| Its the New Year and we have been working very hard on making our Good e-Reader Android and Blackberry App Store faster than ever. We have put a priority on refining the way we handle images and serve our downloads. The end result is a more robust website and for anyone using our App Store Android App, you will notice a dramatic increase in performance. One of the ways we handled the speed increase was pushing more of our image assets to Amazon S3. We did this because its more scalable to have Amazon deliver the content faster to users in the US and overseas. We have also adjusted the way we handle our SQL queries. As most of you know, WordPress is very database intensive and being able to balance thousands of users online at once is very challenging. It comes down to this, in the past the website took around 15-20 seconds for the entire app store to load. Now that our enhancements are live this has been reduced to five seconds. The App Store client has also benefited from this speed increase and it should immediately open, instead of having to wait ten seconds for everything to load. Now that we got the performance issues out of the way we got some big plans for 2015. The major thing we are working on is paid app support for developers. This will really boost our library of quality content, to insure that the latest AAA games will be available. A few months ago we completed work on our virtual wallet system, so users can pay for apps, check their balance and add funds to their account. Phase 2 is paid app support and we have some big name developers getting games ready for our launch. We hope to have this all done in the next four months! We hope you all dig the speed increases we have made and invite you to check out our app store website at http://apps.goodereader.com and if you have an Android phone or tablet or a Blackberry 10 enabled device, you can download our app store right to your device. Good e-Reader App Store Enhanced for Speed is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Monday, January 5, 2015
Good e-Reader App Store Enhanced for Speed
Sunday, January 4, 2015
Copyright Law to be Amended in Japan to Combat e-Book Piracy
| Japan is planning on augmenting their copyright law in early 2015 so publishers can actually go after e-Book pirates. This should assist the entire industry and hopefully speed up the rate in which e-Books are produced. The old copyright law just protected physical books from unlawful print and distribution by people who did not have the right to do so. This caused difficulties for publishers who made e-book versions or sold digital manga. If an e-Book was found on a file sharing site, or if the author bypassed the publishers traditional content delivery channels and sold the e-Book on their own, there was little the publisher could do. Only the copyright holders were able to go to court. This made it difficult for e-book publishers to properly deal with an unauthorized digital publication, which led to the proliferation of pirated content. Once this new amendment to the copyright law is complete the Japan Patent Attorneys Association is recommending changes to author contracts so it falls in line with the recent changes made in France. It is important to have separation between the traditional publishing contract and the digital side of things. Currently in Japan most authors have the exact same royalty rate for print and e-Books. Copyright Law to be Amended in Japan to Combat e-Book Piracy is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Honto Pocket e-Reader Released in Japan
| Dai Nippon Printing has released their first e-reader called the Honto Pocket. It has been available in Japan for the last few weeks and the company intends on making a number of e-book anthologies available to purchase by the end of January and will be opening up an online bookstore in February. The Honto Pocket basically has no place in the modern world, it is a throwback to how e-readers were made as cheaply as possible five years ago. This little device has a five inch screen with a resolution of 800 X 600. It does not have a touchscreen, so you will have to navigate around with the D-Pad. It does not have wireless internet access and many bloggers in Japan are saying once books are loaded on it, there is no way to actually delete them. Oh, best of all, it has two AA batteries to power it. This e-reader is available at many different bookstores in Japan. There are a few e-Books that come loaded on it, but the publisher is trying to get people to buy a few anthologies. You can buy 100 titles by Agatha Christie for ¥74,800 or 43 books featuring detective Hercule Poirot for ¥ 32,800. In a few months the company will be launching an online bookstore, where you can purchase content to your computer and then plug the e-reader into it to sync over all of the e-books you buy. Not very intuitive. I would not recommend this e-reader to anyone. You can buy plenty of great devices in Japan such as the Sony, Kindle or Kobo e-readers. They all have WIFI and allow you buy books right on them. The Honto Pocket is certainly budget friendly, but so was the Extaco Jetbook Mini, and that didn’t sell well. Honto Pocket e-Reader Released in Japan is a post from: Good e-Reader |
French Publishing Contracts Now Have a Separate Clause for e-Books
| There has been a dramatic change to French Intellectual Property Code in regards to publishing contracts being offered to authors. Any new contract that publishers give to an author will now include a provision for digital distribution in e-Book form. The amended French Intellectual Property law clearly states that a publishing contract not only covers the "manufacture of copies" but also the "realization in a digital form". How does this new change effect French authors? Well, when they get a contract from a publisher to distribute their book to bookstores all over France there has to be a new provision about e-Books. The contract will now be divided into two different segments – traditional and digital. This will hopefully put authors at ease, because in the contract it will be established what the digital royalty rates are and how much they stand to earn when someone buys the e-book. The publishing contracts entered into before 1st December 2014 will comply with this new obligation of separate parts, only if these contracts are amended for a specific reason. I think its great that publishing contracts have separation between digital and physical distribution. Before, everything was just lumped into the one category and hopefully now authors will see a better royalty rate for their digital book sales. French Publishing Contracts Now Have a Separate Clause for e-Books is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Saturday, January 3, 2015
Crunchyroll Continues to Experience Outages
| The Crunchyroll anime and manga streaming service continues to have intermittent connection issues and has been down the last twelve hours. The website and streaming video library has been experiencing a Denial Of Service Attacks by malicious hackers. Crunchyroll has incurred the ire of computer hackers when it started sending out DMCA notices to internet service providers and the users. Also, the anime company has been really going after hacking forums that specialize in password generators or selling user account information. These two things combined has resulted in a massive botnet attacking them. During the last few days videos have worked sporadically but many users are facing constant freezing every few minutes. Sometimes the video will freeze but the timer will continue and then fast forward five or ten seconds. In other cases just the audio will be playing but the video will be blank. Currently all platforms such as xbox 360 and Xbox One, Apple TV, Chromecast, PS4, PC and the official mobile apps are not working. The official e-commerence store is also down, so no purchases can be made and some of the incentives the company was providing due to the outages cannot be redeemed. Crunchyroll Continues to Experience Outages is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Facebook Launches a New Book Club – A Year of Books
| Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg set a personal challenge for himself in 2015, read a book every other week. He has leveraged his social networking site to create a virtual book club for everyone to read his selected book in tandem and foster discussion. Zuckerberg has created a Facebook group, simply called “A Year of Books,” for anyone hoping to follow along, and blasted it out to his 30 million followers. So far, more than 50,000 people have signed up to read the first tome, “The End of Power” by Moisés Naím. Anything to encourage people to read is a good thing, and bookstores should benefit because everyone buying the same book should stimulate sales. Hopefully major e-book retailers will be paying attention to each of the books being read and discount them in order to appeal towards deal hunters. Facebook Launches a New Book Club – A Year of Books is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Hearst Intends on Launching a New Magazine in 2016
| Hearst Magazines, the company behind Elle, Cosmopolitan, and Good House Keeping is planning on launching a new publication in 2016. President David Carey made the bombshell announcement in his end of the year memo to employees. “We hope to enlarge our print portfolio, through new joint ventures, spinoffs from existing titles and strategic acquisitions,” Carey wrote in the note. Hearst Magazines has had success rolling out new print titles with launch partners, such as Food Network Magazine and HGTV Magazine, which are joint ventures with Scripps Networks Interactive. The company also released Dr. Oz THE GOOD LIFE , piloted TrendingNY, a free-to-the-reader fashion, beauty and pop-culture magazine for millennial women, and reintroduced Town & Country Travel. “Our goal is to launch another new title in early 2016, and we’re in conversation now with possible joint venture partners,” Carey added. Hearst Magazines has had a tremendous year with their digital endeavors. They are in year two of their ambitious reset of their digital operations, with impressive results. One of the ways they are doing this is bringing all of their online properties managed by a custom CMS. The publisher has also seen accelerated demand for their flagship publications, such as Cosmopolitan and Elle on the Apple Newsstand, Google Play Magazines and their international editions on Pressreader. Hearst has also seen modest success with their part ownership of Next Issue, which is seeing an influx of venture capital being poured into it, so facilitate further growth. Hearst has also invested heavily in their editorial teams and the new centralized U.S. news operation, has driven impressive audience growth. In the U.S., monthly unique visitors have doubled, to 112 million, and social media followers have increased 90%, to 63 million. I think part of the reason why the social media numbers are up, because of the robust sharing on sites like Facebook. I have noticed in the last few months a number of friends sharing links to articles of a sexual nature. Most of them have heavily click baited titles, which leads me to believe Hearst is paying attention to what Buzzfeed is doing. “Looking back, 2014 was a real roller coaster of a year for the media business,” Mr. Carey also noted. “Here at Hearst Magazines, we experienced a mix of both growth and turbulence.” Hearst Intends on Launching a New Magazine in 2016 is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Friday, January 2, 2015
Smashwords Continues to be Successful, by Leveraging the Amazon Boogeyman
| Smashwords is continuing to be a self-publishing juggernaut with 101,300 authors now using the service and who collectively published 336,400 titles, up 60,300 titles from 2013. New distribution channels were established in 2014, such as OverDrive, the world's largest ebook supplier serving over 20,000 public libraries, and Txtr, a European retailer. New partners Oyster and Scribd were brought fully online. In all of the hype on another year of success, Smashwords CEO Mark Coker continues to leverage the Amazon boogeyman to promote his company. One of the ways that Smashwords is successful is via their massive distribution system. They will put your books in libraries, on e-Book lending sites and also Amazon, B&N, Apple and many others, as long as its formatted correctly. There is no curation team in place, and the Smashwords mantra is “all books deserved to be published.” In order to continuously grow and attract other authors to the Smashwords platform, Mark Coker actively discourages people from publishing with Amazon. Here are a number of notable quotes throughout 2014. “Authors who fully distributed their titles with Smashwords were partially insulated from the dramatic sales drops many Amazon authors reported following the introduction of Kindle Unlimited. If you know indie authors who only upload to Amazon, invite them to diversify their distribution with Smashwords. ” “I've been speaking out against KDP Select exclusivity since the program first launched in December 2011. In my first post, I cautioned that KDP Select could trap indie authors like tenant farmers tilling Amazon soil. ” “Indies would do well to avoid Kindle Unlimited for one simple reason: it requires KDP Select exclusivity.” “The industry can cry until it’s blue in the face about how Amazon is ruthless and heavy-handed, and how other retailers are kinder and gentler. The truth of the argument doesn’t change the reality. Amazon does what it does because it can, because authors and publishers let them do it, and because it’s in Amazon’s nature to act this way. Lions eat wildebeest.” In all of these blog posts Mark makes, he constantly makes reference to his own company and how its better for authors. In one breath he lambastes Amazon and in the other portrays his company as being the savior to indie authors. There is never any mention on how Amazon controls over 70% of the e-Book market in North America, or how many titles Smashwords sells through them. The Smashwords blog is nothing short of a propaganda machine, used as a self-serving vehicle to promote the company and tear down the competition. Smashwords Continues to be Successful, by Leveraging the Amazon Boogeyman is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Scribd Raises $22 Million for New Book Recommendation Service
| Scribd initially started out as a document file sharing service when it launched in 2007. The company diversivied into selling subscriptions for their entire library of e-Books in October 2013. They have raised over $25 million during the lifetime of their business in order to stay operational. Today, the company has just announced they have raised another $22 million dollars. Scribd currently has over 80 million users globally and has an e-Book portfolio of 500,000 titles, including New York Times bestsellers, classics, and reader favorites in every genre. A pioneer of the all-you-can-read model, Scribd's subscriptions service allows readers to have unlimited access to more than 500,000 books from nearly 1,000 publishers, including Harper Collins, Simon & Schuster, Open Road Media, Lonely Planet, National Geographic, Rosetta, Workman, Wiley and Smashwords. Just a couple of months ago, the company also expanded into digital audiobook, which will be the next big trend. Scribd CEO Trip Adler said the response "beat our expectations." with users accounting for 180,000 listening hours. What does Scribd intend on doing with the capital they have raised? The big plan for 2014 is to improve the overall product, with a focus on algorithmic book recommendations and the reading experience itself, as well as continuing to expand the content available in Scribd. Scribd Raises $22 Million for New Book Recommendation Service is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Onyx Boox AfterGlow 2 Now Available on Amazon for $129
| Back in November when Arta Tech first released the Onyx Boox AfterGlow 2, a 6-inch ebook reader with a frontlit HD E Ink screen and open Android 4.2, it was available exclusively from Onyx-Boox.com for 124 euros. Now Arta Tech has made the AfterGlow 2 more accessible by listing it on Amazon.com for $129 with […] |
How to Recommend eBooks for Libraries to Add to Their Catalog
| The folks at OverDrive posted a 10 most frequently asked questions article today with some helpful tips for librarians and people that get ebooks from public libraries. Number ten on the list highlights a feature that I didn’t know existed. Some public libraries allow customers to recommend specific ebook titles for the library to purchase […] |
OverDrive’s 10 most frequently asked questions
| In 2015, more people will use your OverDrive-powered digital library than ever before. To help you stay on top of growing traffic, we've rounded up answers to ten of our most frequently asked questions:
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New QPU macro assembler
| Since Broadcom released complete documentation for the VideoCore IV GPU back in February 2014 we’ve seen a number of fun uses of our 24GFLOPs of QPU compute, from Andrew Holme’s FFT library to Pete Warden’s deep learning experiments. It’s not unusual to see a 10x increase in performance over the ARM for algorithms with a decent amount of parallelism. A platform is only as good as its development tools, so it’s a great start to the New Year to see a new QPU macro assembler from Marcel Müller. This builds on Pete and Eman’s earlier QPU assemblers to include support for macros and functions. Along the way, he’s even managed to squeeze another few percent out of the size and run time of Andrew’s FFT library. You can find source, binaries, documentation and sample code here. |
Thursday, January 1, 2015
Whats Next for B&N Nook in 2015?
| Barnes and Noble tends to go through phases where they are total in stealth mode about whats happening in the Nook division. The last time they had anything to say was in November when they launched Nook Audiobooks and before that, they really hyped up the two Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 Nook tablets. How are hardware sales doing and how many people are listening to audiobooks? Nobody seems to know, and this is the type of information that appeases shareholders and makes for a good headline. So whats next for Nook? Today, we take a look back at their most notable achievements of 2014 and project what the company will be doing in 2015. Barnes and Noble did not release any new e-ink based readers in 2014, but did issue the Nook Glowlight in late November 2013. This was their second iteration of a reader that included a front-lit display. It was polished and refined, but did not sell in the type of numbers that the Nook Simple Touch experienced. Instead of e-readers, the largest bookseller in the US decided to go the tablet route. In the past, they did everything in-house through their California research and development center. This time around, they decided to just outsource the entire hardware design to Samsung, which merely gave them the 7 and 10 inch Galaxy Tab 4th generation tablets. Barnes and Noble simply used a stock version of Android and ported over a few of their customized Android apps. This included an online bookstore, e-reader app, app store and various customization options. Many customers expressed disappointment in their latest line of Nook tablets, citing the resolution was worse than the previous generation and it lost most of the Nook charm. Barnes and Noble really shook up their executive group in 2014. The company got a new CEO, former president, Michael Huseby, who replaced William Lynch. Jim Hilt, head of global e-book sales, digital products director Jamie Iannone and VP of digital products Bill Saperstein all departed in early 2014. Towards the end of the year Theresa Horner the VP, Digital Content at Barnes & Noble has left the company and was replaced by Doug Carlson, CMO and EVP of Digital Content. Barnes and Noble have been bringing in a number of people from outside the traditional book-selling industry, such as former Zinio executives Doug Carlson and Jeanniey Mullen. The main intention behind these and many other great new hires is to bring in fresh ideas. The previous Nook regime had all been there forever, before Nook even launched. Most of them were not very tech savvy and were basically thrust into new roles. The brand was really solid at first, but somehow lost their way in 2013, as apathy and boardroom politics affected the brand. Towards the end of 2014, Barnes and Noble wanted to solidify more control over the future of the Nook brand. The bookseller plans on spinning off the Nook business from book-selling in late 2015. In order to lay down the framework they had to buy out Microsoft and academic publisher Pearson’s stake in Nook Media. What does Barnes and Noble have planned for 2015? The company intends on releasing a new e-reader. I have heard reports that intend on making it very modern, and use a capacitive touchscreen display with a new version of e-paper from e Ink. Likely, they will not release any new tablets, as they tend to do it in two year cycles. Barnes and Noble is at a crossroads with their digital distribution system and has hard choices to make in 2015. They spent a fortune developing their own app ecosystem and luring developers to use their own custom SDK to include their apps on the Nook App Store. A few years ago, they decided that they had to form a relationship with Google, in order to have Google Play available on their complete line of tablets. This effectively relegated the Nook store to play second fiddle to Google. The same thing is occurring with Nook Video, they simply don’t have the necessary team in place to really make it a viable alternative to Hulu, Netflix or Amazon Instant Video. Nook also has to figure out about what they want with Nook Press, their self-publishing platform. This service is not promoted very well at all, and has literary zero presence at most of the big events that center around publishing, like Book Expo America and Romance Writers of America. The platform has a whole does not even appear on the top 89 sites commonly used by indie authors. Nook Press has a lot of potential. The synergy that can be blended between the physical bookstore and the digital is something Amazon, Kobo or Smashwords can’t match. Not only does Nook Press need an evangelist to promote the platform globally, but also needs to lay down framework that gets the bestselling indie novels inside their bookstores and promote it. As soon as they manage to do that, they will generate and cultivate a new breed of writer that wants to sell both traditionally and digitally. I think spinning off the Nook division from the traditional book selling business would be a good move. It would create separation on the executive level, you would have the digital people and the bookstores in totally different camps. This would allow Nook to create their own company culture and have more freedom to take calculated risks. I also think that more executives and brilliant minds from the tech industry would be more likely to consider working at Nook, if it were purely digital and whose sole intention is to be a priority, not a diversion. Whats Next for B&N Nook in 2015? is a post from: Good e-Reader |
UK Digital Newspaper Consumption on the Rise
| It has taken legacy newspaper publishers a number of years to find their groove in the digital age. Advertising in the traditional paper has declined 40% in recent years and this has prompted everyone to look for alternative means to profits. Some have rolled out successful paywal strategies, while others embrace the metered approach. The Times and The Sunday Times recently announced a profit for the first time in 13 years. In 2014 the two newspapers made $2.7 million profit, up from last year’s $9.2 million loss. One of the reasons why the Times are doing well, is because Rupert Murdoch spun the newspaper division into its own autonomous entity in 2011 called News U.K. Costs have been reduced, and advertising now brings in only 44% of revenues, while 51% comes from sales. The Times is not alone in seeing its fortunes improve in recent years. In 2013, the Financial Times, which operates a metered model, saw circulation grow 8% to 652,000 — the highest paid readership in its 126-year history — although print readership continued to fall. Digital has also boosted profits by 13% to $111 million at The Daily Mail and General Trust, whose free MailOnline is one of the most heavily read sites in the world. On a daily basis they are getting 25,271,874 global reads on average. The Guardian, which is also free to view and aggressively expanding globally, revenues were up 6.8% and digital revenues up 24%. Meanwhile, the Telegraph, which operates a metered paywall, made profits of $96 million in 2013, up from $92 million the previous year. This was against a background of aggressive cost-cutting and despite a 0.7% fall in revenues, and helped by continued growth in advertising and subscription income. One of the more interesting things the Guardian has been doing in 2014 is the addition of audio content. The newspaper and Audible came to an agreement where every week the Guardian Audio Edition will hit Audible, and give you a feel for the UK's book scene. Audible is also sponsoring the Guardian Books homepage, its weekly books podcast, and its books review pages, with co-branded advertising across the newspaper's website and print edition. The success of this endeavor has prompted the Guardian to expand on their audio ambitions to make mini-podcasts out of each of their featured stories. Most of these papers have managed to add thousands of new digital readers due to relationships they have established with a number of international distributors. The largest of these, Pressreader currently offers over 600 UK newspapers, which not only appeals to people who read the digital format exclusively, but also business travelers and expats. Overall, the future of digital newspapers is looking bright. The vast majority of the publishers are now making a profit and the usage of mobile and tablet apps is on the upswing. UK Digital Newspaper Consumption on the Rise is a post from: Good e-Reader |
The 10 Big Things Amazon Did in 2014
| Amazon had a very productive year and managed to keep themselves in the news with ton of product releases and business maneuverings. Today, we take a look back at the 10 most notable things Amazon did in 2014. Amazon Buys Twitch Amazon acquired the video-game streaming site Twitch Interactive Inc. in August for $970 million. The company doesn’t make a lot of acquisitions, so one of this size was notable. The video streaming service will complement Amazon's Prime Music streaming service, which is part of its Amazon TV system. Already Twitch culture has changed since Amazon bought it, when partial nudity is no longer allowed. Send in the Drones – Meet Amazon Air Prime Amazon took over the blogosphere by storm when it announced their futuristic Prime Air program. It promises a quad helicopter will drop off your package 30 minutes after ordering it. Amazon wants to get it running in the next few years but FAA restrictions are not making it easy. Fire TV In April Amazon announced Fire TV which allows you to install apps and watch Amazon-produced content on their TVs. It is similar to Apple TV and Roku, except it has more of an emphasis on playing games. The main Fire TV unit came with a remote and optional game controller. At the tail end of 2014 the company unveiled the Fire Stick, which is an alternative to the Google Chromecast. The Golden Globes Amazon produced "Transparent" receives two Golden Globe nominations. The success of the show marks Amazon's real entrance into the competitive online television network. The show is available via Amazon Prime, which Amazon mentioned got 10 million new members during the holiday season. Kindle Voyage The Kindle Voyage is widely considered the best e-reader ever made. It has the highest resolution e-paper screen in the world and the PPI is unparalleled. It has buttons built into the bezel, an ambient light sensor and employs a new hybrid magnesium alloy. This not only makes the e-reader lighter than previous iterations, but prevents scuffs and fingerprints. Family Sharing allows you to share purchases with your friends and family. Fire Phone Flops Amazon admitted that their first ever smartphone was a flop, but that is not going to dissuade them from releasing more in the future. The phone suffered from a very high price and exclusivity with AT&T when it first launched. Its fairy cheap now and the unlocked version has fallen from its $699 launch price. AWS Lowers its Price Amazons cloud computing network powers Netflix and other major companies all over the world. They cut their data transfer rates by 43% starting in December 2014, which is halving many startups bills that can’t afford their own server farms. The reduction in price was made to help combat competition from Microsoft, Google and the giant VMware, not to mention the hundreds of cloud companies sprouting up around the world. Hachette Dispute Dominated the headlines Amazon and major publisher Hachette were locked in a six month long contract dispute which polarized the entire publishing industry. Never before have we seen pop culture and various author groups lambaste Amazon as being a money grabbing empire, who is bad for authors. Kindle Unlimited Launches Amazon's Kindle Unlimited, the ebook and audiobook subscription service that lets members pay a flat monthly fee for unlimited access to its catalog, went live during the summer. It offers users a thirty day free trial and the option to pay $9.99 a month for the service. There are over 700,000 e-Book and audiobook titles available. Major publishers have yet to embrace the platform and the vast majority of titles are from indie authors who publish on Amazon via Kindle Direct Publishing. This service has been in the news in the last few months as many authors are seeing a huge decline in sales. Construction Amazon added nearly 4 million square feet of office space in Seattle in 2014. The company is constructing two 38-story high-rise buildings and a five-story "bubble" building in Seattle's South Lake Union neighborhood. It is on track to have enough space for more than 71,000 employees in the city in the next five years. The 10 Big Things Amazon Did in 2014 is a post from: Good e-Reader |
New eBook Readers from Energy Sistem
| Energy Sistem, a Spanish brand for ebook readers, has recently launched some new ereaders. Energy Sistem is small electronics company that has been selling ebook readers since at least 2010 with the Energy Book 3050 and 4050 Touch. I haven’t posted about them since last year when the Energy eReader E4 Mini turned up on […] |
Nook Deals: 50% off Bestsellers, $5 Credit, Free Magazine Back Issues
| Barnes and Noble is currently running some different promotions to give customers a reason to continue supporting the Nook brand. B&N often drops the prices of their Nook devices to increase sales, but this time around we’ve got some various content deals instead. First up, Barnes and Noble is offering a magazine deal where they […] |
DC Comics Now Available via iVerse
| When Comixology was acquired by Amazon it put comic book publishers on notice. They realized that they had to look for alternative distribution methods, because it was only a matter of time before they had to renegotiate their contracts. This has promoted DC to sign a new agreement with iVerse, making their entire line of comics available via the ComicsPlus app. DC and Marvel account for 70% of the print and digital market for comics. They both offer standalone apps that were designed and run by Comixology, something many comic buyers are unaware of. When Comixology decided to abandon in-app purchases from their main app for iOS, users lost the ability to make impulse purchases. This is something that iVerse is hoping to leverage. "DC coming on board has been huge for iVerse as a company — obviously — but it's also been important for me personally," said iVerse CEO Michael Murphey. "I have been a DC fan for as long as I can remember. I was a Superman fan before I could talk, and those characters and that universe are still very, very important to me. I could not be happier to have them on board." iVerse knows that in order to take on ComiXology in a serious way, they have to innovate. One of the ways they intend on making this happen is to make significant upgrades to the app. One feature, that is entirely unique is being able to rent graphic novels. Graphic novels from participating publishers can be rented via ComicsPlus for, typically, $1.99 for 24 hours, $2.99 for 48 hours, and $3.99 for 120 hours. Titles from Archie, IDW, and Valiant show up in the initial offering. Renting comics makes sense, because when you purchase a comic in full, you don’t actually retain ownership. Instead, you merely license it, which makes renting something that normally retails for $19.99 or more, is a solid value proposition. The other big upgrade to the app is an alternative to the Comixology guided view system, named "uView." This is a system that allows readers to crop panels into a slideshow-like sequence and then view their creation in a similar manner. Some titles will ship with a "featured" uView as an automatic download. Finally, iVerse is planning on rolling out a DRM-Free system sometime in 2015, that will allow readers to have a true sense of ownership of the comics they buy. No publishers have been announced yet, but likely the company wants to launch with hundreds of comics from several publishers at once. I think publishers really want to get away from Comixology and iVerse is one of the last men standing from the original rush of companies entering the mobile and tablet space several years ago. The fact they are continuing to stay relevant and innovate is a boon to comic book lovers. DC Comics Now Available via iVerse is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Wednesday, December 31, 2014
Global Digital Library Trends for 2015
| Libraries in all over the world are undergoing a digital resonance as major publishers have firmly committed themselves to the concept of making e-Books available. Today, we look at some of the biggest trends facing libraries in Canada, US and United Kingdom. A recent report by the Library Journal has stated that 95% of all US libraries have an e-book collection. That's up from 89% in both 2013 and 2012, when researchers thought that adoption had plateaued for good. The average number of e-books carried was 20,244 by each library, but that of course was skewed toward large libraries. Medium sized libraries statistically had around 10,434 titles. Over 10 different libraries in the US and Canada had over one million digital loans in 2014, with two libraries lending out two million e-Books. This number will likely double in 2015, as companies like 3M Cloud Library and Baker and Taylor begin to gain further traction. e-Books are doing quite well in the US, but over in the UK a sustainable model is still trying to be established by the government, libraries and major publishers. In May 2013 the UK government funded a review looking into the viability of allowing customers to borrow eBook, without all of the drama. The Sieghart Review said publishers should not limit the supply of e-books in the same way that physical book loans are controlled, including the lending of each digital copy to one reader at a time, securely removing eBooks after lending and having digital books "deteriorate after a number of loans". A pilot project was initiated in four UK libraries in March 2014 that augmented the digital loaning period for up to 21 days and included a number of front-list titles, including bestsellers that just came out. The essence of the pilot is to carry out real-time, real-world research into the impact of eBook lending in public libraries on authors, publishers and on the library service so that a suitable and sustainable model. Its been around six months since the pilot was first initiated and there has been some interesting findings. All four participating authorities have seen a significant increase in e-lending, with longer loan periods leading to more titles being borrowed. The project has also found the increase in e-lending is not decreasing physical lending or footfall to libraries. They also found customers were not using the “Buy it Now” button to purchase an e-book. Audiobooks to be the next big thing In 2007 a paltry 3,073 audiobook titles were produced and this figure rose exponentially to over 12,000 published in 2011. In 2013 many industry experts proclaimed that over 20,000 audiobooks were now available and in 2014 over 35,000 were released by major publishers and companies like Audible. The global audiobook industry is currently worth 2.6 billion dollars and part of the reason why we have seen a dramatic increase in profitability is due to digital. In a recent New York Times piece, they said "In the first eight months of 2014, sales were up 28% over the same period last year, far outstripping the growth of e-books, which rose 6%" Digital audiobooks are finally starting to find their stride thanks to libraries embracing them in a big way. There are a number of major players providing audio services to libraries, 3M Cloud Library, Baker & Taylor, Hoopla and Overdrive. For the most part, these are the exact same companies that provide the libraries e-Book portfolio. Many of the top audiobook distributors lean on 3rd parties for a full catalog of content. 3M and Baker and Taylor both get their audio editions from Findaway World, which is current market leader in production. Findaway has a catalog of over 50,000 titles and maintains production studios, narrators and crew in New York. Overdrive has their own internal solution, where they approach publishers directly and don't do business with companies such as Audible or Findaway World. Tom Mercer, Marketing Manager of 3M Cloud Library said "we see a tremendous opportunity to grow in the Audio space in 2015. Right now we're two weeks into the "real world" of Audio, but customers really seem to like our solution. Our initial Beta feedback from very positive." Hoopla is an audiobook solution for libraries that floats under the radar, but are quickly making a name for themselves. The company has a catalog of 13,000 titles with 1,000 added each month. Hoopla deals with over 100 libraries in the US and charges no licensing fees with setting up the system, which is quite appealing to the average library. How does Hoopla make money? The company has employed the Pay Per Use model, which only charges the library when a specific title is checked out by a patron. The San Francisco Public Library said they are are predicting that in 2015 more companies will embrace the Hoopla model, which will lower costs for libraries and get more content in-front of the patrons. How well are the publishers doing in the audiobook sector? Cheryl Herman, marketing director for Penguin Random House's Books on Tape & Listening Library said. "Our library sales for digital audio are up nearly 35% over 2014, we're offering more and more titles on audio, and we're not alone in that. There are also more players entering the market, and more titles overall being published than ever before." In 2015 digital audiobooks will gain further traction in libraries due to tapes and CD’s no longer being economically viable. Overdrive, the current leader in audiobook sales for libraries are developing a HTML5 based streaming solution that will allow patrons to listen to audiobooks without the need of the Overdrive Media Console. This will be tremendously beneficial to users who employ alternative operating systems on their mobile devices, such as Firefox OS, Blackberry or Tizen. Digital Newspapers and Magazines to gain more traction Thousands of libraries are starting to embrace digital newspapers and magazine content. They are doing this because not only are the latest issues available but also back issues. One of the ways this type of content is really shining is attributed to libraries installing tablets and e-readers in their different branches. One example of this is the San Francisco Public Library system unveiling their new e-news center at their main branch and has since expanded it to Chinatown and North Beach. The premise is to draw attention to the virtues of reading digital magazines and newspapers on a bunch of Apple iPads. The actual content is provided for free to patron by Vancouver based PressReader, who is quickly becoming a force to be reckoned with in the library sector. Pressreader might very well be the largest company involved in distributing newspaper and magazine titles to libraries, but the limited competition is prompting new entrants to enter the market. EBSCO Information Services introduced Flipster in October. It allows library patrons to browse the latest issues of high quality digital versions of popular magazines on iOS. Senior Vice President for Product Management, Michael Laddin says that Flipster is a new way for EBSCO customers to provide content to their end users. "By providing a high quality digital reading experience for library patrons, whether they are at the library or accessing the digital magazines remotely, Flipster offers a unique approach for experiencing content in popular magazines as well as extending library services in an exciting new way. It has been designed especially for library patrons who want to browse the latest issues of popular magazines. Flipster complements EBSCO's full-text databases (e.g., MasterFILE, MAS, Business Source, etc.) which enable patrons to research topics of interest to them." Not only are libraries leaning on 3rd parties to provide their digital newspapers and magazines, but some are actually digitizing it themselves. The Brooklyn Public Library system recently announced a new initiative to digitize backlist newspaper archives in order to make them available to the public via their online portal. This initiative, which will make all copies of the original Brooklyn newspaper,The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, available digitally. The original content was stored on microfilm from the Library of Congress. I scan Google News for library news every single day and I have noticed a huge uptick in libraries announcing new partnerships for digital magazines and newspapers. Every week between 5 and 25 locations are buying into this concept and there is obvious value to their patrons. By going digital, they last forever and unlike e-Books there is not a one book, one lend policy. Magazines can be loaned out in abundance, which makes them a stellar value proposition. Likely in 2015, we will start to see even more companies entering this space to compete against PressReader and Zinio. Here and There The Queens Library system in New York has developed their own proprietary app for Android and iOS. It offers library patrons seamless search and access to audiobooks from Acoustik, magazines from Zinio, and eBooks from OverDrive and Baker & Taylor's Axis 360 platform. Other features include location, mapping, and contact information for each branch, a catalog search, an ISBN barcode scanning function that enables users to scan books in retail environments to see if titles are available at their library, an events schedule that enables registration, an "ask a librarian" live chat service, a contact information form, and even a text-to-donate option. Since the apps launch in July they had 5,400 installations on iOS and more than 3,300 on Android. This has prompted Queens to start marketing the app creation service to smaller branches with little to no IT investment. One app to rule them all, this will be big in 2015. One of the big trends in 2014 was new libraries forgoing books altogether and embracing digital 100%. The first library to do this was the Bibliotech in Austin and Omaha announced plans to construct one in 2015. In 2015 more libraries will begin to offer their e-Book collections to residents living outside that particular county or city. Charging non-residents $50 to $75 a year will help offset that libraries digital investment and provide an alternative revenue stream to invest in better catalog. In early 2014 Overdrive and Smashwords signed a new agreement to get 200,000 indie titles available to the library. Right now on the backend collection managers are finding it hard to select and purchase quality content. Look for this to change in 2015, I heard its going to be more refined. I have also heard rumors that other self-publishing companies such as LULU and maybe even Kindle Direct Publishing to get involved in this space. Global Digital Library Trends for 2015 is a post from: Good e-Reader |
