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By Evan Schnittman

Last week two announcements were made that support the claims made by yours truly regarding sales of Kindles and Sony Readers, and the corresponding rise in ebook sales that will occur in 2008.

TIME Magazine reported that sales of the 130,000 titles available in the Kindle Store represented 12% of the sales of the exact same 130,000 titles in other formats. This is a significant increase as Jeff Bezos reported at the end of May this figure was 6% of 125,000 titles.

The doubling of the percentage on a bigger base points to two very interesting trends – the first is the clearly growing number of Kindle owners – I cannot imagine that kind of ebook sales growth is possible on a similar number of devices. The device sales must be skyrocketing.

The other trend that may be exposed here is the sheer number of ebooks being purchased. Last month some of the bigger trade publishers announced they were increasing the number of titles available for the Kindle. This was done not because of any arm-twisting by Amazon – but clearly as a response to the demand. And just as lack of product has helped to keep ebooks unsuccessful to date, the opposite is helping drive consumer enthusiasm and buying.

More evidence that the e-ink based devices such as Kindle and Sony’s Reader have been selling well comes from further up the supply chain, from the screen manufacturer, PVI. As I reported in the last article, PVI manufactures the 6 inch EPD for Sony and Amazon (the iRex Iliad does not use a 6 inch screen) and in a report files in DIGITIMES last week, PVI reported “Small- to medium-size panel supplier Prime View International (PVI) saw its June sales rebound 23% sequentially to NT$663 million (US$21.79 million) as demand for niche products, including electrophoretic displays (EPDs), picked up, according to the company.” While this is hardly definitive, it should be enough to support the theory that e-ink reader sales are increasing.

This is good news for ebooks – and more good news happened with the opening of Apple’s App Store for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Even though I am not a big believer in LCD screen ebook readers (I find them very difficult on the eyes for immersive reading), I am thrilled that the iPhone/iPod juggernaut will now contain a variety of choices for reading ebooks. I look forward to seeing how ebook retailers, wholesalers, and publishers tap into this wonderful market and what inventive business models Mr. Jobs creates for ebooks. Oh, wait, Steve Jobs doesn’t think Americans read – maybe that dream of an iBooks store is a just pipe dream…

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Evan Schnittman is OUP’s Vice President of Business Development and Rights for the Academic and USA Divisions. His career in publishing spans nearly 20 years and includes positions as varied as Executive Vice President at The Princeton Review and Professor at New York University’s Center for Publishing. He lives in New Jersey with his wife and two children.

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My Top 9 for February is up! Going through this site to buy things from Amazon helps me support my habit. (You don't even have to buy what I linked to! Just click over to Amazon from here!)

So, after some x-raying this morning, it turns out that I'm pinching a nerve in my lower back. It's really not fun.

At least I can still read. Last time I messed my back up, they had me on so many muscle relaxants that I couldn't make my eyes focus enough to read. If you're going to be laid up for a week and are unable to read? Ergh. At least Bravo was running a Project Runway marathon that week. I saw all of season one and most of season two, just in time for season two's finale. And! So soon! The season 4 finale! I'm excited.

But, let's talk about some books, shall we? Both books today parallel something happening in the news, sadly, both books deal with some very current events about fear and hate.

This first story hasn't gotten nearly as much press as it should. On February 12, Lawrence King was shot. He died on February 15. He was gay and sometimes wore make-up and women's clothing to school. He was teased and picked on for his sexuality, for "freaking out the guys." So, one Tuesday, his classmate decided to shoot him in the school's computer lab.

Lawrence King was 15. The boy who murdered him was 14.

Although James St. James's book, Freak Show, is ultimately a heart-lifting tale about waving your freak flag, being yourself, and accepting one another, Billy Bloom is horribly bullied for being effeminate. Even when trying to be "normal," he gets it horribly wrong. So, he decides to be his bad-ass drag queen self.

His first period biology classmates beat him into a coma.

The basic plot is that Billy Bloom, gender-bender, cross-dresser, drag queen, queer, and freak, has been sent to live with his all-American father in Florida. He's sent to school with the Stepford children, who think "gay" is contagious. He asks to be transferred to a different biology class (his worst in terms of bullying) but the teacher never noticed there was an issue.

After failing at all attempts to fit in, he gives up and comes to school in full swamp goddess drag. He wakes up 3 days later in the hospital.

After this, everyone has to be nice to him, as the school is hoping desperately his father won't sue.

He decides to run for Homecoming Queen and it turns into a media circus and a lovely tale of the non-popular kids coming out of the wood work and trying to kick some popular ass.

Billy's voice alternates between his dizzying, frenetic, exclamation point riddled highs and his desperate lows when he's hidden himself in the linen closet. But, Billy knows who he is. He isn't always sure how to handle that, but he knows who he is and generally has the attitude that everyone who has a problem with that can go stuff themselves.

It's a great book, but ultimately, not realistic. It's more happy-go-lucky in a sigh inducing David Levithan sort of way.

Because, in the end, Billy Bloom comes off ok. I won't spoil it for you, but I will say it's not a tear-jerker of a novel.

In the real world, Lawrence King was executed in the computer lab. He never even made it to high school.

Walk Across the Sea Susan Fletcher

They were heathens. They didn't speak English. They looked different. They would work for less money than decent, Christian, white folk.

It's Northern California, 1886, and Eliza's father's one of the many townspeople who want to kick the Chinese out of town. But when one young Chinese boy saves Eliza's life, a tentative friendship forms. Eliza sees how her fellow townspeople are kicking the Chinese out--she sees women and old men being dragged from their homes in the middle of the night and thrown onto wagons to be shipped to San Fransisco.

Coupled with her mother's miscarriage, Eliza starts to seriously questions God, the Bible and her father.

With strong parallels to modern immigration debates, Fletcher's tale is gripping and reminds us that we're all human.

Eliza's questioning of why bad things happen to good people is something we've all asked and the answers she finds will not off-put a non-Christian reader, nor will it offend Christians.

Based on true expulsions of Chinese communities throughout the Pacific Northwest, Fletcher's history is well detailed and well researched without over-powering the story. Her author's notes at the end are excellent--clearly outlining her research process and explaining what was fact and what was imagination. I also loved the details about light-house keeping. The ending was perfect too, because it was real.

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