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“Scholastic has sold over 350 million Goosebumps books worldwide in 32 languages since the series introduction in 1992, earning critical acclaim and dominating global best seller lists. R.L. Stine has been recognized as one of the bestselling children's authors in history,” stated Scholastic’s officials in a press release. According to information about the film, the premise will be alluring to audiences of a variety of ages, not surprising considering the original series that launched the movie has been around for quite some time. The synopsis of the new film includes this description: “A young kid teams up with the niece of young adult horror author R.L. Stine after the writer’s imaginary demons are set free on the town of Greendale, Maryland.” Goosebumps has already been adapted for television in a mid-90s series and was once slated for film production under the direction of Tim Burton. That film never materialized, but the new adaptation is slated for release in 2016.
Scholastic’s Goosebumps Series to Be Adapted for Film is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Monday, April 28, 2014
Scholastic’s Goosebumps Series to Be Adapted for Film
Minecraft Pi recipe cards to download and keep
| We think Craig Richardson’s brilliant. His Python Programming for Raspberry Pi book (available as a free download) remains one of the very best tools for stealthily teaching rigorous and useful computing concepts and programming tricks to kids that we’ve seen. Kids love Craig’s resources (we’ve found it hard to make them stop working and pack up to go home when we’ve run Craig’s bag of tricks in workshops); and whether you’re a teacher, a parent or an interested learner of any age, you’ll find something in there to get your teeth into. Craig’s Minecraft resources will be available to buy in print later in the year (we know a lot of you prefer to have textbooks and other reference material available as a dead-tree book). Speaking of dead trees, Craig’s preferred method of teaching times tables is to get kids fighting Minecraft trees. It goes down about 1000% better than number squares. Not prepared to stop at one giant tome of Minecraft goodness, Craig is working on new materials all the time: his latest batch is a set of recipe cards for workshops or the classroom, which we used at the first Picademy for teachers.
Craig says:
He’s right, too. Several of you asked for a downloadable version of these cards when you saw the photographs from Picademy, so Craig has made them available on his website. Thanks so much Craig – we’re looking forward to seeing what comes next!
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eBook RevIew: You Show Me Yours by Larry Grobel
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There’s a fine line between being a well-respected biographer and being a tabloid gossip columnist, and in Grobel’s new book, he manages to tread that fine line with dignity for his subjects. As a top celebrity biographer and celebrated writer, Grobel gives readers an inside look at some of his most personal behind-the-scenes moments with his subjects, all without coming across as a sleazy gossip monger or a commonplace name dropper. Part of that distinction comes from Grobel’s own willingness to delve into his own sensitive past and expose that for readers to. As the subtitle states, this is Grobel’s own journey through the wilds of the New York art scene and on into Hollywood. Nothing is sacred and readers are invited in for this interesting perspective from someone who lived it. But what is really interesting about this particular memoir is its stories. This isn’t a book about seeing some celebrity get high, strip naked, and run out into the street. This is more a book about the stories that make us who we are and the amazing things that people get to experience. In this case, it just so happens that Grobel experienced a lot of these things alongside normal people who just happen to be famous. As much as the stigma around self-publishing had eased, I couldn’t help but be irritated by the fact that the author self-published this book. It’s not that the book had troublesome editing issues or needed a better formatter. In fact, it was the opposite. This book represents one of the many, many titles each year that a publisher looks at and says, “Meh,” while waving a dismissive hand. The wealth of insight in this book should have had publishers clamoring for the rights, but instead, without self-publishing, I never would have gotten to read it. Thank goodness authors now have valid, meaningful choices, and thank goodness readers are able to buy a book that didn’t come about in the usual way.
eBook RevIew: You Show Me Yours by Larry Grobel is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Kobo Discounts Aura and Arc Tablets for Mothers Day
| Kobo tends to take Mothers Day quite seriously, as women make up the majority of their core reading demographic. In the past they have always released new hardware just in time for mom’s special day, but this year they are giving out massive discounts. Discounts abound for Mothers Day in Canada across the entire 2013 product line of Kobo tablets and e-readers. Chapters, Future Shop, Best Buy, Staples and the Source are all participating in this promotion. You can save $30 on the six inch Kobo Aura e-Reader, $20 on the Kobo Arc 7 HD and $50 on the Kobo Arc 10 HD. You have until May 15th to capitalize on these promotions. Likely the best deal of the bunch is the Kobo Aura at $109, which is actually more affordable then the previous generation Kobo Glo which is $123. The Aura was one of the best e-readers of all 2013 with its innovative design of making the screen flush with the bezel. It also has a very unique design, high resolution and a massive digital bookstore. Kobo Discounts Aura and Arc Tablets for Mothers Day is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Marvel Prepares for Life After Comixology
| Digital comics are doing brisk business and in the last month we have seen sweeping changes in the industry. Amazon purchased Comixology and Thrillbent released a digital comic store. iPad and iPhone owners have a massive amount of disdain for Comixology pulling the ability the buy comics and instead are prompted to visit this website. This was done to phase out the 30% commission Apple generates on each sale. For now, the Marvel app, which is powered by Comixology still offers the ability to make in-app purchases. Until the Marvel contract with Comixology is renewed, things should stay normal for now. Still, Marvel is preparing for life after Comixology in order to have more control over their digital distribution. Marvel developed and implemented a new Digital Comics Reader for their Unlimited App. This is basically a Netflix style subscription service where comics have to be older than six months to be included. Marvel Entertainment's Vice President of Digital Products, Kristin Vincent mentioned “the entire reader is re-written. Before it had a common HTML5 reader across the iOS, Android and Web platforms. Now the readers have been optimized for each platform built natively, so one for iOS and one for Android, making it a much smoother experience for reading. We’ve also simplified the UI. The new iOS reader will be pushed out today coinciding with the announcement, with the Android version coming soon after.” The augmented reality app Marvel AR has been received by a mixed response. There are currently 1400 videos and bonus features that you can access by buying the physical issue of the comic. By using the camera on your phone or tablet you can get bonus material, such as animations, commentary and music. In order to radically differentiate themselves from the competition Marvel has added a few new tricks into their AR app, which they integrated into the Unlimited platform. Adaptive Audio borrows elements from Firelight Technologies, who have a music engine commonly used for video games called FMOD. This is the same sound engine that BioShock and Guitar Hero employ and allows Marvel to develop a soundtrack for comics. The music is user controlled and is showcased in the recent reissues of "Winter Soldier" by Ed Brubaker and Steve Epting. There is also some free content for users to check out with Captain America #8 and the Marvel AR version of Avengers #1. Marvel is heavily investing in their own technologies that are powered by their own comic reading engines. This allows them to easily integrate AR into their Marvel Unlimited subscription service and consistently make enhancements. The digital team is solely responsible for development and adding new comics into the system. The one thing preventing Marvel from being an end-to-end company is the current deal with Comixology. In May 2012 Marvel renewed a multi-year distribution contract. The contract has some major provisions that clearly state that Comixology will power the Marvel apps for Android and iOS. They also maintain the web-version of the Marvel storefront and use a common login system. One of the big drawbacks is that Marvel is actually prevented from selling single issues themselves until the contract has expired. Now that Amazon are the owners of Comixology Marvel is likely not going to renew their single issue contract. Likely Marvel is going to see diminished sales via the official Comixology app. Not being able to buy anything through the app will daunting for the average consumer. If Marvel does renew the digital agreement they are likely to add a provision for Comixology not to be solely responsible for single issue sales. It would be in the publishers best interest to sell and distribute the comics themselves for maximum profit. One of the barriers for Marvel to go it alone is the fact Comixology uses their own login system for the Android and iOS versions of the Marvel app. After the contract was renewed in 2012 Marvel abandoned their own login system and elected to use the universal Comixology edition. So, Comixology has all of the Marvel users credentials in their own system and likely Marvel does not have access to these. So if Marvel decides to sell single issues themselves and abandon Comixology they will be hard pressed to inform all of their users. The future of Marvel digital looks bright. They secured the comic license for Star Wars and will likely invest a ton into the production of enhanced versions. This beings in 2015 and is likely the year their agreement with Comixology expires. This might be great timing for Marvel to reinvent themselves and shoulder the burden of total distribution and start sourcing single issues to Apple, Barnes and Noble, Google and other companies as DC recently did. Marvel Prepares for Life After Comixology is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Sunday, April 27, 2014
The Impact of eBooks on the Fight Against Censorship
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After hearing the news, Sara Baker and Jennifer Lott from the neighboring state of Washington launched a fundraising drive to purchase 350 copies of the book, raising nearly around $3,000 to do so. While this book was a World Book Night title in 2012, it was not a part of this year’s WBN celebration; however, Kissel, Baker, and Lott distributed their purchased copies of the book this year on April 23rd to coincide with WBN. After learning of the situation and the resulting purchase of its books, Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, who published the title, made an additional donation of 350 copies of the book for the group to distribute. This is not the first time Alexie’s book has been challenged or banned. In fact, according to the ALA, it is currently the second most often challenged book in the US. But this may be one of the first times that individuals have fought censorship by buying the book and giving it away, and certainly one of the rare times that a publisher has given away this much stock of one of its titles in order to fight book banning. Unfortunately, it was a cost that didn’t have to be fronted. With the incredible tools available through digital publishing, the cost to purchase and give away the ebook for the individuals who fund raised could have been negligible compared to the cost of a print edition (note: unfortunately, the publisher has set the ebook edition price of this title at $9.99, higher than the $8.52 per print copy that the protest organizers spent through Rediscovered Books). And despite the misunderstood belief that publishers are simply swimming in piles of printed books that they can afford to give away, LBYR could have distributed digital editions of the book for nearly nothing, or at the very least lowered the price of the ebook in protest. With the thriving choke hold that censorship has over public education and libraries, protests of this kind will be too costly to keep up. As it stands, 700 people were given a copy of this brilliant book that critics don’t want them to read, but the distribution and the resulting fight against censorship could reach so much farther through digital. The Impact of eBooks on the Fight Against Censorship is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Encyclopedia Britannica to Distribute Kids eBook Titles
| Encyclopedia Britannica has just signed a distribution agreement with Indian childrens publisher Katha. Britannica intends on digitizing the 300 titles translated from 21 Indian languages on a worldwide basis. Times are a changin for Encyclopaedia Britannica, which is primarily known for their 32 volume set. The company is starting to diversify into broader consumer markets with a focus on education and digital learning. Britannica intends on marketing the childrens books to schools in all major markets for ages one to eight. Basically the big goal is to digitize the eBooks and then market them right back into India. A special emphasis will be in giving big deals with Katha schools and learning centres for underprivileged children. Encyclopedia Britannica to Distribute Kids eBook Titles is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Saturday, April 26, 2014
Comixology Introduces New Payment System and Paypal for Android and Blackberry
| Comixology has updated their official Android app today that phases out the Google Merchant Account system. Instead Comixology will be using their own in-house shopping cart, where all purchases are made directly with the comix book company. In addition they have also introduced the ability to pay via PAYPAL. Two weeks ago Amazon announced the intent to purchase Comixology and the deal closes in a month or two. In order to transition properly Comixology is phasing out Apple and Google as merchant providers, in order to cut down on the costs of dealing with them. This has prompted Comixology to release a brand new iPhone and iPad app that eliminate in-app purchases altogether. Luckily, you can can still make purchases with the updated Android app and the one we converted for Blackberry 10 and the Playbook. It is important to note that you should back up all of your comics before you install the new update for Android and for Blackberry. We have heard numerous reports of comics not importing properly under the new system. Download the updated Android app or the Playbook/Blackberry 10 App today from the Good e-Reader App Store. Comixology Introduces New Payment System and Paypal for Android and Blackberry is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Comixology Disables Purchases on iOS
| Just weeks after Amazon purchased Comixology the comic book company has released a new app for iOS that disables the ability to purchase new content. The read only app encourages users to buy comics from the Comixology website instead of one click purchases. ComiXology recommends that their users back up their purchases through their ComiXology account and to download the new app to continue reading. The new app is entitled Comics – Read Comic Books & Graphic Novels by comiXology. If users resist updating the app you will still be able to read your issues for a limited time, but will be disabled soon. The Marvel and DC Comics apps, which are powered by ComiXology, appear to be unaffected. Amazon must have looked at Comixology’s books and realized how much money Apple was making on each comic purchase. Whenever someone buys a single issue Apple nets 30% of each transaction. When Apple originally implemented this policy Amazon immediately disabled the ability to buy eBooks via their own iOS apps. Phasing out Apple will put more money into the Comixology, Amazon and the publishers pockets. ComiXology hopes to “ease this transition” by offering a $5 credit to comiXology users, which will automatically be applied to accounts today. Customers using the Android Comics app can still purchase comics through it, but now it will be through a new comiXology in-app purchase system rather than through Google Play. Comixology Disables Purchases on iOS is a post from: Good e-Reader |
How to Dispose of a Broken or Dead Kindle for Cash
| So I’ve already posted articles about what to do if your Kindle is ever lost or stolen, along with how to fix a frozen or unresponsive Kindle or a Kindle with wireless issues. But what do you do with a Kindle that is totally broken and nonfunctional? You might be surprised to find out that […] |
New Star Wars eBooks to Focus on Canon
| The Secondary film unit for the new Star Wars Episode 7 is currently underway in the Abu Dhabi desert, The movie will be released late next year and there are 4 new eBooks under development seeking to rewrite the expanded universe. Lucasfilm and Disney Publishing have admitted that the existing expanded universe no long happened. Any of the books or comics that transpired after Return of the Jedi are not considered canon. This was done to provide the filmmakers with a maximum amount of creative freedom in making Episode 7. “In order to give maximum creative freedom to the filmmakers and also preserve an element of surprise and discovery for the audience, Star Wars Episodes VII-IX will not tell the same story told in the post-Return of the Jedi Expanded Universe,” says the official announcement on Starwars.com. Timothy Zahn was best known for his trilogy of books after Return of the Jedi. Heir to an Empire which focused on Grand Admiral Thrawn and Lukes future wide Mara Jade are no longer considered canon. It is up for debate if the entire Old Republic timeline is null and void as well. There are currently over 17,000 characters in the Expanded Universe that will forever be purged. This might be a mixed blessing because four new titles that been announced that will abide by the official canon of Lucasfilm and Disney. Del Rey Books will be publishing the new titles that starts with Star Wars: A New Dawn, by bestselling author John Jackson Miller. Set prior to the events of the forthcoming animated series Star Wars Rebels, this novel tells the story of how two of the lead characters of the series, Kanan Jarrus and Hera Syndulla, came to cross paths. To tell this important backstory, Miller benefited from contact with series executive producers Dave Filoni, Simon Kinberg and Greg Weisman, who together ensured this tale will be part of the Star Wars canon of storytelling going forward. It is scheduled for hardcover and eBook release on September 2, 2014. The next book to be issued is called STAR WARS: TARKIN by James Luceno and is slatted for a November 4th release date. This will be followed by STAR WARS: HEIR TO THE JEDI in January 2015 and STAR WARS: LORDS OF THE SITH by Paul Kemp in March 2015. Aside from Star Wars Rebels, the new books will likely focus on major characters that will take part in Episode 7 and set the stage for the movie. Given that this is official canon we can draw parallels between the books and the movies.
New Star Wars eBooks to Focus on Canon is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Friday, April 25, 2014
Microsoft Surface Mini Waiting in the Wings
| Microsoft has a smaller version of their Surface tablet waiting in the wings. This will allow it to be more pocket friendly and make it a viable e-reader for those of us on the go. Will the Surface Mini be a hit? The Microsoft Surface Mini was first tipped in an Amazon product page for a protective case. There has been consistent rumors for the last year surrounding the new product that was originally tipped for an official annoucnement in May 2014. The Surface Mini is thought to be seven to eight inches in size. One of the big hyping factors regarding this new device is the active digitizer Pen that will replace the capacitive one that shipped with the Surface 1 and 2. Microsoft recently shed some of the bulky file size with Windows 8.1. The more lightweight operating system will allow tablets to get more bang for their buck with storage memory. One of the big selling points behind the Surface Mini should be the Microsoft Reader app the company is developing. MS has mandated that Barnes and Noble discontinue support for their own app and throw their development might towards Microsoft’s upcoming product. There will be millions of books, newspapers and magazines available to purchase and also allow customers to open up their own eBooks and PDF files. The Microsoft Surface Mini could be a compelling enough product if the price is right. In the past all of the Windows 8 tablets have been horribly overpriced and hinder mass market acceptance. A recent Gartner report done in 2013 stated that 195 million tablets were sold and Microsoft only accounted for 2.1%. Microsoft Surface Mini Waiting in the Wings is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Roundtable – Blackberry 10 or Windows Mobile?
| Welcome to another Good e-Reader Roundtable discussion with Michael and Peter. Today the two lads discuss the overall merits between Blackberry 10 and Windows Phone 8. Michael and Peter have been using these operating systems for years. Michael started with the original Blackberry Pearl and had every single phone until Blackberry 10 came out. One of the downfalls of the new OS is the elimination of the Blackberry Internet Service which abandons solid encryption and data compression, resulting in higher roaming fees. Peter has had over 5 different Windows phones over the years and has seen the OS really change. Roundtable – Blackberry 10 or Windows Mobile? is a post from: Good e-Reader |
PW Interprets Print Sales Data
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That fact isn’t helped by policies among many retailers and publishers to not divulge specific sales numbers, as evidenced by the numerous attempts to ask companies like Amazon or Barnes and Noble to reveal their sales figures. But today, an article by Gabe Habash featured in Publisher’s Weekly provides some very insightful speculation into what kind of sales figures produce a bestseller. According to the highly involved metrics from one specific title, PW discovered, “By studying the print bestseller list for a two-week period, we were able to determine that a title in Amazon's top five averages 1,094 print copies sold across all channels, including other retailers, on a typical day. And because the general industry thinking is that Amazon accounts for about 30% of print sales, that means it likely takes around 300 copies per day to reach Amazon's top five, depending on the day of the week and the time of year.” While this data only relates to book sales that are reported to Nielsen Book Scan, PW estimated to include those retailers that are not reporting, and to include ebooks. A correction on the article appeared later which stated, “We incorrectly calculated the total of books sold per week (including outlets not tracked by Amazon) as 7,353; its per day total average as 1,050 and its Amazon estimate as 315 per day.” Despite the numerical discrepancy, the article provides a somewhat less murky look at what is behind the rankings and looks at actual sales numbers, an area of concern for a great number of authors. Interestingly, access to data is one chief area where self-published authors have a slight advantage over their traditionally published peers; sales data for most online retailers is updated at least hourly, whereas most traditionally published authors wait for quarterly sales reports from their publishers which are usually prepared one quarter behind. That means an author will discover in June how many books he sold in January through March. What still bemuses these authors is how little books are sold while still correlating to a sales ranking. Depending on how other titles in a similar category sell, a single unit sale can result in a tremendous increase in rank. Add to that the exponential increase that comes from a few hundred sales, and the rankings start to make less and less sense.
PW Interprets Print Sales Data is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Audubon Field Guides Sale; 12 Free Music Apps ($40 Value)
| I was browsing the Deals & Freebies section at MobileRead this morning and came across a couple of really good promotions going on right now that are definitely worth sharing. First up, Audubon field guides are on sale for 99 cents each at Amazon and iTunes until May 1st. I have a few of them […] |
Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 Tablets Get Pricing and Release Date
| Samsung’s somewhat puzzling line of new mid-level Android tablets will be released in less than a week, on May 1st to be specific. All three Galaxy Tab 4 tablets are already available for pre-order from Samsung and Amazon starting at $199 for the 7-inch model, up to $349 for the 10-inch. Samsung first unveiled their […] |
Kobo Lays Off 63 People, Roughly 15% of Staff
| There’s a lot of change going on at Kobo this year. They’ve been shuffling upper management positions and they appointed a new president and CEO a few weeks ago. Now Kobo’s new leadership has elected to let go 63 workers. Kobo employs over 400 people worldwide, so that equates to about a 15% reduction in […] |
Young readers rejoice! A place all their own.
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Once inside the eReading Room, all searches will show only juvenile or young adult content. No adult content will appear in the search results. All titles in the eReading Room are also cataloged by reading level, AT scores and other reading metrics to help parents and teachers select titles to aid in literacy campaigns. All titles can be sampled in OverDrive Read prior to borrowing or placing a hold. Cuyahoga County Public Library has already added a safe site for their Kids and Teens to browse and checkout material, as have several other library partners.To get started, contact your Collection Development Specialist. When your Kids' and Teens' eReading Room is live, we'll add web graphics to your main OverDrive-powered website to link to the eReading Room and provide promotional resources. Parents can feel comfortable knowing their children are browsing and borrowing books that are age, grade, and reading level appropriate.
Laura Guldeman is a Collection Development Analyst at OverDrive.  |
PiPhone – home-made Raspberry Pi smartphone
| Dave Hunt‘s been at it again. Here’s his latest: a home-made smartphone based around a Raspberry Pi. It’s smaller than many of the phones I’ve owned, and it’s cheaper than the phone that’s currently in my pocket, with a parts list coming in at only $158. The PiPhone is built entirely from off-the-shelf kit, so there’s no soldering required, and no fiddly electronics work. I’ll let Dave introduce it to you. The PiPhone is a remarkably simple build, with a Sim900 GSM/GPRS module (which you can slip a SIM card into – you’ll still have to pay for your calls) talking to the network and doing the heavy communications lifting (making calls, and hanging up; sending texts and dealing with data); an on/off switch, a converter to make the LiPoly battery output 5 volts, and one of Adafruit’s tiny TFT monitors. You’ll find a typically thorough writeup on Dave’s website, with a parts list (he sourced everything from Adafruit and eBay), although he hasn’t uploaded the code, which he currently considers a bit hacky, to GitHub yet; please do, Dave, because we’d like to have a play! For those of you who do not want your phones crammed with Apple, Google or Microsoft software (Jonathan Bell, one of our engineers, still hauls around a Nokia 1600 for that reason – and because the thing’s basically unbreakable), or who want the satisfaction of making one yourself, this is the perfect project. Thanks (again) Dave! |
Self-Publishing: How Good Is Good Enough?
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In many critics’ minds, traditional publishing still stands as the much-needed gatekeeper, or the “filter,” as an industry expert put it at the recent PubSmartCon event in Charleston. Without that filter in place, the waters of bookselling will get muddied by the debris that manages to work its way in. But in the case of many authors who’ve left traditional publishing behind for one reason or another, self-publishing is the only route to give their existing fan base more of what they want. Author and professional biographer Larry Grobel has around a dozen traditionally published and bestselling titles to his credit. Some of his more notable works include the authorized biographies of Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, Truman Capote, and Barbara Streisand. Over the course of his long career as both a biographer and a journalist, Grobel compiled countless pages of transcripts of conversation with notable people, and took own original photographs in the process. But when he approached his long-time publisher with his completed book about this career, You Show Me Yours: A Writer’s Journey from Brooklyn to Hollywood, he was told what many authors have blatantly been told by the industry: “Call us after you sell 100,000 ebooks, we’ll pick it up.” As Grobel’s work is considered to be memoir and the industry is notoriously reluctant to publish anyone’s life story, it was deemed not worth the investment (this is despite the fact the author’s book is filled with information, conversations, and unpublished photographs of his subjects that he owns the copyright to, which would be considered industry gold to some). Once Grobel could demonstrate an audience for the book by selling it himself, then the publisher would deign to take over. Grobel’s reason for self-publishing is far from isolated, unfortunately. As bookstores close and discovery becomes difficult, an already hard-to-break-into industry has become even more wary of investing in new titles. But it still begs the question: is his self-published book unworthy because of its status? Is the author not already a bestselling writer and a respected veteran in his genre? So what would cause bookstores to refuse to stock it, and newspapers (many of whom Grobel has probably contributed to over his astounding career) to refuse to review it? The online community became incensed this week when Smashwords’ CEO and founder Mark Coker posted his Indie Author Manifesto, supporting the belief that every book deserves the opportunity to be placed in front of readers. And while critics of that idea took to social media to complain that this belief is part of the downfall of publishing, what is even more likely to destroy books is having a single entity decide for readers that certain books just don’t need to be published.
Self-Publishing: How Good Is Good Enough? is a post from: Good e-Reader |
