| As publishing adapts to changes in the technology of books, one area that still remains to adapt is the all-important cover art. Two unrelated articles today highlighted the serious considerations that authors and publishers need to make when designing the face that will ultimately help or hinder consumer purchases. The first post, a piece for The New Yorker by Tim Kreider, looked at the evolution of book covers from their days as jewel-toned illustrations to the current minimalist approach of formulaic designs. Kreider’s piece took a stab at what seems like a requirement in book cover design on a genre-by-genre basis. “The main principles of design—-in books, appliances, cars, clothing, everything-—are: 1. Your product must be bold and eye-catching and conspicuously different from everyone else's, but 2. Not too much!” Kreider wrote of the often frustrating experience of traditional publishing’s cover concepts. Apart from Kreider’s explanation, Alex Ingram wrote a more technologically-minded look at book covers for The Bookseller. In his explanation, the entire purpose of a book cover has changed, in accordance with the rise of digital publishing. Now, as consumers no longer have to rely on pacing the aisles of a physical bookstore and having a cover catch their eyes from a few shelves over, the artistic considerations of thumbnail-sized covers have to evolve as well. “Looking at the cover of an e-book, it is usually just that of the paperback or hardback, though audiobooks have long had covers tweaked to their packaging,” wrote Ingram. “Good cover design both front and back is surely about fitting a strong set of information into a template both to encourage purchase and to encourage people to read a book. Yet publishers are making little or no adjustment to the cover and copy they are feeding into the digital retailers.” Interestingly, as more authors begin to exert their control over their work by turning to self-publishing, cover design remains one of the areas where traditionally published authors often have little to no input. Author Polly Courtney actually cited her book covers as one of the reasons she returned to self-publishing, admitting that her traditional book covers that had been created by the publisher’s marketing team were “embarrassing.” “I had what we'll call a constructive dialogue with my publisher's editorial, design, and marketing teams, finding a balance between my personal vision and something people might possibly want to buy,” Kreider wrote. “For months we went back and forth: I'd send them several illustration options and they'd pick whichever one I liked least; they'd send me some design options, I'd pick the one that made me least unhappy, and they'd veto it. Book covers are an important sales tool, and the marketing department felt, quite reasonably, that the cover was very much their business. I also had a paranoid sense of shadowy, Olympian forces weighing in from farther above; I've been told that the most powerful figures in the current literary world, the buyers for the major national bookstore chains, have been known to offer to increase their orders for a book if its cover is changed.”
How Book Covers Have to Evolve in the Digital Age is a post from: E-Reader News |
Wednesday, July 17, 2013
How Book Covers Have to Evolve in the Digital Age
Lincoln University’s digital garden, and its gold medal
| At this year’s Chelsea Flower Show, Lincoln University’s digital garden, which changed the way it looked depending on what people tweeted, sent messages back to people interacting with it and did all kinds of interesting things with twenty servo motors and a lot of hinges, won a gold medal. See if you can guess what was powering it. We were sent some BBC news coverage, which, sadly, doesn’t actually mention the Pi behind the scenes (although it is beyond delightful for us to see Ringo Starr looking interestedly at it) – but you can read more about the Pi’s involvement, and the philosophy behind the garden, over at the Times Educational Supplement. It’s a nice reminder, though, that a single Raspberry Pi can be used to drive enormous projects like this garden as well as little things like the pile of toy cars and robots that are currently piled up on the desk I’m sitting at now. Well done, Lincoln techno-botanists. We loved the project, and we wish we’d been able to see it in person! |
Tuesday, July 16, 2013
Disney Unveils New Augmented Reality Book Technology
| Disney Research labs in Pittsburgh have developed new augmented reality technology called Hideout, which could take books into an entirely new direction. HideOut explores how mobile projectors can enable new forms of interaction with digital content projected on everyday objects such as books, walls, game boards, tables, and many others. Disney elaborated on what their new technology brings to the table by saying “We enable seamless interaction between the digital and physical world using specially formulated infrared-absorbing markers – hidden from the human eye, but visible to a camera embedded in a compact mobile projection device. Digital imagery directly augments and responds to the physical objects it is projected on, such as an animated character interacting with printed graphics in a storybook.” It will be interesting to see if mobile projector technology will catch on. It is important that the technology run in concert with the hardware manufacturers and the big media companies. Disney is probably in the best position with their Marvel, Star Wars and Disney properties to make the entire concept work. Once Hideout is more refined, can you image how puzzle games and eBooks will be transformed? The video below shows that it is a proof of concept and fairly rough around the edges. Still, companies need to start focusing on other avenues for their digital properties, instead of just iOS and Android apps.  Disney Unveils New Augmented Reality Book Technology is a post from: E-Reader News |
eBook Industry Experiences a 5% Gain in Q1 2013
| The eBook industry has not exactly plateaued yet, but it seems to be holding relatively steady. The AAP released new data today to give us a sense of how the publishing industry fared in the first quarter of 2013. The overall eBook market increased their net worth by 5%, garnering $393.6 million from $374.8 million in 2012. Audiobook sales have also increased by 14% and raked in $28.3 million, compared to the $24 million in 2012. Sales of adult fiction eBooks increased by 13% but children’s digital editions declined by 30%. If we look outside North America electronic books now account for 14.5% of the entire publishing industries revenue. The top countries contributing to eBook sales were the UK, Australia, Germany, France, Norway and Switzerland. Germany showed the greatest year-on-year revenue gains while New Zealand, Spain, Italy, South Africa and Brazil also contributed significant eBook revenue gains. Many US publishers we spoke to are not surprised about these new industry figures. Ever since the 50 Shades of Grey phenomenon has dissipated, we have not really seen any one title contribute generate a copious amount of sales. Publishers for the most part now have a dedicated infrastructure in place and sales have stabilized. Barnes and Noble may suffer the most from these new figures as the company puts a heavy emphasis on Nook Kids and this genre has seen the highest decline in sales. eBook Industry Experiences a 5% Gain in Q1 2013 is a post from: E-Reader News |
VIZ Media Graphic Novels Now Available at Kobo
| Kobo and Viz Media have signed a new deal that will bring 60 different series that includes over 500 editions. NARUTO, BLEACH, VAMPIRE KNIGHT and BLUE EXORICIST are among some of popular titles that will be available through this launch. Readers can use the Kobo Arc, a tablet device that is ideal for reading in full colour and or one of their many dedicated e-Readers, such as the Kobo Aura HD. Books can also be accessed using the official Kobo app for Android or iOS. Supporting Fixed Layout ePubs, Kobo provides comic-lovers with a responsive reading experience that allows users to zoom and pan into scenes and images effortlessly with a simple double-tap of the screen as well as seamlessly swipe through titles with no delays. With a highly responsive experience, Kobo is dedicated to providing Viz Media customers with the best platform for reading comics and manga. "Kobo users will be thrilled to have direct access to the world's most popular and acclaimed manga titles delivered through their family of sleek and compact e-Reading devices," says Gagan Singh, Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, VIZ Media. "Manga continues to be one of the fastest growing and most popular segments of the digital publishing market and we are very pleased to continue to expand the range of integrated delivery models available to fans." "We're thrilled to bring VIZ Media titles to Kobo's growing catalog of manga and to be expanding our diverse content catalog for our most passionate Readers," says Nathan Maharaj, Director, Merchandising, Kobo. "Together with Viz Media's collection of titles and our crisp, dynamic and colorful reading experience, manga fans will fall in love with the digital reading experience." VIZ Media Graphic Novels Now Available at Kobo is a post from: E-Reader News |
Autography, HarperCollins Partner on Digital Book Signing
| As the technology behind publishing continues to expand, so does the technology behind being a reader. There is no shortage of companies who offer similar digital experiences, but truly unique and innovative contributions to reading technology are not as plentiful. One technology, Autography’s ebook signing software, offers not only a new twist on the traditional book signing, but also creates that bridge between authors and readers that has become so much of the important branding work authors of any publishing model must do. Today, Autography and HarperCollins announced their collaboration that will make Autography’s ebook signing software available across every genre that the publisher puts out. This signing capability is especially important in light of recent news that stand-alone titles–even those traditionally published ones–have the potential to outsell their print counterparts, like Orion’s release of Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn. "We are thrilled to be the first major publisher to partner with Autography, and are especially excited to kick off our relationship by delivering this innovative and personalized experience to our authors' devoted fans at the Romance Writers of America Conference," said Angela Tribelli, Chief Marketing Officer, HarperCollins Publishers. "Partnering with Autography allows us to preserve the intimacy of an author signing while reaching readers around the globe." Autography has already clearly demonstrated the ability of this technology to bring together writers and fans. With its first online Spreecast event with romance author HP Mallory, hosted by GoodEReader, and its more recent event with And Then She Fell author Stephanie Laurens, the potential for virtual signing events is limitless and cost-effective. At the same time, live events, such as at this weekend’s RWA conference in Atlanta, authors can forge even greater connections with their readers by embedding a photo author page of the author and the reader, complete with a fully unique signature and dedication (as opposed to signing platforms that simply embed a pre-written signature). One of the obstacles publishers have faced in terms of embracing technology like Autography is the effort it takes to report sales of these signed editions in order to impact bestseller rankings. HarperCollins has been able to see past that barrier and focus instead on the ability of this option to reach out to readers.
Autography, HarperCollins Partner on Digital Book Signing is a post from: E-Reader News |
Kobo Aura HD Back In Stock
| Earlier in the week I posted about the Kobo Aura HD being out-of-stock at Kobo and several retailers. That made me wonder if Kobo was already discontinuing their 6.8″ limited edition ereader, but that was mostly because it had appeared to have been removed entirely from Kobo’s main ereader page on their website—but that just [...] |
HighWire, Tizra Collaboration Means Greater eBook Discovery for Scholarly Titles
| eBook discovery, or the ability to browse and find a title based on basic keyword searches at online booksellers, is one of the greatest obstacles for authors or publishers selling content. Academic publishing is no different. Although the audience for more scholarly works might be smaller and have unique needs, that same discovery issue hinders academic ebook discovery. “HighWire provides an advanced digital publishing platform to help industry-leading scholarly publishers innovate and thrive,” said Tom Rump, Managing Director of HighWire, in a press release today. “We considered many alternatives before selecting Tizra, but concluded that their nimble ebook tools best complemented the HighWire Open Platform, helping us expand our focus on discoverability and creating the most intuitive user experience.” HighWire, which was founded in 1995 and is a part of the Stanford University library system, partners with a variety of sources like universities, publishers, and professional organizations to publish scholarly journals, ebooks, and more, while Tizra’s web-based platform makes book discovery and book selling a more streamlined process. Under this collaboration, academic publishers and institutions will hopefully be able to more effectively market their titles. “Discovery in the ebook environment goes beyond search – it is the end to end path that a reader takes in finding, assessing, and making a decision to invest in a book, whether that investment is time or money,” continued Tara Robenalt, Director of Product Management at HighWire. “With the addition of Tizra’s ebook reader features, HighWire publishers can blend books alongside their e-journals, offering an integrated cross-content solution that falls into the reader’s natural workflow.” Tizra’s ebook development capabilities, coupled with HighWire’s e-journal options, will now offer features like social media sharing options by page, more flexible chapter navigation, increasingly focused search engine optimization, greater support for mobile device reading, and more.
HighWire, Tizra Collaboration Means Greater eBook Discovery for Scholarly Titles is a post from: E-Reader News |
Top Five Kindred Classics for Teens
| Why read the classics? The classic works of literature are at their core simple stories about people, their predicaments, and the culture, time and place in which they lived. I believe a classic is deemed so because of its' unique storyline and writing style which earned praise from generations of audiences. If only Mary Shelley had known while she wrote 'Frankenstein; or The Modern Prometheus’ that her literary invention of a grotesque monster and the scientific experiment that created him, would brand itself into literature so deeply that we still see the allusions to it today.
Out of the mind and imagination of these classic authors readers see the same thread of wonderful writing, unique storylines, and characters who continue to travel through our literary world. Peruse each of the following titles who began with their predecessor, the literary classic, but also evolved into a new and modern story for our times:
Classic Modern
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn —> Finn: A Novel (Matthew Olshan)
Walden —> Being Henry David (Cal Armistead)
Hamlet —> Shakespeare Saved My Life: Ten Years in Solitary with the Bard (Laura Bates)
The Great Gatsby —> The Summer We Read Gatsby ( Danielle Ganek)
The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood —> Scarlet (A.C. Gaughen)
Renee Lienhard is a Collection Development Analyst with OverDrive
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Gone Girl eBook Sells in Higher Than Ever Ratio Compared to Print
| The digital book industry has come an unbelievably long way in a few short years. From the days when critics insisted ebooks were a flash in the pan and publishers refused to invest in a technology that obviously wasn’t going to pay off, to the years in between when numbers slowly trickled in that demonstrated a rise in popularity and wider adoption of digital reading, the concept of a book has made a quick evolution. But nothing may prove the strength of e-reading more than the current news for one of the most talked about books, Gone Girl, by Gillian Flynn. Today, the publisher, Orion, announced that ebook sales in the UK for 2013 have accounted for 60% of total sales, and that the ebook outsold print two-to-one in the US. In a statement to The Bookseller, Orion’s Managing Director Lisa Milton said: “Only a year ago it would have been impossible to believe a novel could sell over a quarter of a million e-books within a few months. As long as there are readers, how anyone chooses to read a book—whether hardback, paperback, audio or e-book—doesn't matter…After such phenomenal sales in the US last year we're thrilled that Gone Girl is such an incredible success in every format, finding new readers every day who love it as much as we do.” Gone Girl has stayed in the top ten for book sales for more than twenty-six weeks. Flynn is also the author of Dark Places and Sharp Objects.
Gone Girl eBook Sells in Higher Than Ever Ratio Compared to Print is a post from: E-Reader News |
JK Rowling: The Importance of Brand and What’s Wrong with the Industry
| First, I want to say that I have absolutely no gripe with JK Rowling. In fact, I even support and applaud her decision to publish a book that she wanted to write without all of the fanfare and hype. Remember Rowling’s first foray into expanding her reach as a writer? By 9:00am Eastern on the morning that her title A Casual Vacancy hit stores, it already had over 300 reviews on Amazon for an average of only three stars. Reviewers, it would seem, couldn’t get past the fact that it was not another Harry Potter book. We’ll never know how the book would have been received had it been written under a secret pseudonym. But now we do know how a book written by a talent like Rowling gets received when it’s written under a pseudonym. Thanks to her desire to simply write and publish a book without all of the attention and accusations of it not being like her other books, Rowling released a book that very few people were talking about before this week. In fact, only 1,500 copies were even sold that first month. Who’s fault is that? Do we blame the author for not doing her legwork and establishing an “online presence” and building a fan base? Do we blame the traditional publisher for what was obviously an epic marketing fail? Do we blame the readers for not racing out and taking a risk on an unheard of author? Why are we blaming anyone at all? Where the naysayers are accurately speaking out this week is to the rabid response once Rowling’s secret identity was leaked, something that she claims she wished had not happened, especially in light of the fact that there is a second book coming in her crime series, again under her pen name, Robert Gilbraith. Now that the secret is out, will the industry respond as favorably–albeit quietly–to this second book as they did to the first? Or will there be comparisons and sneers for Rowling’s constant attempts to be something other than the author of the Harry Potter series? Now that the secret is out, bookstores can’t stock copies of this first book fast enough. Message boards are lighting up with names of locations that still have copies of the print edition. Records have been set, broken, and set again for the ebook sales, and I have to wonder. Where were all these fans when the book was just a quiet, great crime novel? Where were the reporters waiting to interview anyone connected to the publication of the book? Why did poor debut author Robert Gilbraith not get the attention that literary icon JK Rowling is getting? Because the book wasn’t good enough when it was written by a nobody. Now that there’s a famous name behind it, we care. This hype proves that it is still not enough to write a great book or share a well-crafted story, and that a book is only as worthy as how much attention you can throw its way.
JK Rowling: The Importance of Brand and What’s Wrong with the Industry is a post from: E-Reader News |
The GWR Locomotive Sketchpad
| The what, you say? Easy. It’s a sketchpad. For Great Western Railway locomotives. Alec Bray built the GWR Locomotive Sketchpad to allow you to design and mock-up steam locomotives based on the design principles of the Great Western Railway. (Not the most unexpected use of a Pi we’ve come across yet, but it’s right up there.) It’s a graphics-intensive, interactive program using the Lazarus IDE and the Free Pascal Compiler downloaded onto the Raspberry Pi and compiled natively. Here’s a video about what the GWR Locomotive Sketchpad does. When I passed it around the office, Emma probably put it best: “It's a bit like one of those tours that you get in National Trust properties: it’s really interesting to listen to. It’s not so great to watch.” Hang on in there. The static image changes about a minute and a half in. Alec says:
If you’re ever around kids, you’ll be aware that for a lot of them, trains hold a strange fascination. It’s always been this way: hands up if you wanted to be a train driver when you grew up. Eoin, the son of our indefatigable trademark compliance elf Lorna, shamed me recently when I brought him a Babbage Bear and a book as a gift. I came into their house bellowing: “Hello Eoin! I have a present for you!” Eoin replied: “Is it a train?” and then cried when it wasn’t. Alec has designed the Sketchpad so that young computer users like a slightly older version of Eoin (who doesn’t have the motor skills to type yet, let alone code, but as soon as he can reliably use a mouse you can bet he’ll be dragging and dropping bits of trains around with the best of them) can also construct data files using any appropriate language, including Python, Perl, C, Visual Basic and others, and then their constructed files can be run through the GWR Locomotive Sketchpad to see what sort of locomotive they have made. Alex says that the trick here is to include sanity-checking in their code for the various dimensions and shapes. So kids are developing their programming and gaining an understanding of basic principles of physical engineering at the same time. The GWR Locomotive Sketchpad application is available through the Retail shop at the Great Western Society at Didcot – you can email the shop manager if you click on “Sales” and request a copy (e-commerce has not really hit Didcot yet). Alec says that although this is a commercial application in one sense, all the money raised apart from materials costs goes to support the Great Western Society in its work in preserving our steam locomotive heritage. Didcot Railway Centre is an accredited museum and the GWS is a charity. This project has a wonderful air of English eccentricity about it: it’s not one of your polished, super-commercial pieces of software, and it won’t be for everybody. But I know that for some people, the GWR Locomotive Sketchpad is the sort of sandbox you’ll happily play in for hours at a time. Let us know what you think if you order a copy. |
Monday, July 15, 2013
Free Archie Digital Comics Available via New Mobile Advertising Platform
| Archie digital comics are enjoying a tremendous surge in popularity with over eleven million downloads through the iOS and Android apps. iVerse is chiefly responsible for digitizing all of the monthly publications to push them out to readers as soon as possible. In order to make Archie more accessible, the two sides have signed a new agreement with Tapjoy. This company has a solid mobile advertising and monetization platform and the end result will make thousands of digital comics available for free. Starting July 18, the Archie Comics app will integrate the Tapjoy Mobile Value Exchange model, in which consumers engage with advertisements to earn virtual rewards. By watching a video, taking a survey, or engaging with an ad, Archie readers will earn credits to unlock more than 2,000 comics via their two apps. “We’re thrilled to partner with Tapjoy and embrace a new way for our consumers to get the comics they love,” said Jon Goldwater, Archie Comics publisher and co-CEO, in a prepared statement. “Making our great content catalog available through a new free-to-own model establishes a new opportunity for how people read comics and will bring even more fans to the Archie universe.” With this new technology, Archie Comics will be the first digital comic publisher to utilize virtual rewards and the Mobile Value Exchange model to enable consumers to buy digital comics. It might not appeal to older readers who have more than enough money to spend, but for younger ones, this might be a viable alternative to their parents credit card. Free Archie Digital Comics Available via New Mobile Advertising Platform is a post from: E-Reader News |
Google Play Receives a Massive Update for Web Users
| When most people access Google Play on their Android tablets, you normally do it via the dedicated app. One of the more useful ways to install apps is it to do it via the Google Play website, where you can flag apps to install. Today, the entire Google online experience has changed and has borrowed elements from its refreshed app. The new interface is a dramatic shift from what was offered before. The app icons tend to be way bigger in size and most of the app screenshots are much larger. The app version numbers, number of installs, date updated, and most other essential information is now at the very bottom of the screen, instead of the top. One of the main drawbacks is that you will no longer see embedded YouTube videos or the feature graphics. Google Books has also received a big update and actually looks slicker than before. There are five books on each line now and there are subtle animations when you highlight one. There are more refined genres and ebook discovery seems to be kicked up a notch. One of the things I really liked was when you scroll downwards to check out all the books, the top menu floats. This means as you scroll downwards, the navigation menu trails behind you. Very useful if you want to abandon your current searching method and click on the navigation. In the past, you had to scroll all the way up. There is more essential data to be displayed at the expense of truncating user reviews. Instead of them running altogether, they scroll on a carousel. The old Google Books system was not indicative to selling books because it basically used the same interface as Android apps. You can really tell that Google put a priority on the most essential data and the redesign gives users more information before buying. Google Magazines more or less has the same interface as the Books section.
Google Play Receives a Massive Update for Web Users is a post from: E-Reader News |
Digital Comics Sales Tripled in 2012, to $70 Million
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Overall, print and digital comics sales totaled $750 million, up 13% from the previous year. Digital comics sales almost tripled, going from $25 million in 2011 to $70 million in 2012. This is purely an estimate, as publishers and digital comics distributors don’t release sales figures, but ICv2 editor-in-chief Milton Greipp sits on the board of directors of comiXology, the largest digital comics distributor, so he probably has a pretty good idea of what’s going on. Greipp estimates that digital sales amount to 9% of the total market, a much bigger slice than last year, but as both print and digital sales continue to grow, it seems that digital comics are not “cannibalizing” the print market. Here’s another inside look: Speaking about his comic Saga, drawn by Fiona Staples, Brian K. Vaughan said “I don’t know if creators at other companies are privy to exactly how many digital copies their books are selling these days, but the statements Fiona and I get from Image are pretty staggering. I realize that’s not true for every book, but the day when many titles start selling more digital copies than print copies is not years away, it’s months away.” Saga is one of the top-selling comics in both print and digital, and Vaughan’s believes that the digital medium is bringing in new readers, just as the newsstands did in the olden days. Digital Comics Sales Tripled in 2012, to $70 Million is a post from: E-Reader News |
Adobe Launches DPS Release 27 with New Features
| Adobe’s Digital Publishing Suite is one of the most widely used tool sets for the creation of tablet-based reading content. In use by publishers of digital magazines and newspapers, among other business-oriented purposes, DPS makes content production more streamlined. But today’s announcement of its recent Release 27 incorporates a number of new value-added features to reach readers where they are. “Today, we're pleased to announce the latest release of Digital Publishing Suite – Release 27 – is now available,” stated a detailed post on the new features on Adobe’s blog. “With support for Pinterest, device GPS integration and Free Article Preview with Metering, the latest features in Digital Publishing Suite are designed to help you drive awareness of, interest in, and revenue from your publications. In addition, we have refined Folio Producer Service so that you can streamline and accelerate production.” While the ability to let readers pin content to their Pinterest boards or find region-specific content based on their locations might be enticing to niche markets of very specific content publishers, the metered paywall system, which is an update from Release 26, allows publishers to provide not just specific articles for free before charging or offering the opportunity to subscribe, but rather offer a detailed amount of any of their content before the paywall kicks in. This feature allows readers of a wide variety of interests to read before deciding on a subscription or payment opportunity instead of dictating which articles will contain the paywall feature. Also found in Release 27 are key changes to the Folio Producer Service, which helps with content creation that a team of people will all collaborate on. Rather than copying and placing each article, group members can now one-click the entire folio in place using the Copy Folio feature. This Copy Folio feature can also be automated for streamlined workflow.
Adobe Launches DPS Release 27 with New Features is a post from: E-Reader News |
“The Crisis of Publishing Persists Mostly at a Pedestrian Level”: Anis Shavani on What’s Wrong with Publishing
| The Daily Beast posted an article today that would have been tired and overstated if it weren’t so well-written and downright true. Author Anis Shavani expounded at length on what’s wrong with the publishing industry, breaking it down into five key issues that hinder the genuine creation of readable books. “Publishers would become profitable in short order if entrenched agents and editors weren't allowed to have veto power over innovative proposals, running their jaded, cynical eyes over every hint of freshness, trained in being subservient lapdogs to master strategists holding the keys to the riches,” Shavani argued in the post, pointing out what indie presses and self-published authors alike have experienced: the gatekeeper mentality. Rather than encourage new, fresh ideas, books are deemed acceptable once they fit the mold. While placing the blame for the failures of publishing houses and major book chains, Shavani doesn’t leave authors completely blameless, pointing out their willingness to adhere to strict guidelines of acceptable content in order to reach publication, rather than taking chances with their works and building an audience later. “Books would not be status objects then but would derive from readerly needs…It would mean that a writer reconceives himself as someone appealing to audiences that perhaps don't fully exist yet but that might come into being with enough chutzpah.” In a fairly bold statement about what digital publishing brings to books, Shavani essentially agrees that technology is not the death of books, as some early critics of e-reading and the broader instant access to self-publishing through ebooks have claimed. The technology isn’t the issue, but the content is the problem. “If things don't change, it's not because the concepts, technology, or means aren't there to make publishing exciting, profitable, and culturally worthwhile again; it's because the overlords don't want to change, even if it means they go down and take reading and writing with them.” Shavani’s pull-no-punches article is admittedly a breath of fresh air, a timely accusation about an industry that doesn’t always adapt in a timely manner. As the intro pointed out, these are lessons that may have come too late for many of the major players in publishing and bookselling, but hopefully will serve as a warning to parties interested in continuing in book creation. Anis Shavani is the author of several books, including Literature at the Global Crossroads and Plastic Realism: Neoliberal Discourse in the New American Novel. His full editorial on the state of publishing can be found HERE.
“The Crisis of Publishing Persists Mostly at a Pedestrian Level”: Anis Shavani on What’s Wrong with Publishing is a post from: E-Reader News |
Frommer’s Bought Back from Google, Going Back into the Travel Book Business
| One of the industry standards in travel books, Frommer’s has had a varied and roller coaster-like history. Started by Arthur Frommer about sixty years ago while he was stationed in Europe, the books once accounted for 25% of the entire US travel book market, but have been passed around the publishing industry as different publishers attempted to piggyback off the brand as a way to enter that market. As sales of travel books have declined due to the popularity of free access to user-generated online travel information, more attempts have been made to revive the product. Google bought out Frommer’s almost a year ago for $23 million, but has failed to do anything with the books. In April, Frommer, who hasn’t directly controlled the company in many years, bought back the Frommer’s brand and is working to release a new travel guide by this fall under its agreement with Perseus Book Groups’ Publishers Group West imprint. So what’s changed? If Google and other larger entities couldn’t propel the travel book genre, what will make this round a success? One thing that has changed is that recognition that readers and travelers are looking for more convenient ways to access the information. An understanding of why consumers purchase travel guides–whether to carry with them on a scheduled trip, in which case a portable mobile app might be handier, or to help map out the details of a trip, in which case spending time browsing and highlighting a printed edition might be more attractive–will go a long way in making FrommerMedia’s return to publishing successful. One thing Frommer’s has already learned is that travel books are not translating well into ebook sales. Its partnership with app developer Inkling showed promising new features like retina-displayed photographs and guided tours of cities via users’ mobile devices, but that hasn’t proven to be effective for consumers either. For this round of titles, of which Frommer’s plans to publish as many as eighty new titles by the end of next year, the travel magnate is aiming for more in-depth authenticity by hiring freelance writers who actually live in the destinations each book will feature, rather than travel writers who have simply visited.
Frommer’s Bought Back from Google, Going Back into the Travel Book Business is a post from: E-Reader News |
Join us on the London to Cambridge bike ride for Breakthrough Breast Cancer
| Every year, Eben raises sponsorship money and does the 75-mile London to Cambridge bike ride for Breakthrough Breast Cancer. This year, several of the folk working at Pi Towers and some of the volunteers who work on Raspberry Pi will be joining him on Sunday 28 July (Gordon, our keenest and most competitive cyclist will not be there, because he’ll be on holiday – this is probably a good thing, because cycling with Gordon can be very discouraging as he vanishes into the distance and leaves you crying your way up a hill). We thought you might like to join us as well.  Bonus points if, like Matt Richardson, the bike you ride has been hacked with a Raspberry Pi. (Click to read more about Matt’s speedometer hack, which perfectly straddles the line between dangerously distracting and brilliantly clever.) If you do the ride wearing Raspberry Pi insignia of any kind, we’ll do our best to ride in a mob with you, we’ll buy you a beer at the Cambridge end, sign any Pis, shirts, books or robots you might have brought along, and have a good natter. You don’t need to be wearing an official Raspberry Pi T-shirt (although it’d be great if you can – every one you buy raises money for our educational outreach work and helps us get Pis to kids who can’t afford them). A home-made shirt, a home-made Raspberry Pi label safety-pinned onto your shirt, or a home-made paper Raspberry Pi hat will all qualify. If you’d like to join us for a morning’s exercise, sign up for the ride at bike-events.co.uk, then mail me at liz@raspberrypi.org so we can let you know where and when we’ll be meeting at both ends. It’s a lovely ride through some beautiful countryside, and you should finish feeling virtuous and very, very tired. We look forward to clinking glasses with you at the finish line. |