| Self-publishing is a polarizing topic in the publishing world. There is no denying that the sheer amount of titles has dramatically increased in recent years. The average bestseller list on the New York Times, or Amazon normally has 3-4 indie titles in the top 25. One of the side effects of more people self-publishing is the sheer number of people preying on them. Self-published books made up a tiny proportion – 2% – of all books purchased last year, this figure increases dramatically, to 12%, when print books are removed from the equation. When we look back at 2012 there were 391,000 indie ebooks published, up 59% over 2011 and 422% over 2007. Ebooks continue to gain on print, comprising 40% of the ISBNs that were self-published in 2012, up from just 11% in 2007. When it comes to publishing a digital book yourself, there are a myriad of daunting barriers. How exactly do you formulate a proper table of contents? How do you convert the your book from Word to EPUB or to a Kindle friendly format? What is the industry standard for line spacing, font types or margins? What is the average cover art size for Apple iBooks, or Barnes and Noble? Aside from just writing your book, you could spend months formatting it correctly to self-publish, if you never had to do it before. Not willing to learn, or to cut corners is prompting predatory behavior from publishing companies, vanity presses and unscrupulous review companies. One of the biggest boogeymen of the publishing world to prey on writers is Author Solutions. They are billed as a ”self-publishing” company currently doing business with several major publishers, while acting more like a severely abusive vanity press than an actual self-publishing service. They company has assembled a stable of “self-publishing” and print-on-demand services, including Author House, xlibris, iUniverse and Trafford. Other publishers have outsourced self-publishing work to ASI under a variety of names. Author Solutions tends to charge authors a few thousand dollars to digitize and print their eBook. There is no editing or copyrighting, those are extra. When a book does not sell well, aggressive telemarketers try and upsell authors to bigger packages. Things are so bad that three authors have filed suit, airing a laundry list of complaints and alleging the company is engaged in deceitful, dubious business practices. "Defendants have marketed themselves as an independent publisher with a reputation for outstanding quality and impressive book sales,” the complaint reads. “Instead, Defendants are not an independent publisher, but a print-on-demand vanity press." This is just one particular company, but there are hundreds of them out there. Once your book is written, it is time to promote it. This is where the predators such as Kirkus Reviews and Publishers Weekly come in. They have starter packages where you can pay them $800 to write an impartial review of the book, to use on marketing material. Often, once you do that they try and upsell you on banner advertising on their website, running some authors a cool $8,000. If you are looking to find a company to assist you in writing, digitizing or selling the book for you, there are a number of resources out there. Preditors & Editors is a resource website geared towards the serious writer. They say that their "aim is to assist." If you click on Book Publisher Listings, you will find an alphabetical list of hundreds of traditional publishers, self-publishing companies, and vanity presses. If Preditors & Editors has received complaints about a company, this will be noted in red type after the company listing. These warnings might simply say, "Not recommended," or "Subsidy press, not recommended," or "Charges fee. Writer complaints. Not recommended," or even "Poor contract. Strongly not recommended." I have talked to thousands of indie authors over the years and most of them want to continue to write and their books are not often one-offs. If a writer wants to make a living off of their writing, they should learn how to do it themselves. Understanding the semantics of cover art design, table of contents, proper formatting and knowing where to distribute will help you more then simply relying on someone to hold your hand and hope for the best. In this life, the only person you can truly trust is yourself and you owe it to yourself, to not be let down. Have you been scammed by a self-publishing company or got a weird email? Sound off below. Indie Authors are being Preyed Upon is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Friday, February 28, 2014
Indie Authors are being Preyed Upon
New eBook by Karen Russell Features an Interactive Cover
| The Atavist is a boutique publishing company that launched in early 2011. Evan Ratliff and New Yorker senior editor Nick Thompson started the digital exclusive service to promote short and long-form Fiction. One of their new titles features an interactive eBook cover, done by legendary cover artist Chip Kidd. Karen Russell is a New York Times bestseller who wrote the novel Swamplandia! Her new book is an imaginative and haunting novella about an insomnia epidemic set in the near future. “Sleep Donation explores a world facing the end of sleep as we know it, where "Night Worlds" offer black market remedies to the desperate and sleep deprived, and where even the act of making a gift is not as simple as it appears.” This new interactive cover is actually a fairly solid marketing campaign and is giving the book some early buzz. It is being sold exclusively as an eBook and will be available at the end of March on Amazon, Kobo and iBooks. New eBook by Karen Russell Features an Interactive Cover is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Barnes and Noble Hopes Make Nook Profitable
| Barnes and Noble is seeking to retool the Nook division and to stem the tide of declining revenue. The company has lost over a billion dollars since they first unveiled the Nook e-Reader back in 2011. They are hoping to solve the situation by firing a large percentage of their workforce, capitalizing on digital sales and releasing a new tablet. Since fiscal 2014 began, approximately 190 NOOK positions have been eliminated both through reductions and attrition. The bookseller has spent over $2.4 million dollars on severance packages, but should save money in the long-term. Most of these positions were in the hardware and programming departments. Currently, even with these reductions Nook has 500 people currently working in that division. Likely, further layoffs are anticipated to happen during the year. Last quarter Barnes and Noble sold $50 million dollars worth of digital content, which incorporates apps, books, magazines and videos. In the US, the bookseller controls roughly about 20% of the eBook market, whereas a year ago they had 27%. The bookseller is hoping to capitalize on more international distribution via Microsoft to boost revenue. This is a good model, because it is not reliant on internal staff to promote and market the Nook Reading app for Microsoft, the Redmond company is doing a fine job at hyping it. Finally, Barnes and Noble announced plans for a new Nook tablet to be released sometime this year. If we look at past trends, it will likely come out in October, to gear up promotional efforts both online and in the retail stores for the pivotal holiday season. Nothing is really known about the tablet yet, but there are rumors that the company will be dealing with Foxconn to manufacture the devices and their California R&D division will handle the design. Barnes and Noble Hopes Make Nook Profitable is a post from: Good e-Reader |
A birthday present from Broadcom
| Two years ago today*, the Raspberry Pi Model B went on sale, selling 100,000 units on the first day. Since then, over 2.5 million Raspberry Pis have found homes with hobbyists, children and professional engineers around the world.  Each Pi in this first pallet now has over 1250 friends. The success of the Pi has allowed us to make substantial financial contributions to a range of open-source projects, including XBMC, libav, PyPy, Pixman, Wayland/Weston, Squeak, Scratch and WebKit, and we are continuing to sponsor projects like these. But it’s always felt like we have a piece of unfinished business. In common with every other ARM-based SoC, using the VideoCore IV 3d graphics core on the Pi requires a block of closed-source binary driver code (a “blob”) which talks to the hardware. In our case, this blob runs on the VPU vector processor of the BCM2835 (the SOC or System On a Chip at the heart of the Raspberry Pi); our existing open-source graphics drivers are a thin shim running on the ARM11, which talks to that blob via a communication driver in the Linux kernel. The lack of true open-source graphics drivers and documentation is widely acknowledged to be a significant problem for Linux on ARM, as it prevents users from fixing driver bugs, adding features and generally understanding what their hardware is doing. Earlier today, Broadcom announced the release of full documentation for the VideoCore IV graphics core, and a complete source release of the graphics stack under a 3-clause BSD license. The source release targets the BCM21553 cellphone chip, but it should be reasonably straightforward to port this to the BCM2835, allowing access to the graphics core without using the blob. As an incentive to do this work, we will pay a bounty of $10,000 to the first person to demonstrate to us satisfactorily that they can successfully run Quake III at a playable framerate on Raspberry Pi using these drivers. This competition is open worldwide, and you can find competition rules here which describe what you have to do, and how to enter.  We filmed a demo of a Raspberry Pi alpha board running Quake 3 back in 2011. It feels like it happened a lifetime ago. This isn't the end of the road for us: there are still significant parts of the multimedia hardware on BCM2835 which are only accessible via the blob. But we're incredibly proud that VideoCore IV is the first publicly documented mobile graphics core, and hope this is the first step towards a blob-free future for Raspberry Pi: we’re continuing to work on that, and we hope you’ll come along with us! * Okay, so sue us**: we launched on February 29. ** Please don't sue us. |
The books we’ve all claimed to have read
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Apparently, I wasn't alone as this list has been viewed 250,000+ times just this week. What connects all of the titles on this list is that they are almost all universally revered as classics and many of them are required reading for school-aged students around the world. That doesn't mean you actually read them though, so we've created the complete list of these titles in Marketplace. The great thing about these titles is whether your users are reading them for the first time or rereading them again (I've lost count on the number of times I've read Of Mice and Men or anything by Charles Dickens) they are all highly important titles sure to circulate often. Add these titles to your digital library today and you can even talk to your Collection Development Specialist about adding them to a featured collection! Adam Sockel is a Marketing Communications Specialist with OverDrive  |
Collection Team Column – Rachel Somerville: My favorite cat books
| The internet will never have too many cat pictures. That is a fact. See that handsome devil below? That's my Hugo. He's a very literary cat. Helping me type on my laptop, turning book pages, pawing at images on my Nook, and knocking books off the bookshelf are some of his favorite activities. I guess that's what you get when you name a cat after a book character (can you guess which one?)  I know I am certainly not the first Librarian to be in love with their cat, and I know I won't be the last. So in honor of all of our wonderful four legged creatures, I have created two lists in Marketplace that feature some of my favorite books about cats and featuring cats. When you click the link below, it will show up as a Marketplace search result and you'll be able to easily add them to a cart. Do you have any other favorite cat books you'd like to recommend? Or better yet, just tell me YOUR favorite cat stories! *Some titles are metered access and may have limited regional or platform availability.
Rachel Somerville is a Collection Development Analyst at OverDrive.
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Sourcebooks Adds Beloved Peanuts Titles to Put Me in the Story
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Now, Sourcebooks has announced a whole new line of much-loved classic characters with the introduction of Charles Schultz’s Peanuts brand into the platform. Using the same tablet technology that has made Put Me in the Story so popular with parents and teachers, readers can now experience Charlie Brown, Snoopy, and the entire Peanuts gang in personalized stories. "We are thrilled to be partnering with Peanuts," says Dominique Raccah, CEO and publisher of Sourcebooks, in a press release. "By adding these books to the Put Me In The Story personalized platform, we're giving fans young and old new ways to experience the beloved characters of Charlie Brown, Snoopy, and the rest of the gang—a Peanuts story starring YOU!" "As we continue to build on our strategy of introducing new generations to the Peanuts property, partnering to create stories in new digital formats is key," said Craig Herman, Executive Director of Publishing for Peanuts Worldwide. "We have no doubt that Sourcebooks is the right partner to create quality products featuring the Schulz characters." Two books will be available this year, Good Grief, It's Your Birthday and Cheer Up, Charlie Brown, both expected to be released in early fall. Future titles are already anticipated, as well as the availability of the print books in physical bookstores. One of the biggest benefits to the platform is the ability to order the personalized editions of the stories in print, making it a lasting keepsake or special gift for a special reader.
Sourcebooks Adds Beloved Peanuts Titles to Put Me in the Story is a post from: Good e-Reader |
New Google Play Services Update Aims to Provide Always-On Protection Against Malware
| Android and malware seem to like each other very much, but Google is about to spoil it. The search giant is in the process of launching an update for its Play Services that will make is difficult for mischief makers to inject malware-infected apps into the Google app store. An update to Android's Verify Apps function will now be made to work 24/7. Verify Apps will now be scanning apps at all times behind the scenes to find out if there are any issues to be dealt with. This will no doubt be a good thing given the popularity of the Google platform and recent reports that Android has the highest susceptibility to malware attacks. The Verify Apps function was first introduced with Android 4.2 version but it would only verify an app when it went live at the Google Play Store or when an update was made available. Verify Apps will also look for issues in apps that a user might have installed directly and not via the official Google Play Store. It will search for known trouble making codes and when a match is found, it will notify the user via warning messages. According to Google, it will be relevant for almost 99 percent of devices running Android. While some developers choose to bypass the Google strategy of matching apps against known codes by launching some advanced codes, these no doubt will eventually get caught once Google becomes aware of the malicious codes. Now it comes down to how often Google updates its own database of malicious codes. In any case, this is an excellent development considering the threat level associated with Android.
New Google Play Services Update Aims to Provide Always-On Protection Against Malware is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Author Russell Blake on the Publishing Climate
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And while the household names of self-publishing continue to make headlines and progress, there are a number of authors who just like to do what they do best: write and publish books that thrill their fans. Dubbed by his fellow authors as one of the hardest working writers in publishing (with no less than ten books written, edited, and published per year), Russell Blake spoke to Good e-Reader about what’s right, what’s wrong, and what’s going on in publishing. “The traditional publishing system, for all of its flaws, is a lottery. For every thousand people that submit, maybe two will get picked up by an agent. Then add another thousand agented authors to it, there’s only a few slots every year in each genre for a new author. The odds are pretty terrible as an author of making anything.If you do get your advance, it’s going to be in the five to ten grand range, spread out over five to ten years. How is that a good deal? “The vast majority of authors are working day jobs…but if you look at the implications [of self-publishing], a lot more authors are able to earn a living wage, if you will, than five or ten years ago.” Even though the book industry’s seemingly archaic ways are often compared unfavorably to that of the music industry when it comes to the selling of digital content, Blake likened the system of selecting the “next big thing” to the way that record companies often chose the next artist. “You would find a hundred artists, give them each $100 grand worth of studio time and one music video, then you would throw all one hundred acts kind of out there and see which one or two began breaking big. And that one or two got all hype and media attention, and the other ninety-eight failed, and went nowhere. The large publishing business is like the record business: they’re great once something is breaking, but they’re kind of terrible at knowing what’s gonna break next. That’s the shotgun approach that traditional publishing has taken.” Blake is one of the growing crowd of authors who’s come to realize that this broken model stands in the way of creating dynamic content for readers, earning a livelihood, and the basic principle of enjoying the writing process. His personal formula for writing and publishing through platforms like CreateSpace for his print editions and online platforms for ebooks has resulted in twenty-five books on the bestseller list, featured articles in the Wall Street Journal and other major newspapers, and a book co-written with Clive Cussler, to be published later this year. “You can make a living, and for some authors a very good living, just writing what you want in your voice. That’s amazing, that’s never happened before.”
Author Russell Blake on the Publishing Climate is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Archos Confirms a Touch Enabled e-Ink Smartwatch For Summer Launch
| While e-ink display technology may have lost its sheen with the slow demise of standalone ebook reading devices and the growing number of tablets, e-ink is witnessing a resurgence of sorts with smartwatches. We have already seen quite a few smartwatch concepts based on e-paper display, and Archos is the latest to promise an e-ink-based smartwatch sometime this summer. This will be the fourth model in its smartwatch line-up, with the other three introduced during CES in Jan. Archos hasn't revealed all the details just yet, though the latest model seems to have a lot in common with the smartwatch trio launched early in January. However, the latest model will incorporate a touchscreen display and is expected to be the costliest of the lot. Also, it would have a curved e-ink panel made of plastic instead of glass to achieve the curvature. Archos is not known for cramming an insane number of features into their smartwatches, something that Samsung has done with its Galaxy Gear devices. Instead, they visualize the smartwatch as a companion to a smartphone and would help the user with notifications and other data that they receive on the smartphone. The Archos smartwatch will also be compatible with both Android and iOS. It is a simplicity in their approach along with a relatively cheaper price tag that makes their smartwatch score big in a market that is already pegged to be worth billions.
Archos Confirms a Touch Enabled e-Ink Smartwatch For Summer Launch is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Thursday, February 27, 2014
How to Enable Flash on the Amazon Kindle Fire HDX
| Amazon has quite a number of Kindle Fire Android tablets out there, with the HDX 7 and 8.9 being the latest generation. No matter what device you have, it is impossible to watch or play any online Flash content. This obviously is quite limiting because most of the old web is mostly done with Adobe Flash. Today, we look at some of the options users can employ to get Flash on their Kindles. If you have the Amazon Kindle Fire 7 HDX or the 8.9 HDX you can enable it so you can at least watch Flash videos using the SILK web-browser. The name of the feature is the The Experimental Streaming Viewer, and it is fairly easy to turn on. Go to the Web tab > Menu > Settings > Accelerated page loading > turn on. When you turn this feature on, it will enable two other features, Enable Flash Forward and Prompt for experimental streaming viewer. Further instructions on how to use the viewer are HERE. The internet is full of interactive Flash games and websites that were coded in it. The Silk browser does not actually allow you to run Flash content in this fashion and you basically have to install a Flash supported browser, such as Dolphin HD. In order to get Flash on your older Kindle Fire Tablet or even one of the new ones there are a few steps. Swipe down from the top > More > Device > Allow Installation of Applications. This will turn on the ability to install apps not available in the Amazon App Market. Next, use your web-browser and enter http://apps.goodereader.com/android-apps/internet-and-communication/?did=5049. This will download a new version of Dolphin Browser, which supports Flash. The next thing you need to do is actually stall Flash now. http://apps.goodereader.com/android-apps/essential-android-tablet-applications/?did=24 The two main sections above are basically all you need to do to get Flash content running on the Kindle. If you have any questions or concerns about any of this, kindly let me know. How to Enable Flash on the Amazon Kindle Fire HDX is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Amazon Developing a Prime Streaming Music Service
| Amazon Prime has a number of compelling features that makes people glad to spend $79.99 per year. There is free shipping, a free eBook every single month and access to Amazon Instant Video. The Seattle based company announced during a recent earnings call that they were talking about increasing the Prime membership by $40.00. They cited rising shipping costs as being a prime motivator, but the price increase may also pave the way for a new Amazon Streaming Music Service. Amazon is reportedly in talks with major music labels with the aim of releasing a music service of the future, hoping for low rates much as Apple did when negotiating for iTunes Radio. Amazon is hoping to go head to head with Beats, Spotify, Pandora, and Apple. According to Re/Code “Amazon has been beefing up its roster of executives with digital music experience in the last few years. In October 2012, it hired Michael Paull, a Sony music executive, to head up its digital music operations. At the same time, it brought in Drew Denbo, who had handled business development at streaming services Rhapsody and MOG, to do the same job at the e-commerce site. And last year it hired Adam Parness, who handled licensing for Rhapsody.” The industry standard for a streaming music service is currently six cents per 100 songs streamed. Apple ended up agreeing to pay 13 cents for each song played, along with 15% of net advertising revenue. Likely, Amazon is looking for the same deal, or cheaper. Amazon Developing a Prime Streaming Music Service is a post from: Good e-Reader |
New PocketBook Aqua Might be a Good Vacation e-Reader
| Pocketbook recognizes that many people take their e-readers to the pool, beach or on vacation. Standard e-readers have lots of open ports, that water or sand can easily destroy the reader. In order to remedy this situation the Ukrainian based company will be releasing the Pocketbook Aqua this March. The PocketBook Aqua is protected by IP57 certification, which means that the device is protected against dust and for 30 minutes at one meter of water is dense. This will basically allow you to read it in the bathtub or scuba diving! The device itself features a six inch e-Ink Pearl Display with a resolution of 800×600. Underneath the hood is a 1 GHz single core processor and memory is relegated to 4 GB of storage. In order to make it waterproof Pocketbook had to forgo the SD card and also eliminated all buttons. Many phones and tablets are increasingly billing themselves as waterproof as a marketing ploy. Sony has done this with a number of their devices and smaller niche companies are also offering products. My question, is how viable is a waterproof e-reader? It might make a solid vacation one, that you can read in any environment, although its dubious if this will ever be your primary one. New PocketBook Aqua Might be a Good Vacation e-Reader is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Learnist Unveils iOS App, Premium Content
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Today, Learnist announced its new app for iPhone and iPod, two devices that have a high level of penetration among consumers and are therefore readily available in classroom settings, even at the public school grade levels. This app has been unveiled in conjunction with Learnist’s news that it is now offering premium Learnboards to its 10 million registered users worldwide, with most content from highly recognized names being made available for as little as 99cents with an in-app purchase. Good e-Reader spoke to Learnist’s founder and chief product officer Farb Nivi about the launch of both the app and the exciting new content, as well as discussed the importance of enabling this level of fingertip access to educational material that is both relevant and affordable. “Learnist is basically about people sharing what they know directly with each other. Everything you want to know is available now online, and we couldn’t make that statement even five years ago. We went from nothing on the internet to basically everything we know on the internet, so we came up with the idea for Learnist by letting them share what they know.” The company’s Learnerboards are fully enhancement-capable stand-alone offerings that can be user created and collaborated, then made available for other learners to use. This has become an especially important tool for classroom teachers and has seen a dedicated following of educators among registered users. “Learnist is like a crowdsourced collection of the world’s knowledge. And with this update–a completely new app, really–one of the things that we’re very excited about is that we’ll be offering premium content for sale for 99cents from really notable experts.” These so-called “celebrity” experts who’ve already signed on to contribute content include names like director Gus Van Sant, actress and activist Olivia Wilde, designer Danny Forster, MythBusters TV host Kari Byron, former NFL star Dhani Jones, author Brad Meltzer, and more. Nivi went on to make the point that the speed with which an expert signs on to create a new Learnerboard and then Learnist makes that content available is almost unheard of, sometimes taking place within only a matter of four to six weeks. This helps ensure that the topics available to Learnist users are both timely, and up-to-date in terms of accuracy. One of the most exciting features of Learnerboards is the dynamic of the content itself. Where consumers initially needed to purchase an entire book or textbook, this content allows users to focus only on the content they need at a far more affordable price point for the content. This premium content, when coupled with the high volume of free content that is also available, enables Learnist to meet the public’s information needs via reliable and practical application sources. The app is available today for iOS.
Learnist Unveils iOS App, Premium Content is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Audible and ACX Lower Self-Published Audiobook Commission Rates
| Amazon launched ACX in 2011 to connect up publishers, authors and producers for unsold audiobook rights. Indie authors have begun to use the program more than the publishing companies and Amazon has tweaked their program a number of times to be more appealing. Today, the company announced they were adjusting the royalties it pays on audiobooks. When the ACX program first launched, companies like HarperCollins and Random House primarily used it to compliment their eBook strategies with audiobooks. Lots of famous actors loaned out their voice to read novels and producers were earning extra income. A year later self-published authors started to take over the platform and Audible adjusted their strategy to have a wider appeal. Until now, the royalties paid on audiobooks have been really solid. If you wanted to market it exclusively through Audible you would get paid around 50–90%, if you wanted to sell it outside of Audible you would earn 25–70%. Amazon has now lowered the exclusive rate to 40% and the non-exclusive version to 25%. Further, a bounty of $50 will be awarded to the royalty earner every time your book is the first purchase of a new AudibleListener. Under the previous program, a $25 bounty was awarded every time your book was one of the first three purchases by a new AudibleListener. In Royalty Share deals, the Rights Holder and Producer will now split the $50 bounty equally. If you have produced an audiobook in the past, the royalty structure will not change. Authors and Producers will still earn the old amount for audiobooks published before March 11, 2014. The commission adjustment is only applicable for new titles being published, although the bounty rate will change across the board. Amazon, Audible and ACX have continued to make their platform less appealing to authors as time as gone on. It was not too long ago that the company paid authors an additional $1.00 everytime their book was purchased or downloaded. They did this to draw attention to their platform as a viable way to distribute audiobooks to the masses. This new adjustment to royalties is the latest decrease to revenue earning potential. But really, where else are you going to sell it? Audible and ACX Lower Self-Published Audiobook Commission Rates is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Gameboy cosplay (Pi-powered, naturally)
| We have no details about this other than the video below. (A picture appeared on Reddit last August, but there’s been absolutely no other information: we do not know who these people are, what the event they’re at is, how many worked on the outfit, or where they’re from.) But it’s magnificent, so we had to share. Great job, shady-looking guy! Get in touch with us if you see this: we’d like to know who you are, and what other superpowers you have. Thanks to Recantha for the spot! |
Adobe Combines Tools to Create Unified Publishing Process
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Known for its Digital Publishing Suite that is used by a variety of publishers to create digital content for device consumption, Adobe announced today that it’s merging the capabilities of DPS with another of its popular publishing tools, the Adobe Experience Manager. This combination will allow content developers to enjoy an even more streamlined workflow with an ease of use factor that reduce the need for graphic artists to generate all of the layout. Adobe’s Lynly Schambers Lennox and Colin Fleming spoke with Good e-Reader about the implications of how this level of product integration can be a game changer for companies who are investigating or even currently utilizing Adobe’s tools for content publication. “With these two solutions combined, we’re offering a really powerful multi-channel publishing solution for rapidly publishing content to mobile devices,” explained Schambers Lennox. “Adobe Experience Manager allows users to organize, create, and manage the delivery creative assets from a single location and push them out to website, mobile websites, email campaigns, social sites, and of course, mobile applications using Digital Publishing Suite.” This integration will not only save time and money for the content developers as they work to reach their consumer audiences, but more importantly, companies using the combined workflow of DPS and Experience Manager can maintain a strong sense of unity within their brands and their materials. By simply moving content through both tools, that brand recognition can easily be kept consistent. Of course, these tools and this integration of the features is not limited to digital publishers, but is easy enough to use that companies without a dedicated graphic art department can still produce eye-catching publications for their customers’ email, their apps, or mobile devices. Coupled with the added integration of Adobe Analytics through the Adobe Marketing Cloud, this new offering allows content developers to measure the impact of their publications in terms of user engagement.
Adobe Combines Tools to Create Unified Publishing Process is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Coming soon to Roku: Library audiobooks and Streaming Videos!
| OverDrive is launching a Roku channel, which will enable your patrons and students to listen to audiobooks and watch Streaming Videos from your collection directly on their home television set. Librarians attending the Public Library Association (PLA) Conference in Indianapolis March 11-15 will be able to see a demonstration of the OverDrive Roku channel in booth #721. Roku is a popular and inexpensive streaming audio and video device that can be connected to most TVs. The OverDrive Roku channel will provide consumers another way to access their local library digital audiobook and video catalog, making it easy to watch a movie or listen to MP3 audiobooks in just seconds. Roku comes preinstalled with popular channels including Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, Pandora and others. Once launched, the OverDrive channel will be a free, no subscription service that all Roku users can easily select and then locate titles to borrow from their library. "Today's public libraries already offer tens of thousands of best-selling digital audiobooks and videos in every category," said Karen Estrovich, OverDrive's Director of Collection Development. "Roku extends the value of the OverDrive libraries' digital media collections to TVs in millions of living rooms, kitchens, dens – anywhere the WiFi reaches." OverDrive provides the largest collection of digital audiobooks from every major publishing house, including best-selling authors John Grisham, Janet Evanovich, Nicholas Sparks, Gillian Flynn, Neil Gaiman and many more. Early this year, the company launched its Streaming Video service for public libraries and has already added more than 4,000 feature films, educational, children's, spiritual, and self-help titles from Criterion Pictures, Revolver Entertainment, and Cinedigm, among others. Visit Los Angeles Public Library's digital collection to see some of these titles at lapl.lib.overdrive.com. Libraries and schools that have MP3 audiobooks and Streaming Video through OverDrive will have their library's available titles in the new Roku channel. After registering their library card number in the initial visit, users simply choose the OverDrive channel from the Roku menu, select their library, and borrow Streaming Videos and audiobooks that their library has available for checkout. The OverDrive Roku channel will be available for use later this year. Visit OverDrive's booth # 721 at PLA Conference March 11-15 to learn more, and visit http://blogs.overdrive.com for updates.  |
5 most common mobile device support issues
| We in OverDrive Support Services are committed to providing quality solutions to common support questions. Over the course of the next several months, we're going to present blogs highlighting the solutions to the most common types of issues. For this month, we're looking at mobile device issues (Android, iOS, and Windows Phone).
As always, if the help articles linked above do not immediately resolve the issues, OverDrive's Support Services team is available to assist through the support form found in Marketplace. If you are an end user, please visit the help pages on your library site by clicking on Help (question mark) so that you can research the help articles for your issue or contact your library with specific questions.
Justin Noszek is a Support Services Specialist at OverDrive.
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Weekly eHighlights: Your Guide to What’s New at OverDrive – Australia and New Zealand Edition
| Greetings, readers! This week's installment of eHighlights brings fiction and nonfiction audiobooks from some of our bestselling and most buzzed-about titles. Check out our selections below, or you can find similar titles by performing an advanced search in Marketplace. Simply log in and click on "Advanced Search." Set "Format" to "Audiobook" and "Language" to "English." Next, make the "Street Date" range from January 1 to March 31, and set "Rank" to "Popularity Across Libraries." Did you know you could make this a saved search option, too? Try it out to get the most popular content every time you search. As always, we invite you to contact your Collection Development Specialist with any requests or questions. We are here to help! Happy Reading!
The 100 Most Popular Audiobooks Jeaniene Frost (read by Tavia Gilbert) – Up From the Grave Night Huntress series, Book 7. Lately, life has been unnaturally calm for vampires Cat Crawfield and her husband, Bones. They should have known better than to relax their guard, because a shocking revelation sends them back into action to stop an all-out war. A rogue CIA agent is involved in horrifying secret activities that threaten to raise tensions between humans and the undead to dangerous heights. Now Cat and Bones are in a race against time to save their friends from a fate worse than death because the more secrets they unravel, the deadlier the consequences. And if they fail, their lives–and those of everyone they hold dear–will be hovering on the edge of the grave.
Indiana Jackson is thirty-three years old and works in San Francisco at an alternative medicine clinic that attracts all sorts of characters. Her teenage daughter, Amanda, likes noir literature and hopes to attend MIT. In her free time, she plays Ripper, an online role playing game that involves solving real-life mysteries and crimes using information collected by Amanda’s father, the Chief Inspector of the San Francisco police. When Ripper’s latest murder mystery–the case of the misplaced bat–begins to touch their real-world lives, Amanda and her friends know they must find the murderer before he can strike again. At the age of 35, Fanny Van de Grift Osbourne has left her philandering husband in San Francisco to set sail for Belgium–with her three children and nanny in tow–to study art. It is a chance for this adventurous woman to start over, to make a better life for all of them, and to pursue her own desires. Not long after her arrival, however, tragedy strikes, and Fanny and her children repair to a quiet artists’ colony in France where she can recuperate. Emerging from a deep sorrow, she meets a lively Scot, Robert Louis Stevenson, ten years her junior, who falls instantly in love with the earthy, independent, and opinionated “belle Americaine.” By the author of the bestselling Loving Frank. After hunting down murderer and bandito Captain Alejandro Vasquez, Territorial Marshal Virgil Cole and Deputy Everett Hitch return him to Citadel to stand trial. No sooner do they remand Vasquez into custody when a major bank robbery occurs and the lawmen quickly find themselves tasked with a new job: investigate the robbery of Comstock Bank, recover the loot, and bring the criminals to justice. In the latest mystery from New York Times bestselling author Charles Todd, Inspector Ian Rutledge is summoned to the quiet, isolated Fen country to solve a series of seemingly unconnected murders before the killer strikes again. Despite his experience, Inspector Ian Rutledge can find no connection between the two deaths. One victim was an Army officer, the other a solicitor standing for Parliament; their paths have never crossed. What links these two murders? Is it something from the past? Or is it only in the mind of a clever killer? They meet in a clash of swords, drenched in the moonlight of Britain’s rugged eastern coast: Captain Jack, his handsome features etched in silver and shadow, his powerful physique compelling “Kit” Cranmer to surrender. Suddenly Kit finds she’s only too delighted to explore with Jack the pleasures conventionally reserved for married ladies—little knowing what dangerous forces she’s unleashing, for even as Kit revels in midnight gallops and cottage rendezvous, Captain Jack is laying a gentle trap that will curtail her freedom and bind her to him with a ring, a promise—and ties of devotion and desire. A number of bodies are discovered on the United States’ border with Mexico, each carved with a bizarre symbol: a hummingbird. Detective Cecilia Garza arrives at the scene and recognizes the image immediately; it is the calling card of a killer called Chuparosa, a man both feared and celebrated for his cunning and brutality. Meanwhile, It’s United Nations Week in Manhattan and Jeremy Fisk can’t let his grief over a devastating loss keep him from his duty to safeguard the city and the world’s most powerful leaders. Complicating matters is the startling news of a mass murder on the beach in nearby Rockaway and the arrival of a beautiful and assertive Mexican detective determined to do things her way.
Dance of the Reptiles collects the best of Hiaasen’s Miami Herald columns, which lay bare the stories large and small that demonstrate anew that truth is far stranger than fiction. Hiaasen offers his commentary, indignant, disbelieving, sometimes righteously angry, and frequently hilarious on burning issues like animal welfare, polluted rivers, and the broken criminal justice system as well as the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, Bernie Madoff’s trial, and the shenanigans of the recent presidential elections. Whether or not you have read Carl Hiaasen before, you are in for a wild ride.
Navy SEAL Ian Dunn went rogue in a big way when he turned his talents to a lawless life of jewel heists and con job. In reality, the former Special Ops warrior is still fighting for good, leading a small band of freelance covert operatives who take care of high-stakes business in highly unofficial ways. That makes Ian the hands-down choice when the US government must breach a heavily guarded embassy and rescue a pair of children kidnapped by their own father, a sinister foreign national willing to turn his kids into casualties. Shockingly, Ian passes on the mission for reasons he will not or cannot reveal. But saying no is not an option especially not for Phoebe Kruger, Ian’s beautiful and unexpectedly brash new attorney.
The United States Congress in 1929 passed legislation to fund travel for mothers of the fallen soldiers of World War I to visit their sons’ graves in France. Over the next three years, 6,693 Gold Star Mothers made the trip. In this emotionally charged, brilliantly realized novel, April Smith breathes life into a unique moment in American history, imagining the experience of five of these women.
Like what you've seen here? There's 90 more to go! To easily access a list of the top 100 titles, click here: Top 100 Audiobooks for the Australian Market
*Geographical rights may vary by title.
Kate Seivertson is a Collection Development Analyst at OverDrive.
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Reddit Enables Users to Create Open-Source Journalism
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While Reddit is experimenting with the “open source journalism” that lets users create and update blog-style feeds in real time, not all of the experimental modes are so life changing as sharing the news of disasters worldwide. But one arm of this project does have the power to foster upheaval of growth by keeping users informed of the invents unfolding in the Ukraine, as they happen. Unlike typical posts where users simply comment on a thread, Reddit’s new Liveupdate threads–while not exactly pretty, in much the same way that Reddit is a no-frills info swapping site–allow the established users to update the information in a bloglike way while followers see the updates in real-time and can access alerts that new information has been added. It’s like watching the news coverage of an event without waiting for the network to decide to air it, and without commercial interruption. As for these open-source journalists themselves, one of the most exciting possibilities for a low-end platform like Reddit is the removal of network sponsors who will dictate their own slant on the coverage. A simple look at the headlines involving last night’s announcement that Governor Jan Brewer (AZ) vetoed a bill that allowed businesses within the state to refuse to serve homosexuals was simultaneously referred to as the “Anti Discrimination Veto” and the “Anti Religious Freedom Veto,” depending on which news source ran the headline. Reddit users are nothing if not completely candid, as other threads have shown, and will ideally be able to cover events as they see them, not as corporate sponsors require it. While the new feature is in beta at the moment, Reddit does foresee this tool being open and accessible to all users. And while yes, there may be some live updates to cat memes, there will potentially be some world changing news.
Reddit Enables Users to Create Open-Source Journalism is a post from: Good e-Reader |
The Creoir Ibis Smartwatch Makes a Bold Style Statement at the MWC
| The Creoir Ibis is a smartwatch unlike any other that we’ve seen so far. Launched at the MWC, the Ibis brings a much needed infusion of style in the genre with high end features but are pretty bland looks wise. A unique aspect of the device is that it incorporates an analog watch with an OLED display beneath it that adds the smart aspect to the watch. Fortunately, the Ibis does not attempt to pull off a lot of tasks but is instead rooted in the basics in the most elegant manner. Adding to the style is the stainless steel and crystal that goes into it. The device is based on a simplified version of Android but is compatible with iOS as well. The OLED display is touch enabled and is designed to keep the user connected to notifications from the phone. The Ibis also offers Bluetooth 4.0, USB, and Wi-Fi connectivity options. The Ibis comes with a built-in accelerometer, e-compass, and an ambient light sensor. “We believe the demand for smart watches will be driven by fashion and sport brands, and the Ibis exemplifies the type of product that we create for fashion brands,” said Pekka Väyrynen, CEO of the Creoir, the Finland based design studio. “Every brand has its own design language, so with each client we start from scratch to develop a product that specifically matches the brand and their audience. With our expertise, we can provide consumer brand owners with everything they need to have a real advantage when entering the smart device space,” the CEO further added. However, no matter how much the Ibis might appeal to our senses, the Ibis is just a concept right now. The smartwatch was put on display at the Creoir booth and as such, we aren't sure of a launch date or cost. In any case, it’s refreshing to see someone come out with a device that impresses with its style and functionality rather than tries to overwhelm us with an absurd list of features.
The Creoir Ibis Smartwatch Makes a Bold Style Statement at the MWC is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Wednesday, February 26, 2014
OverDrive Launches Free Roku Channel
| Soon users will be able to watch or listen to audiobooks via their TV thanks to the recent tie-up between OverDrive and Roku. This will open up another medium to access audiobooks, and a popular one at that considering Roku's reach among the masses (the company recently revealed it has shipped more than 8 million devices in the US). Such a move will also act to boost OverDrive's newly launched Streaming Video service that now offers 4,000 titles. These deal with topics such as children's content, educational, spiritual, self-help and so on. Not to mention OverDrive's vast collection of audiobooks that now can be tapped into via Roku. What's more, OverDrive's Roku channel will also be free. “Today’s public libraries already offer tens of thousands of best-selling digital audiobooks and videos in every category,” said Karen Estrovich, OverDrive’s Director of Collection Development. “Roku extends the value of the OverDrive libraries’ digital media collections to TVs in millions of living rooms, kitchens, dens — anywhere the WiFi reaches.” Roku provides a device that can be used to watch internet streaming videos on televisions making it quite an inexpensive medium to watch online videos on TVs. Now with OverDrive launching a Roku channels, users will be able to access the digital audiobooks and video content from their local libraries and listen or watch them on their TVs. This will make for a convenient and easy method of downloading digital content from libraries to be savored on TVs in our homes. OverDrive's Roku channel will have all the audiobooks and Streaming Video catalog that the libraries have been fed by OverDrive. Users will have to register their library card numbers, select the OverDrive channel from Roku menu and select their library. Post that, users will be able to borrow titles from the library to be viewed on TVs. Meanwhile, OverDrive has announced their new Roku channel will be demoed at the upcoming Public Library Association (PLA) Conference to be held in in Indianapolis between March 11 and 15. Visit booth #721 to for a live experience of the new Roku channel.
OverDrive Launches Free Roku Channel is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Comixology to Give Away $150,000 Worth of Free Comics
| ComiXology has had close to 220 million downloads since the French company burst onto the scene in 2009. Every year at the South by Southwest festival in Texas they tend to announce massive promotions. Last year, they gave 700 first issues away for free, which promptly killed their servers and no one could connect for days. Now, they have another promotion which will give $150,000 in free comics away. This March, ComiXology dominates SXSW Interactive with a whole host of activities including: sponsoring the SXSW Geek Stage; a special panel; happy hour; free comics offered throughout the event; and handing out $150,000 worth of $5 Amazon Appstore credits toward comiXology content at comiXology’s SXSW Gaming Expo booth #125 & 127. Comixology to Give Away $150,000 Worth of Free Comics is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Macmillan Makes Complete Catalog Available for Digital Lending through OverDrive
| From the very beginning of digital lending through libraries and personal consumer shares, publishers have been wary of the implications of ebook lending. Once libraries became convinced to at least experiment in the library realm with their digital titles, artificial barriers were often put in place, such as limits on numbers of checkouts and 300% increases in price over an identical title in print. Libraries have suffered under the weight of trying to offer digital lending to their patrons while still ensuring that bestselling and front list titles make it to their virtual shelves. Digital content provider OverDrive made a monumental announcement today in saying that Macmillan has made its entire ebook catalog available for the first time for lending through OverDrive’s school library partners. From the initial six hundred-plus titles that the publisher originally offered, Macmillan has now made more than 12,000 ebooks available to school libraries for student lending. "Macmillan offers a wide collection of children's and young-adult eBooks perfect for the K-12 audience," said Karen Estrovich, Director of Collection Development at OverDrive. "We are thrilled that our U.S. and Canadian school partners will now have access to these titles, which are highly popular and often requested." Unlike some of the restrictions put on ebook lending, Macmillan has made all of its ebooks available without circulation limits, but still under a very standard one-book-one-user model, meaning schools who wish to stock more than one copy–just as they must do with print editions–must purchase additional licenses. The books are, however, only licensed for a 12-month period. OverDrive has made major strides in the lending sector by helping publishers not only see the security behind opening up their catalogs to lending, but also to see the actual benefits in terms of consumer engagement and increased sales revenue once a book has been borrowed.
Macmillan Makes Complete Catalog Available for Digital Lending through OverDrive is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Sony eBooks Will Still be Able to be Read on Sony e-Readers When Reader Store Closes
| Sony announced a few weeks ago that they were closing the Reader Store and customers books were being transferred to Kobo. With a bombshell announcement like this, it was inevitable that many questions and concerns would arise. Sony has addressed a few of this issues to Good e-Reader, that should put people at ease. Within the next few weeks there will be an automated email sent out to customers who have purchased books from the Reader Store. This email will provide users with a step by step tutorial on how to transfer your library from Sony to Kobo. Obviously not all titles you bought from Sony will be available on Kobo, and you can still read them on your Sony e-Reader regardless. Many customers have voiced their trepidation about switching their library to Kobo. Sony has confirmed to Good e-Reader that nothing will happen to the books that are on your device. You can continue to read all of the books you bought from Sony, doing the same things you have always done. You just cannot buy new titles from the Sony Store. Whether you have bought 1 book or have thousands, you are not forced to transfer your library to Kobo to keep on reading. Sony e-Readers often have a ton of space to house thousands of books. Some readers like to keep their devices lightweight and delete past purchases once they have read them. This is no big deal, because all purchases are stored in the Sony Cloud, able to be downloaded again, at any time. Sony has verified that you have until April 30th to redownload any of your past purchases, that were deleted from the e-Reader. Finally, the Sony Daily Edition, was one of the more popular e-readers and had a 3G connection. Sadly, Sony confirmed “ The 3G connection to Reader Store on the PRS-900 or PRS-950 will be discontinued. We encourage customers to download our Reader for PC/Mac software (available here) . Starting in late March, our Reader for PC/Mac software will enable customers to directly connect to the Kobo Store for future purchases. They can use the software then to also transfer new titles via USB to their Reader from Sony.” So in the end, customers are not forced to switch their libraries to Kobo. If you are happy with your current collection, nothing will happen to it. You can continue to read books forever on the Sony Reader, you just can’t buy new ones. Many people don’t want to switch to Kobo, for various reasons. Going forward, you can just download books from the internet and manually load them on your device, no big deal. Sony eBooks Will Still be Able to be Read on Sony e-Readers When Reader Store Closes is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Sony Begins to Abandon Retail Stores in the US
| Over the last few weeks Sony has announced the closure of their digital bookstore in the US and Canada. This apparently was a foreshadowing of what is to come, as the Japanese company has announced 20 of their 31 retail stores in the US will be closing down immediately. Close to 1,000 people will be losing their jobs and the only stores to remain will be in California, New York, Florida, and Texas. Sony has been floundering for a number of years with their dedicated Sony Style and Sony retail stores. The companies 4K television technology and Sony Playstation 4 are doing very well. Basically, the company is restructuring their retail presence by selling their tablets and smartphones in electronic and cell phone stores. Instead of being burdened by a costly overhead, they are going to just have big box and boutique stores sell their devices for them. This obviously is the ideal strategy going forward, as the bulk of their customers are starting to buy more things online. Sony Begins to Abandon Retail Stores in the US is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Disney Movies Anywhere APP Brings Hundreds of Videos to iOS
| Disney Studios has just launched a new iOS app that is compatible with the iPhone and iPad. It is bringing over 400 movies from Disney, Pixar and Marvel right to your device. One of the more compelling features is the service linking to your iTunes account, so you can purchase content and watch it on your Apple TV. Setting up an account in the Disney Movies Anywhere app is free. The only time when you’ll have to pay is when you find a movie that you like, and those cost around $19.99 each. There is also a number of totally free exclusive content available and Disney will throw in a free copy of the The Incredibles for signing up. Jamie Voris, the Walt Disney Studios' chief technology officer, said in a statement “Disney Movies Anywhere is an adaptable digital ecosystem designed to help consumers consolidate their Disney movie collections and enjoy them for years to come. The beauty of this technology is that it enables us to work with iTunes and future provider partners to ensure movie lovers have streamlined access to all of their favorite Disney titles no matter which device the are on.” This is actually a fairly solid deal, true you might be able to find the Disney Studios moves on Amazon Instant Video for cheaper. This deal makes sense from a retail point of view. Disney is notorious for never having their complete library in a store like Best Buy. Often, they put out old movies once or twice a year as reissues and thats it. This dedicated app may be the only way on iOS that you can own the complete library and relive your childhood.
Disney Movies Anywhere APP Brings Hundreds of Videos to iOS is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Graphic equaliser
| Our good friends at Adafruit put this project on their Learning System earlier this month. It’s a beaut: you’ll learn something making it, and it looks fantastic when set up. Before we get into the nitty gritty, here’s some video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMPJH1LOu50 This graphic equaliser (a spectrum analys/zer if you’re from the USA) is made from a RGB led strip, with everything down to the audio processing run on the Pi. Everything you see in the video is happening in real time. The setup runs Python, and is based on LightShowPi (which was originally designed to orchestrate Christmas lights), so you’ll be able add LightShowPi features like SMS control from your phone if you’re an advanced user. Some soldering is required – but soldering is easy, and this is a good project to earn your soldering wings on if you haven’t already. There’s the usual full and helpful tutorial over at Adafruit, along with tips, a parts list, code and all that good stuff. I wish I’d had one of these for my student bedroom. Imagine the parties! |