Whether I become evangelical about it is yet to be seen. I'll report back on how I like it here in the blog, a very "green" medium, by the way.