Linebaugh Library Techblog: 05/31/14

Saturday, May 31, 2014

BookExpo 2014 In Pictures

Author Rick Riordan and Hachette’s Vanessa Vazquez met up with the team from Disney Digital Publishing while the author was discussing an exciting new project coming up that will coincide with Riordan’s bestselling Percy Jackson series.

FastPencil‘s Steve Wilson displaying their IDPF Innovation Award for their streamlined ebook creation and distribution software.

Smashwords’ CEO Mark Coker spoke to groups of authors at the BEA Author Hub about the options open to writers in the climate of digital publishing.

Ten bestselling indie authors joined forces for their own booth at the event, a few of whom are pictured here. (L to R: Jana DeLeon, Theresa Ragan, Denise Grover Swank, Liliana Hart, and Jasinda Wilder)

Goodreads‘ Patrick Brown spoke in the author hub about the benefits of strong social media for book discovery, including tools like author giveaways through the site.

In honor of the poet’s 195th birthday, Walt Whitman made an appearance and signed illuminated copies of his poem, “Song of Myself.”

Readers waited in long lines for the opportunity to meet their favorite authors for book signings.

The Alliance of Independent Authors’ Orna Ross presents Mark Coker with the organization’s first distinguished award for service to the indie author community.

Educational ebook platform Qlovi, backed by funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, was presented with the second place award in the Startup Challenge. Sourcebooks sponsored the award, and it was presented by CEO Dominique Raccah.

Ingram sponsored the first place award, which was presented by Librify’s CEO Joanna Stone Herman to book data tracker company Next Big Book’s Alex White.

BookExpo 2014 In Pictures is a post from: Good e-Reader

Shebooks Launches Kickstarter Campaign for Equal Writes

10294400_1485753968322698_4812511400584975082_n
With so many demands on time and rigid scheduling, it can be difficult to find time for reading. As studies have shown, the average US consumer reads less than six books per year. But one company has worked to make accessibility to convenient reading more widespread, thanks to ebooks.

Shebooks is a short-form ebook service that offers stand-alone sales and subscription reading of their select titles. Their books are in the range of about fifty pages, covering non-fiction, long-form journalism, essay, literary fiction, and much more; serialization is also a concept that’s in the works. With a target audience of busy women who have to read in sprints as their schedules allow, Shebooks meets a need for content that can be enjoyed within a shorter time frame.

“We're a new digital publishing company dreamed up by a journalist and a magazine editor who got tired of watching the space for quality women's writing in publications shrink and shrink and shrink. We decided to do something about it. We've pulled together an amazing team of experienced talent and started publishing great short e-books by women, for women. You can buy any book individually or get a Shebooks subscription to our growing library of titles.”

As if launching the company wasn’t enough of a task, the leadership at Shebooks has launched a crowdfunded campaign to further works by women writers. Through a Kickstarter campaign to fund its Equal Writes initiative, the company plans to launch an ambitious program that will allow it to release two new titles a week. The campaign, which kicked off on May 27th, is already more than halfway to its goal of $50,000.

For more information on the campaign or to lend support, visit HERE.

Shebooks Launches Kickstarter Campaign for Equal Writes is a post from: Good e-Reader

Crowdfunding Opportunities for Authors Evolve with Pentian

logoblack-300x270
Crowdfunding has grown into a popular method of securing much-needed financial backing for countless startups, charities, and projects, but the concept has already developed a few bugs, notably that there are a lot of options to choose from when looking for this kind of financial launchpad. Companies seem to be springing up overnight in an effort to capitalize on the percentage fees that project developers fork over from their campaigns.

One of the biggest obstacles to crowdfunding books was solved when Pubslush launched its book-specific crowdfunding platform. Considered by its founders for be more of a focused pre-order site as backers receive a copy of the book, the site has an incredibly high success rate for helping authors reach their goals.

But a company currently at work in the international book crowdfunding sphere is bringing its revolutionary concept in books to the US market. Pentian has upended the typical crowdfunding model of offering backers a few token gifts at various donation levels or a copy of the finished book, and instead gives backers a three-year license to earn a share of the royalties.

Pentian was already established as a self-publishing company that developed both print and digital titles, but also had distribution networks in place to reach out to virtually every global market. After seeing a number of worthy manuscripts from authors who didn’t have the means to pay for top-notch editing or publishing services, the founders went looking for a crowdfunding option that would provide those funds while also offering backers the incentive to invest in those titles.

Enrique Parrilla, co-founder of the company, spoke to Good e-Reader at BEA this week about the platform. According to Parrilla, the process of having backers who earn royalties correlates to that project receiving incredible discovery opportunities as the backers share the book’s news in order to boost their own interests in the revenue.

“When we launched, we hoped to do 200 books in the first year,” Parrilla explained. “We did 200 books in the first eight weeks.”

The only way a company can leverage that kind of volume in a successful way is through a network of freelancers, highly vetted professionals who take on the required tasks for publication. That workload sharing and crowd backing has already led to payoffs for a number of books.

Crowdfunding Opportunities for Authors Evolve with Pentian is a post from: Good e-Reader

Goodereader Android App Store Client Updated

Screenshot_2014-05-31-13-58-12[1]

We have updated the Good e-Reader Android and Blackberry 10 App Store client today with some fairly major enhancements. Chief among them is the elimination of the dreaded Force Close bug that has been plaguing us for quite sometime. Apparently it was due to an error in the app timing out when we added too many new apps at once. This is now solved and you should never again experience the app force closing or loading with no assets and then crashing.

Although we solved a major bug with the app client we have added a number of other useful features. The home screen has received the bulk of the new enhancements with the ability to minimize the featured image carousel. In the past if you used our app on the Blackberry Q5, Blackberry Q10 or a phone with a screen less than 3 inches the featured images would take up half the screen. We have now added the ability to disable the slideshow, putting the priority on app discovery. Finally, we have increased the limits on app names on the home screen, so the full app name will now always be visible.

The Good e-Reader App Store is the largest indie store in Canada with over 33,000 apps currently available for Android and Blackberry. We have a Developers Portal that allows creators to upload their app for free or monetize it with our paid app system.

Download the Good e-Reader Android Client today and join in on the fun!

Goodereader Android App Store Client Updated is a post from: Good e-Reader

Indie Excellence Awards Presented at BookExpo America

IEx_goldoval_winner300
Even as self-publishing experiences a greater degree than ever before of respect and acceptance within the publishing industry, there are a number of doors that are still closed to these worthy authors and their works. Many major news outlets refuse to review self-published books, even by authors who were traditionally published in the past or who have achieved a measure of “celebrity” status for one reason or another. Bookstores are the perennial walled-off community, many of whom will not stock indie titles without having a personal connection to the author and certain compensatory safeguards in place.

But one other chief area who still bars entry to self-published titles are major book awards, which has prompted a number of prominent entities to establish national excellence awards to offer recognition to these works and their creators. The Indie Excellence Awards, established in 2007 to honor not only the writers and their works but also contributors like cover designers, layout artists, and more, presented its 2014 list of winners in conjunction with this year’s BookExpo America event.

According to a release on this year’s competition, “Founder Ellen Reid, President & CEO of the National Indie Excellence Awards, announced the 2014 winners and finalists in categories that saw the greatest competition yet in an initiative that celebrates the best of books in print – which includes, covers, interior layouts, titles. in self-published or indie published books. The winners and finalists represent a diverse group of first-time authors and seasoned authors, major self-publishing groups as well as first-time publishing efforts.”

“This year the expert team of publishing insiders who serve as judges of the NIEA, were challenged because of the quality of entries. I would have to say this was the fiercest competition we've seen. It's a new day in publishing in 2014," said Reid.

Indie Excellence Awards Presented at BookExpo America is a post from: Good e-Reader

Apple Request to Delay Damages Trial Rejected by Appeals Court

2010_10_06_department_of_justice_doj_006
In the ongoing legal battles involving Apple over antitrust violations in an ebook price fixing case, it seems the technology giant just can’t catch a break. Between rulings against the company for its involvement with colluding with most of the Big Five publishers, to having an outsider officer appointed to oversee its operations, it feels like every time Apple sees a courtroom, it doesn’t go well.

You’d think they’d learn.

Instead, Apple filed motions last month to appeal Judge Denise Cote’s date for the damages portion of the ongoing case–damages which can be as high as 800+ million dollars, if punitive rulings are imposed–on the grounds that they were certain the case would be thrown out once it finishes with its appeal of Cote’s guilty ruling, making the damages trial a waste of time and money. Unfortunately for Apple, the Second Court of Appeals ruled this week that no delay was necessary.

The appeal of the ruling against Apple is expected to take months in a trial phase that will begin July 14th. In related news, Amazon and Hachette Book Group–one of the publishers who settled out of court for its involvement in this case–are locked in battle over pricing terms. These terms were initially laid out as part of the settlement but are set to expire this fall, giving Hachette the option to once again attempt to impose agency pricing instead of the wholesale model that most entities operate under with Amazon. That battle has led Amazon to make some pretty fierce decisions about Hachette titles, including stating that titles were temporarily out of stock, removing the buy buttons on books for pre-order, and more.

Apple Request to Delay Damages Trial Rejected by Appeals Court is a post from: Good e-Reader

IndieReader Announces IRDA Winners at BookExpo

IndieReader, the essential consumer guide to self-published books and the people who write them, created the IRDAs to give indie authors access to people who can make a difference in their book's success. With the rush by traditional publishers to sign them and their noteworthy bestselling status, there's no longer much doubt that indie authors can be both commercially and creatively successful. All that was left to do was create a credible vehicle by which to find them. That's where the IRDAs come in. And while writing a great book is the first step, getting it in front of the right people—be they readers or agents or traditional publishers—is also a critical part of making an indie book a success. To that end, judges on the IRDA panel included publishers, PR professionals, top reviewers and more. Top winners will have their titles submitted to agents Dystal & Goderich for representation consideration. Judging was based on the quality of writing and the originality of the story.

There is a first, second and third place winner in each of the fiction and non-fiction categories , in addition to 29 titles in 32 sub-categories, indicating that each book has received at least a 4-5 star review (out of 5 stars).

Bestselling hybrid author and recent Authors Guild board member CJ Lyons was on hand to present the awards with IndieReader’s president Amy Edelman. The complete list of winners in each category can be found HERE.

IndieReader has become known as a source of discovery for great reads by independently published authors, a designation which includes both self-published and small press works. IR features a number of initiatives to help authors promote their works, including its review site, it’s Alike But Indie comparison listing, and its initiative to put great indie titles in bookstores through strategic industry agreements.

IndieReader Announces IRDA Winners at BookExpo is a post from: Good e-Reader

Onyx BOOX T68 Lynx e-Reader Available Soon

onyx-boox-t68

Onyx has confirmed that their new T68 Lynx e-reader will be arriving at their warehouse within the next week and will be fulfilling outstanding orders to customers. New orders will be available via the Onyx Europe website and also on Amazon.

The Lynx e-reader is very much akin to the Kobo Aura HD, in terms of specs. It features a 6.8 e-Ink capacitive Ultra HD EPD display screen and a resolution of 1440×1080 pixels. Underneath the hood is a Freescale i.MX Cortex A9 1.0GHz processor and 512MB of RAM. Books are stored on the device and has 4GB of internal storage with the option to increase it via the Micro SD Card.

One of the things that separate the Lynx from most other ereaders on the market is that has it a 3.5mm headphone jack and the ability to play audio. Natively it will play MP3 and WAV audiobooks right out of the box, which is a boon to people who like to listen to music while they read.

The software side of things are completely different from what Kobo is doing. Onyx has loaded the stock version of Android 4.0.4, which will allow users to load in their own apps.

Onyx BOOX T68 Lynx e-Reader Available Soon is a post from: Good e-Reader

Links

Saturday, May 31, 2014