| Children are reading in record numbers in the last decade, which has propelled billion dollar properties such as Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, Twilight, Hunger Games, Diary of a Wimpy Kid. Not only have these titles done staggering well but it has promoted the success of books with similar subjects and themes and are benefiting from each other's successes. Over the course of the last two years John Green and Veronica Roth are the highest-selling authors; juvenile fiction is performing so amazingly that 17 of the 20 overall bestsellers in the US during 2014 were books for children. Nielsen hosted the first annual Children's Book Summit in Manhattan and produced research for over a four year period. They produced research that the children’s book market has increased 44% in the last decade and 67% of teens read for pleasure. Ironically, although tablet adoption has increased exponentially, 50% still prefer print books over eBooks. Kristen McLean, founder and CEO of Bookigee provided some interesting information on where books are being purchased. 62% of the purchases are taking place at physical bookstores, such as Barnes and Noble. Juvenile represents 35% of the total physical market over the last 12 months with juvenile fiction largely driving the sales from 2011 to 2014, resulting in "a great variety of publishers seeing positive growth." Games and activity books as well as crossover products, representing "blockbuster brands bleeding over to nonfiction," such as Minecraft and Lego, are also raising "very interesting implications." MacLean suggested that this trend "leads to the rise of lifestyle books in juvenile nonfiction, and popularity of shows like MasterChef Junior." One surprising find from a study about demographic buying habits showed that 42% of people who purchase children's nonfiction titles actually have no children: 15% of these buyers purchased the books as gifts, and 27% of them reported buying the books for themselves. The success of children’s and juvenile fiction has helped Scholastic continue to generate solid revenue. The company reported second quarter 2015 earnings were $665.6 million, compared to $623.2 million a year ago, an increase of 7%. Scholastic affirmed its fiscal 2015 outlook will account for approximately $1.9 billion. The most exciting trend that this conference produce was there is a strong misconception that youth and young adults spend the majority of their time online, visiting sites such as Facebook and Twitter and not reading. What Nielson found is that they are establishing strong bonds with their friends, which leads to book recommendations being taken very seriously. This has led to a population explosion with Goodreads. Recently, the website reported a record 3.3 million votes cast in the 6th annual Goodreads Choice Award. The Children's Book Market has Grown 44% in the last Decade is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Saturday, December 20, 2014
The Children’s Book Market has Grown 44% in the last Decade
UK Libraries to Undergo a Renaissance in 2015
| Over 300 libraries have closed in the United Kingdom since 2011 and many more are on the brink. What can be done to stem the tide? Publisher and philanthropist William Sieghart may have an answer. William Sieghart's Independent Library Report urges "a reinvigoration of the library network", calling on Westminster to provide funding so local authorities can roll out Wi-Fi to every public library in England as part of a new national digital resource. The provision of Wi-Fi, it says, is essential, with its lack of availability in some libraries creating "a barrier to the public using its facilities, especially amongst the younger generation". "By not providing Wi-Fi and high-quality computer facilities, libraries often present a negative image of being old fashioned places that have little relevance in today's society," says the report, which calls for the Wi-Fi to be delivered "in a comfortable, retail-standard environment, with the usual amenities of coffee, sofas and toilets". Libraries minister Ed Vaizey heeded the call by the report by announcing that he had created a new task force to implement some of the proposed changes. The primary focus will be to evaluate e-lending pilot projects and establish tablets and e-readers to be loaned out to patrons. This is not the first time that the library industry has gave serious credence to a report made by Sieghart. His 2013 government funded report said that libraries should not limit the supply of e-books in the same way that physical book loans are controlled, including the lending of each digital copy to one reader at a time, securely removing eBooks after lending and having digital books "deteriorate after a number of loans". This prompted a A pilot project to be established at four UK libraries in March 2014 that changed the digital loaning period to 21 days and included an expanded list of digital titles, including front-list and bestsellers. The goal was to establish real-time, real-world research into the impact of eBook lending in public libraries to placate authors, publishers and find a sustainable model. UK Libraries to Undergo a Renaissance in 2015 is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Overdrive to Provide HTML5 Audiobook Support in Early 2015
| Overdrive has announced that at the beginning of 2015 they will be implementing a new MP3 audiobook system that will be able to play them in any HTML5 compatible browser. This is tremendously useful for patrons borrowing audio content from the library, because they no longer have to download the audio file or a dedicated app, everything is simply done in the browser. All major internet browsers for desktop computers, tablets or smartphones all have the ability to render HTML5 content. You don’t need any extra plugins in order to get it to work. The new audiobook system will be apart of Overdrive Read, which is their HTML5 browser based solution. Currently the system can only read e-Books in EPUB2 or EPUB3 with fixed layouts. It also has support for offline reading, but it is unclear whether you will be able to listen to audiobooks offline, or if needs a constant internet connection for streaming. It is also important to note for existing libraries that your collection of WMV audiobooks are incompatible, it is only going to be available for MP3 files. Overdrive to Provide HTML5 Audiobook Support in Early 2015 is a post from: Good e-Reader |
