| Viz Media was not the first manga publisher to turn to digital publishing, but it has been one of the most aggressive. Just three years ago, in November 2010, they launched an iPad app with just five titles; now they have a digital library of over 1,600 volumes, and the app is available for iPhone/iPod Touch and Android devices, the same service syncs with their Vizmanga.com website, and they offer their books on the Kindle, Nook, Kobo platforms. Last week, they announced another expansion, to iBooks. I talked to Viz Chief Technology Officer and Executive Vice President Gagan Singh about the significance of that move. Given that VIZ Media already has an iPad app, why was it important to you to get your manga into the iBookstore? We want to make manga easily accessible to the widest possible audience. Whether people are searching for our titles in the App Store, the iBooks app or on the web, we want to ensure that they can find and purchase what they’re looking for. Since iBooks is the default eReader app on iOS and OS X, we felt that it was important to make our titles available there. It’s also a great opportunity for manga to find a new audience, since iBooks and other eBook retailers offer functionality that will suggest our titles to readers based on purchase history. So if you are a manga fan and already have your eBook library on iBooks, you now have an option of adding manga to that library. Will Shonen Jump be available in iBooks? Not at this time, but we are always investigating ways to expand our distribution. What are your top sellers on iBooks so far? As you might expect, the bestselling shonen [boys] titles like Naruto, Bleach, and One Piece have all done very well on iBooks. We have also seen strong sales from shojo [girls] titles like Black Bird and Demon Love Spell. Do you think that readers who use the e-book platforms (Kindle, Nook, Kobo, and now iBooks) are a different demographic than users of your iPad app? Do you see any differences between those platforms, in terms of which books tend to do well, how many books a typical user buys, or any other metrics? Shojo titles do slightly better on dedicated e-Readers, whereas shonen titles do better on general-purpose tablets. Other than that we do not see any statistically significant difference. How will readers find your books? I'm not seeing a special Viz Media section in the store. We worked with Apple to create a new manga section that features many of our titles. You can find it by clicking the “MANGA” graphic from the Comics & Graphic Novels page. We are also continuing to improve the VIZ.com site as the best place for readers to find out about print and digital availability by providing links to iBooks, Nook, Kindle, and our own Viz Manga platform for all available titles. Do you have any special marketing plans? We will be working with all our retail partners to improve discovery and introduce new readers to manga in the coming months. We also have some great seasonal promotions lined up for our current fans, so we encourage everyone to stay tuned throughout the holidays for more announcements. Will readers be able to read their manga right to left in iBooks? Absolutely! Viz has worked closely with all our retail partners to ensure that the reading experience was fully optimized for manga before launching on any new platforms. Apple doesn't allow some comics with mature content to be purchased within an app. Has that affected VIZ Media? Does the iBookstore have similar restrictions? Every platform does have its own set of rules and challenges. One thing that’s nice about iBooks is that content ratings are handled at the individual title level, instead of for the app as a whole. Because of that, VIZ is able to offer M-rated titles via iBooks that aren’t available on our apps, since the apps are rated 12+. Where do you see the trends going right now? It continues to be an exciting time for digital publishing in general. While some recent studies have shown stagnation in the growth of eBook sales, the variety of new devices and options for readers continues to expand. That continues to allow us to make our content available to the widest possible audience. Do you think VIZ Media will de-emphasize the app in the future and focus on iBooks, as Kodansha has? Would you consider a streaming "all you can eat" service like Marvel Unlimited? At this point we are committed to maintaining our own apps. As mentioned earlier, our goal remains to get more people to read manga. To that end we are always exploring new distribution options and business models that make it easier for our fans to get our content. Right now the focus remains strongly on a traditional eBook retail model, but we’re open to options that will make it easier for our fans to get our content, as long as the business model continues to make sense. Gagan Singh on Viz’s Expansion to iBooks is a post from: E-Reader News |
Wednesday, November 6, 2013
Gagan Singh on Viz’s Expansion to iBooks
Top 10 New Android and Blackberry 10 Apps of the Week – November 6th 2013
| Every week we will be developing a list of the best new apps from the Good e-Reader App Store for Android and Blackberry 10! Sometimes its hard to keep track of all of the best new apps to come out on a weekly basis. All of our Top Lists will be valid for one week and then we will generate a new one, so download quickly. The Good e-Reader App Store features over 100,000 Android, Playbook and Blackberry 10 Apps! We are the leading alternative store that works perfect on the Kindle Fire line of tablets, and tablets not certified from Google. We have over 5,000 apps that are able to be sideloaded onto your Blackberry device and you can get exclusives with us such as Netflix, Vine and Instagram. AOL Patch for Android and BB10 – This brand new app delivers a beautiful browsing and reading experience to Android users, with an emphasis on simplicity. You'll be able to check out what's new in News, Boards, and Blogs, recommends posts, and participate in conversations, from all of your favorite Patch towns. Switchr for Android - Switchr is a well-designed, well-polished, feature packed and simple, yet practical application that allows switching between running tasks with impeccable elegance and flawless perfection. Google Maps Engine for Android - Google Maps Engine on Android enables you to view your custom maps anywhere, anytime. ESPN Fantasy Hockey for BB10 - With the ESPN Fantasy Hockey app, you can manage multiple teams and leagues, follow your matchups in real-time, add/drop/trade players, and make last second line up changes from wherever you are. You'll be one tap away from your teams and leagues, and one step ahead of your friends. Grand Theft Auto iFruit for Android - Fruit hooks directly into your experience of Grand Theft Auto V with some fun activities to further postpone the need for real social interaction. Keep up-to-date on the latest Grand Theft Auto V news, log into the Rockstar Games Social Club, stay connected on LifeInvader and launch other Rockstar Game apps. BlizzCon 2013 Guide for Android - The BlizzCon 2013 Guide mobile app, available now for Android™, is a fast and easy way to help you make the most of your BlizzCon experience. With it, you can: Plan your day, Catch your favorite events, chart a path, stay updated, live streams, and social networking. Google Helpouts for Android - Helpouts connects people who need help with people who can give help over live video. Download the Helpouts app today to get help across multiple topics with your mobile device anytime, anywhere TV Trac for Android - Keep track of all your favourite TV shows with TVTrac! Mark which shows / seasons / episodes you have watched. Band of the Day for Android and BB10 - Band of the Day delivers fresh music daily by revealing just one new artist a day, every single day. Love staying in the loop with the best new music, but don't have the time to do so? We've got you covered. Think of us as your go-to music geek friend who always knows the hottest new bands before anyone else. Dessin Free for Android - Dessin (pronounced like "design") is an innovative combination of mind map and phone automator. It allows you to make notes, draw mind-maps and even build circuits, which will control your phone. Top 10 New Android and Blackberry 10 Apps of the Week – November 6th 2013 is a post from: E-Reader News |
The Beginning of the End for Indigo Books in Canada
| Chapters and Indigo has announced another quarterly loss of ten million dollars at a recent investors call. Revenue at Indigo and Chapters superstores declined 2.8% in the quarter, while Coles and IndigoSpirit small format stores were down 8.2%. Online sales increased 3.3% to $18.7-million from $18.1-million for the same period last year. Indigo faces a crisis as the company is trying to turn sagging book sales around by transforming their business. They launched Indigo Tech a few months ago and now sells iPads, tablets and Jawbone devices. In October, Indigo announced that American Girl doll stores will open up inside the Indigo at Yorkdale and another store in Vancouver, with additional locations to follow. Chief executive officer Heather Reisman said she plans to transform Indigo from a store that sells books to the world's first creative department store, featuring sections for tech, home, style, paper, books, baby, kids and Canada. I can think of another major bookstore chain that was facing similar issues with diminishing book sales, and started to gravitate towards a lifestyle brand, Borders. The Beginning of the End for Indigo Books in Canada is a post from: E-Reader News |
Amazon Announces New Plan to Battle Kobo to Sell e-Readers and eBooks in Independent Bookstores
| Over the course of the last few years Kobo has been the company of choice for bookstores belonging to the American Booksellers Association. The stores earn a commission for every Kobo sold and nets a small percentage of every digital edition that customers purchase. Amazon is certainly not content to let the Canadian company have all of the fun and today has announced a new Program called Amazon Source. The new program from Amazon enables independent bookstores and other retailers to sell Kindle devices and accessories, and earn money while doing so. In addition to a discount on purchasing Kindles and Kindle accessories for resale, retailers will have the option of receiving 10% of every Kindle book purchased on Kindle devices sold by the bookstore for the first two years after a customer buys a device. "We believe that retailers, online or offline, small or large, should be striving to offer customers what they want—and many customers want to read both digital and print books," said Russ Grandinetti, Vice President, Amazon Kindle. "For many years, bookstores have successfully sold print books on Amazon—now Amazon Source extends this opportunity to digital. With Amazon Source, customers don't have to choose between e-books and their favorite neighborhood bookstore—they can have both." Amazon may have the name recognition factor when it comes to the average customer trying to decide what e-reader is good for their needs, but Kobo has solid marketing material. The ABA releases a series of colleratoral a few times a year, such as posters, banners, digital guides, tutorials and a myriad of other content to assist bookstores in promoting the brand and understanding what they are selling. This allows the average bookstore to promote it in their shop and not just rely on the device sitting on a shelf to gain interest. In the short-term Kobo does not have much to worry about as Amazon is not providing any marketing material to sell the e-readers in the bookstores. They aren’t really promoting it either and instead relies on bookstore owners finding out about Source. The Seattle based company only has around half the States in the USA eligible to enroll in this program and traction will determine if they have a broader rollout. Amazon Announces New Plan to Battle Kobo to Sell e-Readers and eBooks in Independent Bookstores is a post from: E-Reader News |
Apple Bans Matt Fraction Title from In-App Purchases but Not iBooks
| There was some buzz about this last week, but now it’s official: Writer Matt Fraction revealed on Twitter yesterday that Apple will not carry the second issue of his comic, Sex Criminals, and he quoted Apple’s stated reason why: “We found that one or more of your In-App Purchases contains content that many audiences would find objectionable, which is not in compliance with the App Store Review Guidelines." On the one hand, that’s not terribly surprising: Sex Criminals, written by Fraction and illustrated by Chip Zdarsky, is a “sex comedy” about a couple who can stop time by having sex, which opens the door to all sorts of larcenous activities. Naturally, it includes a fair amount of sex. When he learned that the second issue was “under review” by Apple last week, Fraction actually commented “How the first book made it through and the second one didn’t, I don’t know.” This doesn’t mean you can’t read Sex Criminals #2 on your iPad, though. Apple has a curious double standard when it comes to this kind of thing: While it won’t allow digital distributors such as comiXology to offer Sex Criminals as an in-app purchase, it is available in the iBooks store. ComiXology users can also go ahead and buy the comic via comiXology’s website, and it will sync to their comiXology apps on all their other devices. And finally, Sex Criminals publisher Image offers it as a direct download from their website. Although it seems like censorship at first blush, Apple’s decision is really more about marketing. They are quite happy to sell the comic via iBooks, or to let app users sync it onto their iThings; they just don’t want to offer it as an in-app purchase. In general, they have a policy of not allowing super-sexy comics or other material for in-app purchase (violence seems to get a pass), perhaps because they see different audiences for the two types of reading—and it may be that younger readers are more likely to use in-app purchases than the grownups. That’s just a guess, but either way, it seems that Apple sees two different audiences for iBooks and apps, and they are only going to sell adult comics to one of them. Apple Bans Matt Fraction Title from In-App Purchases but Not iBooks is a post from: E-Reader News |
Nook GlowLight Review and Screen Comparisons (Video)
| Review Date: November 2013 – Review unit purchased from B&N.com Overview The Nook GlowLight is Barnes and Nobles fourth generation E Ink ebook reader, and is the belated followup to the Nook Simple Touch with GlowLight from early last year. B&N has dropped the "Simple Touch" designation and is calling the new device simply "Nook […] |
Pottermore Announces Expansion into Japan
| The online interactive world of Harry Potter is reaching an entirely new audience, as Pottermore announced today the launch of the site in Japan. What is most interesting about that news is the fact that it took this long, considering that Japan is the largest market outside of the US for Harry Potter, beating out even the author’s home base in the UK. In addition to the interactive experience, users in Japan will be able to access the online store, the only source for ebooks of the entire series. In what is good news for users, readers who access the site in Japan will be able to access all of the currently created titles in the interactive experience, rather than having to wait for the book-by-book rollout that users in the US and UK did since its launch a year and a half ago. "I wanted to give something back to the fans that have followed Harry so devotedly over the years, and to bring the stories to a new digital generation,” said Harry Potter creator JK Rowling in a press release today. “I hope fans and those new to Harry will have as much fun helping to shape Pottermore as I have. Just as I have contributed to the website, everyone else will be able to join in by submitting their own comments and drawings, in a safe and friendly environment – Pottermore has been designed as a place to share the stories with your friends as you journey through the site." The Pottermore site comes at a great time in terms of marketing, since the upcoming opening of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter is slated to open at Universal Studios Japan theme park in early 2014, as well as the recent news of forthcoming smartphone apps for the site.
Pottermore Announces Expansion into Japan is a post from: E-Reader News |
Build a universal translator
| Dave Conroy has done something pretty exceptional with his Raspberry Pi: he’s turned it into a speech-recognising translator that recognises 60 different languages, and plays its native-speaker version of your phrase back for you. It can cross-translate between thousands of language pairs. Hands up: I admit it. This is an application I just hadn’t imagined someone using the Pi for, and that it’s all done with free software on a tight budget is something that made us all smile. There’s no reason that this project can’t be shrunk down and made portable, which is great news for the likes of me and some of my friends in Japan: we have terrific conversations but they all involve a lot of mime, drawing on napkins and the help of two phones running Google Translate. Google Translate and Microsoft Translate’s APIs are central to being able to create a project like this Raspberry Pi universal translator. Unfortunately Google has started charging $20 use of its API, but Microsoft’s API (in a bit of a reversal of what we’re used to) is currently still free, so Dave has been using that instead. Dave’s done a beautiful job with a tutorial, and has made all his code available on GitHub for you to use or modify. As he says, even if you’re not interesting in building this translator, there are still many parts of this tutorial that might be interesting to you (speech recognition, text to speech, translation APIs). Let us know if you build your own – and let us know what you might be using it for! |
OverDrive Media Stations create engaging, comfortable digital experience
 Children explore eBooks on an OverDrive Media Station at KCLS' Federal Way 320th Library branch Since OverDrive Media Station (OMS) launched in a pilot program more than a year ago as a way to introduce your eBook catalog, libraries that have implemented the touchscreen stations have shared stories of success and excitement. Now live in 50 libraries in five countries, OMS enables readers to browse eBooks, audiobooks and other media on a touchscreen in your library, school, or location of your choosing.
The OMS builds awareness among readers who are already at your library but perhaps don't know much about your digital collection. It is a simple, intuitive way for readers to get to know your OverDrive catalog and browse titles, read samples, and send a checkout or hold to their favorite device via QR code, email or text. It also helps to get readers comfortable with and enthusiastic about the technology, and to increase circulation of digital titles.
King County Library System (KCLS) in Washington implemented their OMS on September 27, 2013 at their Federal Way 320th Library branch on its reopening day. The community had outgrown their building after 40+ years, and an updated facility was rebuilt in its place. Part of that modernization included new computers, electronic media, and the new touchscreen OverDrive Media Station.
"The OMS has been really well received by our patrons. It's rarely unoccupied," said Jennifer Simon Halai, Librarian, Virtual Library Services at KCLS. "During the day, adults are the dominant users, but after school and in the evenings, it's the kids and teens who are engaging with it, usually with a smartphone or tablet in hand."
With an ad campaign running last month alongside the OMS implementation, KCLS has seen a 2 percent increase in eBook checkouts in the first month after installing the OMS, which is slightly above average growth for the year so far. Halai said they have seen a definite increase in engagement with the OMS as a key feature in the new library.
"My favorite thing about the OMS is the sampling option. It's such a dynamic experience on a large screen," Halai said. "Once patrons have seen it demonstrated on a large screen, they are much more comfortable doing it on their own smaller device."
The OMS pilot program will continue through the end of this year. Keep an eye out for our announcement in Q1 2014; we will be communicating when OMS will be available for all libraries and schools.
Heather Tunstall is the Public Relations Specialist at OverDrive.
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Apple Rolls Out Managed Distribution Program for eBooks and eTextbooks
| Apple has rolled out a new Managed Distribution Program for schools to help facilitate the bulk delivery of eBooks and eTextbooks. The update was pushed today to the Apple volume purchase portal that allows schools to push out apps and digital content. When a book or app is assigned to a device, it can be automatically downloaded and installed, or a push notification can prompt the user to install the item. Removal can also be done automatically when the assignment is revoked, and the license is immediately available to be moved to a different device. This is tremendously useful for schools that are pushing out digital textbook apps or academic titles from the iBookstore. The program to manage the entire pipeline is relegated to Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Spain, the U.K. Apple Rolls Out Managed Distribution Program for eBooks and eTextbooks is a post from: E-Reader News |
Tuesday, November 5, 2013
Jeff Bezos Wife and Amazon Blast new eBook about the Company
| It is very apparent that the entire Amazon empire is displeased by a new eBook written by Bloomberg Businessweek writer Brad Stone. Jeff Bezos’ wife left a devastating review of the book in a rambling diatribe and the company even sent out an official statement berating the authors secretive nature of writing the book and factual inaccuracies. Writer and wife to Jeff, MacKenzie Bezos wrote a very long one-starred review and one of the more notable statements she made was “While numerous factual inaccuracies are certainly troubling in a book being promoted to readers as a meticulously researched definitive history, they are not the biggest problem here. The book is also full of techniques which stretch the boundaries of non-fiction, and the result is a lopsided and misleading portrait of the people and culture at Amazon. An author writing about any large organization will encounter people who recall moments of tension out of tens of thousands of hours of meetings and characterize them in their own way, and including those is legitimate. But I would caution readers to take note of the weak rhetorical devices used to make it sound like these quotes reflect daily life at Amazon or the majority viewpoint about working there.” The Amazon PR department was on overdrive today trying to defend the integrity of the company. They said “Over the course of the author's reporting, Amazon facilitated meetings for him with more than half a dozen senior Amazon executives, during which he had every opportunity to inquire about or fact-check claims made by former employees. He chose not to. I met in person with him on at least three occasions and exchanged dozens of emails where he only checked a few specific quotes. He had every opportunity to thoroughly fact check and bring a more balanced viewpoint to his narrative, but he was very secretive about the book and simply chose not to.” Brad Stone did a lot of research and the result is a glimpse into the history of one of the world’s most exciting companies. More than 300 interviews with current and past employees netted an intriguing collection of stories. More significantly, his book communicates an important set of business principles and a taste of the difficult decisions Jeff Bezos made along the way. It gives people a taste about how its difficult to rise up in the company and get promotions. If you ever want to make something out of yourself a cadre of eight executives meet a few times a year and take a vote. The author himself responded to the media circus today and lamented “I exhaustively fact checked the work with my sources. Amazon declined to make Jeff Bezos available for fact checking.” Indie authors normally get a ton of flack about relatives leaving reviews of books they have written. I find it very interesting about how a wife of a CEO is this huge newsworthy event. It certainly is a bit of a double standard. Jeff Bezos Wife and Amazon Blast new eBook about the Company is a post from: E-Reader News |
Amazon Throwing Everything Against the Wall in a Bid to Lure Readers
| Amazon isn’t holding anything back right now in a bid to lure readers away from other ecosystems and sign new ones up. The company in the last few months has unveiled a copious amount of new programs to distinguish themselves from the competition. Kindle First, Kindle Matchbook, Day One, Amazon Smile, Kindle Countdown Deals and a free Kindle Freetime subscription are but a few of the initiatives the Seattle-based company has launched lately. All of these programs work in conjunction with all of the devices that just hit the market and the various reading apps for major operating systems. It seems every week Amazon launches a new reading program to keep themselves in the media spotlight, and seldom does anyone actually consider the sheer number of new programs Amazon launches or the ramifications of these initiatives. Amazon has been said to control close to 75% of the eBook market in the US and Canada. The company does this by making commercials, generating headlines, and putting their devices in every single store that will do business with them. They have also been expanding into foreign markets to solidify their dominance. The majority of the headlines generated by Amazon may seem ground breaking, but are really nothing new. Take the new Kindle First program that sends out a curated list of eBooks a month in advance of their commercial release. Baen Books has been doing this for awhile with eARCs. They do charge more for the early access, with the average price costing $15 vs $9.99. One of the pioneers in the field of early eBook releases is Net Galley, who came on the scene in 2008 right before BookExpo America. Joining is free and offers eBooks from major publishers months in advance to review or to read. There are only a few major players in the digital book industry and most of them just refine their reading apps or focus on eBook discovery engines. We see lots of Facebook and social media platforms rising up, only to suffer from a lack of user interest. Companies like Kobo focus on their hardware and dedicated reading apps, but keep a low profile in some of the markets when it comes to new programs. Barnes and Noble is in the precarious position of only selling eBooks in the US and UK, which are ultra-competitive markets. With recent management shake ups, the only news to come out of that camp was Google Play hitting the tablets, and that was almost a year ago. Publishers and online bookstores can learn a lot from Amazon in terms of looking at what the competition is doing and integrating it into their own ecosystems. Most have found, though, that it’s easier to just maintain the status quo than it is to unleash features that their readers would like and help distinguish themselves from a crowded market. It takes time, energy, and research to make this all happen and it is no small wonder that Amazon is cornerstoning the market. Amazon Throwing Everything Against the Wall in a Bid to Lure Readers is a post from: E-Reader News |
Remembering Lou Reed
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The world lost a groundbreaking musician last week when Lou Reed – guitarist, vocalist, principal songwriter of The Velvet Underground, and rock music pioneer – passed away at age 71. Known for his poetic lyrics, avant-garde style, and deadpan voice, Reed's massive influence can be seen through nearly 50 years of rock music. You and your patrons can celebrate his legacy by reading the titles that chronicle his fascinating life and career below:
Pass Thru Fire: The Collected Lyrics by Lou Reed Containing a body of work that spans more than three decades, Pass Thru Fire is a stunning collection of the lyrics of an American original. Through his many incarnations – from proto punk to glam rocker to elder statesman of the avant-garde – Lou Reed's work has maintained an undeniable vividness and raw beauty, fueled by precise character studies and rendered with an admirable shot of moral ambiguity. Pass Thru Fire is crucial to an appreciation of Lou Reed, not only as a consummate underground musician, but as one of the truly significant poets of our time.
As the creator of the Velvet Underground and a consistently provocative solo performer, Lou Reed has rarely been lost for words. A true legend in the world of experimental and searching rock music, Lou Reed’s career has been unpredictable and driven, pushing his musical expressions into new areas of exploration. Here are the thoughts of the man himself. Unofficial and Unauthorized. Parental advisory – explicit content.
All Yesterday's Parties: The Velvet Underground in Print, 1966-1971 by Clinton Heylin All Yesterdays’ Parties gathers for the first time almost all of the published writings contemporary with the band’s existence – from sources as mainstream as the New York Times to vanished voices of the counterculture like Oz, Crawdaddy! and Fusion. With photographs, posters, and other visual evocations of the period throughout, All Yesterdays’ Parties is an invaluable resource, a trove of lore for anyone interested in the VU, their roots, and their legacy.
Seeing the Light: Inside the Velvet Underground by Rob Jovanovic With exclusive new interviews from the band, this is a captivating account of one of the most influential groups in rock history. Seeing the Light presents the untold story of the band.
From the Velvets to the Voidoids: The Birth of American Punk Rock by Clinton Heylin Exhaustively researched and packed with unique insights, this history journeys from the punk scene’s roots in the mid-1960s to the arrival of “new wave” in the early 1980s. Filled with insights from interviews with artists such as Lou Reed, Debbie Harry, David Byrne, Patti Smith, and Richard Hell, this book has long been considered one of the essential reads on rock rebellion.
*Some titles are metered access and may have limited regional or platform availability. Check OverDrive Marketplace to find what is available for you.
Rachel Somerville is a Collection Development Analyst at OverDrive.
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Remember, Remember the Fifth of November: Guy Fawkes to Get His Own Comic
| Back in 1605, Guy Fawkes and a group of fellow English Catholics plotted to blow up the Houses of Parliament—the Gunpowder Plot. They were caught on the fifth of November, and ever since then, the British have celebrated the day by setting off fireworks and burning Fawkes in effigy (although they have also been known to toast him, satirically, as “the last man to enter Parliament with honest intentions”). His image became synonymous with protest against the government and the oppressions of society after Alan Moore and David Lloyd had the lead character in V for Vendetta wear a Guy Fawkes mask; the mask was later picked up by the protest group Anonymous and has become a major cultural icon. Now the man behind the mask is getting his own comic: The UK publisher Eco Comics has announced that Fawkes will be a major character in their new series The Englishman and will then get his own title. Writer Chris Bunting sheds a bit of light on how he will handle the character: "The predictable approach for a writer in today's climate would be to portray Guy Fawkes as a terrorist. He is as complicated as he is extreme. He's not a dastardly villain twirling his moustache, but nor is he a hero in the traditional sense – even though he may consider himself to be. What Guy has in mind is a plot of epic proportions. Which for an expert in explosives can only spell big trouble." You can see some preview art at the Guy Fawkes Facebook page. Eco Comics is the comics and graphic novels arm of Mohawk Media, which first made a splash in 2008 with a graphic novel about Mr. T; the “eco” in their name comes from the fact that they are solely digital, so no trees are killed to make their comics. The comics don’t seem to be on any of the major platforms but they are available for direct download from several sources, including the publisher itself. Remember, Remember the Fifth of November: Guy Fawkes to Get His Own Comic is a post from: E-Reader News |
Movember 2013: look! Eben can grow hair on at least one part of his head!
| This year, Eben’s participating in Movember, and growing a moustache to raise funds for men’s mental health, in memory of our very dear friend Chris “Oggie” Lightfoot, who died in 2007. He’s been growing the hairs on the lower part of his face out since November 1, and now has enough stubble to shape into a moustache. We’re taking suggestions for precisely what shape to shave it into in the comments here: the rules state that handlebar moustaches are fine but may not link to either his chin or his sideburns, ‘cos those aren’t moustaches: they’re beards.  Facial hair after five days’ concentrated growth. Click to donate. I should point out that giving November over to the production of a moustache is more onerous for me than it is for Eben. I have to put up with kissing a husband with bristles; my Dad shouting in restaurants “That’ll tickle your fancy, Liz! Bwa haha!” (Dad, I expect a large donation from you to make up for the embarrassment from that, and I am not eating in public with you again this month); and trimming the thing for him in the mornings. So please give generously. I’d like to feel that this month is worth it. Eben is very, very bad indeed at growing hair on some parts of his head, but we are hoping for luxuriant results given that this only involves the area under his nose. Please let us know below just what shape you think his face-topiary should take. I’ve got a veto on this one, so moustaches resembling those of dictators from history will not be attempted, but you never know: you might come up with something we like. |
Happy Birthday, Wattpad: Celebrating with the Launch of Wattpad Stories
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"Ivan and I started Wattpad as a way to read on our mobile phone and give writers a platform to share their original stories. It's remarkable to see our idea resonate with so many people around the world," said CEO and co-founder Allen Lau in a press release. "Seven years ago we had a few hundred stories on Wattpad; today we have more than 25 million uploads and we're on track to surpass the total number of books that have been published since the advent of printing." "Before the iPhone, before Kindle and before the rise of ebooks and self-publishing, there was Wattpad," continued CTO and co-founder Ivan Yuen. "It's incredible to have created a platform that empowers people to read, write and socialize in a way fits their mobile lifestyle." Over 28 million works have been uploaded to Wattpad in the past seven years, and the availability of mobile devices has opened up the ability to read this content anywhere, as nearly 90% of the traffic through Wattpad is now coming from readers who access the site via mobile devices; at last count, nearly 5 billion minutes per month are being spent by users who are engaged with the content, all of it free to read. With the launch of Wattpad Stories, readers have a whole new opportunity to connect with the authors of the content, as it brings a more personal understanding of the writing process for some of these creators and the way that writing and reading have transformed them.
Happy Birthday, Wattpad: Celebrating with the Launch of Wattpad Stories is a post from: E-Reader News |
Monday, November 4, 2013
North Korea Launches Internet-Disabled Samjiyon Tablet
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Yes, the new Android-based tablet Samjiyon won’t have internet capabilities but will come pre-loaded with hundreds of reference and fiction titles, according to an article for the Washington Post by Andrea Peterson, who surmises that the North Korean culture just resonates with the concepts in the book: “The e-book comes with an introduction that explains that the book is ‘particularly useful for understanding how modern capitalism spread to all of the United States’ because it shows how the exploitation of black slaves was the economic foundation of the American colonies and describes the Civil War as ‘a struggle between the bourgeoisie of the north and the landowners of the south,’” states Peterson. She goes on to explain that the novel is a cultural indicator in the country, despite the fact that the movie is banned for public viewing, but used in English-language instructions for higher level diplomats. The tablet itself is priced at around $250, meaning that most of the population can’t afford one and that it is a widely recognized status symbol. While the software and apps are reported to have a very North Korean market feel, the hardware itself is rumored to be of Chinese origin. The device debuted at the PyongYang trade fair around this time last year.
North Korea Launches Internet-Disabled Samjiyon Tablet is a post from: E-Reader News |
Contest: Win a Amazon Kindle Paperwhite 2
| We have another official Good e-Reader Contest today for an Amazon Kindle Paperwhite 2! This e-reader was the one used for our drop test and has very minor cosmetic wear and tear! Our Youtube viewers asked us to give this away and are listening. To enter the contest simply name all of the devices in the picture above. You can enter only once and we will do the draw this Friday at random. Good Luck! Contest: Win a Amazon Kindle Paperwhite 2 is a post from: E-Reader News |
eBook Review: Beautiful Player by Christina Lauren
| Verdict: 5 Stars You can keep your billionaire’s with their torturous red rooms any day…I want to hang out with the riotously hot characters in author duo Christina Lauren’s Beautiful series (Simon & Schuster). In this installment in the series, nerdy grad student-slash-recluse Hanna Bergstrom is practically forced by her own family to agree to get out more, experiment with dating, build a social life, and essentially get her nose out of a book. Unbeknownst the Hanna’s brother when he sets her up to hang out with his best friend from college, Will Sumner, Hanna has had a crush on Will since she first met him at age twelve. Now, at twenty-four, Hanna still comes across as the best friend’s baby sister to thirty-one-year-old Will. What begins as an experiment in understanding dating for Hanna and an obligation to his best friend for the notoriously womanizing playboy Will quickly turns into one of the hottest but most confusing relationships either of them has ever had, with neither one willing to admit that the “rules” they established from day one no longer apply. True to form for books by these two authors, what follows is a confusing twist-and-turn that leaves you wondering if these two people can ever be happy together. Along the way, characters from other books in the Beautiful series make an appearance, with a few bombshells from those people dropped along the way. Of course, it’s just not a sexy Christina Lauren title without a smoldering update at the end from their first power couple, Bennett Ryan and Chloe Mills, as chapter one of their next book is included at the end of Beautiful Player, available now.
eBook Review: Beautiful Player by Christina Lauren is a post from: E-Reader News |
Amazon Offers Discount on Kindle to Celebrate New FCC Regulations
| Amazon has announced a discount on its Kindle range of e-readers and tablets to celebrate the latest FCC regulation that allows the use of electronic gadgets during almost the entire flight envelope. The Kindle Fire benefits from a 15 percent discount across its entire range while the basic Kindle ereaders too is now cheaper by $10 from its original $69 price. The special reduced prices are however only valid for Monday only. “We've been fighting for our customers on this issue for years, and we are thrilled by the FAA's recent decision,” said an Amazon executive in a statement. The new ruling marks an end to the usual practice of switching off electronic devices during take-off and landing phases, something that was often not followed. No more of such regulations now exists.
Amazon Offers Discount on Kindle to Celebrate New FCC Regulations is a post from: E-Reader News |
