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25 May ' 19:02
- "Found article strangely composed - sensicle none-the-less. ..."
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25 May ' 12:34
eBooks: IFLA Releases Background Paper on e-Lending May 25, 2012 | 9:11 am
From the International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA) Announcement: As part of its work on the 2011-2012 Key Initiatives, the IFLA Governing Board appointed a working group to draft a background paper on digital lending. At its April meeting the IFLA Governing Board endorsed this paper, and we are now pleased to present a version for download. The paper attempts to: Provide an overview of the issues relating to eBooks in libraries; Summarise the current positions of publishers in both the scholarly publishing and trade publishing sectors; Summarise the differences in the way that academic/research libraries and public libraries address the issue of digital collections; Address...
The Eagle and the Snake – a plot-interactive ebook May 25, 2012 | 9:06 am
Published by Diversion Books and available on Amazon, B&N, iTunes and Kobo this is a new type of ebook. From the website:
“Unconventional and innovative, this is the future of e-publishing here and now—a thriller you not only read, but interact with. Pretty cool and completely fascinating. Attention everyone with an e-reader, don’t miss W. Craig Reed’sThe Eagle and the Snake.” —Steve Berry, bestselling author of The Columbus Affair
In The Eagle and the Snake, NCIS agent Jon Shay is the half-Chinese illegitimate son of a politician. He’s also a former Navy SEAL working with operators from Team Six to track down an Iraqi...calibre 0.8.53 Released May 25, 2012 | 8:53 am
New Features
Kindle Touch/4 driver: Upload cover thumbnails when sending books to device by USB to workaround Amazon bug of not displaying covers for sync-enabled books
Support for updating metadata in FB2 files
Set a different background color when choosing formats to not delete as opposed to choosing format to delete.
E-book viewer: Add an option to prevent the up and down arrow keys from scrolling past page breaks
Get Books: Remove ebookshoppe.com at the website's request
Bug Fixes
PDF Input: Support image rotation commands in PDF files. Fixes the long standing problem of some images being flipped when converting from PDF in calibre.
Fix a regression in...0 - "Ron Unz launched a website at unz.org with many old magazines and announced a competition for a 10k prize for research using the archives. ..."Mercer"Gale digitizes popular 20th century weekly - Liberty Magazine - Posted on May 25, 2012"Catana, Makes total sense to me! Which is why I asked. In current form, the site will be of a smaller benefit to those that are ..."Ed - Posted on May 25, 2012"Ed, my criticism of the site isn't because of the affliliation. If you want to try to make money that way, fine. Of course, you're ..."- Posted on May 25, 2012"Exactly. The traditionalists in the industry are so focused on the elephant's trunk they are blind to the rest of the creature. If we look at Amazon's ..."Felix Torres - Posted on May 25, 2012"Chris, The reasons for Isilo support: * An existing format designed for reading on small screens. * No need to invest in "new" format that will require ..."Steve"Diesel eBooks comes out with its own ereading software - Posted on May 25, 2012
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25 May ' 05:11
California Historical Society Releases Free eBook Capturing Innovation and Inspiration of Golden Gate Bridge May 25, 2012 | 7:50 am
From the press release:
As hundreds of thousands of admirers of the Golden Gate Bridge begin to converge on the San Francisco Bay area to celebrate the 75th Anniversary of the world-renowned icon, the California Historical Society is releasing its first multimedia eBook for iPads to capture the rich history and amazing story of the Bridge through a selection of rarely seen artwork, photographs, video, memorabilia, stories, images and much more.
Published by The California Historical Society and produced by Sol Editions and Wild Blue Studios, the eBook was funded through a grant provided by UnitedHealthcare.The free iPad eBook, “A Wild Flight of...Queen Victoria’s personal journals now available for public access, by Sue Polanka May 25, 2012 | 7:38 am
From a ProQuest press release:
London, 24 May 2012. HM the Queen launches online resource of all Queen Victoria’s Journals
Her Majesty The Queen today launched a unique online resource that makes available all the personal journals of Queen Victoria. The Bodleian Libraries working in partnership with The Royal Archives and information company ProQuest, have for the first time ever, made the private records of one of the world’s most influential public figures available for the public to access at www.queenvictoriasjournals.org.
The journals, which span Victoria’s lifetime and consist of 141 volumes numbering over 43,000 pages, have never been published in their entirety...Pocket Star relaunched by Simon & Schuster as dedicated ebook imprint May 25, 2012 | 7:35 am
From the press release:
- Louise Burke, Executive Vice President and Publisher, announced today that
Pocket Books, America’s first paperback publisher, has re-launched its Pocket Star line as an eBook-only
imprint. As it did in print, Pocket Star will continue to feature bestselling and debut authors in popular
genres including women’s fiction, romance, thrillers, urban fantasy, and mystery.
Louise Burke said, “Similar to how mass market has served as a platform to develop future hardcover
authors, it is our mission to use Pocket Star’s new digital-only format to establish new voices in the
marketplace. An eBook imprint is flexible, cost-effective, cutting-edge and makes sense in today’s
marketplace. Under...OverDrive Says Developer APIs Will Become Available in July May 25, 2012 | 7:28 am
OverDrive APIs that were supposed to launch in April are now set to become available in July.
From the OverDrive Digital Library Blog:
OverDrive’s product and development teams have been hard at work developing a suite of APIs (application programming interfaces) that will enable approved vendors to deeply integrate OverDrive-hosted catalogs and nearly 1 million digital titles with their apps and platforms. In July, we’ll launch the OverDrive Developer Portal along with the first set of OverDrive APIs.
As part of the development process, we’ve been working with a group of booksellers, publishers, school, library, discovery platform and mobile technology partners to collect...Wanted from OverDrive and rivals: Smarter software for library e-books May 25, 2012 | 7:20 am
The new version of the OverDrive library app, for e-books and audiobooks, has just appeared for the iPhone, iPod Touch, and the iPad III.
Compared to past incarnations, 2.4.2 should delight many a patron.
Users of Apple’s IOS operating system will enjoy ‘more control over text justification, line spacing, page margins, and font selection.’
And the just-released Android variant from OverDrive even offers double- and triple-column options in landscape mode, and serif, nonserif and typewriter-like monospaced styles in both regular and bold.
Might such marvels from OverDrive on the way for my iPad soon?
I’ve long begged OverDrive for all-text bolding, and I thank the company for responding...Gale digitizes popular 20th century weekly – Liberty Magazine May 24, 2012 | 8:58 pm
From an email sent to me by Gale:
There are very few magazines that are able to stand the test of time while so accurately capturing the moods and attitudes of an entire country. Liberty Magazine, a weekly that rivaled the Saturday Evening Post in its heyday, has found new life within the family of Gale Digital Collections. Gale today launched the Liberty Magazine Historical Archive, 1924-1950, a complete digitization of the entire run of Liberty Magazine, nearly 1,400 issues, with more than 17,000 fiction and non-fiction articles and thousands of advertisements all in a searchable, full-color format.
If the Stanley Cup playoffs have got you interested in...Electric Literature launches online literary magazine – Recommended Reading May 24, 2012 | 9:46 am
From the website. I love the logo so I'm reprinting it bigger than usual. Stories are available on the website or in ePub form for free, or in Kindle format for $1.
GREAT AUTHORS INSPIRE US. But what about the stories that inspire them? Recommended Reading, a magazine by Electric Literature, publishes one story a week, each chosen by today’s best authors or editors.
Recommended Reading is released on a four week curation cycle: beginning with a story chosen by Electric Literature, followed by...The Future Of Publishing In Microcosm | The Increasing Internationalization Of Irish Publishing May 24, 2012 | 9:26 am
Yesterday I was a little unfair to Easons for the pronouncements of the company’s spokesperson and the tone of the article on its ebook strategy which suggested the company was about to embark on a mission to build a rival platform to B&N and Amazon, something that would surely have been a valiant, if doomed, effort.
When I thought about it for the rest of the day though it got me thinking about just how much ebooks are changing the profile of book publishing and bookselling and how quickly that is happening. For instance I am almost certain of two things...Bowker Research Shows Australia is a Global Leader in E-Book Adoption May 24, 2012 | 9:19 am
From the press release by the Book Industry Study Group:
...The Global eBook Monitor finds that men are slightly more likely to have engaged with the digital book market than women. The 18-24 age group leads in use, just a little ahead of those aged 25-34. However, that may change shortly. 'Although current e-book use tends to decrease with age, those most likely to come into the market in the next six months are somewhat older than current buyers,' said Ms. Henry. 'That's the pattern we're seeing in both the U.S. and the U.K.' The Global eBook Monitor (GeM)...0 GPO Partners With Barnes and Noble to Sell Federal eBooks May 24, 2012 | 9:15 am
From the GPO:
The U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO) has signed an agreement with Barnes & Noble to sell Federal eBooks. Titles are available in eBook format for Barnes & Noble’s Nook eReader.
GPO works with Federal agencies to produce their publications, books, and reports in print and digital formats, including eBook formats. Approximately 30 eBook titles are available including popular titles like the Public Papers of the President-Barack Obama, Deep Water: The Gulf Oil Disaster And The Future Of Offshore Drilling (the BP Oil Spill Commission Report), the Financial Crisis Inquiry Report, and the newly released Basic Guide to Exporting from...Check out new site: 100 Free Books For Your Kindle May 24, 2012 | 9:11 am
There's a new free ebook site in town - 100 Free Ebooks For Your Kindle.
According to the site it is updated several times a day.
Checking out the site I see that they are NOT a list of public domain books....2 Etextbook study in a medical school May 24, 2012 | 9:05 am
From an article in TechNewsWorld:
...
To get a better feel for the effects of e-textbooks on student productivity, the Hofstra North Shore-LIJ School of Medicine's Health Sciences launched an iPad pilot program and study.
With the aid of a US$10,000 Technology Improvement Express Award grant from the National Network of Libraries of Medicine, Middle Atlantic Region, Hofstra set out to determine the effectiveness of the iPad and apps as a tool for medical education.
The grant paid for 10 iPads and cases, along with textbook, productivity and medical applications. Ten out of the 40 first-year medical students and 10 out of approximately 30 faculty members...0 - "Easy enough to check. And yes, it's just the regular list, with very short descriptions added. It has the virtue of telling you enough so ..."Catana"Check out new site: 100 Free Books For Your Kindle - Posted on May 24, 2012"This is an abomination! Taxpayers have already paid for the development of this information and shouldn't have to pay twice to gain access to ..."Frank Lowney"GPO Partners With Barnes and Noble to Sell Federal eBooks - Posted on May 24, 2012"Felix, while I agree with almost all of your points, it's the one I don't agree with that tempts me to comment :-) such is ..."Howard - Posted on May 24, 2012"The Amazon website lists 100 free ebooks for the Kindle and it is updated hourly. Hopefully this site is more than just a copy of ..."Biblio"Check out new site: 100 Free Books For Your Kindle - Posted on May 24, 2012"There is always something better coming ... sometimes it arrives on time, sometimes its delayed, sometimes it never arrives. (We're still waiting for the iPhone ..."Alexander Inglis"10 devices not to buy right now—including e-readers - Posted on May 24, 2012
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23 May ' 12:35
paidContent 2012: Q&A with Jon Miller of News Corp. May 23, 2012 | 2:58 pm
Moderator, Staci D. Kramer, Editor and Senior Writer, paidContent/GigaOM
Jon Miller, Chief Digital Officer, Chairman and CEO, Digital Media Group, News Corp.: Investing quietly in early stage companies in China for about a year. Took a 20% position in a public film company in China recently. Seeing some light at the end of the tunnel in MySpace. New media companies, like MySpace, are not as stable as traditional companies and when you get a bit behind it is very hard to catch up because everyone else moving so fast.
Yahoo needs big answers and not many of them at a given time....In letter to DoJ, Mike Shatzkin argues publishers should have ability to set prices May 23, 2012 | 1:24 pm
Publishing-industry consultant Mike Shatzkin has posted the letter he has sent the Department of Justice in regard to its proposed settlement with three of the five original Agency publishers. Shatzkin spends much of the letter establishing his credibility as a consultant, then points out the two fundamental problems he sees with the settlement. First is the one that he mentioned in his column the other day—if publishers sell directly to the consumer, they can’t sell at full price without Amazon eating their lunch, and if they discount Amazon may insist its own prices should be based on the publishers’...4 paidContent 2012: The app economy – holy grail or dead end? May 23, 2012 | 11:44 am
Moderator, Tom Krazit, Senior Writer, paidContent/GigaOM:
Rob Malda, Chief Strategist and Editor-at-Large, Labs Team, Washington Post: Have projects on all sides of the debate. Have apps and HTML5 and agnostic as to which to use. Pick whatever work with the content. If want your stuff to work everywhere then HTML5 is the way to go. Unless have a very specific reason to go native code then will be much faster to go to HTML5. A lot of folks will go hybrid. Can do this if have enough employees to go native plus HTML5, but not good for start-up with few people....Italian Constitiution crippled by DRM May 23, 2012 | 10:45 am
Got the following email from Paolo Amoroso:
Italian engineering Professor JuanCarlos De Martin @demartin has found that the Italian Constitution downloadable from the official government site is effectively crippled with DRM. It's a PDF document that prevents content copying (not even for accessibility) and search engine indexing. Some details are available in this blog post:
http://ildebugger.com/2012/05/23/la-costituzione-drm-governo/
machine translation via Google Translate
http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=it&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Fildebugger.com%2F2012%2F05%2F23%2Fla-costituzione-drm-governo%2F&act=url
This is especially ironical considering that Michael Hart started Project Gutenberg by sharing the US Declaration of Independence.
This was pointed out to me by Giovanni Salvatori @borsista.
Regards,
Paolo Amoroso
...paidContent 2012: The new publishers May 23, 2012 | 10:38 am
Moderator, Larry Kramer, President and Publisher, USA Today:
Jim Bankoff, Chairman, CEO, Vox Media: Only in the digital arena in sports and tech coverage. Started with advantage of starting with clean slate, but have the disadvantage of not having the cash flow of older companies. Model is to find web-native talent and empower them. Are a start-up but have grown to be one of the top 10 publishers on the net. In sports area didn't want to "build a brand" because there are some very good brands already out there. Decided that fragmentation was the way to go. SEO for Google...paidContent 2012: The new publishing landscape May 23, 2012 | 10:13 am
Moderator, Robert Andrews, Senior Editor, International, paidContent/GigaOM
Nick Bogaty, Director of Busines Development, Digital Publishing Group, Adobe Systems: Started software project with Wired three years ago. Great initial excitement when iPad come out. But now are at the point of growing real businesses with real content, real advertising and real subscribers. Provide software creation tools but also act as a distributor. Now distribute 120,000 publications a day and last year served 26 million publications. Shows that the business is real. Producing the Wired magazines was a total collaborative experience. Actually slept at Wired to see how they put out the magazine....0 paidContent 2012: Q&A with Bob Sauerberg May 23, 2012 | 9:34 am
Moderator: Staci C. Kramer, Editor and Senior Writer, paidContent/GigaOm
Bob Sauerberg, President, Conde Nast: Conde Nast needed to think differently and figure out how to go digital. Gourmet digital was their leap forward and now has 1 million plus users. Digital magazines have been a great business. Is a stand-alone business now.
Half a million monthly subscribers at this point. Provides a great revenue stream long term. $20 million revenue stream. But the format for most users is print. They want to be agnostic as to print versus digital.
Industry trained the consumer to look for low prices in consumer magazines. Conde Nast...0 paidContent 2012: Tablets – not just an iPad world May 23, 2012 | 9:08 am
James McQuivey, VP, Principal Analyst, Forrester Research: It is an iPad world right now. 34% of the US population will have a tablet by 2016. That's 112.5 million tablets. No other device in the history of consumer electronics has achieved such a high penetration in such a short time.
Future will not be made only of tablets. Now have 35 million ereaders and 30 plus million say they are thinking about getting one. Over 70 million iPads out there. Kinnect for Xbox 360 has sold 22 million devices. Means that Microsoft can move into the market.
Apple two years to sell 1...4 - "Every single opinion piece I have ever seen that is written by a publishing insider is filled with endless rationalization for setting artificially high prices. ..."Binko Barnes"In letter to DoJ, Mike Shatzkin argues publishers should have ability to set prices - Posted on May 23, 2012""Only by eliminating competition can we foster competition." Let's not forget the ways the cartel's price-fixing model reduced competition by forcing retailers to shut ..."Peter"In letter to DoJ, Mike Shatzkin argues publishers should have ability to set prices - Posted on May 23, 2012"So stop selling via Amazon already. Give me a product at my price *via a channel that's usable* t'd I really won't care if ..."Cerebus"In letter to DoJ, Mike Shatzkin argues publishers should have ability to set prices - Posted on May 23, 2012"The publishers have the right to set their prices. Individually. They still do. What they never had was the right to conspire to raise consumer prices. Everything else ..."Felix Torres"In letter to DoJ, Mike Shatzkin argues publishers should have ability to set prices - Posted on May 23, 2012"I think what most people are forgetting is that when mass market books were at their height of popularity, they contained ads, most often several ..."Drew Goodman"Why advertising could become Amazon's knockout punch - Posted on May 23, 2012
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23 May ' 00:57
4 8 - "Actually, the Expresso and some of its POD competitors are very useful in book distribution. Printed books take up space and cost money to ..."Marilynn Byerly"The Espresso is too expensive for independent bookstores, says owner of San Francisco’s Borderlands Books"Geography is perhaps one of the few situations where an Expresso machine makes sense. Imagine a distant country (particularly an island) with a population ..."Michael W. Perry"The Espresso is too expensive for independent bookstores, says owner of San Francisco’s Borderlands Books"Why iSilo exactly, Steve? ..."Chris Meadows"Why don't publishers just support Isilo? ..."Steve
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22 May ' 14:10
Diesel eBooks comes out with its own ereading software May 22, 2012 | 9:39 am
From the press release:
Diesel eBooks has just rolled out a suite of new mobile products designed to deliver more choice and freedom, and to counteract what it sees as a totalitarian eBook environment which tethers customers to specific devices and eBook Stores.
In addition to the new Diesel Reader software for iPad/iPhone and Android, the launch includes a universal mobile app called the “eFreedom” app http://www.diesel-ebooks.com/static/educz-devices_freedom/1.html.
“Our customers have increasingly shared their frustration with eBook devices being isolated to a specific store,” said L. Scott Redford, Founder and CEO of Diesel eBooks. “In response, we’ve built the eFreedom app which can be reached...2 Ebooks book Bloomsbury’s profits May 22, 2012 | 9:36 am
From the press release:
A slew of best-selling electronic books helped boost profits at Britain's Bloomsbury Publishing (BLPU.L) as the book industry continues its shift to digital, and the firm said it would look to academic titles for a larger part of future growth.
Bloomsbury, the publisher of the "Harry Potter" series by author JK Rowling, also said it was counting on a new Rowling three-book box set tied into the Potter series, and a non-fiction account of spies in World War II to support sales in the coming year.
Pretax profit at the publisher rose 13.6 percent to 4.8 million pounds ($7.6...Further Thoughts On Waterstones And Amazon May 22, 2012 | 9:12 am
Yesterday I wrote a post that was generally favourable to the deal between Amazon and Waterstones:
If I was to think of one single reason for the move being a good though I would say it is this, it allows Waterstones to stand still and observe for a little longer. The value of inaction is often underestimated and right now when the ebook retail and distribution space is changing rapidly and requires such a huge investment, this move brings revenue, options but most crucially of all, time to just see what happens while rebuilding the core bookselling business.
I still think the above holds true. One major issue...Duke University Libraries: eBook Strategy and Advocacy Model May 22, 2012 | 9:05 am
Duke University Libraries: eBook Strategy and Advocacy Model: "Published August 2011 and Prepared by Duke University Libraries E-Book Strategy Committee.
E-Book Advocacy Model
Duke University Libraries E-Book Advocacy Model
E-book Advocacy Statements
PDF Version of Materials (10 pages)
Statements Cover the Necessary Functionalities of eBooks To Support Research:
Conceptualization and Discovery
Reading
Theory Formation
Documenting and Synthesizing
Collaboration
Publishing and Disseminating
(Via LJ INFOdocket.)...Publishers and activists come together to say NO to DRM on ebooks May 22, 2012 | 9:03 am
Friday, May 4th was the fourth International Day Against DRM, and wow — what a day!
We were supported by our friends at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Creative Commons, the Accessible Computing Foundation, Fight for the Future, APRIL, and our sister organizations, FSF France, FSF India and FSF Europe.
Our focus for this year's day was the threat of DRM on ebooks, and so we also welcomed support from several publishers. Libre Graphics Magazine, O'Reilly, No Starch, Angry Robot and others had their own sales on DRM-free ebooks, encouraging authors and readers alike to step up and vote with their wallets.
Additionally, we...1 ReadSocial founder, Travis Alber, interviewed by Tools of Change May 22, 2012 | 8:53 am
Tools of Change interview with Travis Alber of ReadSocial. Social reading is gaining momentum. There are quite a few startups involved in this space, and most of them simply assume your Facebook friends share the same reading interests you do. ReadSocial is different. In this TOC interview, we hear from ReadSocial co-founder Travis Alber (@screenkapture) on why they're building their platform without tying it to your social graph. ...
2 6 6 - "I'm baffled why so many are enamoured with the Espresso machine. It's the flying car of the book technology world, intriguing in theory, hopelessly expensive ..."willem"The Espresso is too expensive for independent bookstores, says owner of San Francisco’s Borderlands Books - Posted on May 22, 2012"The images of the Diesel Reader software in the Apple app store looks just like a repackaged Bluefire app. As I already have several issues ..."ShellBell"Diesel eBooks comes out with its own ereading software - Posted on May 22, 2012"I'm sorry but I see this in an absolutely different light than Eoin. Waterstones is a huge multinational street pBook seller. It is facing a transition ...""Further Thoughts On Waterstones And Amazon - Posted on May 22, 2012"Publishers and activists, eh? Where are the authors? (Back in the barn, of course, waiting for their word-udders to fill up so we can milk ..."DensityDuck"Publishers and activists come together to say NO to DRM on ebooks - Posted on May 22, 2012"So how is this different from Ibis Reader? http://ibisreader.com/ ..."Frank Lowney"Diesel eBooks comes out with its own ereading software - Posted on May 22, 2012
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22 May ' 02:29
Can e-readers help save reading? May 22, 2012 | 1:33 am
OnlineUniversities.com has a post by Justin Marquis Ph.D. looking at the alarming trend of declining reading rates over the last few decades, and bringing up the recent Pew study showing that e-reader owners read more as a possible harbinger of ways to reduce the trend. People who read more, Marquis points out, become more “interesting, engaged, and intellectual”. They have a higher degree of emotional as well as standard literacy, developing empathy through repeatedly putting themselves in the place of the characters they read about. Adolescents who don’t develop good reading habits are at a disadvantage in college where...The Espresso is too expensive for independent bookstores, says owner of San Francisco’s Borderlands Books May 22, 2012 | 12:48 am
A few days ago I mentioned the Harvard Book Store, which features an Espresso Book Machine which it uses to help it stay relevant in its market, and pondered why it is that more stores aren’t following its example. As it turns out, Alan Beatts has a definitive answer to that on the blog of his San Francisco bookstore Borderlands Books. Beatts ran the numbers for the cost of the machine, materials, and operations, versus how long it would take to pay down those costs at various rates. He determined that if he averaged one book an hour over...3 - "Thankfully Government are not staying out of it. That is because it is government's role to make sure the market is actually a 'free' market ..."Howard"What a piece of utter BS, Amazon hating, commercially ignorant, uninformed and plain dumb writing. ..." "Wowio.com used to have a model where they gave away ebooks that had one or two ads at the very beginning and/or very end of ..." "The possibility of in-book ads is the best argument I can think of to switch to Kobo or Nook or completely abandon ebooks all together. ..."
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21 May ' 15:34
Quirk Books publisher offers advice on dealing with digital disruption May 21, 2012 | 1:04 pm
How can publishers thrive in a digitally-disrupted world? David Borgenicht, president and publisher of Quirk Books (best known for publishing Pride and Prejudice and Zombies) has some advice for other publishers. The five quick tips basically boil down to creating as engaging a product as possible, and then marketing effectively in order to grow new readers. 2. We are not in Kansas anymore. We are not even in the publishing business anymore. We are in the entertainment business. This is something we've said at Quirk for years. We are competing for attention against everything people do...Why advertising could become Amazon’s knockout punch May 21, 2012 | 12:33 pm
It all started harmlessly enough with Amazon's Kindle with Special Offers. That's the cheaper Kindle that displays ads when the device is in sleep mode or at the bottom of the screen when paging through the owner's catalog of books. It is very unobtrusive and, since it lowered the price of the device, has made that Kindle an extremely popular device.
Now there are rumors that Amazon is selling ad space on the Kindle Fire's welcome screen. That sounds pretty reasonable too as it's a simple way for Amazon to drive a bit of additional income that's pure profit for them.
Given that...Review of QuickSearch PDF Reader May 21, 2012 | 10:56 am
From The Unoffical Apple Weblog:
If you're someone who does a lot of work on the road, and needs to reference PDF source material, you'll find that QuickSearch PDF (US$4.99) from Olive Toast Software is the tool you didn't realize you needed. It has one job to do -- to help you find information inside large PDF files -- and it does that job well.
You type search terms into a text field, and QuickSearch PDF finds every occurrence, in every document that's been added to it. It lets you flip through each match until you find just the information you need. It's a...paidContent 2012 on Wednesday; TeleRead will be there May 21, 2012 | 10:48 am
paidContent's annual conference will be held in New York on May 23. I'll be there covering the event for you.
There will be a number of speakers in the ebook/epublishing arena including:
James McQuivey, VP, Principal Analyst, Forrester Research
Bob Sauerberg, President, Conde Nast
Nick Bogaty, Director of Business Development, Digital Publishing Group, Adobe Systems
Liz Schimel, EVP and Chief Digital Officer, Meredith National Media Group
Jonathan Shar, GM, Digital Newsstand and Emerging Content, Barnes & Noble
Jim Bankoff, Chairman, CEO, Vox Media
John Paton, CEO, Digital First Media
Charlie Redmayne, CEO, Pottermore...Reasons to buy a tablet [cartoon] May 21, 2012 | 10:20 am
Originally published on Ebook Friendly. Check all cartoons....BooksOnBoard’s Top Ten Bestselling eBooks This Week in the US May 21, 2012 | 10:19 am
From the press release:
A new New York Times bestseller has captivated BooksOnBoard audiences on both sides of the Atlantic this week: Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel.
Historical fiction is one of those genres that doesnt often make its presence known on our top ten lists, remarked Nathan Johnson, BooksOnBoards Director of Operations. But when it does, its really turning heads. Mantels work is the perfect example. There is no shortage of fictional accounts of the wives of Henry VIII, and particularly the life and trial of Anne Boleyn. However, what Mantel offers in Bringing Up the Bodies, the sequel...0 CourseSmart introduces ecommerce platform for etextbooks in UK and Europe May 21, 2012 | 10:10 am
From the press release:
CourseSmart®, the world's largest provider of eTextbooks and digital course materials, today announced its continued international growth with the launch of an eCommerce platform in the UK and Europe. The platform provides students access to eTextbooks and digital course materials anytime, anywhere from any web-enabled device. Students in the UK and Europe will also now enjoy guaranteed, up-front savings of up to 40% when compared to a new print textbook.
"The world of textbooks is changing. Through the proliferation of tablets, handheld devices, laptops and computers, the academic world is moving online and engaging with students like never before. We are...0 One reader prefers new iPad to an actual magazine May 21, 2012 | 10:04 am
From an article by Farhad Manjoo in Slate:
...
It’s taken time for the magazine industry to catch up to the new iPad—only in the last few weeks have some of my favorite magazines, including the New Yorker, released apps that take advantage of the Retina display. But now that they have, the iPad has become transformative. The Retina display has brought iPad magazines up to par, as a reading experience, with their print counterparts. And when you consider the other advantages of iPad mags—you can have lots of them on hand, you can read them in the dark, you never lose your...Hachette starting library ebook pilot program May 21, 2012 | 9:49 am
From paidContent:
Hachette, which has not made new e-books available to libraries since 2010, is reconsidering the idea. In a pilot program starting this spring (which is…now?), the publisher is working with two e-book distributors to bring a “selection of HBG’s recent bestselling e-books to 7 million library patrons.”
Hachette would not confirm which distributors or libraries it is working with — whether it is partnering with leading digital distributor OverDrive and/or with an OverDrive competitor like 3M Cloud Library or Baker & Taylor’s Axis 360.
“These pilot programs will help us learn more about library patrons’ interests, usage, and expectations,” Hachette said...0 Kobo’s new web app: good for Kobo, but not for readers May 21, 2012 | 9:39 am
Here's part of an article by Chris Walters from his BookSprung blog:
Kobo’s new web app, released earlier this week, is a great first move at breaking free from Apple’s App Store extortion. Good for Kobo, I say. Unfortunately, it keeps the same design and user experience as the official Kobo app, which means it’s designed to be a storefront first, and a reading app second. Unless you’re stuck with Kobo, there are better options out there.
Like Amazon’s Kindle web app from last August, the Kobo web app is really a website that can store data on your device even when...0 And Then There was One: Redux May 21, 2012 | 9:27 am
Last week I wrote about my experience with Barnes & Noble’s customer service and how frustrating I found B&N’s attitude. Ted Weinstein twitted about the article and received back a suggestion that ‘Dan’ at B&N be contacted, with an e-mail address. Ted was kind enough to post that reply as a comment to the article.
So I did write Dan and I commented, in reply to Ted’s comment about the response I got. However, the story does not end with that reply.
I’m a firm believer that when an effort is made to rectify a situation, that effort is deserving of attention,...How to install the Aldiko Book Reader on Kindle Fire? May 21, 2012 | 9:20 am
From the Aldiko blog:
Many Kindle Fire users have asked us how to install the Aldiko Book Reader on their Kindle Fire, below we are going to share two easy methods to you.
Downloading and installing directly to your Kindle Fire:
(1) At the top of the Kindle Fire menu, select the Gear (settings) icon and then tap on the ‘More’ icon; (2) Tap on ‘Device’, then choose ‘ON’ for ‘Allow Installation of Applications’; (3) Open the Kindle Fire’s browser and open the below link: https://aldiko.zendesk.com/entries/402881-download-the-latest-version-of-the-aldiko-book-reader-application#overview to download the Aldiko app; (4) When download completes, open the notification bar on your Kindle Fire....0 - "Any time a company makes an effort to improve customer service it should be noted. Many of us still lament the demise of Borders and ..."Elizabeth"And Then There was One: Redux - Posted on May 21, 2012"i actually agree 100% with this article, so i guess TWO readers prefer them. : ) ..."Franko"One reader prefers new iPad to an actual magazine - Posted on May 21, 2012"@Christopher makes some good points, especially about obscuring current reading level, but I wonder why we have to make do with a limited capability device ..."Frank Lowney"Should grade school classrooms use Kindles? - Posted on May 21, 2012"http://likebooks.org - nice online app for reading books. You can read books from their website or from your local computer. It has Translate function - ..."edgar"10 sites where you can read books online, by Piotr Kowalczyk - Posted on May 21, 2012"I read the article on a different site and found it an excellent explanation of the free market. Her point wasn't publisher vs middleman vs ..."Common Sense"Ludwig von Mises Institute calls out 'Dead-Tree Luddites' - Posted on May 21, 2012
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20 May ' 12:03
1 - "Howard, you may well be right when you say that I'm under-estimating today's youth. That may be a function of the specific young people I ..." "I never personally heard anyone express the belief that Gutenberg invented movable type ... only that he invented the printing press and mechanised the process. ..."- Posted on May 20, 2012"Mr Subbu - Being opinionated is a very welcome compliment. Thank you. I come here to build and express opinions. While I'm at it, your ...""Amazon color e-ink Kindle rumor continues to turn up - Posted on May 20, 2012"I have a large collection in the range of 750 books and looking to scan it, does anybody know if they are able to scan ..."Mike F."Review of Bound Book Scanning service, by Patricia Guth - Posted on May 20, 2012"Chris, you make good points that raise some of the key questions. Adoption of any standard approach is certainly a big issue. But you only touched ..."Bill McCoy"IDPF proposes less-restrictive DRM standard - Posted on May 20, 2012
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20 May ' 00:54
- "Omg I love movable type it's so creative ..."Selena"Chinese invented movable type 600 years before Gutenberg - Posted on May 20, 2012"I just read Shatzkin's column referenced above and yet again it makes you want to pick these people up and shake them until they raise ..."Howard"Chittum, like so many like him, is all over the place in his arguments. At one point he is looking at Final Cut Pro X, ..."
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