Millennials are the New Hot Segment in Publishing

The entire publishing industry has been zeroing in on the hottest new segment, millennials. A new gold rush is currently underway to sign up superstar YouTube celebrities who have built a ravenous community that will likely buy anything they write. The term millennials often refers to anyone born after the turn of the century and are between the 16 and 24. This demographic is notoriously hard to market books to, because they don’t read very much. Recently Deloitte released their annual Media Consumer Report and it surveyed 2,000 UK consumers about their media habits. It found that 25% of 16-24 year-olds had bought an e-book in the last 24 months and less than 14% read daily. The vast majority of millennials are watching YouTube and Vine videos and are fiercely loyal to Alfie Deyes, Grace Helbig, Zoe Sugg or the beauty queen Michelle Phan. The book deals these creators get pale in comparison mainstream celebrities have enjoyed crazy million dollar deals, but the lack of sales soured most publishers. This year there are a number of surefire bestsellers that are all slatted to sell thousands of copies. Lets take a look at the most notable ones that have been released this year or will come out in the near future. Mamrie Hart: You Deserve a Drink (May 2015) Mamrie is the last of the unholy trinity (that includes Helbig and Hannah Hart, no relation) to release a book into the world. You Deserve a Drink is a combination cocktail recipe book and memoir, with drinks accompanying each tale of Hart's debaucherous life. Shay Carl: Fat Dad, Fat Kid (September 2015) YouTube forefather Shay Carl put pen to paper to craft a father-son weight-loss memoir, coming this fall on Keywords Press, Simon & Schuster's dedicated YouTube imprint. Jenn McAllister: Really Professional Internet Person (August 2015) Scholastic recently announced the publication of teenage YouTuber Jenn McAllister's first book, a compendium that uses her trademark top 10 lists and social media posting to document her life. McAllister has also expanded beyond YouTube into film, with a role in the upcoming Bad Night. iJustine: I, Justine: An Analog Memoir (June 2015) Justine Ezarik's memoir, inspired by nine years of documenting her life online as iJustine, will be released this spring. In addition to writing and her digital life, Ezarik also served as a producer on an anti-bullying film that premiered at South by Southwest. Connor Franta: A Work in Progress (April 2015) It's bold to want to share a life story at the ripe old age of 22, but YouTuber Connor Franta has packed a lot in a short time. As formerly one-sixth of YouTube collab sensation Our2ndLife, Franta gained a massive fan base, and after breaking off from the group and coming out on his channel, he's grown even more. In addition to penning a memoir about his journey from small town kid to Internet sensation, he's also released a coffee line and series of compilation CDs.

URL: http://goodereader.com/blog/e-book-news/millennials-are-the-new-hot-segment-in-publishing

Overdrive Announces the Future of e-Book Lending for Libraries

A few months ago Overdrive was acquired by Rakuten, the same Japanese e-commerce company that purchased Kobo.  When the deal went through many librarians were quietly wondering if the status quo would be maintained or if the company would pivot into a new direction. At the American Library Association annual conference Overdrive has released a new road map that will give librarians a sense of what the company has planned for the rest of 2015. The New OverDrive is based on three pillars of success designed to enable libraries to win in the increasingly competitive landscape of digital books and media: Onboard new users quickly and easily. Because 50% of Americans still do not have a library card, customer acquisition is core to the new OverDrive.  With improved speed and ease of use – including instant access, sampling and searching – all library users will enjoy better discoverability of the library's entire digital catalog. Deeper engagement with readers. Once the new user has discovered digital media at the library, the new OverDrive will provide new tools and data-driven services to increase engagement and conversion to a loyal library customer. With an improved recommendation algorithm, faster search engine and page loading, users will browse and discover more of the mid-list and backlist and more easily find what to read next. To maximize title availability for users and ROI for libraries, OverDrive already supports multiple access models, including Cost-per-circ, Simultaneous Use – from a growing list of suppliers – and Classroom Sets. OverDrive has also piloted a "Book Club" model in certain markets for city reads and other programs. Reach more of the library community. OverDrive will continue to innovate to support this critical library objective with new and existing programs: Kids and Teens. With the recent introduction of Kids eReading Rooms, a safe section within the library's website, libraries have seen significant circulation increases for children's and YA content.  OverDrive is also the only digital lending platform that offers nearly 1,600 Narrated eBooks, audio synced to text with fixed-layout in the EPUB3 format. Circulation has skyrocketed at the thousands of libraries who offer these interactive titles. Non-English readers. To reach new users who prefer to browse and read in their community language, OverDrive already offers a multilingual website interface in 13 languages as well as a catalog of more than 116,000 non-English eBook and audiobook titles in 52 languages. Business commuters and Periodicals users. OverDrive and NOOK Media partnered recently to bring more than 1,000 popular digital magazines and newspapers including content only available from OverDrive: USA Today, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post.  Cleveland Public Library (CLEVNET) and Cuyahoga County Library (CCPL) have seen dramatic increases in their circulation due to digital periodicals. Readers in places outside the library walls. Libraries in the OverDrive network have pioneered access to library eBooks in a variety of community centers, such as at the San Antonio airport and schools in Oklahoma. Casual readers browsing other parts of the web. OverDrive's Readbox samples allow users to discover and begin reading excerpts of a library eBook on any website and provides a direct link to borrow the title. Vancouver Public Library has used Readbox to help their community learn about their digital collections, increasing both circulation and library card sign-ups. The features of the new OverDrive align with the needs of today's library customers. According to more than 10,000 respondents in a June 2015 Patron Survey conducted by OverDrive (complete survey results will be available at Digipalooza), device compatibility (74%), ease of use (63%), and immediately available content (52%) are among the most influential criteria stated when obtaining digital content.

URL: http://goodereader.com/blog/american-library-association/overdrive-announces-the-future-of-e-book-lending-for-libraries

The MagPi issue 35 – next month we’re in print!

Issue 35 of The MagPi is here. It’s rammed full of projects, and features some of the most amazing builds and hacks we’ve seen so far this year. We've got 22 pages of step-by-step tutorials and the chance to win a beautiful Raspberry Pi robot (thanks to Dawn Robotics). For me, the absolute highlight this month is Mike Cook’s sprinting game, which will have you building physical controllers you operate with jogging feet. This is something you’ll be able to put together as a fun physical computing project with friends or as part of an after school club or Raspberry Jam. Here’s Mike to demonstrate. Your feedback on The MagPi has been fantastic, and we’re working to make it better every month. So far, we’ve had 100,000 downloads for issue 31 (we’ve had nearly 300,000 downloads overall since we started the new version of the magazine). And we’ve got some news: next month, The MagPi goes into print. We are absurdly excited. Russell “If I’d known you were taking photos I’d have shaved” Barnes Russell Barnes, editor/Babbage owner, says: The MagPi magazine has already proved itself to be one of the most successful new technology magazine launches of the year and I couldn't be happier. It's not every day that a digital magazine goes to print, but that's exactly what we're doing next issue. The Official Raspberry Pi magazine will be available throughout the UK and America, with plans to branch out into other territories and languages as soon as possible. So here’s a date for your diaries: the print magazine is coming on 30th July. The magazine will be even bigger and better than ever, with 100 pages of Raspberry Pi projects, tutorials features and reviews. You'll be able to buy the magazine in store and online; in the UK it’s £5.99 UK. Other territories will vary. The magazine will be available to buy in store from WHSmith, WHSmith Travel, Barnes & Noble and Micro Center, and all good newsagents. You'll also be able to order a copy online from the Swag Store from July 30.  Subscriptions are open now! If you want to be among the first people to receive the magazine you can subscribe today. You can get six issues of the magazine from £30 and 12 issues from £55. It's available online by visiting www.bit.ly/MagPiSubs, by calling +44 (1)20 258 6848, or by printing out the form on pages 28 and 29 of this month’s issue.  Why subscribe? Never miss an issue Get it delivered to your door Get it first (before it hits the shelves) Save up to 25% on the cover price.  The MagPi is (and always will be) free to download as a PDF. Russell says: While we've been getting hundreds of requests for the magazine in print over the last six months, The MagPi has always been available as a Creative Commons-licensed PDF, and that's the way it's going to stay! You can download every issue of The MagPi from raspberrypi.org/magpi and you'll soon be able to join a mailing list to get the issue delivered to your inbox every issue. We hope you enjoy this month’s magazine as much as we enjoyed making it. The post The MagPi issue 35 – next month we’re in print! appeared first on Raspberry Pi.

URL: https://www.raspberrypi.org/the-magpi-issue-35-next-month-were-in-print/