Barnes and Noble, Plastic Logic Ebooks, and Fictionwise

Earlier this year, Barnes & Noble bought Fictionwise.com with its companion websites, ereader.com and ebookwise.com, for over $15 million plus future considerations - probably depending on sales success, since the former owners will still be running the site. B&N is projecting up to a million books for sale by the end of the year.

That's nifty and all, but Amazon still has the advantage of wireless delivery on their own ereader, Kindle. Well, B&N is taking care of that as well. They are partnering with one of the most up-and-coming companies working with epaper technology. Plastic Logic has recently been showing around a prototype of its new, still-nameless ereader, and it is catching some serious buzz.

I had a hundred questions about these new developments -- not one of which was answered in press releases, news articles, or the sites. Sigh. Here are the results of my tedious research into the grubby details, presented in Q&A form.

What formats will B&N sell?

I wish I could find a complete answer to this one. Right now, they're only selling books in the same format Fictionwise used, PDB. This is a platform developed by Palm to enable Palm owners to read books on, what else, palm pilots. It's also used by Apple for the iPhone and iPod Touch, so you can turn those two devices into ereaders now (though the mind boggles at the thought of reading that tiny screen - yech.) A free download will get you a PDB reader for PC and Apple computers.

However, no standard ereader made today that I know of uses the PDB format. There are hints that B&N may make their books available in PDF, and a strong suggestion that B&N will start selling that super-neat ereader being developed by Plastic Logic (projected release date January 2010, though that may be moved up now), which handles many, many formats from DOC to PDF.

How much will the books cost?

Looks like you won't find anything different from Amazon's prices (come on, guys, $9.99 for a book I can get in paperback at Walmart for half that?). However, B&N is looking to really build on the vast number of public-domain works Google has made available, which will be free. Even better, Google has significantly improved their OCR on those ebooks, making it much simpler for out of print, but not public-domain, books to be formatted for B&N sales or free distribution. Look for this to be a big part of their projected million-book stock. If B&N do indeed go with Plastic Logic's unnamed ereader, then even Google's decent-quality PDFs will be available to the average reader.

Can I get any freebies right now?

Yes - Barnes and Noble advertise a few free titles right now, several public-domain classics and a dictionary. You can also go out to Fictionwise's website and download a pretty large library of free books also formatted in PDB, so you're not limited to the few B&N have for you.

Amazon has wised up and are offering more freebies at the moment, but look for Barnes and Noble to catch up with them as the release date of the Plastic Logic eReader grows closer.

Back to that Plastic Logic eReader. . .

As Amazon has discovered, nothing makes online book sales more robust than having the perfect device/library match. Their Kindle is great, especially its introduction of free-connection wireless sales. But they've come up against several complaints: no touchscreen, problems with the clunky keyboard, no memory card slot.

Plastic Logic's reader addresses most of these problems and more. No, still no memory card as far as I can tell -- but built-in wireless WiFi as well as a wired connection, great touchscreen capabilities (imagine doing the crossword puzzle right on your eReader screen!), a virtual keyboard, and a gigantic semi-flexible 8.5x11 screen make up for it. It's lighter and thinner than the Kindle as well, and people who've looked at the prototypes, like Gizmodo, are impressed. In addition, to support that WiFi connection, Plastic Logic has quietly negotiated a deal with AT&T allowing them to use that network as a delivery platform -- putting them, partnered with Barnes and Noble, in exactly the right position to make a serious dent in Amazon Kindle's market share. It is no coincidence that Amazon recently lowered the price of the Kindle -- and I wouldn't be surprised if they do it again.

So the only remaining question is how much will that Plastic Logic device cost? We'll find out at the end of the year.