| Children's books have a way of shaping who we become, not just as readers, but as people. They are our first introduction to literature, often times on the laps of our parents, and they teach us valuable lessons that never truly leave us. It's no wonder that many of the most inspiring quotes you'll find come from these classic titles. Below you'll find ten of Team OverDrive's favorite children’s book quotes and what they’ve taught us.
 It's important to remember that we are not alone in this big world. If you're willing to look you can always find a kindred spirit.
 Anytime you need to escape from the stress and troubles of your life you need only open a book. The stories and worlds you can experience by reading are endless.
 No matter how much you think you know about someone you can still be surprised by what they have inside them. Sometimes you might think you fully understand a person and then they can change your mind with a single word.
 Libraries are not just places for silent reading (although they're great for that as well). They are buildings of self discovery, adventure, learning and excitement!
 It may seem silly but it's ok to believe in fairy tales; that there is magic in this world that can shape what we don't understand. Oh, and that big things can come in small packages! Right, Tink?
 It can be frustrating growing up with parents who feel like they're smothering us. Cherish those moments because when you're all grown up and are having a rough day you'll sometimes wish you could crawl into your parents arms and know they're there to protect you. Oh, and If you can't get a hug from mom, maybe have something sweet…like some honey!
 Knowledge is power! There's nothing stopping you from learning and being successful. Sometimes, in order to get where you want to go, all you have to do is pick up the right book!
 Saying goodbye can be soul crushingly difficult but it's also a part of life. When you give your whole heart to something and it returns the favor it can seem impossible to survive when that relationship endss but it will get better. We also learned that the best friends in the world might just come with four legs and floppy ears.
 Selfless acts can be difficult but necessary even if they aren't appreciated in the moment. When you truly love someone you'll find you're capable of sacrificing everything to help them succeed.
 It's important to believe in others even when those around you might not. The simple action of believing in something can be enough to make it real… even if that thing happens to be a unicorn.
What are some of your favorite children's book quotes?
Adam Sockel is a Social Media Specialist at OverDrive. He believes that a love of literature can be taught and thanks his mom for teaching it to him.
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Monday, May 4, 2015
10 perfect quotes about life from our favorite children’s books
Rakuten has Completed the Acquisition of Overdrive
| Rakuten has been trying to dominate the e-book landscape in North America for a number of years. The Japanese eCommerce giant purchased Kobo in 2011 and are the proud new owners of Overdrive. Rakuten announced they intended to purchase Overdrive last month and the acquisition has finally been completed. The deal is worth $410 million dollars in cash and OverDrive CEO and founder Steve Potash will continue to direct the company. One has to wonder if his days are numbered. Currently, OverDrive works with more 5,000 publishers and more than 30,000 libraries around the world. They are considered the largest company of its kind that sells digital content to libraries, such as audiobooks, e-books, magazines, newspapers and streaming video. Rakuten has Completed the Acquisition of Overdrive is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Sunday, May 3, 2015
The Rise of Post-Apocalyptic Literature
| The world has been ending for quite a long time. Ever since the breakout success of Cormac McCarthy’s 2006 novel The Road, the US has been degraded, devastated, and decimated time and time again. It seems the world of post-apocalyptic fiction is having a non-dystopian future. In the last year or so, an avalanche of books have been released that paint a very bleak future of the world we live in. This includes California by Edan Lepucki, Chang-Rae Lee’s On Such a Full Sea, Monica Byrne’s The Girl in the Road, Emily St. John Mandel’s Station Eleven, Sandra Newman’s The Country of Ice Cream Star, Kenneth Calhoun’s Black Moon, Laura van den Berg’s Find Me, Benjamin Percy’s The Dead Lands, and Adam Sternbergh’s Shovel Ready. I remember having many talks with friends in the last year, about what we would do if there was a zombie apocalypse or devastating outbreak of some new super bug. We made plans on where we would meet and what type of weapons we could defend ourselves with. Investing in a bug out bag was the first thing we all did, supplies that would last us seven days, solar powered radios and binoculars. I also know enough that if something big was on the precipice of occurring to fill the bathtub with water in order to have a drinking supply once the valves were shut off. I don’t know if any of this would actually help and the best laid plans often crumble when something real happens, but its strangely cathartic. Why do people love dystopian fiction and are enamored with authors such as Hugh Howey? The world feels more precariously perched on the lip of the abyss than ever, and facing those fears through fiction helps us deal with it. They reaffirm why we struggle to keep our world together in the first place. By imagining what it’s like to lose everything, we can value what we have. The Rise of Post-Apocalyptic Literature is a post from: Good e-Reader |
How Would You Change the B&N Nook?
| The Barnes and Noble Nook Glowlight first became commercially available October 2013. This was the companies second generation e-reader that featured a front-lit display, allowing people to read e-books in the dark. By today’s standards this device is hopelessly out of date and most of Nooks competitors have all released a slew of new e-readers. How would you change the Nook? The Barnes and Noble Nook Glowlight features a six inch IR touchscreen display with a resolution of 1024 X 758-pixel and 212 PPI. This is a huge upgrade from the previous generation Nook that only had 800×600 for the resolution. Underneath the hood is a 800 MHZ processor and 256 MB of RAM. There are 4 GB of internal memory that you can use to store purchases made from the bookstore. When you take it out of the box for the first time and power it on, there is only 2.1 GB available. If you like to load in your own PDF Files or eBooks there is only 500 MB reserved for user files. Unlike prior models of the Nook line of e-Readers, there is no expandable memory via SD in the Nook Glowlight. The e-reader landscape has dramatically changed since Barnes and Noble last made an e-reader. The Amazon Kindle Voyage and Kobo Glo HD lead the pack in terms of overall screen resolution and clarity. They both employ very modern e-paper called Carta. Indie companies such as Onyx, Icarus, Boyue, and Energy Sistem all have Android driven devices, allowing customers to install their own apps. Not to mention there is plenty of advances in E-paper, such as Fina and Mobius. What would you like to see out of a new Nook e-Reader? Would you like them to stick with the standard six inch device, or try something a bit bigger? Would you like to see a super high resolution display or use ultra modern e-paper? Would you like to see gimmicks like a waterproof e-reader, open Android or an e-ink camera? In essence, what would make you buy a Nook for the first time or switch to the brand? Its your call. How Would You Change the B&N Nook? is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Saturday, May 2, 2015
How to Send Email on the Kindle Voyage
| e-Readers tend to have a singular purpose, reading digital books. The Amazon Kindle Voyage has an experimental internet browser that allows you to do things online, such as checking your email. Today, we show you the browser, where its located and demonstrate how to send an email. Amazon has had their web-browser in experimental status ever since it launched six years ago. It is optimized to read websites that are primarily text-based. It supports JavaScript, SSL and cookies but does not support media such as Adobe Flash Launching the internet browser is really easy, just hit the settings menu on the top right hand corner and click on Experimental Browser. 
How to Send Email on the Kindle Voyage is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Top 10 Digital Manga for April 2015
| April has just drawn to a close and in North America there has been a number of titles that have made the New York Times Bestseller list. Most of the digital manga on this list have had wildly successful anime that have done very well on Crunchyroll and Funimation. If you are looking for the manga adaption for your favorite anime, look no further than our definitive list for April 2015. All of the titles are available in English from companies like Viz Media or your local bookstore.
Top 10 Digital Manga for April 2015 is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Friday, May 1, 2015
Disney Infinity: Toy Box 2.0 Brings Toys to Life on Android
| Digital toys are everywhere now, not the least of which belong to Disney Infinity and their collection of RFID-enabled figurines from many of their famed franchises (including the Avengers, Spider-Man, Guardians of the Galaxy, Frozen, Big Hero 6, Brave, Pirates of the Caribbean, and Monsters Inc). Nearly every gaming platform is supported by Disney Infinity, with Android finally present and accounted for on that list! The more statues you collect (which unfortunately have to be added to your account using your PC or gaming console), the more you can do within the app –but even if you haven’t picked up any of the toys, you can still have some fun with the mobile app (Disney starts you off with three in-app characters for free, which rotate often as you play). Want to get started creating your own customized Disney experience (based on your own imagination –some describe it as a commercialized version of Minecraft)? If you have a hefty 3.4GB of space free on your Android device, you should download Disney Infinity: Toy Box 2.0 now –the game itself is free, but be warned there are plenty of ways to spend money in-app. Watch the official Disney Infinity Android game trailer below:
Disney Infinity: Toy Box 2.0 Brings Toys to Life on Android is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Apple Gives Developers Early Access to App Analytics Service
| It’s nearing conference season for the biggest players in the mobile game, not the least of which is Apple and the WWDC coming up in June. Ahead of that event, Apple has sent a notice to developers that invites them to join a beta program for their new App Analytics service. This news is not entirely surprising: free analytics for developers were hinted at during the last WWDC in 2014. That said, it may be somewhat of a concern for leading competitors in this field (think Flurry and App Annie), but it seems likely there will still be a place for non-bias, third-party options –though Apple will be able to factor mobile download and engagement data into their statistics, the details of which are not currently available to others outside the fold. The invitation included all of the details currently known about the new service:
If you qualify and happened to miss out on the notice, you can still sign up through the iTunes Connect developer portal using the direct link: analytics.itunes.apple.com.
Apple Gives Developers Early Access to App Analytics Service is a post from: Good e-Reader |
US Government Plan to Give Away Free e-Books to Low Income Kids is Flawed
| The US government is planning on implementing a program that will see $250 million to give kids access to over 10,000 e-book titles. The New York Public library is creating a dedicated app that will allow disadvantaged children to have unfettered access. The program sounds good on paper, but is deeply flawed. There is currently some large riots happening in Baltimore and President Obama spoke at a library in a poor neighborhood. He said “If we think that we’re just going to send the police to do the dirty work of containing the problems that arise there without, as a nation and as a society, saying, ‘What can we do to change those communities, to help lift up those communities and give those kids opportunity,’ then we’re not going to solve this problem.” On paper, giving poor kids access to e-books from major publishers and technical documents sounds great. The truth of the matter is that census data indicates that many lower-income households don’t have mobile devices or access to broadband internet. This will result in the vast majority of kids not even getting access or even knowing the program exists. The winners of the $250 million dollars will be the New York Public Library, which is receiving a large chunk of cash to make the low-income reading app. Publishers who commit to having their titles in the system will likely get large payouts too. Ditto with Firstbook who will do the distribution. I think this program could have more success if they invested in a hundred thousand older e-readers and loaded fiction, non-fiction and technical documents to help foster a viable career. There is a stark contrast in making content available and actually putting hardware in peoples hands. US Government Plan to Give Away Free e-Books to Low Income Kids is Flawed is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Get Ready to Celebrate Bookstores this Weekend
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These bookshops, mostly independently owned as a labor of love and not a retirement investment, are often single-handedly fighting the war against lack of book access, barriers to publication, and the breakdown of communities. Whether it’s through local author events, story hours for children, summer reading incentives, publishing how-to classes, or even just being that source of regional history and community awareness, bookstores are vital to the overall health of our communities. And May 2nd is the day to show your appreciation! Ideally, you’re shopping in indie bookstores throughout the year, not just one commemorative day, but it’s fun to think of May 2nd–Independent Bookstore Day–as the Black Friday of books and booksellers, the day when the traffic to their stores can let them rest a little easier financially, at least for the rest of the month. And never fear if you’ve become a die-hard digital fan since the day your first Kindle arrived…many indie bookstores have affiliate agreements to sell ebooks and e-readers, as well as ways you can take advantage of other in-store offers. This event was actually begun last year in California, and focused on the shops in that state. The rousing success, though, has led to a nationwide movement to celebrate all the good that indie bookstores do. Booksellers have been able to order specially priced editions to sell in their shops tomorrow, and publishers were invited to put together unique items from their stables of authors to show customers how important they are to the process. For a look at some specific stores and the events and offers they’ll host, click HERE.
Get Ready to Celebrate Bookstores this Weekend is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Kindle Voyage Finally Arrives in Australia
| You wouldn’t know it by visiting Amazon’s Australian Kindle Store, but the Kindle Voyage is now available in Australia. Amazon’s authorized Kindle retailer in Australia, Dick Smith, is now selling the Kindle Voyage for $299. They also have Amazon’s official Origami cover/stand for $74.95. Currently only the Wi-Fi model is being offered; the model with […] |
MagPi issue 33 – out now!
| I can’t believe we’re on our third issue of the new MagPi already. Your free Raspberry Pi magazine is ready to download here. This month’s magazine is a doozy, with 70 pages of tutorials, some incredible projects to build, reviews, and much, much more. One feature in this month’s magazine has me jumping up and down like a schoolgirl (bear with me here; we did trampolining at school). Mike Cook is an electronics wizard extraordinaire and an absolute childhood hero of mine thanks to his regular Body Building column in Micro User Magazine. Mike has joined the MagPi team to start a new column called Mike’s Pi Bakery, where, just like in the good old days, he’ll be creating little electronic projects which will be well within the grasp of beginners. This month he’ll show you how to make an interactive PiGlow reaction game, for which you’ll be building your own controller. I had the good fortune to get to hog a lot of Mike’s time at our 3rd birthday party in February, where he taught me a great deal about why specific blues are less easy to recall than specific reds; about different generations of LEGO motors; and that I have a pathetically limp wrist when it comes to dealing with ketchup bottles with attached accelerometers. There are more amazing Minecraft tips and tricks from Martin O’Hanlon; an interview with one of my favourite people in UK computing (who? You’ll have to download the magazine to find out); a super-test of four popular Raspberry Pi desktops; a competition to win £200 of PiBorg goodies; and much, much more – like this magic retro gaming glove. As always, the magazine is completely free to download. We hope you enjoy reading it as much as we’ve enjoyed making it! |
6th Season of Hetalia Available this July
| The sixth season of Hetalia is coming this July, after not having a new episode since February of 2014. Fans of the anime will be delighted to hear the same voice cast returning, along with the same gorgeous new art style used by the fifth season, The Beautiful World. Following along the style of naming, the sixth season is titled The World Twinkle. Along with a teaser, Hetalia has also teased us with the new theme song, Hetalia Jet. Although we won't know what all the episodes will be about just yet, the anime will be adapting from volumes 5 and 6 of the manga. Some of the comics involved include the Micronations, the Nordics, and Nekotalia – the gender-inverted alternate universe not unlike Adventure Time's 'Fionna & Cake.' Hetalia began as a webmanga by Hidekaz Himaruya, and has grown into something of a phenomenon. There's not much of a story to it – the countries of the world are anthropomorphized hot guys (and occasionally hot girls) who interact with each other in little snippets throughout the course of history. Although serious every once in a while, the series is a comedy and chooses to portray subject matter in the most light-hearted manner possible. The human countries are made to possess as many stereotypes as they can, from the cowardly Italy to 'heroic' America, to the lecherous wine-drinking France. All previous seasons of Hetalia have been available on Funimation, so it only goes to assume that The World Twinkle will be as well. If you've not yet seen what all the fuss is about, check it out here! And take some advice: Funimation's English dub of Hetalia is spot on. The accents, the dark humour, the great slogans like 'Make Pasta, Not War' makes it all worth a watch. Have a look at the teaser below!
6th Season of Hetalia Available this July is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Thursday, April 30, 2015
Kobo Next Puts the Spotlight on Indie Authors
| Kobo Writing Life is a self-publishing platform and it was first unveiled in 2012. It was originally launched to compete with Kindle Direct Publishing and provide a viable avenue to sell books internationally. Kobo has faced many challenges in the marketplace and they are always looking for new things to try out to see what pops. The latest, is Kobo Next, an extension of their digital bookstore that exclusively promotes self-published titles. Kobo Next is a new section of the Kobo online bookstore that gives readers a chance to discover new authors, they likely have never heard of. Not only are the indie books promoted online, but also in mailing lists and new release newsletters. The one thing I like about Kobo Next is how they showcase from many different genres. Mysteries, Romance, Science-Fiction, Fiction and Non-Fiction are the ones they are showcasing this month. This honestly makes sense, because mysteries, sci-fi and romance account for the majority of Kobo book sales. I hope that Kobo expands upon Next and puts all self-published titles in their own category and create separation from their traditionally published books. This is best for business. Two years a go a massive firestorm erupted due to hundreds of adult eBooks with topics ranging from threesomes to incest were being listed in the same category as kids' books. This was primarily attributed to meta data that was incorrectly putting taboo subjects and created a global outrage. Major booksellers such as WH Smith shuttered their digital bookstores, resulting in thousands of customers unable to buy books at all. This was basically a Kobo problem, since WH Smith actually has a license with Kobo to sell digital books. Not only did Kobo get dissected by mainstream media, but they pissed off authors by deleting over one thousand titles from vanity presses and their own Writing Life platform. I have always been a strong proponent of sequestering independently published books into their own categories, instead of having them mixed into everything else. There are a myriad of reasons for this, such as quality and control, accepting everything submitted by default and the sub-par nature of the vast majority of titles. I think Kobo Next is laying down the foundation of a separate area for indie titles which is fine by me. Kobo Next Puts the Spotlight on Indie Authors is a post from: Good e-Reader |
The Kobo Glo HD e-Reader is Now Available
| Kobo has just released their latest e-reader, the Glo HD. This device is now available to purchase at Chapters Bookstores in Canada and is already shipping out in the post to people who pre-ordered it online. The brand new Kobo Glo HD features a six inch e-ink Carta screen with a resolution of 1448×1072 and 300 PPI. It has the same front-lit display as the Kobo Aura H2O, so you will be able to read in low-light conditions or complete darkness. One of the cool tricks you can employ is dragging your finger down the left side of the screen to adjust the light. Underneath the hood is a 1 GHZ processor and 4 GB of internal storage. When you take the e-reader out of the box for the first time you only have 3.1 GB of memory, primarily because the OS takes up a fair amount of space. The Kobo Glo HD does have an SD card, but it requires you to remove the back plate off of the device. If you want to put a larger card in, you must first clone the partitions using advanced software. Obviously this will be beyond the average user, but advanced ones can easily do it. I think this e-reader is perfect for those who have never had one before or have an older Kobo model.
The Kobo Glo HD e-Reader is Now Available is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Books for the Terror and Glory of Wedding Planning
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Together with my fiancée, I am currently dealing with the joy and stress of planning our wedding. And despite the fact that I am a 4x bridesmaid and a former cater-waiter, I still need A LOT of help. Help from our parents and friends, help from blogs and websites, and help from books at the library. It can take a legion of people to make this very special So for the variety of patrons who will be involved in a wedding this year, I'm happy to present you with a collection of wedding and marriage books for brides, grooms, members of the wedding party, professionals, and beyond. More than a list of wedding guides and lookbooks, this list includes books for those who may need a little help reducing stress (guilty), fitness and diet guides for those who want to look their best before the big day (guilty), and self-improvement and advice titles for the Happily Ever After of post-wedding life… you know, that whole marriage thing I've heard so much about lately. Also included manuals for wedding professionals such as photographers and officiants, and craft books for the DIY'ers and Etsy sellers (doubly guilty). And to keep a little levity and perspective, there are plenty of humor books as well. Because after an afternoon of mutual ranting and shared stress-eating of Girl Scout cookies with your chosen life-partner-to-be (aka my last Sunday), you need a good laugh. Liz Tousey is a Collection Development Analyst with OverDrive  |
day happen, whether the couple is having a budget-conscious casual wedding at a local park, or an expensive and lavish wedding at a swanky banquet hall.Amazon’s Whispercast Update Meets the Needs of K12 Classrooms
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But nightmares no more! Amazon has released an update for its Whispercast feature that will make life so much easier for K12 administrators, reading coaches, teachers, and students. Before you wonder how Whispercast even applies to this setting, remember not to confuse it with Whispersync. That feature just makes sure your downloads happen seamlessly without the need for a cable, and makes sure that readers are in the same location in a particular book no matter if they read on their e-readers, listen to an audio edition, and more. Whispercast allows content holders to “mass distribute” their content across devices. To give an example, when I would purchase an ebook for my classroom–remembering that Amazon’s policy allows you to put a single purchase on up to six devices–I had to sit at my desktop and use the Manage My Kindle feature to deliver the book to six different devices, then had to turn on each device and tell it to sync. That process is time consuming, and really erased the “wow factor” of turning to a student who asked if I had a particular book and saying, “I do now. Check your Kindle.” The real educational benefit to the Whispercast 3.0 update, though, is the purchase order feature. Again, when I purchased the Kindles in 2009, I had earned a grant to buy the devices. The first year, we could only read the free content, which at the time amounted to a lot of public domain classics. The following year, I received the same grant and was able to start purchasing bestselling titles; the problem was in the special permission I had to get to make purchases. I had to use our school’s credit card and store it in the Amazon account, something that is no small feat when you’re dealing with a tax-funded bureaucracy. Eventually the school allowed me to put the remaining balance of the grant money on an Amazon gift card and store that in the system, which did streamline the process. Thanks to the update, teachers can finally use school purchase orders to buy ebooks. Many schools to this day will not let teachers buy anything that cannot be a) paid for with a purchase order or b) have a “property of” sticker placed on it. It’s a throwback to the olden days of purchasing, but at the same time, the slow adoption is at least forgivable when you factor in the fifty-plus teachers in a single school all trying to purchase supplies for their classrooms while still avoiding fraud. One final headache that teachers have had to overcome was the need for an administrator (at either the school level or the school system level) to be “in charge” of the use of the devices and the Amazon account. That means that letting teachers buy ebooks for their class can take weeks before someone higher up has the chance to get to it, especially if it’s someone who oversees several schools. That defeats the purpose of instant downloads, and makes even more work on teachers and school officials. The Whispercast 3.0 update allows for administrator oversight while still putting more control in the individual teacher’s hands. This might seem like a non-issue to ebook consumers on the outside of this situation, but this update is truly a huge development for bringing lower cost and highly adaptable ebooks to the classroom. It’s sad how little penetration ebooks have gotten in the public school setting, especially when you consider the typical cost effectiveness, the ability for students with disabilities to manipulate the book, and the fact that ebooks won’t become damaged and need to be replaced with even normal use.
Amazon’s Whispercast Update Meets the Needs of K12 Classrooms is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Google Leaves Us With Few Choices Following Nexus 7 Retirement
| Google retired the Nexus 7 earlier this week, leaving many of us wondering what could be in store at the upcoming I/O conference in late May. Generally considered to be among the higher-end mobile device hardware options (don’t be fooled by the number of sales, which will appear small by comparison to the likes of Samsung or Huawei), the Nexus lineup is overdue for a refresh (and there may not be much time, if Google gets out of hardware it may be more difficult for the company to keep the reigns tight on the direction taken by Android as a platform). Not that Google has been sitting on their mobile hands, especially considering the recent announcement of Google Fi (a hybrid wireless carrier intended to increase competition and innovation in the carriers marketplace)… we just want more (by way of an amazingly affordable, completely unlocked, incredibly powerful, terribly versatile, smartphone and tablet line-up). That isn’t too much to ask for is it? Rumour mills are circling, with many suggesting that there is new hardware coming our way (and it may just be a refreshed, Fi-friendly version of the Nexus 5, called the Nexus 5 2015).
Google Leaves Us With Few Choices Following Nexus 7 Retirement is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Windows 10 for IoT
| Back in February, when we launched Raspberry Pi 2, the sharp-eyed among you will have noticed the folks at Microsoft making an announcement about bringing Windows 10 for IoT to the Raspberry Pi. We’re excited to share that it landed today – along with a ridiculously cool demo. The chap in the video is HoloLens designer Alex Kipman. I’m guessing that this video will leave a lot of you wanting to get your hands on a version of Windows 10 for IoT that you can use with your own Pi. This is all in developer beta still, so you’ll have to sign up to the Windows 10 Insider program and grab a copy of Windows 10 Insider Preview (I know a couple of our forum mods did so overnight because I got excited messages about robots from them which I found when I woke up this morning) and download the Windows 10 Core IoT Preview, which is all free. This is pre-release software, so it comes with all the usual stability warnings – and yes, you will have to have a copy of Windows 10 on your PC. Steve Teixeira at Microsoft says:
Microsoft have made setup information available all on one nice, tidy page of HTML. It’s on GitHub, so you can issue pull requests. Matt Richardson, who is at the Build conference (hanging out with that little robot: B2 is spending the next day living on the Raspberry Pi stand with Matt, and we fully expect Matt to have trained him to make tea by the time the conference is ready to wrap up), and who was able to have a bit of a play with the setup while we in the UK were all fast asleep, seems impressed. He mailed to say:
Matt’s new best friend We’ll be watching to see what the community does with Windows 10 for IoT on the Pi with great interest.
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What Happens when a Book Publisher Doesn’t Pay Royalties?
| There is a growing cadre of publishers that have been not paying authors their royalties. There are many lawsuits currently in the works that seek to get compensation, but its a long and dark road. Hesperus Press has been ordered by a British High Court to stop selling digital and print copies of Jonas Jonasson's smash-hit novel The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared, following an alleged failure to pay royalties. The book had sold 500,000 print copies and 700,000 e-book copies in the UK since 2012. The author and their agent both never received a dime from them. The author had their hands tied and couldn’t directly sue the publisher. Instead the case was brought to court by Hachette Book Group, which owns world English rights to the Swedish book. Jonasson is not the only Hesperus author looking for answers. All four members of staff at the small publisher have resigned from the company in the past few months. Jordan-based chief financial officer Ayman Al Asmar said that a "formal release about next steps and future plans would be issued 'soon'", according to the Bookseller, but gave no further details. There has been a lot of drama in the publishing world about Author Solutions, the company no one can help themselves from doing business with. Sometimes when you are self-publishing you might not know who you are truly doing business with and some of these companies go to great lengths to hide the Author Solutions connection. Here is the latest list of who deals with them.
Many authors are very concerned about Author Solutions and their ability to pay royalties. A recent lawsuit was filed against them stating that they misrepresents themselves, luring authors in with claims that its books can compete with "traditional publishers," offering "greater speed, higher royalties, and more control for its authors." The company then profits from "fraudulent" practices, the complaint alleges, including "delaying publication, publishing manuscripts with errors to generate fees, and selling worthless services, or services that fail to accomplish what they promise." In 2012 over 1,000 authors filed a class action lawsuit against Harlequin, alleging that they did not pay the authors the full amount of the agreed upon royalty for digital titles. The issue involved the Swiss arm of Harlequin, which the publisher claims is not acting as a publisher. Therefore, the 50% that Harlequin receives—after the other 50% goes to the retailer—is then split with the author. But in the case of royalties from the Swiss branch, apparently the authors feel they have not received the full amount due to them. Harlequin, for its part, claims that this Swiss office is not a publisher and therefore does not share the royalties as other markets do. When authors fail to get paid royalties who is to blame? When you deal with a very complex structure like Author Solutions do you directly contact them, or the publishing off-shoot? What if you are traditionally published and a small publishing company that distributes your titles in Polish does not report the correct number of sales? The publishing world is murky, navigating it to make sure you are getting the correct amount is difficult. Maybe this is why so many indie authors are beginning to exclusively publish with KDP. What Happens when a Book Publisher Doesn’t Pay Royalties? is a post from: Good e-Reader |
