| Every June the Audiobook Publisher Association coordinates an massive event called audiobook month. This year a number of major retailers are organizing curated lists and deals to get people aware of the medium. Good e-Reader has been covering audiobooks for the last few years. We have analyzed how libraries have been embracing digital audio editions and have written very detailed reports on the state of the industry, challenges and what the future may hold. The audiobook industry overall has really grown in the last few years. In 2007 a paltry 3,073 audiobook titles were produced and this figure rose exponentially to over 12,000 published in 2011. In 2013 many industry experts proclaimed that over 20,000 audiobooks were now available and in 2014 over 35,000 were released by major publishers and companies like Audible. In terms of promotion in the month of June, not many deals have been announced yet. Audiobooks.com is giving a free audiobook away every single day. They have ironed out promotions with over a dozen publishers to offer titles from Maya Banks, Jane Green, Rick Riordan, Jonathan Maberry, T.C. Boyle, Gary Chapman, Maggie Stiefvater and more. The selection will feature romance, horror, thriller, non-fiction, and classic titles for adults, teens, and children. You need to download their official app for Android or iOS to listen. I will be updating this post when I hear about new deals, if any of you dear readers are aware of any, drop a comment below. June is Audiobook Month is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Monday, June 1, 2015
June is Audiobook Month
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EL James To Release 50 Shades Book from Christian Grey’s Prospective
| The first book in the Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy was released in March 2012 and by the end of 2014 it had sold over 140 million copies. Bookstores all over North America and the United Kingdom all reported dramatic profits with each new installment of the book. Even University and College bookstores jumped into the fray, pushing textbooks out of the way and setting up kinky display sections. Things have tapered down and the publishing industry is always looking for the “next” 50 Shades of Grey book. They have got their wish, as EL James a new book, titled Grey, will be published on June 18, Christian’s birthday. Greywill be published in paperback and as an eBook by Vintage Books, an imprint of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House. Major bookstores such as Chapters/Indigo are already taking pre-orders. Author EL James said “Christian is a complex character, and readers have always been fascinated by his desires and motivations and his troubled past. Also, as anyone who has ever been in a relationship knows, there are two sides to every story. It’s been a great pleasure to return to my happy place — writing, being with Christian and Ana in their universe, and working with the fantastic team at Vintage.” The entire book selling industry will me clambering to promote this book and to secure as many pre-orders as possible. The new Grey title was only announced today and you can expect in the next week Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kobo and others will be hyping this book to no end. EL James To Release 50 Shades Book from Christian Grey’s Prospective is a post from: Good e-Reader |
The Best Audiobooks of 2014 – The Audie Awards
| The Audie Awards recognizes distinction in audiobooks and spoken word entertainment and is sponsored by the Audio Publishers Association. This event has been ongoing for over 20 years and is a very good indication on what is selling. There are few resources that track audiobook sales and what constitutes the best of the bunch. The big winners this year was MANDELA: AN AUDIO HISTORY that won Audiobook of the Year and Best Original Work. Neil Gaimon also won three awards, cementing himself as one of the most successful audiobook adopters. If you want to get a sense of the most popular audiobooks of 2014, the comprehensive winners list below should satiate you. Audio Drama THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES Audiobook of the Year/Original Work MANDELA: AN AUDIO HISTORY Autobiography/Memoir/Narration by the Author or Authors NOT MY FATHER’S SON Business/Educational A MORE BEAUTIFUL QUESTION Children’s Titles – Ages 8-12/DISTINGUISHED ACHIEVEMENT IN PRODUCTION/Multi-Voiced Performance THE GRAVEYARD BOOK Children’s Titles – Ages Up to 8 H.O.R.S.E. Classic THE NEW YORK STORIES Erotica ALPHA Fantasy WORDS OF RADIANCE Fiction ALL THE LIGHT WE CANNOT SEE History/Biography THE BULLY PULPIT Humor YES PLEASE Literary Fiction EUPHORIAMystery THE SILKWORM Non-Fiction FURIOUS COOL Paranormal THE GIRL WITH ALL THE GIFTS Inspirational/Faith-Based Fiction THE AUSCHWITZ ESCAPE Inspirational/Faith-Based Non-Fiction BEFORE AMEN Judges Award: Science & Technology THE SECOND MACHINE AGE Package Design THE LIGHT AT THE END Personal Development WHAT I KNOW FOR SURE Romance THE BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY Science Fiction THE MARTIAN Short Stories/Collections THE ASSASSINATION OF MARGARET THATCHER Solo Narration – Female YELLOW CROCUS Solo Narration – Male THE HERO’S GUIDE TO BEING AN OUTLAW Teens EGG & SPOON Thriller/Suspense THOSE WHO WISH ME DEAD The Best Audiobooks of 2014 – The Audie Awards is a post from: Good e-Reader |
This Book Grows Into a Tree When you Bury It
| A new children’s picture book by a Buenos Aires publisher grows into a tree when planted in the ground. This brings a new meaning to being environmentally conscious. Each page of the book is printed with nontoxic inks is laced with seeds from the jacaranda tree. Once the book has been read, kids water the cover to help the seeds germinate, and leave it in a sunny spot indoors. Once the seeds have sprouted, the book can be planted in the garden. “It’s a tree that provides excellent shade and offers a lot of oxygen to the environment,” says Raquel Franco, editorial director of Pequeno Editor. This is the first book of its kind that actually gives back to the environment after being read, instead of sitting forever on a dusty bookshelf.
This Book Grows Into a Tree When you Bury It is a post from: Good e-Reader |
“Shonen Jump” Features Chapters from “Jump+” Spin-offs
| Weekly Shonen Jump’s June 1st 2015 edition, issue 27 Japanese edition, has a great gift for readers that will feature familiar Jump series’ spin offs from the digital Jump+ platform to start running in the main print magazine. A few of these series’ include Magical Pâtissier Kosaki-chan, a magical girl take on Nisekoi by Taishi Tsuitsui, Ishirou Takahashi Kuroko’s Basketball- Replace Plus, Retsu’s gag Let’s! Haikyu!? And Michiko Itou and Taiki Astoki’s Food Wars Shokugeki no Soma L’etoile, which follows Kojirō Shinomiya’s return to France. Magical Pâtissier Kosaki-chan and the first volume of Replace Plus are being collected on June 4th. On top of all that, this issue is also celebrating the 2nd anniversary of World Trigger with a colour and lead colour page. Shonen Jump+ started just last year and is a digital publication that overs 30 manga every month for free. Some times previously ran in the Shuiesha’s Jump Live app or in the Weekly Shonen Jump magazine itself. You can view the site via web, on your Apple device or in the Google Playstore for Android! “Shonen Jump” Features Chapters from “Jump+” Spin-offs is a post from: Good e-Reader |
IndieReader, Melissa Foster Announce 2015 IRDA Winners at BEA
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Sponsored in part by the Association of Independent Authors, CreateSpace, and Kirkus, this year’s IRDAs were presented at BookExpo America by IndieReader president Amy Edelman and bestselling author Melissa Foster. Foster, whose thirty-plus indie books have sold over one million copies and have landed on both the New York Times and USA Today bestsellers’ lists, is also the founder of two sites for indie authors, World Literary Cafe and Fostering Success. “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,” Edelman explained in a release on this year’s presentation. “To that end, judges on the IRDA panel included publishers, PR professionals, top industry bloggers and more. Top winners will have their titles submitted to top New York literary agents Dystal & Goderich for representation consideration. Judging was based on the quality of writing and the originality of the story.” One of the increasingly frustrating aspects of the current publishing revolution is also the very thing that provides authors with a satisfying writing and publishing experience, and that’s the need for the once-rigid rules of genre and categories to be thrown out. To that end, the IRDA awards offer a wide range of categorical subsets in the judging and presentations. “There is a first, second and third place winner in each of the fiction and non-fiction categories, in addition to 27 titles in 24 sub-categories. Each book has received at least a 4-5 star rating (out of 5 stars) to earn the IRDA win.” The first place title for fiction went to Finding Flipper Frank by Patrick M. Garry, while the first place non-fiction title was Secrets of a Hiring Manager Turned Career Coach by Lisa Quast. Melt: There’s No Place Like Home by Selene Castrovilla and Deadly Lies by Chris Patchell earned second and third place for fiction, respectively, while Saving Mona Lisa by Gerri Channel and The Angkor Guidebook by Andrew Booth earned second and third place for non-fiction, respectively. For a complete list of this year’s winning titles, check out the IndieReader announcement of this year’s honorees.
IndieReader, Melissa Foster Announce 2015 IRDA Winners at BEA is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Using OverDrive Samples to promote engagement and discovery
| Awareness has always been crucial to the success of a library. The materials and resources available could be the best in the community but if no one is aware of them, they won't get used. To that end, OverDrive strives to provide the best marketing materials and training resources available to help ensure the success of the library's digital collections.
One of the most successful tools we provide is the OverDrive Readbox samples. OverDrive samples allow users to discover and begin reading embedded eBook samples from your digital collection and provides a direct link to borrow the title. Libraries use OverDrive Readbox samples to help their communities learn about their digital collections, something Vancouver Public Library understands very well. VPL created a marketing campaign around Canadian Library Month last year that heavily focused on using OverDrive samples. What follows is their story of how Readboxes helped increase engagement and even library card sign-ups:
How did you use Readbox samples with your #GetBooked campaign in your marketing for Canadian Library Month? Our #GetBooked campaign used transit advertising to drive awareness of VPL's digital collections. During the month of October we ran ads on Skytrain station platforms, at bus shelters and on trains. These ads encouraged users to explore our eBook and eAudio collection with a link to the #GetBooked website. On the website they were offered a choice of five personas linked to genres, as well as a Staff Picks option. Personas included Super Sleuth, Escape Artist, Bad#ss, Don Juan(ita) and Soul Searcher. Clicking on a persona took them to a Readbox sample from the genre in question, with an invitation to explore the rest of the collection or sign up for a library card at the end of the sample. We thought transit advertising was perfect for a campaign like this because we could reach people waiting for a bus or for their stop on a train, likely with phone in hand, and capture their interest with the promise of a free read to help pass the time.
What was the reaction from your users? Extremely positive. We received many comments about how much people liked the series of genre personas, and from patrons who hadn't realized the extent of our digital collections before they visited the website. The campaign as a whole generated a lot of very positive attention on social media, which was a great tool for spreading awareness.
Did you see an increase in eBook usage? We saw an increase in holds on the titles that were used as samples in Readbox. We managed this by switching up the titles each morning so that holds lists on individual books didn't get out of hand. Interestingly, the other big increase we saw was in online library card signup that was driven by the link at the end of the Readbox sample. This jumped by 195% year-on-year!
How did you come up with the genres you used? The personas came from our fabulous and creative Marketing & Communications team, who developed them to represent genres that we knew would have popular appeal. We then worked with Reader's Advisory experts from our Information Services staff to create the lists of titles for each genre.
Are you planning to use our Readbox samples again in the future? We've been discussing how we might revisit #GetBooked in a new way when National Library Month comes around this year, which would include using Readbox samples again. They provide an ideal opportunity to try out the eReading experience without barriers to access like a login or download process.
Anything else you would like to share about your program in general? We were really pleased that Staff Picks proved to be by far the most popular of the collections. It speaks to the value patrons place on recommendations by reading experts at the library.
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10 Free Kindle eBooks for Monday, June 1st
| It’s time for another weekly roundup of 10 free Kindle ebooks. All these books are highly-rated and are very popular with readers. Owning a Kindle is not required to read them; you can use a Kindle reading app for iPad, iPhone, and Android devices, or use a computer or web browser. The free ebooks listed […] |
When is the Kobo Touch 2.0 Getting Released?
| One month ago today on the 1st of May, Kobo officially released the Kobo Glo HD. But that’s not the only new ebook reader that Kobo has up their sleeve. Kobo is expected to release a new updated version of the Kobo Touch as well. There’s been no official word of its potential existence yet, […] |
The MagPi Issue 24 – out now!
| Welcome to another edition of the official Raspberry Pi magazine! As always, The MagPi is free to download, and comes brimming with project ideas, tutorials, news, and much, much more. My favourites this month? The clock hack, the 0.25 scale, Pi-powered racing car (that gets up to 150kmph despite its adorable teenyness), and best of all, Mike’s Safari Park Challenge, in which Mike Cook has you building a mathematical puzzle that makes zebra noises. With lots of material for everybody from raw beginners to Pi veterans, what are you waiting for? Head over to the MagPi page to download this month’s issue.
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