Originally launched under the name Amazon Prime eBooks in late 2011, the Kindle Owner’s Lending Library was Amazon’s first foray into ebook subscriptions. It was only available to Amazon Prime members in the US, but it was popular enough that it convinced Amazon to launch Kindle Unlimited not quite three years later.

And now the Kindle Owner’s Lending Library has been shut down. eBook Friendly initially reported, and I can confirm, that the KOLL has been discontinued.

The relevant page on Amazon has been replaced with one that promotes Kindle Unlimited, the service is no longer mentioned in Amazon’s FAQ, and you can no longer access the KOLL menus on either the Kindle or the Kindle Fire. The Kindle no longer even mentions KOLL, while my Fire still lists it in the menu but sends you to a KU menu when you click the link.

While there has been no formal announcement from Amazon, it’s pretty clear that the Kindle Owner’s Lending Library is deader than Jeff Bezos’s conscience.

That is not a huge loss, but it is deserving of a footnote.

We would not have Kindle Unlimited with KOLL, and KU has been a boon to both readers and authors. KU has launched multiple author careers while at the same time delivering great value for readers. It paid out over $300 million last year, making it one of the larger ebook markets all on its own.

It’s a worthy successor to the Kindle Owner’s Lending Library, which will not be missed.

You just finished reading Amazon Has Weeded the Kindle Owner’s Lending Library which was published on The Digital Reader.

Romance has increasingly gone indie over the past decade as more authors discovered they can reach readers without having to go through a publisher. As a result, trade publishers such as Harlequin have seen steadily declining romance sales, but according to NPD that trend reversed itself this year.

NPD released data yesterday which showed that US sales of trad pub romance titles rose along with the rest of the market this spring, with the genre closing out May with sales at 0.1% onver the same period in 2019.

“With brick-and-mortar retail bookstores closed in the U.S. this past spring, e-book sales, which have always been stronger for romance than in other categories, really took off,” said Kristen McLean, books industry analyst for NPD. “Print romance books also rose slightly, as newly housebound readers looked for fun and immersive germ-free reads while waiting out the pandemic.”

Romance book sales, which had fallen 11% in January 2020 over the previous year, began trending upward in March. As you can see in the chart above, this was largely the result of a very pleasing increase in ebook sales. Unit sales for trad pub romance ebooks increased 17% from January through May 2020.

In all, 16.2 million romance ebooks and print books were sold during that period, with ebooks making up 60% of trad pub sales in the genre.

Historical romance was the top growth subject in the romance category on a unit basis, in both print and e-book formats, but top-selling e-book titles differed from print book sales leaders. “Golden in Death” (Macmillan) led e-book sales in the overall romance category, followed by “Hideaway” (Macmillan), and “Chasing Cassandra” (Harper Collins). Print book sales were led by “Window on the Bay” (Random House), followed by “Every Breath” (Hachette Book Group), and “Country Strong” (Harlequin).

You just finished reading NPD: Trade-Published Romance US eBook Sales Up Over 2019 which was published on The Digital Reader.

We all spend a lot of time reading in our web browsers, but sometimes you want to finish reading a particularly long article in Evernote, Kindle, or another platform where you can save a copy, add notes, and what not.

Amazon makes this easy to do with the Kindle, but you might also want to look at alternatives like IFTTT and the several third-party browser extensions and bookmarklets.

For the most part, you’ll need to install and configure a browser plugin or a bookmarklet. Amazon has released a couple plugins for Chrome and Firefox. (There are no official plugins for Internet Explorer, Safari, or other web browsers, but you do have other options.)

Official

The official plugins can be found through Amazon, and installing them takes but a single click. Once the plugins are installed, you’ll be asked to log in to your Amazon account and configure the plugin.

Amazon will send you to a page like this:

You’ll need to choose which devices you wish to send the webpage to, whether you want to also save the page to the Amazon Cloud Drive, etc.

Once you’ve configured the plugin, you can access it from an icon on your menu bar:

The official plugins are easy to use, but not everyone has Chrome or Firefox. And that’s why I found a few alternatives.

Alternatives

When I wrote an earlier version of this post in 2015, I listed four services that worked very similar to Amazon’s official browser extensions. One is now dead, and I don’t know that the other three have been updated since 2015.

That’s why I think your first stop should be IFTTT.

For those who haven’t heard of the service, IFTTT is an automation service which you can set up to perform specific actions. The name stands for “IF This, Then That”, and it’s quite simple to use. All you have to do is identify the trigger, set up the response, and then IFTTT will do the rest.

It’s impossible to list all of the things you can do with IFTTT, but today we’re going to focus on just sending content to your Kindle. IFTTT will let you send content from any number of services, including Dropbox, Pocket, Feedly, and Instapaper to your Kindle.

IFTTT supports so many sources that I know I can’t think of all of the ones which could prove useful, but I can point you to scripts that have been made by other users which will give you an idea of just what you can do to send content to your Kindle.

One recipe I like is the one which sends only the longest articles in Pocket to your Kindle account, but if you can’t find one which suits your needs you can make your own. For example, I just set up a recipe to send articles I starred in Pocket to my Kindle account. (I would have set up a similar recipe for Instapaper, but that would be redundant – I like to read in Instapaper on my Fire tablet.)

And that’s just the beginning. The only real limitation is where you have the content, and whether IFTTT supports that service or location.

But if you can’t find a recipe in IFTTT that does what you want I know of three services which will help you send web pages to your Kindle.  I don’t think they have been updated recently, and I can’t guarantee they wlll work.

• Klip Me

This was one of the first services to offer to send web articles to your Kindle. It offers a bookmarklet which can be installed in your web browser, as well as plugins for Safari and Chrome. I think this service may have been abandoned (the blog and Chrome plugin were last updated in 2013), so it might not have been updated to work with the latest web browsers.

• Send2Reader

This one is new to me, and I haven’t had a chance to try it yet. But I am listing it here because it offers both an Android and Windows Phone option. Install the related app and you should be able to select “send to Kindle” as a share option in the Android and Windows Phone web browsers.

Send2Reader also offers a bookmarklet which works in most desktop web browsers.

• Push2Kindle

Here’s another service which offers plugins, bookmarklets, and apps. Push2Kindle has apps for iOS, Android, and Windows Phone as well as plugins for Opera, Chrome, Safari, and FF – but not IE.

I’ve played around with the Chrome plugin, and while it’s not as well-designed as the official plugin from Amazon, Push2Kindle does offer certain configuration options which make it appealing.

You just finished reading How to Send Web Content Directly to Your Kindle (Updated for 2020) which was published on The Digital Reader.

I am pleased to report that, when it comes to B&N CEO’s opinion on his digital division, nothing has changed in the past couple months.

RetailDive published an interview (which Good eReader subsequently pirated) where Daunt was effusive in his praise for the Nook.

You would think, then, that Barnes & Noble’s Nook e-reader would be destined to continue to languish on Daunt’s watch. Indeed, Waterstone’s, under Daunt’s direction, gave up its e-book business in 2016, tying up with Rakuten’s Kobo platform instead.

But Daunt sounds ready to give Nook the attention it has desperately needed, as Amazon’s Kindle has run away with the space.

“I absolutely love Nook, and I think my predecessors had fallen out of love with it,” he said. “It’s under-promoted to our customers, it became the sort of wayward child that had become embarrassing. But if you want to read digitally, the app is fantastic. I’m a champion of digital books and digital book retailing, but above and beyond that I’m a champion of reading. There are many reasons why people want to read digitally, but Nook needs to be much better supported within the Barnes & Noble ecosystem.”

That is good to hear, although not really news.  Remember, that is more or less what he said two months ago.

In any case, Daunt has his work cut out for him. Nook revenues totaled $92 million in the 2019 fiscal year, which ended in 27 April 2019. (B&N did not file a fiscal report with the SEC in 2020 because, as a privately held company, it did not have to do so.) That is down from its peak around 8 years ago of over a billion dollars a year in revenue.

While we do not know its current state, the retailer appeared to be having money troubles this spring. This likely turned around as the year wore on due to the boom in ebook sales, as reported by NPD.

You just finished reading Barnes & Noble CEO James Daunt Still Likes the Nook which was published on The Digital Reader.

Here are a few stories to read this Monday morning.

• The Washington Post finds authors are adapting quite well to online book events. 
• eBooks are becoming a solace to patients in isolation.
• The Reclaim her name project is drawing criticism.
• A curator at the Carnegie Library stole $8 million in rare books over a 25-year period. 
• The author of “The Postman” says that Donald Trump’s destruction of the Post Office could take us back to the middle ages. 
• Do you need to get better at virtual events? Here are a few tips to get you started. 

You just finished reading Morning Coffee – 24 August 2020 which was published on The Digital Reader.

Are you familiar with Draft2Digital’s Universal Links feature, the tool which helps authors find and link to all the stores where their ebooks (and audiobooks) can be found?

I have some good news for you today: Mike Cane has tipped me to a competing service. Launched in May, Boook.link is a service that authors can use to find all of the websites that carry their books.

It’s not quite as comprehensive as its competitor yet, but the developer is adding more stores all the time. What’s more, as you can see on this page, Boook.link also includes links to WorldCat and GoodReads as well as sites that sell the print book (AbeBooks).

Clearly Boook.link was built with an entirely different purpose in mind than was Draft2Digital’s Universal Links feature. To put it simply, if you want to link to ebook retailers, use Draft2Digital’s Universal Links feature. But if you want to link to all types of sites where your book can be found, check out boook.link.

You just finished reading Boook.link Lets Authors Create “Universal” Book Links (Including to Libraries and GoodReads) which was published on The Digital Reader.

Amazon subsidiary Audible just announced that it is launching its third unlimited subscription audiobook service.

The service is called Audible Plus, and will cost $7.95 per month. It will let you access “over 68,000 hours of content and 11,000+ titles from across the content spectrum”, Audible announced, “including documentaries, comedy, journalism, kids, wellness, self-development, selections from Audible Theater and more. New Audible Originals come from a wide range of talent including Common, St. Vincent, Blake Griffin, Jesse Eisenberg, Tom Morello, Kevin Bacon, David Koepp, Jamie Lee Curtis, Kate Mara, Tayari Jones and Harvey Fierstein, among many other celebrated creators and performers. The content slate will continue to grow alongside various technical enhancements over the coming months.”

This is the content that was formerly known as Audible Original.

It’s unclear how much of the catalog is exclusive content versus third-party, and it’s also not clear how creators’ are getting paid (I am waiting for Audible to return my emails).

Current  Audible subscribers will find the Audible Plus catalog included in their existing subscriptions.  Speaking of which, Audible has renamed its Audible Gold plan and appears to be retiring the Audible Platinum plan.

Audible Gold is now called Audible Premium Plus on Amazon’s website. It costs $15 per month. and is the only option offered. All mentions of the more expensive Audible Platinum plan have been scrubbed, however it would does look like Amazon will let you keep the Platinum plan (for now). The Verge reports that Platinum subscribers will continue to receive two at the $22.95 per month price.

Update: A commenter says she can still see the $23 a month plan. I still can’t, which is interesting.

Audible Plus begins its initial rollout this week to existing Audible members. New customers interested in signing up to preview the Audible Plus standalone plan can do so beginning on Thursday.

P.S. Audible’s other audiobook subscription services include Audible Unlimited, which launched in Japan in 2015, and Audible Escape, which launched under the name Audible Romance back in 2017.

You just finished reading Audible Plus Offers Unlimited Access to Exclusive Content for $8 Per Month which was published on The Digital Reader.

Pocketbook’s second color ereader, the Pocketbook Color, was initially only available in Europe when it launched about a month ago, but earlier today it showed up on Newegg.

While the Pocketbook Color costs 249 euros in Europe, the US price is a reasonable $229 plus shipping.

The Pocketbook Color sports a 6″ color E-ink screen capable of displaying either grayscale (at 300 ppi) or color (at 100 ppi). It is capable of displaying color because it uses one of E-ink’s new Kaleido screens to display up to 4096 colors while preserving all the unique properties of E-ink tech.

And thanks to the frontlight, you will be able to see all those colors while reading in the dark.

Running Pocketbook’s own OS on a dual-core CPU, the Pocketbook Color is quite fast. I have had one for a few weeks, and I’m pleased with its responsiveness. (I am putting the final touches on my review.)

This ereader supports six popular audio formats  as well as 23 other files formats, including Mobi and Epub. It has 16GB to fill with ebooks before you’ll need to add a microSD card (up to 32GB supported). Weighing in at 160 grams, the Pocketbook Color measures only 8mm thin, and comes equipped with both Wifi and Bluetooth.

If you want to get a color ereader in the US, this is just about your only option. The Onyx Boox Poke2 Color, a $299 ereader from China, was available for less than a day after it launched two weeks ago. The Poke2 Color is now out of stock.

And that is okay because this is a great color ereader – just so long as you are happy to sacrifice resolution for color.

Newegg

You just finished reading Pocketbook Color Now Available from Newegg for $229 which was published on The Digital Reader.

Yesterday the Taiwan-based OEM Avalue announced, in partnership with E-ink, that they have “a Digital Paper tablet that can be optimized for use within a wide array of industrial and educational applications”.

What this essentially means is that Avalue is moving into the same niche as Netronix, the Taiwan ereader maker which is the hardware partner for Kobo, Barnes &Noble, and Sony. If you have a few hundred thousand dollars to throw around, Avalue will design an epaper tablet for you.

Their device will reportedly have a “paper-sized” screen. The actual dimensions aren’t given, which means it will most likely be a 13.3″ screen (a 8.5 x 11 sheet of paper has a diagonal measurement of 13.9″).

The press release mentions the following features.

• Letter size – full page view, no scrolling or zooming
• Reads like paper – no glare, use indoors or outside
• Annotate, highlight, erase – enable active reading
• Take handwritten notes – organize your thoughts and ideas
• Always on – quick access to documents and notes
• Long battery life – lasts about three weeks
• Thin, lightweight – similar to about 30 pieces of paper
• Durable and unbreakable – take it anywhere
• Secure – keep documents digital
• Wireless enabled – access documents and notes anywhere
• Customizable – optimize for use with existing applications

If this were a real device, I would be excited. But since it’s not, I will temper my enthusiasm.

On a related note, I went digging through Avalue’s website and discovered that they also “make” a couple signage prodcuts, including models that use the 42″ and 31″ E-ink screens which were announced 5 or 6 years ago, but never actually used anywhere.

They also list a 13.3″ “eNote Tablet” in their healthcare IoT section. That device would appear to be almost identical to the one that launched yesterday, but since yesterday’s launch is so vague it is hard to be certain.

You just finished reading Avalue Launches a Whitelabel 13.3″ E-ink Tablet which was published on The Digital Reader.

After two weeks of excruciating uncertainty, my Poke2 Color  arrived via DHL today. Onyx’s first color ereader is a small nondescript black rectangle that arrived in a nondescript cardboard box. It has a much less ornate design than the Pocketbook Color (you’d almost think Onyx and Kobo shared designers).

This ereader runs Android, and comes with its own appstore (the selection is rather limited). So tell me, what do you want me to test on it?

I’d love to answer any questions you may have. At the moment I am planning to write a review for each device, and a comparison review.

I hope I am not spoiling the comparison review for you if I tell you that the Pocketbook Color is hands down the better color ereader. While the two devices have the same screen, the PB Color is  much better at displaying color images. (The software makes a huge difference.)

While I have only had the Poke2 Color for about an hour, the difference in quality could not be more obvious. The PB Color will display an image with colors that are vivid and sharp, while the Poke2 Color will display the same image from the same ebook in warmer and fuzzier tones. (Also, the Poke2 Color has considerable ghosting issues.)

Any questions?

You just finished reading My Onyx Boox Poke2 Color Has Arrived – What Should I Do With It? which was published on The Digital Reader.

Amazon just saved me around $100 with their latest Kindle update. The ebook giant just released the v5.13.2 Kindle update, and it works on all Kindles as far back as the Kindle Paperwhite 3.

According to the experts over at MobileRead, this update doesn’t add any features so I almost didn’t post about it, but then I read that the Kindle PW3 was included in the update. That is great news for me because it saves me from having to buy a new Kindle to stay on top of current features.

Amazon hadn’t updated the PW3 since last year, making a lot of us wonder whether it was no longer being supported. It would seem the concern was unfounded.

Amazon is distributing the update automatically over Wifi. If you don’t want to wait then you can download the update from the Kindle Software Updates page on Amazon.com. Simply copy the file to your Kindle using a USB cable, and then navigate to its settings page.  The dropdown menu in the settings page should show an option to update (assuming that you copied the correct file to your device).

You just finished reading Amazon Releases a Firmware Update for the Kindle Paperwhite 3, and Other Models which was published on The Digital Reader.

I helped a reader enable the privacy settings on their Kindle ereader today, and I thought it would be useful to share what we did.

I am sure many people know by now that Amazon tracks everything you do on your Kindle ereaders and Fire Android tablets. Some of this is so Amazon can store your reading location and annotations in the cloud, but Amazon is also tracking you so they can show you adverts (and also so they can sell the data to other advertisers).

BTW, I also have a longer post on privacy settings for your Amazon account.

You can disable the ad-related tracking on Amazon devices that run the latest version of the firmware, but not Kindle apps or older devices. You have in fact two different options; the first is to disable the tracking in the privacy menu of each Fire or Kindle, and the second is to disable it via Amazon.com.

Here’s how.

Amazon.com

Go to Amazon.com, click on the Accounts & List drop-down menu, and then select “Manage Your Content & Devices”. This will take you to the page where you can manage your devices, apps, and the content on them.

When you are in the MYC&D menu, select the option for “Privacy Settings”.

In the next menu, click the “Manage Settings” button under Amazon Devices Privacy. This will take you to the menu you can manage the privacy settings for each applicable device.

You will need to select the devices one by one, and disable each type of tracking one click at a time.

You might find that some of your devices are listed here but do not have any settings you can change. Those are the devices that need to be updated before you can  manage the device’s privacy settings.

And of course, any devices not listed are going to be running software so old that you cannot enable the privacy settings.

On the Device

While I prefer to change the settings via Amazon’s website, they are also accessible on each device in the settings menu. The relevant option is about 4 or five layers deep, but they are there.

If you want to turn off tracking on your Kindle, go to the settings menu, and then select device options and then advanced options. One of the settings on this screen will say “Privacy”. Select it, and when the menu pops up, select the “enable” option”.

To turn off tracking on your Fire tablet, go to the settings menu, and then select security and privacy. There are two settings you need to change, “device usage data” and “collect app usage data”.

Select them one at a time to open the relevant menu. You will find one toggle in each menu; make sure it is flipped to the left. This stops Amazon from continuing to collect the data.

You just finished reading How to Limit Data Tracking on Your Kindle eReader and Fire Tablet which was published on The Digital Reader.

Here are a few stories to read this Monday morning.

• The Scots edition of Wikipedia is apparently a 50 thousand plus page practical joke written by someone who is not Scottish, nor do they speak the language.
• A new translation of Beowulf uses modern vernacular for parts that would otherwise be untranslatable.
• Kris Rusch is expecting an L-shaped recovery, and thinks you should plan accordingly. (I agree with her.)
• Powell’s books is no longer going to sell on Amazon.
• Scammers have moved on from pretending to be Nigerian prices to pretending to work for major publishers.
• Amazon and its fellow plaintiffs have won a preliminary injunction against a pirate ebook site.
• Here are four points to consider when designing your next book cover. (It was inspired by a terrible cover published by Penguin.)
• As one author explains, KDP is not a great platform so much as it is slightly less awful than its competition (but still awful). 
• Texas Monthly has a lengthy profile of RWA founder Vivian Stephens that you need to read.

You just finished reading Morning Coffee – 30 August 2020 which was published on The Digital Reader.

The pandemic is raging. Schools are switching to virtual learning within days of starting the fall semester. Experts saying that we will not have a vaccine for at least another year.

It is clear that we’re not going to be going to public events any time soon. Online is the new pink. With that in mind, I would like to introduce you to a couple tools which will be seeing a lot more use for the next while.

One is Pathable, and the other is Streamyard.

Streamyard

This is a tool for publishing a live stream.

You’re probably thinking it’s similar to Zoom, which isn’t quite true. Zoom is a video conferencing tool which can be used for live streams, while Streamyard is what you use to publish a live stream simultaneously to FB, Youtube, LinkedIn, etc while at the same time recording your stream so it can later be uploaded to Youtube and Facebook. If you’ve watched a recording of a FB Live video and it had a logo in one corner, then it was probably recorded using Streamyard (this is one of its cooler features).

One way to explain the difference between Streamyard and, well, everyone else would be the analogy of recording video with your smartphone versus a DSLR. Yes, they both do the job, but one produces much better content.

If you plan to produce a lot of live streams and haven’t yet checked out Streamyard, now is the time to do so.

Streamyard

Pathable

I don’t want to oversell it but Pathable could be the future of conferences. It is a platform for virtual conferences that brings together scheduled sessions, attendees, exhibitors, and sponsors into a single site.

Basically, if you want to have a virtual conference where attendees can actually network and not just all launch a Zoom stream at the appointed time, you need Pathable.

The RWA used this platform for its conference this past weekend. I was there as an exhibitor, and I was surprised at just how useful this was. I could respond to questions, message attendees, share files, and even host my own live streams. (I hadn’t prepared for that because I didn’t even know it was possible until the Wednesday before the conference, but I could have done it.)

Right now a lot of conferences are still telling attendees which Zoom link to open at a given time, and if you are lucky they even have all the Zoom links on a single web page. Balticon worked that way, and it did work after a fashion, but it also wasn’t very much fun because there was no way to really talk to the other attendees outside of a session. (In their defense, they did have to switch to virtual on very short notice.)

That said, Pathable is great but it’s still far from perfect. It was competently designed by capable engineers, but the current interface was clearly not made with users in mind. (Seriously, Pathable, I’d be happy to consult on this.)

Pathable

* * *

Do you want to know why I am sharing this? It’s because I know people who are planning conferences for next spring who still think they can hold an in-person event. That ain’t happening, and I am hoping someone will forward this to them so they can start planning for a virtual conference now rather than waiting for the last minute.

You just finished reading Pathable and Streamyard which was published on The Digital Reader.

The Chinese E-ink monitor maker Dasung  is back again with their second ereader, but I really do not recommend buying it.

The Not-eReader 103 is a 10.3″ ereader that runs Android 9.0. It’s a lot like the Note2 from Onyx, only with a price tag over $200 higher and, judging by the reviews over at Mobileread, glitchy software.

You can pre-order one today on Kickstarter for $768. The announced ship date is November 2020.

Powered by an octa-core Snapdragon 660 CPU, the Not-eReader 103 ships with 4GB RAM, 64GB internal storage (plus a microSD card slot), Wifi, Bluetooth, and a 6.4Ah battery.

It has a screen about the same size as the Remarkable 2, and like that ereader the Not-eReader 103 has both a capacitive and Wacom touchscreen. (The Remarkable 2 costs $399.)

While the Not-eReader 103 does cost almost twice as much, it does have a couple advantages over the Remarkable 2.  This device supports USB host, and it can connect to your PC as a monitor.

That’s great, but I do not feel it justifies the high price.

What do you think?

Specs

You just finished reading Dasung Launches a 10.3″ eReader on Kickstarter With a Ridiculous Price which was published on The Digital Reader.

I was just catching up with the #ePrdctn tag over on Twitter when I read that Amazon has removed the KindleGen ebook-creation tool from its website.

Amazon has discontinued KindleGen.

KindleGen is no longer available for download according to https://t.co/0TEAFg6h1Y

I guess for command-line Kindle generation, Calibre is another option? https://t.co/p5UChD3ut5#kindle #ebooks #epub #eprdctn

— Dan Rodney (@danrodneytweets) August 25, 2020

I checked the page in question, and he is correct. Amazon has removed the KindleGen download links and replaced them with a notice which reads:

KindleGen is no longer available for download. Please use Kindle Previewer to convert, preview, and validate your eBooks. Kindle Previewer provides the same functionality of KindleGen and, in addition, provides:

• Latest Kindle Conversion software that provides up-to-date validation for Enhanced Typesetting books (currently available for books in all languages except Simplified Chinese, Japanese, and Russian).
• Choice of using in Graphical User Interface (GUI) for a visual inspection of your book, or, Command Line Interface (CLI) mode for bulk validation.
• Faster preview and validation with features like thumbnails, auto-previews, and filters for pages with images, tables, drop caps, and links.

Click here to visit the Kindle Previewer product page

KindleGen was a command-line tool for creating Kindle ebooks. I beleive it launched around 2009, when it was a niche tool which was overshadowed by existing tools such as Mobipocket Creator. It was repeatedly updated over the years, but I don’t think it ever lost its status as a niche tool (there were always dozens of tools which could make Kindle ebooks).

I can’t tell you the last time I used KindleGen; I think it would have to be when I tested it to report on support for Russian. (This was all the way back in 2013!) I never found much use for the tool, but I understand that some publishers had integrated KindleGen into their production process. (Although I am not sure how many did; back when I paid more attention to this, I usually heard calibre mentioned instead.)

You just finished reading Amazon Has Retired KindleGen which was published on The Digital Reader.

A little over 4 years ago E-ink launched a 7-color epaper screen for the signage market. The 20″ and larger screens have not seen widespread use (although the tech has started to show up in the DIY market) but that hasn’t stopped E-ink from continuing to develop the technology.

Digitimes reports that E-ink plans to roll out its next-gen Advanced Color ePaper (ACeP) screen tech next year, according to company chairman Johnson Lee.

Few details are available about the tech under development, but I can give you a look at the current gen ACeP screens. As you can see, it takes over ten seconds to refresh the screen, although the final result is worth it.

One thing I didn’t know until I saw this was that it appears to be capable of displaying not just 7 colors bout also combinations of the 7 colors.

Or are my eyes fooling me?

You just finished reading E-ink is Developing a Second-Gen ACeP Color ePaper (video) which was published on The Digital Reader.

If you are looking for new things to do with your Remarkable tablet, I just heard that someone has developed a third-party firmware for it. It’s Parabola Linux, which opens up enormous possibilities for porting software, but at the same time it comes at a cost (Wifi is not supported).

From Hackaday:

Davis Remmel has been hard at work porting Parabola, a completely free and open source GNU/Linux distribution, to the reMarkable. Developers will appreciate the opportunity to audit and modify the OS, but even from an end-user perspective, Parabola greatly opens up what you can do on the device. Before you were limited to a tablet UI and a select number of applications, but with this replacement OS installed, you’ll have a full-blown Linux desktop to play with.

You still won’t be watching videos or gaming on the reMarkable (though technically, you would be able to), but you could certainly use it to read and edit documents the original OS didn’t support. You could even use it for light software development. Since USB serial adapters are supported, microcontroller work isn’t out of the question either. All while reaping the considerable benefits of electronic paper.

The only downside is that the WiFi hardware is not currently supported as it requires proprietary firmware to operate. No word on whether or not Davis is willing to make some concession there for users who aren’t quite so strict about their software freedoms.

The Remarkable tablet is a 10.3″ writing slate designed to replace a paper notebook. The first model launched several years ago, and a second model launched just last month. Retail is $337.

This Parabola port is being sold for $20. That is not unreasonable, although I do think that a paid firmware should include Wifi.

You just finished reading Parabola Linux Has Been Ported to the Remarkable Tablet (video) which was published on The Digital Reader.

Woe is me, cried the publisher!

The Association of American Publishers announced on Wednesday that publisher revenue was down 9.4% for the month of July, and down 5.8% year to date. The decline is largely the result of steep declines in sales of educational materials for both college and K-12, while at the same time most other segments of the industry have shown surprising resilience in the face of serious supply issues. (Whether that will remain the case as the impact of paper shortages moves down the supply chain is another matter.)

One bright point is that ebook sales have increased by 25% for the month of July,

eBook revenues were up 25.0% for the month as compared to July 2019 for a total of $103.7 million. On a year-to-date basis, eBooks were up 14.2%, coming in at $652.9 million for the first seven months of 2020. Notably, eBook revenues in the Children’s and YA category saw a 76.4% jump during the month, coming in at $11.6 million. On a year-to-date basis, eBook revenues in the Children’s and YA category were up 63.3% for the first seven months of the year, coming in at $73.2 million.

This is good news for some publishers, just not for those who have spent the past eleven years (since 2009, yes) doing their best to avoid selling ebooks. Those publishers have steadfastly refused to adapt to the market, and will soon be hoist by their own petard.

As Kris Rusch pointed out in her weekly column yesterday, publishers are only just beginning to feel the pain caused by supply chain disruptions. The situation will only get worse as Trump’s pandemic drags on, and the publishers who resisted selling ebooks to either consumers or libraries will bear the brunt of financial impact.

image by Pasa la vida via Flickr

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I’ve just learned about an Amazon feature that, while not exactly new, is still relatively unknown and has not been officially launched.

I was browsing Dale Robert’s Facebook group today when someone mentioned Amazon Book Clubs. Kevin Maguire posted this screensnap while mentioning to him that the feature was new to him.

A little bit of Google sleuthing lead me to the relevant page on Amazon, but otherwise turned up little useful info (no one has reported on it yet). According to the FAQ linked at the bottom of the page, ABC is “a great way to help bring your discussions to life. Easily coordinate book selection, get notifications, and more, all in one place. Oh yeah, it’s also free. Because at Amazon, reading and discussing books is available for everyone.” (The self-congratulatory tone makes me want to vomit, too.)

There are apparently several thousand book clubs on the platform already; most  are small and have only a handful of members, but the largest “featured” club had several thousand members.

It is hard to say just how many users have joined clubs, or how many clubs there are; there’s no single list, leaving you to search for clubs based on keywords. This is more or less privacy through obscurity, which sounds nice at first but will probably make it harder for potential members to find clubs they like.

On the plus side, Amazon does let you launch “private” book clubs where activity is shielded from public view, and is only visible to a club’s members and Amazon’s algorithms.

You have to be approved by an admin before you can join a private club, while a public club is open to all. That is quite a different definition of public and private from what FB uses. for its groups.

Speaking of which, its pretty clear that Amazon’s goal is to supplant FB groups as a discussion forum, and I hope they succeed. While I like the people I have met in FB groups, the platform itself is unpleasant to use. It was designed with data collection in mind, not user comfort, and Amazon could not possibly build something worse.

So what do you think of the new book clubs? Have you tried them yet?

How do they compare to the user groups on Goodreads?

You just finished reading Amazon Launches “Book Clubs” in Beta which was published on The Digital Reader.