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It’s easier and cheaper to submit a book to the Pulitzer jury than it is to get a driver’s license. So why aren’t more indie authors doing it? It may possibly be the mindset that the Pulitzer, whose journalism award is equally prestigious and possibly more well-known due to its significance in reporting, is for the elite authors only. But by the entry rules’ own guidelines, there is no requirement–unlike some other well-known and allegedly prestigious awards–that the book be traditionally published, nor that the publisher submit the book for entry. The author herself can enter her work. Incidentally, the Pulitzers have been awarded for 2013, with Donna Tartt’s The Goldfinch taking the prize for fiction. Other category winners include Margaret Fuller: A New American Life by Megan Marshall (biography), Toms River: A Story of Science and Salvation by Dan Fagin (non-fiction), and 3 Sections by Vijay Seshadri (poetry). In wholly related news, the Amazon/CreateSpace Breakthrough Novel Awards released the quarter final list yesterday, narrowing the field even further from its original 10,000 entries in each category. In this stage, editors from Publisher’s Weekly will read and review the remaining titles, providing that valuable feedback to the authors before further eliminations take place. The final round will be determined by reader votes later this spring. Pulitzer Prize Winners Announced: The Goldfinch Wins for Fiction is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Tuesday, April 15, 2014
Pulitzer Prize Winners Announced: The Goldfinch Wins for Fiction
How do we Know our eBooks are not being Altered?
| We live in a world of tremendous political upheaval and lobbying groups consistently push their own agenda. When it comes to digital books, they are less immune to being edited or certain passages, words or phrases being replaced and substituted with something else. How do we know our eBooks are not being altered when we buy them from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kobo or iBooks? Mark Twain’s classic novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was first published in 1884. There are over 200 racial slurs spread throughout the book and it has been disappearing from grade school curricula across the USA, relegated to optional reading lists, or banned outright. Alabama-based publisher, NewSouth books published in 2011 a new edition of the book that replaced certain words with more politically correct ones. The publisher went on a PR speaking tour of libraries and schools to hype the fact this particular version of the book is acceptable to be sold. One of the big proponents that contribute to the overall problem is open sourced books that are royalty free and not have a copyright. Many publishers such as Penguin resell them as Penguin Classics, and other companies like Project Gutenberg give them away for free. Public domain books can be edited or changed without reason and then resold and distributed through other self-publishing platforms. There are no gatekeepers, no one to make the judgement call if this is best practice. Many European countries actively erect barriers to combat the problem of changing words in a book. They have what’s known as a moral rights that has no time limit. So you are not allowed to significantly change work and publish it even if the commercial copyright has expired. Moral rights have had a less robust tradition in the United States. Copyright law in the United States emphasizes protection of financial reward over protection of creative attribution. In a recent thread at the e-reading website MobileRead one user explained their reasons of changing the fabric of a book “I recently uploaded The Queen of Hearts (a collection of novels written in the 1850s) by Wilkie Collins to the MR library. As well as changing ‘gayety’ to ‘gaiety’ and ‘gayly’ to ‘gaily’ I also changed ‘gay’ to ‘light-hearted’. I did this because the English language has changed in the last 150 odd years. In our day ‘a gay man’ would almost certainly be read as ‘a homosexual man,’ and this is simply not what Collins meant – he would have used a different term if he had dared to mention a character’s sexual orientation at all. I did add a note to the posting that I had updated spelling and hyphenation – I also changed ‘to-day’ to ‘today’ for example.” We are experiencing turbulent times when books are banned and publishers want to push out their own sanitized versions. Others merely clean up old English with modern day English to make books more accessible. Many people believe making any edits is a horrible violation of the author’s work and a disservice to readers. I lean towards that mentality primarily due to respecting literary history. How do we Know our eBooks are not being Altered? is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Monday, April 14, 2014
Kindle Direct Publishing Now Offers up-to-date Sales Data
| Kindle Direct Publishing is a self-publishing platform that individuals and small presses use to add their eBooks for sale on the Amazon bookstore. When customers purchase an authors books, normally they did not know about it until 24 hours later. Today in a bold move, Amazon has introduced live sales data that will inform authors in real time when their book is purchased. Self-published authors can celebrate as Amazon introduced a brand new Sales Dashboard on the KDP Reports page to give you up-to-date reporting of paid, borrowed and free orders as they are placed in Kindle stores worldwide. The new dashboard also helps you track royalties earned as payments are processed for these orders. You can filter the Sales Dashboard and Sales & Royalty Report by title, marketplace, and timeframe. The information you currently receive in the Prior Six Weeks' Royalties reports is now available in the new Sales Dashboard and Sales & Royalty Report. One of the great elements about the new dashboard is the immediate feedback for authors engaged in a marketing campaign. You will be able to track sales for just that book for a set number of days while you're running the campaign, and decide if it was worth the effort or not. Kindle Direct Publishing Now Offers up-to-date Sales Data is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Barnes and Noble Shooting themselves in the Foot with Windows 8 Reading App
| Barnes and Noble is heavily invested in the Microsoft Windows 8 ecosystem with their Nook Reading app. It allows customers to purchase eBooks and magazines and read them on their computer or tablet, such as the Microsoft Surface. Recently, B&N expanded their Nook Press self-publishing program into a few different companies in Europe. It allows indie authors to distribute their eBooks all over the world. One of the downsides, is that if you live outside of the US and UK, you can’t read indie books on your Nook e-Reader or tablet, the only way you can is via the Windows 8 app. Microsoft has publicly announced the Nook App will be removed in the near future and a new reading app will be developed called Microsoft Reader. Microsoft Reader will be powered by Barnes and Noble and will allow customers to read and purchase books. There will also be solid PDF functionality so readers can load in their own titles. This entire situation is going to haunt Barnes and Noble because their own customers will have to use a competitors app and implore their base to buy Windows 8 tablets to read the books on the go. Barnes and Noble has always ran Android in their e-readers and tablets. This worked out well when the only market they focused on was the US. B&N ran software to geographically restrict the ability to buy books from outside the States and UK. This means the actual Nook hardware is tremendously limiting and can only be used in two countries. When Microsoft scuttles the Nook Windows 8 app, where does that leave readers who want to buy and read Nook books? Apparently the situation is more complex. The only way Barnes and Noble can avoid an unpleasant situation on behest of their Microsoft overlords is if the new Nook Tablets run Windows 8. I seriously doubt this will happen, but it would be the only way Barnes and Noble can sell its hardware outside of their two core markets and allow people to buy and read books on their device. Currently the Nook Windows 8 Reading app is the ONLY way readers in Canada, France, Germany, Spain can buy and read books. Why do you think B&N continues to lose over a billion dollars on Nook hardware sales? They are not appealing to a global audience and actually prevent people from doing business with them. Going the Windows 8 route on their new devices will solve this issue and make them more accessible. If they can develop the first Windows 8 Reading Tablet, it will be a great marketing ploy. Amazon and Kobo both bill their line of Android tablets as reading tablet, running Android. Nook can say, we have the worlds first Windows 8 reading tablet. Barnes and Noble Shooting themselves in the Foot with Windows 8 Reading App is a post from: Good e-Reader |
First 24 Hour Bookstore Opens in China
| Most bookstores in North America and Europe have set business hours. They tend to open at 9 AM and go until 10 PM. Indie bookstores often have the standard 9-5 mentality and this sometimes prevent people who work late from buying books. A bookstore in Beijing China is bucking the standard operating hour trend and has just adopted a new 24 hour schedule. Sanlian Taofen Bookstore in Dongcheng District has pleased local citizens by keeping their store opened 24 hours a day. The bookstore first opened their doors in 1996 and currently displays 80,000 titles across 1,500 square meters, and is one of Beijing’s cultural landmarks. According to the Peoples Daily Fan Xi’an, president of SJPC, borrowed the 24-hour concept from Taiwanese retail chain Eslite Bookstore. “I was thrilled by the large number of readers found at night in Eslite Bookstore when I visited Taiwan in 2010,” he said. The bookstore had actually been planning a 24 hour schedule since 2011, but lack of funds scuttled the plans. However, the extra cost has now been covered by sponsorship from the central government and Beijing Municipality — part of authorities’ broader scheme to subsidize a total of 56 bookstores around China. “We no longer have to pay value-added tax, and the government has announced 90 million yuan (14.6 million U.S. dollars) to support 55 operations like us,” said Fan. Expanded operating hours are serving a dual purpose. One allows people who work long business hours the oportonity to shop in a bookstore during the weekday. Secondly it gives youth something else to do other than bars and nightclubs. A neighboring cafe has signed on to allow books to be taken into the cafe and refreshments into the bookstore. First 24 Hour Bookstore Opens in China is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Comic Publishers Worried About Amazon Strong-Arm Tactics
| Last week Amazon acquired the largest purveyor in digital comics, Comixology. The company has been going strong since 2007 and functions as the primary distribution method for Archie, DC, GI JOE, Marvel and over 70 different publishers. These publishers are now very worried that Amazon will employ the same strong-arm tactics they did with publishers to get eBooks at rock bottom prices. During the last few years Amazon categorically informed a large number of small and medium sized publishers that Amazon would not negotiate agency selling terms with any other publishers outside of the five initial Apple partners. The publishers were told that if they switched to an agency model for ebooks, Amazon would stop selling their entire list, in print and digital form. Amazon also played hardball with companies like S&S, HarperCollins, Hachette and Random-Penguin when the agency model was disbanded to get the best deals possible. Amazon is a company that functions on margins and firmly embraces the wholesale methodology to their entire ecosystem. The big problem is comic publishers have no experience with outside companies mandating lower prices. A number of comic book publishers have told me off the record that they are really worried that they are going to receive a call from Amazon and inform them they have to reduce their prices. The vast majority will have no choice but to aquis to whatever new terms Amazon mandates, because they have no other resource to sell their comics. Comixology is not the only player in town that sells digital comics, but is the definitive force when it comes to single issue comics. Amazon, Apple, B&N, Google and Kobo all sell graphic novels. Comic book lovers often are enamoured with single issues because they can stay current with the major storylines, instead of waiting a number of months for them to be packaged into a graphic novel. A few times a year Marvel and DC have big events that crossover into popular franchises. Fear Itself, AVX, Age of Ultron tend to have four or five comics coming out every single week. People want the single issues in order to really get into the story. Sadly, Comixology is really the only company to actively market them. DC Comics is one company that has been branching out on their own lately, instead of exclusively relying on Comixology. The company made their first single comic distribution agreement with Google Books. Starting last week, readers will be able to buy all new issues every Wednesday. The company also pulled out all of their comics out of the Comixology app for the Kindle Fire, citing better sales on other platforms. Marvel has been actively developing their own end-to-end solution where they want to get into the business of selling their own comics and not relying on 3rd parties. The first step to this was incorporating Marvel AR into the main Marvel app. This gives users the ability to use their tablets camera on a physical book to get commentary from the writers/artists or to check out animations. A few weeks ago Marvel unveiled the ability to have comics read aloud to you at South by Southwest. The big rumor is that Marvel plans on incorporating their Netflix for Comics Marvel Unlimited into their main app and also start selling comics themselves. It is currently unknown what Amazon will do with Comixology. They might pull a Zappos or GoodReads and let them run autonomously, while incorporating some key technology into their own ecosystem. Alternatively they might elect to shutter it completely and if you want comics, Amazon will be the only game in town. I don’t know how DC or Marvel will enjoy the talks with Amazon to lower their prices or if they will physically resist it. Comic Publishers Worried About Amazon Strong-Arm Tactics is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Did Apple, B&N and Kobo Miss the Boat on Comixology?
| Comixology is the largest digital comics distribution platform on iOS, Android and Windows 8. The company has been going strong since 2007 and their technology powers the reading apps from Marvel, DC, Archie, and has every single comic and graphic novel of the Walking Dead. Last week, Amazon announced they acquired Comixology. This did not really surprise anyone who keeps tabs on the digital comic industry, but did Apple, B&N and Kobo miss the boat? When it comes to selling comic books online, Amazon, Apple, B&N, Kobo, Google and many other players all sell them. Surprisingly most only sell graphic novels, instead of single issue comics. Graphic novels usually comprise of 6 issues of a series and make it easier than purchasing each one separately. This appeals to more casual readers, but hardcore readers often choose Comixology to stay on top of all of the new releases every Wednesday. The only notable exception is DC making a new agreement with Google to carry new single issue comics on the Google Books Store. Why did Barnes & Noble, iBooks or Kobo not pursue this deal? This could have been game changers for those companies and it could have appealed to the people who have downloaded over 215 million comics from Comixology. Industry experts have speculated that the B&N executive team is not forward thinking enough to actually go through with it and they have their own turmoil in the executive ranks to think about. Kobo is exclusively focused on international expansion and Apple is only concerned with making the 30% royalty on in-app purchases and selling stuff on iTunes. If there was a single company to benefit the most from Comixology, it was Amazon. The Seattle based company had developed comic technology called Panel View option for fixed layout illustrated ebooks. This attempt was clearly trying to clone the far superior Guided View from Comixology. Amazon also does not allow high resolution images in KF8 FXL files, which is their file format to emulate EPUB3, but also appealing to more visual and interactive titles. Considering Amazon is putting a priority on high resolution displays on the Kindle Fire HDX line of tablets, the deal with Comixology deal solves all of these issues. I really feel like Barnes and Noble and Kobo really missed a golden oportonity to purchase Comixology. Both of them would have been better caretakers of the comic company and could have benefited from something no one else had. The deep pockets of Kobo owned Rakuten could have financed the deal and could have added the last piece of the puzzle to their trifecta of eBooks, Kids titles and magazines. Barnes and Noble could have really had a great content distribution system that is a proven revenue earner to offset the losses on Nook hardware and eBooks. Did Apple, B&N and Kobo Miss the Boat on Comixology? is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Podcast – London Book Fair Review and All Things Amazon
| Welcome back to another utterly compelling edition of the Good e-Reader Radio Show! Today Michael Kozlowski and Jeremy Greenfield talk about all of the major news coming out of the London Book Fair. In addition, we talk about Barnes and Nobles expansion plans for Nook Press, what challenges they face with relying on Windows 8 and Amazon purchasing Comixology. Jeremy Greenfield was live in London last week for the London Book Fair. This is the largest event held in Europe where publishers bid on rights fees, talk shop and network. You will all get a total rundown of the major sessions about self-publishing, Nook Press, Amazon being the villain you love to hate and more! The biggest story last week was Amazon purchasing Comixology. This was a strategic investment for their Guided View technology to incorporate into their own ecosystem and replace their older version. There is an air of uncertainty in the comic publishing industry right now. Publishers are worried that Amazon may employ strong arm tactics to get lower rates on graphic novels and single issue comics. Will Amazon abandon the Comixology app and incorporate of the content in their own ecosystem? Will publishers start relying less on Comixology and start developing their own end-to-end solutions? Only time will tell. Did Apple, B&N and Kobo miss the boat on buying Comixology? We discuss all of this! Podcast – London Book Fair Review and All Things Amazon is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Experts Fears eBooks Hinder Student Reading Comprehension
 Photo courtesy of nbclatino.com Renewed concerns about students who use tablets for reading have surfaced as experts now fear the “bells and whistles” approach to enhanced ebooks are actually stunting student comprehension. At last week’s American Educational Research Association in Philadelphia, researchers Heather Ruetschlin Schugar and Jordan T. Schugar presented their findings from a study that pitted middle school students with print and digital books. The results of the subsequent testing showed a higher level of comprehension when the students read print books. The books, created with iBooks author software, may have contained too many features like hyperlinks, images, and embedded video, leading the students to try to garner enough information about the story from the extras rather than interacting with the actual text. Other features often found in children’s ebooks include games, tactile interactions like the ability to manipulate the background, and even audio sounds that play while the student reads. Other researchers have already concluded that some students actually comprehend better when multimedia enhancements are offered alongside the text. A study reported on last week from Booktrack demonstrated that adults and older students retain more of what they read when music that fits the story plays in the background. Also, sound effects that coincide with troublesome or unfamiliar vocabulary can help language learners, such as a car horn beeping as the new word “honked” is introduced. What researchers are now starting to notice is that there is no one-size-fits-all method for reading fluency and comprehension. Students learn in different ways, a fact that has been known among educators for decades. Features that enhance learning for one student can easily hinder it for another, so curricular decisions and opportunities need to be made available in a wide variety of formats.
Experts Fears eBooks Hinder Student Reading Comprehension is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Teenreads presents Ultimate Reading List
| Reading may not always be a teenager's first choice of activity. I know when I was in high school, I associated reading with required text from English class. I always put off reading homework until the last minute and dragged through it. It wasn't until I discovered reading didn't have to be just the assigned list that I really started enjoying it. Now when I find a good book, I cannot put it down; I read until 3 a.m. and continue as soon as I have a free minute.  Every year, Teenreads.com puts together an Ultimate Teen Reading List that consists of hundreds of titles that inspire teens to read. I went through our collection and made lists with some of their suggested titles. Check them out and motivate your teens to read today! OneCopy/OneUser: Ultimate Teen Reading List Metered Access: Ultimate Teen Reading List
And remember your Collection Development Specialist is always available to help create any recommended lists. Email collectionteam@overdrive.com for more information today! *Some titles may have limited regional or platform availability.
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Big Library Read is back …Woof there it is!
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Big Library Read is an opportunity for users from all over to read the same digital title at the same time without any wait lists or holds. To borrow the title, your users will simply log in to your digital collection. A Pedigree to Die For will be right on the home page ready to check out. In the coming days, we will be providing more information about this summer’s Big Library Read, including links to a discussion board, a marketing kit, and a best practices guide full of great ideas from successful libraries, as well as details for the author chat with Berenson. To sign up your library, simply email your OverDrive Account Specialist. Your readers are sure to love this fantastic title!
Adam Sockel is a Marketing Communications Specialist at OverDrive.  |
MagPi issue 22
| 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! |
Digital Library Lending Has a Long Way to Go
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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
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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
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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
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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 |
