TechnoCloud

HarperCollins is the latest publisher to say that it will delay the eBook verions of some of its new titles. From next year the News Corp-owned publisher will delay the online release of five to 10 new books each month for between four weeks and six months.

This will give it a chance to sell hardback copies of new releases at far higher prices than the $9.99 that most new eBooks cost.

This raises several questions. Will readers wait for the eBook version leading to less critical mass in the sales charts and less visibility? And will having no eBook at the critical launch time hurt overall sales, given Amazon’s incredible stat now that according to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos:

“For every 100 copies of a physical book we sell, where we have the Kindle edition, we will sell 48 copies of the Kindle edition.”

Google has made concessions to publishers by scaling back some of its plans to digitise millions of out-of-print works from US libraries.

Google is nearing a book deal in the US with publishers and writers. The number of books it will digitise has come down by 60%, following the exclusion of most foreign language books, although books by UK, Australian and Canadian authors held in US libraries will be part of the programme unless the authors or publishers opt out. Furthermore, the service will only be available in the US.

According to Paul Aiken of the US Authors Guild: “Amazon (through its Kindle) has 90% of the e-book market in the United States, and 75% of the online print book market - Google has roughly 0%. Google entering the market for out-of-print books just isn’t going to change the equation.”

Amazon’s much anticipated international version of the Kindle has finally been launched.

Initially sold through Amazon.com, it is priced at $279 and will ship from 19th October. The international version is the smaller six inch screen Kindle 2, as opposed to the larger Kindle DX only available in the US, and will run on 3G networks (USB syncing where unavailable). Accordingly, Forrester has raised its forecast for e-reader sales in 2009 from 2m to 3m and to 10m in 2010, when colour e-readers are expected to become more widely available.

And if you’re stuck deciding which of the 250k books to read, then why not start with one of the 613 Lonely Planet guides now available on the Kindle…