| I’m about two weeks late to the party on this one – massive apologies to all at The MagPi. It’s been a bit busy around here so far this month. Right now, Picademy’s underway in the office space we’ve got set up as a classroom, and 24 teachers are busy making blooping noises with Sonic Pi while Clive booms at them in Teachervoice. It’s distracting but curiously enjoyable. Alongside the preparation for Picademy, this month we’ve seen the launch of this new website, and the announcement about the new Compute Module. While all this was going on, the April edition of The MagPi came out, and I didn’t notice because I was too busy glueing Raspberry Pi logos on sticks and sending boxes of jam to Johnny Ball (true story). As usual, The MagPi is full of wonderful things like internet-enabled garage doors, night lights that repel under-bed goblins, reviews, competitions, tutorials and much more. My favourite article this month discusses a solar cell (this month’s cover star) that tracks the sun to provide 140% more energy than a static cell. Go and read it online for free: you can also order a printed copy for your personal library or for your school. Thanks MagPi folks – I promise to be more timely about letting people know about next month’s issue! |
Monday, April 14, 2014
MagPi issue 22
Digital Library Lending Has a Long Way to Go
|
Bills in Maryland and Connecticut were first proposed last year that would require publishers to charge a commensurate amount for libraries’ ebook editions of their catalogs of titles. As it stands now, pricing is making it almost impossible for libraries to fully support ebook lending. A recent report on pricing from the Douglas County (CO) Library System demonstrated that an ebook that typically costs a consumer just over $10 can cost a library almost $50. Add to that the fact that the library is merely licensing the right to use the digital file and not actually owning the book, the pricing can make libraries hesitate a little. Unfortunately, those bills have not gone forward, and by some reports, the American Library Association was against the bill in Maryland. Part of the struggle that libraries face also comes from their patrons. In the digital mindsets of many consumers, waiting to borrow an ebook seems pointless. The same people who happily put their names on the checkout list to borrow a print book grumble at having to wait to download a book to their devices. Fortunately, studies have shown that this benefits publishers, as ebook borrowing (and the ability to borrow ebooks, even without having finished or read them) has led to an increase in click throughs and purchases of other books. Ideally, this is not behind publishers’ decisions to keep the price of ebooks artificially inflated for libraries.
Digital Library Lending Has a Long Way to Go is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Sunday, April 13, 2014
Top New Android Apps of the Week – April 13th 2014
| This week Dropbox updated their main app and released a new photo and email client. Family Guy unveiled their Simpsons Tapped Out competitor and many other great new games were released. Iron Force – Take part in epic, explosive multiplayer tank battles in Iron Force. Join forces with your friends in team-based battles, or have a free-for-all. The Walking Dead: Season One – Play as Lee Everett, a convicted criminal, who has been given a second chance at life in a world devastated by the undead. With corpses returning to life and survivors stopping at nothing to maintain their own safety, protecting an orphaned girl named Clementine may offer him redemption in a world gone to hell. Experience events, meet people and visit locations that foreshadow the story of Deputy Sheriff Rick Grimes. A tailored game experience – actions, choices and decisions you make will affect how your story plays out across the entire series. Police Parking 3D Extended – This 3D cop parking game is for all the heroes. This cop car simulator games simulates the police car as in the real world. After another duty shift while police cars parking in the park, you need to get the criminal to the police station and away from the crime scene. The police car is ready for another day of chasing down the most wanted outlaws. This cop car simulator will bring you the joy you need today. Make the streets of the city safer in this 3D cop parking game in this real 3d city with realistic 3D graphics during different parking situations. Goat Rampage – The most ridiculous animal simulator available for the Android. Use your Goat to smash as many objects as possible to gain the highest score. Make it crash everything around in the fastest possible way. This is a free version with one limited level. Amazon Fresh – Not quite a new app, but with the release of Amazons new Dash scanning tool, Fresh has been updated to take advantage of this system! Order groceries online. Distiller – Distiller is your companion, guide, and collection as you grow the whiskey side of your life. Get a personalized whiskey recommendation for any situation, whether you're at a bar with your friends, growing your personal collection, discovering a new flavor, or giving a gift. We go beyond the label to offer suggestions based on your tastes matched with the unique characteristics of each bottle. Family Guy The Quest for Stuff – After another epic battle with the giant chicken, Peter Griffin has accidentally destroyed Quahog! Play for FREE and rally your favorite FG characters (even Meg) to save the city in a hilarious new adventure from the writers of Family Guy. Or don't, and regret it forever! Heartbleed Detector – The Lookout Heartbleed Detector can be used to determine whether or not your Android device is vulnerable to the Heartbleed bug in OpenSSL. This app works by determining what version of OpenSSL your device is using. If your device is using one of the affected versions of OpenSSL, we then check to see if the specific vulnerable feature called heartbeats is enabled. Carousel by Dropbox – Carousel is the new gallery from Dropbox for your life's memories. Mailbox by Dropbox – Mailbox is a completely redesigned inbox that makes email light, fast, and mobile-friendly. Quickly swipe messages to your archive or trash. Scan an entire conversation at once with chat-like organization. Snooze emails until later with the tap of a button — they'll return to your inbox automatically so you can focus on what's important now. Top New Android Apps of the Week – April 13th 2014 is a post from: Good e-Reader |
eBook Review: A Million Ways to Die in the West by Seth MacFarlane
|
Seth MacFarlane is a true Renaissance man. As the creator of the animated series Family Guy and co-creator of American Dad, not to mention the voice talent of many of those shows’ characters, he achieved a measure of notoriety for the genre of stupid and mildly offensive humor. But MacFarlane is also a Grammy-nominated singer, director and producer of one of the top-grossing movies of all time for its rating, and of course, bestselling author of a first novel that has already been adapted for the upcoming film of the same name. A Million Ways to Die in the West is not for everyone. As a very loose rendition of historical fiction, it requires an ability to enjoy the suspension of belief in order to appreciate the humor, as well as an ability to look past the few offensive remarks to that are both poignant stabs at the time period as well as timely interpretations of the fact that prejudice and racism are far from dead. Albert Stark is a sheep farmer in the town of Old Stump, a miserable place that makes the show Deadwood look like the Vegas strip. The title of the book comes from the very real understanding in Albert’s world that every single day is an exercise in not letting something random kill him. Snake bites, cholera water, gunslingers, wild animal attacks, and all out nastiness are just a handful of the myriad ways that one could end up dead in that time and place; of course, if the actual disease, crime, or accident doesn’t kill you, the doctor’s attempts to save you will certainly finish the job. Interestingly, MacFarlane’s take on history and humor is actually a beautiful love story, with the lives of several intertwined characters playing out on the page. He gives the same attention to the backstories of side characters that he gives to Stark, all without dragging down the pacing in any way. My favorites must be Edward and Ruth, a mild-mannered cobbler and his fiancee of six years (the town brothel’s employee of the year) who have yet to have relations because it would be ungodly, what with them being Christians and all. In some ways, the best aspect of the book is the fact that the author’s ingrained sense of humor shines through, but it is ultimately far more intelligent than what plays out each week on his television shows. While somehow meeting at the crossroads of asinine and genius, the book is a fantastic, in-one-sitting delight.
eBook Review: A Million Ways to Die in the West by Seth MacFarlane is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Spanish Language eBook Market Comes Into Its Own
|
But the foreign-language category of ebooks is making tremendous headway. Readers have been delighted by both companies that make foreign translations of English language books available, as well as companies like Le French Book that operate in reverse, taking modern-day bestselling French titles and making them available in English to US and UK audiences via ebook. But recent growth in the foreign language ebook catalogs of many major retailers has demonstrated an increased interest on the part of consumers who want the portability, instant download access, and typically lower cost of digital editions. Where the Amazon Kindle en Espanol catalog launched in 2012 with a minor smattering of titles compared to its offering in English, that number of ebooks has now doubled. Publishers are also coming on board with Spanish ebooks, working to release their backlist titles that never saw translation. One area that still remains a problem for translated ebooks is indie publishing, encompassing both small press publishers and self-published authors. A translation of a full-length novel can easily run as much as $10,000 or more, per language, and without the backing of a major publishing house to foot the bill, it falls to the indie publisher or the author to find a translator and negotiate the fee. Authors like Judith Glynn who took the risk on an investment of that size are still struggling to put their books in front of Spanish-speaking readers, largely because less than half of the reported Spanish speaking population in the US reads books in Spanish, according to a post by Publisher’s Weekly.
Spanish Language eBook Market Comes Into Its Own is a post from: Good e-Reader |
UK eBook Lending Program a Success for Libraries, Publishers
 Photo courtesy of stuff.co.nz A recent program for UK libraries to lend ebooks has been considered not only a success for institutions and patrons, but also for publishers given the number of click through sales that resulted from borrows. The report, given at a panel at the London Book Fair this week, was from the Society of Chief Librarians (SCL) president Janene Cox. The program, launched on March 3rd, 2014, in four areas of the country, gave visitors to the physical libraries access to content that wasn’t available elsewhere, including new releases. While visitors still had to come into their libraries to access the list of titles, they were gaining this access to content that wasn’t readily available for device lending elsewhere. The results of the pilot have already been enlightening and positive, and interestingly have also been in line with patron behavior in various pilots and studies conducted by different companies in different countries. Sourcebooks and OverDrive teamed up last year to study the effects of unlimited checkouts and free simultaneous access to one title in particular, coupled with publisher branding of the book. Several years ago, Kobo released the results from its online marketplace that looked at user behavior when ebooks were available for free or at nearly no cost, which is the correlating cost for library patrons. In almost every aspect, these studies have shown that publishers benefit when their books are readily available for borrowing. The click through rate in library lending is fairly high, with many of the patrons purchasing titles before even finishing the book. As in the Sourcebooks experiment, sales of that author’s other titles–not related in a series to the title that was made available–also increased, as did his social media following as readers sought him out online. eBook lending has been a struggle for the industry, with different publishers experimenting with different lending parameters and limitations in an effort to protect the interests of their companies and their authors. Libraries have now been shown to be a source of revenue for publishers, not a source of contention.
UK eBook Lending Program a Success for Libraries, Publishers is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Tim Waterstone Predicts eBook Decline in the UK
| You would be very hard pressed to go a single week without hearing about digital books. Companies are absorbing other companies, new startups launch a compelling discovery site or even get involved in a eBook subscription service. For the first eight months of 2013, eBook sale were worth $800 million in the US, down 5% on the same period the previous year, according to the Association of American Publishers. The founder of Waterstones Books in the UK says that eBooks are just a flash in the pan and will fizzle out in short order. During a recent interview with the Daily Telegraph, Tim Waterstone proclaimed “eBooks have developed a share of the market, of course they have,” he said. ”But every indication – certainly from America – shows the share is already in decline. The indications are that it will do exactly the same in the UK.” He went on mention “I think you read and hear more garbage about the strength of the eBook revolution than anything else I’ve known,” Waterstone added that predictions of the demise of books were grossly exaggerated, saying: "The product is so strong, the interest in reading is so deeply rooted in the culture and human soul of this country that it is immovable. The traditional, physical book is hanging on. I'm absolutely sure we will be here in 40 years' time.” In the UK, 3.3 million e-books were sold in April 2013, according to Nielsen research – down 0.1% on the same month the previous year. Meanwhile, hardback book sales rose 11.5%. in the first eight months of 2013. Tim Waterstone Predicts eBook Decline in the UK is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Saturday, April 12, 2014
Brooklyn Newsstand Program Makes Digital Newspaper Archive Available to Public
|
The Brooklyn Daily Eagle was a hometown paper in circulation from 1841 through 1955. As part of the BPL’s historic Brooklyn Collection and its digital newspaper portal Brooklyn Newsstand, this collection is made possible with help from Newspapers.com and several other sources. According to an article for Library Journal by Gary Price, “The Brooklyn Newsstand will now provide the public with free access to the entire collection of The Brooklyn Daily Eagle newspaper ranging from the date of its publication in 1841 to its close in 1955. Previously, thanks to a 2001 National Leadership Grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Sciences (IMLS), BPL was able to digitize a microfilmed copy the Eagle from 1841 to 1902 and make those years searchable in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle Online database. As with the IMLS project, the second phase of digitization completed by Newspapers.com uses negative microfilm provided by the Library of Congress.” Without digitization efforts, these newspapers–and thousands of others like it around the country–would sit in obscurity in a microfiche cabinet, possibly in an unused space of the library building. Now, these documents can have a renewed focus and offer new insights to a generation of readers that might not even be aware that the paper existed. More important, they can now be accessed by users around the world who otherwise would have been barred from physical access to the documents.
Brooklyn Newsstand Program Makes Digital Newspaper Archive Available to Public is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Round Table – Are e-Readers or Tablets Better for Reading?
| Welcome to another Good e-Reader Round Table Discussion. Today Michael and Peter discuss the merits of reading on a dedicated e-reader and tablet. There is a ton of confusion on the virtues of each device and what they excel at doing. Today, the two lads dispel popular myths and give you their perspective on what is better for reading. e-Readers have been around a lot longer than tablets have. Early on, if you wanted to read eBooks, newspapers and other content you wanted to have a Kindle. When tablets started to come out, like the iPad and Android devices the lines started to blur on what an e-reader is. Michael and Peter rundown what each device does best and talk about some of the technologies on the market that make reading more enjoyable. Pixel QI, Plastic Logic, e Ink, and other displays are explained in great detail. Round Table – Are e-Readers or Tablets Better for Reading? is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Friday, April 11, 2014
Naughty Dog and Dark Horse Team Up for Digital Graphic Novel
| Game development studio Naughty Dog is teaming up with Dark Horse comics for a digital graphic novel called the Art of Naughty Dog. This novel will showcase art from their many different properties. Naughty Dog announced “The Art of Naughty Dog will be available later this year. It will span the history of Naughty Dog and feature hand-picked and never before released artwork depicting our past, present, and future. Being around for thirty years has bestowed upon us all kinds of incredible art from our amazing fans. Select fan art will be a chapter of the book as well. To mark the occasion properly we're having a book launch event later in the year. We'll have more details once the pages and the plans are ready.” Naughty Dog was originally founded in 1984 by Andrew Gavin and Jason Rubin. Its first iteration was Jam Software until its name change in 1989. The development studio is best known for its work on seminal titles like Crash Bandicoot, Jak and Daxter; The Precursor Legacy, the Uncharted series, and most recently The Last of Us. Naughty Dog and Dark Horse Team Up for Digital Graphic Novel is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Cleis Press, Penthouse Collaborate on New Line of Erotica eBooks
| It took them long enough, but some of the biggest names in books and porn have finally realized that sex sells. That’s why Cleis Press and Penthouse will begin publishing a new line of digital erotica titles, set to launch this fall. Billed as the Penthouse Variations On series, this line of titles will eventually be a title of six different anthologies, with the first title to come out being Variations On Oral which the publisher has declared to be “quality erotica” for “discerning” readers. While Penthouse may best be known in pop culture for its magazine, it is also the owner of Variations magazine, which has a high percentage of female readership. Likewise, the new publishing venture will aim for a female audience. Interestingly, romance and erotica, while traditionally predominantly purchased by female readers, has also been shown to be overwhelmingly authored by women. Co-founder of Cleis Press Felice Newman stated in a press release, “We are excited by this opportunity to expand the readerships of both Cleis and Penthouse in this fresh cross-pollination of sex positive culture. Together, we plan to develop a unique series that will take the erotica market by storm." Cleis publisher Brenda Knight went on to say, "Newman has a keen focus on what appeals to female erotica readers. She knows what works and what doesn't, and has made a real contribution to a more sex-positive America. We are great admirers of Penthouse and their enormous impact on sex and culture."
Cleis Press, Penthouse Collaborate on New Line of Erotica eBooks is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Rightscorp to Battle eBook Pirates
| Rightscorp is well known in the video and music industry with their digital loss prevention technology that tracks copyright infringement and ensures that owners and creators are rightfully paid for their IP. They developed extensive tracking analytics that allows them to see what content is being distributed through bittorrent and file sharing sites and then goes after the people involved. It looks the company is gearing up to take on the publishing industry industry and actively go after eBook pirates. "We recently announced a deal to represent Mark Sisson, author of the bestselling book The Primal Blueprint. This marks our entrance into the multi-billion dollar book publishing industry, an area where we feel we can add value to our clients and our investors," said Christopher Sabec, CEO of Rightscorp. "eBooks and eReaders have become very popular since the release of the Kindle in late 2007, but just like any medium, the creation of digital format opens them up to digital theft and copyright infringement. With a $3 billion market and growing, the digital book market is an ideal place to add protection and secure revenues. We are now expanding our focus to include monetization and protection of online books and are already in discussions with other authors and industry trade organizations about how we can help them." The entire publishing industry brought in close to 12 billion dollars in 2012. Sales of eBooks reached $3 billion at the end of 2012, up from $68 million in 2008. Industry experts expect that by 2017, digital will be worth $8.2 billion. This market is ripe for the picking for Rightscorp. Overall, the publishing industry is not really concerned with eBook piracy. Many of the top companies such as HarperCollins, Hachette, S&S and Penguin have told me that piracy is a minor blip on the radar and does not hamper sales. They all admit it is an extreme minority of tech savvy individuals and statistically people who pirate eBooks tend to be the biggest purchasers of digital content. There has even been some notable authors such as Tim Ferris that harnessed the power of Bitorrent to promote his book, the 4 Hour Chef. He recently said “Torrent conversion is NUTS. Of 210,000 downloads earlier this week, more than 85,000 clicked through "Support the Author" to the book's Amazon page. We all had to triple and quadruple check that to believe it. Why isn’t the publishing industry and magazine companies concerned with digital book piracy? You only have to look at the Apple Newsstand and companies like Comixology. All of the magazines and comics are basically are stored in the cloud and delivered in an app container. Comixology has spent a copious amount of money on their app to give you Guided View technology and Marvel has added the ability for a comic to be narrated with audio. You now have magazines, books, comics and other rich media delivered in a way where the user will never see the file locally. This takes piracy right out of the equation. At the moment, book piracy is dwarfed by that of the music, movie, and game industries. But it is gradually growing. Shortly after the launch of the iPad, TorrentFreak took a look at a small group of popular business titles and calculated that unauthorized eBook downloads on BitTorrent grew by 78% on average–and that was when Apple had sold only about 300,000 iPads. Rightscorp currently represents more than 1,000,000 copyrights with more than 40,000 copyrights in its system. Rightscorp has already received settlements from subscribers of more than 50 ISPs and closed over 60,000 cases of copyright infringement to date. The company is entering the eBook market with some trepidation, but I can see them implementing a scare tactics campaign and releasing daunting reports to put the fear of god into publishers and authors. Rightscorp to Battle eBook Pirates is a post from: Good e-Reader |
FBReader Adds DRM to Attract Content & Device Partners
| FBReader, an eReader app with over 5 million active users, announced that it added DRM support in a push to to become more attractive to content providers and potential device partners. The company will be using the open Marin DRM standard on Intertrust Technology's ExpressPlay platform. The company had been receiving interest from potential partners, but the lack of DRM protection was a major hurdle. With the FBReader's primary goal of building a larger user base, it has now opened up the doors to the possibility of partnering with content providers and to be pre-installed on devices. FBReader is not looking to open its own store at the moment, but to offer content providers with a low cost DRM solution. It wants to test the market and believes its platform presents a good opportunity to publishers. According to founder Nikolay Pultsin, "if you have a large catalog and you want to try this protection scheme, your payment does not depend on number of the books in your catalog, just on number of purchases." FBReader will also be pushing its API after the success of the TTS plugin, which was developed by a third party. This has the potential of adding a more personalized experience, developed by the hands of the reading community itself. According to Mr Plutsin, a new API "will support a lot of new functionality. In particular it will be possible to create skins for standard FBReader screens." FBReader is working on more features for its device as well, including ePub3 and video support. Mr Pultsin says, "I'm still not sure that ePub3 books and especially books designed with fixed layout(s) are the future of electronic reading. However, we want to support this type of content too, with no loss of speed for usual books containing text and images only." It is also looking at adding PDF support, widgets and synchronization across device The FBReader app looks as though it has a promising future in the competitive eReader market and could be worth your while downloading. With the ability to customize a reading experience along with the prospects of adding publishers' content its should become even more attractive to new users. Having opened up the doors to the possibility of pre-installs on devices could be a major avenue of growth for the company as well. The ereader is available for Android and Blackberry devices and FBReader is planning on adding more device support . It can be downloaded from the Good e-Reader App Store. FBReader Adds DRM to Attract Content & Device Partners is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Simon & Schuster Plans 12 Book Series called TED Books
| TED is one of the leading conferences where luminaries all over the world give a 18 minutes or less talk. Past speakers have included Bill Gates, Jane Goodall, Elizabeth Gilbert, Sir Richard Branson, Nandan Nilekani, Philippe Starck, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Sal Khan and Daniel Kahneman. Today, TED has partnered with Simon & Schuster to publisher a 12 book series. S&S plans on rolling out a new title every month or two beginning in September 2014. Some of the books set to be published include The Virtue of Stillness by Pico Iyer, How We'll Live on Mars by Stephen Petranek, and Storytelling in the Age of Distraction by Nicholas Thompson. The books will feature a signature look with cover art designed by the legendary jacket artist and TED speaker, Chip Kidd. TED and Simon & Schuster will distribute the books and eBooks in all available sales channels, and the books will be supported by TED's media partners and the highly-trafficked TED.com website. Simon & Schuster Plans 12 Book Series called TED Books is a post from: Good e-Reader |
BitScope Micro
| We met the folks from BitScope some months ago to talk about their plans for a miniature scope especially for the Raspberry Pi. They’ve just launched the product we discussed today, and our socks have been comprehensively knocked off by it; the engineers who sit behind me think this is one of the most exciting Raspberry Pi add-ons they’ve seen so far. This is the BitScope Micro, built especially for the Raspberry Pi. It turns your Pi into a dual channel digital oscilloscope, a multi-channel logic analyser, a waveform and clock generator and a spectrum analyser; it comes bundled with BitScope’s full suite of software (well worth a look if you’re even slightly interested – this thing has features coming out of the wazoo), and it’s probably the cheapest digital scope we’ve ever seen, coming in at USD $95 if you buy in volume, and $145 at one-off retail. You can read much more at BitScope’s website.  Sample output  More sample output We think that’s an incredibly good deal – for the same analogue bandwidth in a bench scope you’re looking at an instrument that’s many, many times the price, even at retail.  The BitScope Micro comes bundled with ten signal clips and a USB cable. It’s exciting for us to see proper scientific instrumentation coming to the Pi; we’re looking forward to seeing what the community does with tools like the BitScope Micro. Give us your ideas in the comments.
|
Report: Libraries Prefer the 3M Cloud Library Over Axis 360 and Overdrive
| Overdrive is getting quite ubiquitous for digital eBooks at the library. The company has the largest international footprint and a huge marketing department. In most cases the libraries that buy into Overdrive are the same ones doing business with 3M Cloud Library and Axis 360. A new report issued this week asks the question what eBook distribution system is preferred for US libraries? A recent satisfaction survey went out from 3M to 200 different libraries in the United States. All libraries deal with both Overdrive and 3M and were told not to hold back on any punches. The goal of this survey is to ensure that 3M stays in tune with the rapidly changing needs of eBooks in public libraries. Out of the respondents the 114 libraries preferred the 3M Cloud Library and 78 picked Overdrive. If we look a bit deeper at the data, 38% answered that they were "very satisfied" with 3M Cloud Library versus only 14% being "very satisfied" with OverDrive. Similarly, when asked the question "How likely are you to recommend to other libraries?" 47% answered "very likely" to recommend 3M to other libraries while only 22% answered "very likely" to recommend OverDrive. One of the big reasons why libraries dig the 3M ecosystem is because it ties into major ILS systems a little more fluidly. Triple iii and Polaris are the most popular ILS systems and are designed to simplify librarians lives, by reporting on checkouts, sales, and all aspects of daily library life. Most of this data ends up in annual reports to justify funding and also inform the American Library Association on lending behaviors. One of the big problems is when a library does physical and digital lending and deals with more than one company to facilitate it. Current ILS systems were not designed to function in this way and is a growing concern to major libraries all over the world. 3M is finding great success dealing with Polaris and other ILS vendors to incorporate its API tools into their platforms. This allows libraries to get firmware updates to their ILS platforms that have the 3M system built into it, making everyone's lives way easier. Tom Mercer the Marketing Manager of 3M told Good e-Reader “This survey shows that 3M is building a great product and working hard to ensure our librarians are satisfied. We believe our high customer satisfaction score and come from the easy to use back end tools and collection development recommendations as well as the continued circulation growth our libraries see each month from new and existing users.” Report: Libraries Prefer the 3M Cloud Library Over Axis 360 and Overdrive is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Hugh Howey Explains the Need for Authors to Give Away Their Books
|
The response was immediate: “Aren’t you worried about those lost sales?” At this year’s London Book Fair, taking place now, self-publishing success story Hugh Howey spoke on a panel with the UK head of Kobo Writing Life, one of the top three major self-publishing platforms. Howey, who has openly stated in the past that his story is not typical for indie authors, explained the purpose and the benefits to giving away free books as a reader engagement tool. Many publishing industry professionals caution against giving away free content, as they feel it reduces the value in the eyes of the reader. Likewise, surveys have shown that low price points for books make readers respond negatively, as if thinking to themselves, “How good can it be? Even the author didn’t think it was worth a whole dollar.” But Howey’s point is that only truly undervalued books are the ones that no one reads because they can’t find them. In this time of difficulty for book discovery, offering your content–especially backlist content–to readers is a way to entice them into getting to know the rest of your list. Howey went on to expand on his fear that the current climate of self-publishing will continue to perpetuate the model that traditional publishing has always experienced, namely that there will be a limited number of bestselling and successful authors at the top, followed by the remaining “unknowns.” He explained that the self-publishing market should be a place where every author can find his audience, and enjoy some measure of success, regardless of how that success manifests itself.
Hugh Howey Explains the Need for Authors to Give Away Their Books is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Smashwords Reveals Number of Bestselling Authors Overwhelmingly Female
|
All of them. Coker himself went to the iBooks store and Amazon US to compare their numbers and found the women outnumbered men there as well. Sixty-four percent of the top twenty-five titles in iBooks were written by women, and fifty-six percent of the Amazon bestsellers were written by women. While Coker can give some explanation on the Smashwords site–romance is the top-selling genre there and the majority of those titles are written by women–that is certainly not the case with iBooks or Amazon. Also, only two-thirds of the top twenty-five books on Smashwords are romance; the remaining titles are historical fiction, fantasy, and mystery, not genres that are fully dominated by female writers, although women do figure highly in those numbers. Coker himself has no explanation for the clean sweep by female writers, but did have this to say: “Why are women dominating the Smashwords bestseller lists, other than the fact that these women are all super-awesome writers? One likely factor is that romance is the #1 bestselling genre at Smashwords, and romance is overwhelmingly written by women. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I’m constantly blown away the smarts, savvy and sophistication of romance authors. These ladies have pioneered many of the ebook publishing and distribution best practices that so many indies take for granted today. But strong romance performance doesn’t fully explain the story.”
Smashwords Reveals Number of Bestselling Authors Overwhelmingly Female is a post from: Good e-Reader |
T-Mobile Launches Free Data Plans for Tablets and Phones
| The vast majority of tablets only employ WIFI connections to give you access to the internet. There are only a spartan few on the market in the USA that have data plans to not be so reliant with public hotspots. We reported a few weeks ago that data tablets are going to be hitting the market in greater numbers in 2014 and T-Mobile is ready. T-Mobile is offering $10 off its most popular internet data plans starting April 12th through the end of 2014. For voice customers, what that means is you can get up to 1GB of 4G LTE data free every month through the end of the year. Combined with the 200MB of free data you already automatically get every month with T-Mobile's previously announced "Free Data for Life" offer that comes to nearly 1.2GB of free 4G LTE data every month through the end of 2014. If you love living beyond the Wi-Fi zone – and want to keep enjoying that tablet freedom beyond 2014 – you can get it starting at just $10 a month with voice service next year. This promotion is obviously appealing to people who have a smartphone and want save money on data. This should get more people switching to the network who want to get free data, for the times they are outside WIFI areas. Tablets owners can merely get a very basic plan, inject the SIM card and automatically get 200 MB of free data. If you want to attach the barebones voice plan you can get over 1 GB of data, which is fairly compelling. I Know of a bunch of people who just use their tablet as their primary phone now, using Whatsapp, Line and Skype to make voice calls via Bluetooth. T-Mobile Launches Free Data Plans for Tablets and Phones is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos Reports on Companies Progress in 2014
| Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos wrote a lengthy progress report to shareholders at a recent earnings call. The Seattle based e-commerce giant is not known for divulging specifics, whether its revenue or legitimate figures. Instead, they speak in generalities, which makes it quite hard to gauge exactly how healthy their company is. Today, we are going to look at the essential things he talked about, in regards to Kindle, Prime and eBooks. Bezos said that the company is "investing heavily on behalf of readers," and he pointed to such 2013 achievements as the launch of the new, high-contrast Kindle Paperwhite, the integration of the "very impressive" Goodreads into the first and second generation Kindle Paperwhite, and the launch of Kindle in India, Mexico, and Australia. The company also launched various publishing imprints and fan-fiction service Kindle Worlds in 2013. Audible is really growing up fast. The company is seeing massive success distributing their content via iTunes to customers on the iPad and iPhone. The ACX community is growing strong, where Amazon connects authors and producers to boost the catalog even further. Jeff called 2013 a "landmark year" for Audible, noting that Audible customers downloaded "close to 600 million listening hours" of audiobooks last year. One of the breakout titles of 2013 was the Great Gatsby, which sold 100,000 copies in the movie tie-in. Amazon Prime has recently increased in cost from $79.99 to $99.99. There aren’t many new incentives to justify the price increase, but Amazon did mention they are expanding on their Sunday delivery service with the US Postal Service. There are "tens of millions of Prime members worldwide," Bezos wrote and more than 20 million products that are eligible to be shipped under Prime. What is Amazon planning for the rest of the year? They plan on issuing 500 published novels via their publishing imprints in the US and UK. This stems from books they bid on at the recent London Book Fair and mandated by senior agents and editors. The company will also release three new tablets and 2 new e-readers towards the end of the year. Amazon also has just commercially released Dash and Fire TV. One of the big unknowns is what they intend on doing with the purchase of Comixology. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos Reports on Companies Progress in 2014 is a post from: Good e-Reader |
