The Digital Reader

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Where Are All the Kindle Rumors? Posted: 09 Jul 2014 11:36 AM PDT Yesterday’s story about the iPhone 6 front glass reminded me that it has been some time since we last heard a product rumor about the Kindle. While the silence could be a sign that Amazon is better at maintaining their security, there’s also a good chance that the lack of leaks could be a sign that we’re not going to see a new Kindle tablet(*) launch any time soon. As you know, whenever Amazon has a new device in the pipeline, details tend to leak to the press. I have long thought this was part of Amazon’s marketing plan, but even if the leaks were unintentional they still tended to happen during the period leading up to a product launch. In 2011 details about the Kindle Fire leaked, and in 2012 we knew much about the Kindle Fire HD and the Kindle Paperwhite before they were officially unveiled. The trend continued in 2013 with leaked details telling us virtually everything about the Kindle Fire HDX, including the prices. And of course both the Fire TV and the Fire Phone leaked in advance of their respective launches. And how much do we know about Amazon’s next tablet? I don’t know anything, myself. In comparison, around this time last year we knew nearly everything about the Fire HDX except the launch date, but I don’t think we know anything about the next model. And that has me interested. This is potentially a sign that Amazon won’t be launching a tablet(*) later this year. That is a shocking and improbable idea, but it’s not impossible. As the old saying goes, “where there’s smoke there’s fire”. It is also sometimes true that if there’s no smoke there is no fire. I could be wrong, but at this point there is is no info to prove me wrong. What do you think? P.S. Just to be clear, I am expecting a new Kindle Paperwhite with a flexible Mobius E-ink screen, but that’s because I have my own sources from the ereader side. I’m told the screen resolution will not increase, though. image by mkooiman The post Where Are All the Kindle Rumors? appeared first on The Digital Reader.

Are Writers Really Earning less than They did 9 Years Ago? Posted: 09 Jul 2014 06:12 AM PDT A new survey report was released in the UK this week which appears to show that writers are eaning an average of 29% less in 2013 than they did in 2005. The report comes from the ALCS, an authors’ rights group in the UK, and includes details like: The typical (median) income of the professional author has also fallen dramatically, both in real and actual terms. In 2013, the median income of the professional author was just £11,000 [$18,834], a drop of 29 percent since 2005 when the figure was £12,330 [$21,111] (£15,450 [$26,450] in real terms). According to Joseph Rowntree Foundation figures, single people in the UK need to earn at least £16,850 [$28,847] before tax to achieve a Minimum Income Standard (MIS). That sounds bad, right? Not necessarily. I’ve read the report (it was only 12 pages long), and I have serious doubts that it accurately reflects what writers are earning. For one thing, the report is only 12 pages long and doesn’t include the original survey questions or granular details on the survey group. Respectable organizations (the Pew Research Center, for example) would include this info, and without them the ALCS report is more of a propaganda piece than a survey report. And that’s not my only concern. I’ve read the report, and I think the survey group was skewed towards older writers, and towards book authors. If you look on page three of the report you’ll see that 2,454 writers were surveyed, and that 83% of the survey group reported their ages as 44 or older. A full 29% are over 64 years of age. Tell me, does that strike you as a representative sample of all the writers in the UK? I can’t find data to the contrary but based on my gut feeling I would say no. And speaking of a skewed survey group, the LACS left an important detail out of the report. They say that the survey group totaled 2,454 writers, but they do not say how many are book authors vs freelance journalists, bloggers, etc. As everyone knows, writing a book pays a lot less than (for example) writing for an ad agency or other business. So if the survey group skewed to book authors then it probably does not reflect the state of all writers in the UK. Unfortunately, we don’t know that for sure. The closest the report comes to answering this point is to say that 69% of respondents retain the copyright for their works, and that 57% have sought a reversion clause in their contracts. That suggests they are either freelancers or book authors, and that would seem to change the importance of the detail concerning the number of professional authors (writers who spend their full time writing) having dropped: For the majority of people, their 'profession' and the way that they earn money are one and the same thing. For writers however this is increasingly often not the case. In 2005, 40% of authors earned their income solely from writing. By 2013, this had dropped to just 11.5%. The report doesn’t explain the drop; it merely mentioned it and predicts the death of western civilization should it continue. All in all, this report looks less like a true survey of writers and more like a hatchet job from a group with an axe to grind. I suggest that you ignore it. found via TeleRead image by gadl The post Are Writers Really Earning less than They did 9 Years Ago? appeared first on The Digital Reader.

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