New York Times Opens "Best Sellers API"

Andrew Savikas
January 28, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (3) | Listen

The New York Times on Tuesday opened up its "Best Sellers API," offering programmatic access to best-seller data (going back to 1930!) from the Times:

The Times Best Sellers API gives you quick access to current and past best-seller lists in 11 different categories, such as Hardcover Nonfiction and Paperback Mass-Market Fiction. The initial launch offers every weekly list since June 2008, and in the coming months, we plan to add data going back to 1930 (thanks to the hard work of our Books staff). The API also offers details about specific best sellers, including historical rank information and links to New York Times reviews and excerpts. And these aren't just canned responses; they're searchable and sortable, with even more robust options coming in the next release.

I'm a huge fan of what the Times has done to embrace open architecture and data formats (and Nick Bilton, from the Times' R&D Lab, will be a keynote speaker at next month's TOC Conference), and this is a great example of what content creators and curators (i.e., publishers) can do to give customers the opportunity to create new value on top of that content. We've offered an API for our Safari Books Online product for several years now, and have some very interesting internal projects percolating to take things a step further.

Related Stories:

• APIs, New "Transactions" and the Google Book Search Registry
• CEOs Must Have API Literacy
• ReadWriteWeb: "First New York Times API is Live - Here's Why it Matters"
• How Hackers Show it's Not All Bad News at the New York Times

Amazon Dropping Non-Amazon Ebook Formats (Sort of)

Andrew Savikas
January 27, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (12) | Listen

Via Publishers Weekly, Amazon announced Monday it will stop offering ebooks in formats other than Kindle and Mobipocket:

In the future, the online retailer says it plans to offer only e-books in the Kindle format (for wireless download to its Kindle reading device) and the Mobipocket format, both of which are owned by Amazon.

A contact at Amazon has clarified that apparently this change only applies to the Kindle:

This does not apply to eDocs because they are not DRM-protected. This only applies to DRM-protected eBooks.

A follow-up question about Kindle support of EPUB resulted in a polite but firm redirect to "the Kindle team."

I know Amazon is a big company, and I know all too well how difficult intra-office communication can be even at a much smaller company like O'Reilly, but with Amazon in particular it's really easy to get the sense that the left hand has very little idea what the right hand is doing (or perhaps "third left tentacle doesn't know what the right tentacle is doing" is more appropriate).

Related Stories:

• Ebook Format Primer
• How to Read any Type of Document on the Kindle (Almost)
• Amazon Ups the Ante on Platform Lock-In
• Point-Counterpoint: On Digital Book DRM
• Point-Counterpoint: Digital Book DRM, the Least Worst Solution

Spots Still Open for TOC Roundtables

Andrew Savikas
January 21, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (0) | Listen

Despite a grim few months for the industry, attendance for the 2009 TOC Conference has remained consistently ahead of last year's numbers (and remember -- we sold out last year, so reserve your spot now). Last year's show made it clear New York was the right place to be, and this year's program and speaker lineup are shaping up to be an amazing three days (I'm admittedly partial, so don't just take my word for it).

One of the best things about a conference like this is the chance to connect in person with people you've perhaps only met online or follow via a blog or Twitter. It's also a chance to get key players at the same table to agitate for new standards or practices. We added Roundtables this year to the program to give you a chance to schedule informal meetings of like-minded attendees. For example, there's a great panel scheduled for Wednesday afternoon on the universal standards that goes beyond just typical sales and distribution -- a companion roundtable to try and flesh out some concrete next steps would certainly be of interest to a lot of attendees. Sound like something you'd sit in on? Sign up to lead it.

There's limited slots open for the Roundtables, which are scheduled for Tuesday evening, Feb. 10. Plan to grab a drink at the sponsor reception, check out a few of the lightning demos, and then take a seat at one of the Roundtables.

Related TOC '09 Information:

• Conference Registration
• Conference Speakers
• Conference Schedule
• Conference Sessions
• Conference Tutorials

"Kindle Killer" Might be Hyperbole, but a Lot to Like About Shortcovers

Andrew Savikas
January 20, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (7) | Listen

The email invitation I received to check out shortcovers -- a new hybrid Web/mobile reading site from Canada's Indigo Books & Music -- touted it as a "Kindle Killer." While there's a lot to like about shortcovers, there's some shortcomings to that moniker. First, it's not a device, it's a Web site with a companion iPhone app (presumably wending its way through Apple's approval queue) and eventually other mobile apps as well. Second, while I was very impressed with their execution, I didn't see much that Amazon couldn't match with a similar mobile App.

That said, I really liked what I saw of shortcovers (though to be fair, it's hard to truly judge something you've seen only via Webex -- my comments are based on a brief demo, and apply primarily to books). In particular:

• iTunes-style previews and a la carte purchasing. Buying single chapters won't make much sense for some kinds of content, but we know from experience at Safari that a lot of readers like that kind of chunking.
• Online/offline options. Adding "buy the print version" to the iPhone equation might be shortcovers' biggest contribution to the mobile reading market. Sure you can buy books from Amazon's iPhone app, but you can't also buy/read an electronic version at the same time. A lot of our ebooks are sold bundled with the print version, and it's a great option to offer customers. (Print orders are fulfilled by Indigo in Canada, and by an as-yet-unnamed partner in the U.S.)
• Cloud-style syncing. Buy from your phone, and the book appears in your online "Library" accessible from a browser. Offline downloads won't be available initially, though apparently are on the way.
• Recommendation and annotation. This was key to Amazon's rise to dominance in online book retailing -- its database of reviews and recommendations, a system that got smarter the more people used it.
• Support for the EPUB standard, and the option for publishers to make their content available without DRM. As long as there's a choice, the market should take care of the rest.

Overall, shortcovers probably isn't the revolution they're implying, but it is a big next step for mobile reading and ecommerce.

For additional viewpoints, The Wall Street Journal's Walt Mossberg recently reviewed shortcovers, and Chris Meadows on TeleRead has this counterpoint.

Related Stories:

• Cloud Computing's Potential Impact on Publishing
• Open Question: Standalone iPhone Ebooks vs. E-Readers
• Format Comparison: PDF, EPUB, and Mobi Downloads from Ebook Bundles
• To Chunk or Not To Chunk?
• Technology's "Killer" Distraction

Format Comparison: PDF, EPUB, and Mobi Downloads from Ebook Bundles

Andrew Savikas
January 12, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (5) | Listen

We've been selling PDFs of our books on oreilly.com for several years, but this summer began selling "ebook bundles" of many titles, which include PDF, EPUB, and Mobipocket versions. Here's some weekly data (I can't share the vertical scale) on the relative breakdown of actual downloads from those bundles (PDF, Mobi, and EPUB are Light, Medium, and Dark respectively). PDF is still the format of choice for most people, though EPUB is getting respectable usage, with Mobi in third:

The numbers at the bottom are weeks (200901 is the first week of 2009). This is only among titles offered in all three formats -- the majority of our ebooks are currently still only available as PDF, though we expect to release several hundred more in bundle form over the next few months (not that you should wait to buy of course -- you'll get all the formats as they come available ...).

An important point to note, via Allen Noren, our VP who runs oreilly.com, is that a substantial portion of our electronic sales come from overseas, where getting a print version is often difficult or cost-prohibitive:

I know you've heard me say it before, but we became an international publisher, in a way we were not previously, when we started selling books in digital format. We're in a unique position vs most publishers, who only have US or NA rights, but it's worth nothing.

Duly noted.

Related Stories:

• O'Reilly Ebooks: 130 Top Titles Now Available, Plus an iPhone App and Head First PDFs
• Ebook Format Primer
• Keep Your Eye on the epub Ball (But Do Play Nice)

iPhone App Outperforms Most Print (Computer) Books This Holiday Season

Andrew Savikas
January 7, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (20) | Listen

Conventional wisdom suggests that when choosing pilot projects, you pick ones with a high likelihood of success. It's hard to argue that iPhone: The Missing Manual was a reasonable choice for testing the iPhone App waters. But while we knew it would do well, we've been quite pleased with just how well:

• If the iPhone App by itself had been a book, it would be a top 10 seller in BookScan for Computer Books this holiday season, based on just 17 days of sales
• The print version appears to have been unaffected, retaining a solid position in the top 3 for Computer Books in BookScan
• A full 1/3 of those buying the app are outside the US, mostly in countries where the print book is not readily available

There are certainly some who don't care for the book-as-app approach, preferring the library model (where one app enables reading multiple titles). It's also clear there's substantial customer interest in both options, and we strongly believe that offering a variety of options and letting customers choose is the right approach. This is a time for experimentation, and we'll be doing quite a bit more of it (format, pricing, content) in the digital -- and especially mobile -- space in the coming months.

Related Stories:

• iPhone Updates: Missing Manual Already #2; More Book Apps Hit iTunes
• O'Reilly Ebooks: 130 Top Titles Now Available, Plus an iPhone App and Head First PDFs
• Experimental O'Reilly Ebook iPhone Integration with Stanza
• Open Question: Standalone iPhone Ebooks vs. E-Readers