| Google has introduced a new feature to their educational suite of apps with the advent of Google Classroom. This new program is in preview mode and open to select schools in the USA. Google Classroom has three major facets that is designed to appeal to teachers and leverage existing apps, such as Google docs. One of the most important ones is being able to create and collect assignments. Classroom weaves together Google Docs, Drive and Gmail to help teachers create and collect assignments paperlessly. They can quickly see who has or hasn’t completed the work, and provide direct, real-time feedback to individual students. Sometimes students are not in the classroom due to sickness, vacation or otherwise indisposed. One of the benefits of Google Classroom is the fact teachers can make announcements, ask questions and comment with students in real time—improving communication inside and outside of class. When assignments are dispatched to the students, instead of collecting them manually Classroom automatically creates Drive folders for each assignment and for each student. Students can easily see what's due on their Assignments page. Google is currently working with about a hundred schools to pilot the program and make adjustments on the fly. They are engaging in a mass market release this September, starting today, teachers and professors can apply for a preview of Classroom.
Teachers Lives are made Easier with Google Classroom is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Tuesday, May 6, 2014
Teachers Lives are made Easier with Google Classroom
Amazon Cart for Twitter is a Boon for Self-Published Authors
| Amazon and Twitter announced a new project today that will allow you add items to your cart from the social media network. The initiative is called #Amazoncart and this program is one of the best things to help facilitate more eBook sales from indie authors. Starting today, Twitter users can link their accounts to their Amazon account, and automatically add items to the shopping cart by responding to any tweet with an Amazon product link bearing the hashtag #AmazonCart. Indie authors not only have to write their books but also play the role of book marketer. Twitter is often an avenue to foster meaningful dialog between an author and reader. There are many cases where authors participate in large scale discussions with agents, publishers and help each other recognize new opportunities or even just vent. #AmazonCart was mainly developed as a way to sell items directly on Twitter, but self-published authors can now use the social media network to sell books directly to their fanbase. Often books are for sale via the Kindle Store or physical titles using Amazon Createspace, or even the audiobook edition via Audible. Authors can now tweet product links out to their followers or pay famous people to endorse the link to their book. This is a brand new marketing vertical that all authors should be embracing. This Amazon Cart program will have the potential for massive abuse by authors who only use Twitter to spam links of #buymybook. More authors than not use social media as a non-stop promoting tool and often fail. The authors that do well are the ones like Hugh Howey, which use the platform as an avenue for engagement and expressing thoughts. In the end, self-published authors have another free way to promote their book and glean a few extra sales.
Amazon Cart for Twitter is a Boon for Self-Published Authors is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Podcast: Christian Publishing and DBW Debates
| Welcome to another installment of the Good e-Reader Radio Show! Today Michael Kozlowski and Jeremy Greenfield of DBW talk all of the latest news in publishing, eBooks and e-Readers. Today on the show Michael and Jeremy discuss the current state of Christian Publishing industry and the latest news. HarperCollins just purchased the suite of Olive Tree Apps and what a savvy move it was. There is also a discussion on romance publisher Harlequin and what this move means to readers and writers. Finally, DBW is launching a brand new debate series which sounds very compelling. Many luminaries in the publishing industry are going to talk about the merits of eBook subscription services. You can find out more or watch the stream for free HERE. Podcast: Christian Publishing and DBW Debates is a post from: Good e-Reader |
B&T Axis 360 Now Integrated into BiblioCommons
| Baker and Taylor have building up a library distribution system for not only tangible books, but also eBooks and audiobooks. The company has been working hard to integrate their services into the BiblioCommons discovery layer. Today the Axis 360 platform now allows library patrons to have access to all library materials from the online catalog – whether physical or digital – and creates a convenient experience for borrowing and enjoying ebooks and digital audiobooks in the patron's favorite reading apps and on their device of choice. The integration of the two systems creates a simple and straightforward presentation of Axis 360 digital content alongside the library's print, movie and music holdings. From that unified and user-friendly display, patrons can discover and select from the library's entire range of materials available for borrowing. The real-time inventory display and deep API integration allows patrons to place holds when digital copies are not available, and to check out ebooks and digital audiobooks directly from a library's website. The entire experience for digital borrowing is centered in the BiblioCommons interface so that library patrons do not have to leave the library's website to access materials hosted remotely in the Axis 360 repository. Baker & Taylor and BiblioCommons recently completed the first implementation of the new technology integration with Johnson County Library in Overland Park, Kansas. API-level integration with Axis 360 will now be available to all libraries using BiblioCommons. "Baker & Taylor strives to improve patron and library experiences with digital services," said George Coe, Baker & Taylor's President and CEO. "Because of the close partnerships we’ve forged with BiblioCommons, ILS vendors and mobile technology providers, the day is coming soon when all Axis 360 libraries will be able to offer this valuable, user-friendly integration to their patrons. We would like to thank Johnson County Library for their participation with Axis 360 and the work they undertook to pioneer the integration with BiblioCommons." "Our libraries’ vision of interoperable ebook services, as outlined through ReadersFirst, gave us our direction," said Patrick Kennedy, President of BiblioCommons. "BiblioCommons was pleased to collaborate with Baker & Taylor in this important step towards realizing this goal." BiblioCommons will make the update available to all of its library customers who use Axis 360. With the addition of BiblioCommons, Axis 360 is now integrated with many of the leading ILS systems and discovery layers, including products from TLC, SirsiDynix and Polaris. Work is underway with other providers. Used by many of the country's top public, K-12 school and academic libraries, Axis 360 offers a fully accessible platform for library users to find, check out and read digital titles on their phones, tablets and ereader devices. B&T Axis 360 Now Integrated into BiblioCommons is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Podcast: Collection Highlights for schools
 Need inspiration for your school's digital library? Check out our school collection highlights podcast, where we shine the spotlight on some of the excellent content in OverDrive Marketplace for students of all ages. In 15 minutes, we'll give you a taste of some of our favorite fun reads, reference books, bestsellers, and hidden gems for schools, along with tips about finding sales in Marketplace. Listen now!
Carrie Smith is a Technical Writer at OverDrive.  |
Kobo eBook Readers: How to Enable Multi-touch (Video)
| Awhile ago I came across a really cool hack that enables multi-touch on Kobo ebook readers that normally don’t support multi-touch. I know it works on the Kobo Aura HD and Kobo Glo because I’ve tested it on both; apparently it works with the Kobo Mini and newer Kobo Touches as well. The multi-touch hack […] |
Kobo eBook Reader Night Mode Trick (Video)
| A long time ago I posted about an interesting hack I came across at MobileRead that can enable night mode on most Kobo ebook readers—the Kobo Glo, Kobo Mini, Kobo Touch, and Kobo Aura HD. The hack makes it so the device displays white text on a black background instead of the usual black text […] |
Kindle for Android New Font Choices (Video)
| I haven’t been doing very many video reviews over the past six months, so I thought I’d break the ice with a quick and easy video showing the new font choices now available on the Kindle Android app. Amazon recently updated the Kindle for Android app to add a few font choices. Kindle devices and […] |
Improve your math skills with our new tutorials!
Math is a subject that comes naturally for some—and very, very unnaturally for others. If you fall into the second group, then you'll love our new Math tutorials—they cover the basics of Fractions, Decimals, and Percents, so you'll gain a quick understanding of how they work (and how to convert them) without sweating through it!... Read More › |
Inkling Signs On As McGraw-Hill Education’s Digital Publishing Provider
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"Our team researched and tested virtually every digital publishing tool we could find, and only Inkling offered both the scalability and ease of use we sought," said Stephen Laster, McGraw-Hill Education's Chief Digital Officer, in a press release. "With Inkling, our teams can collaborate seamlessly around the content they're building and deploy it directly into our products." This three year, multi-million dollar partnership deal is perhaps most exciting due to its initial stages which will focus on the K12 market, specifically math and science. The K12 market has seen barely a trickle of the capabilities associated with digital textbooks and digital learning tools, and this partnership stands to make significant waves not only in the availability of digital content for public education, but also in the way those courses are taught. The blending of technology and STEM is so commonsense, yet too many schools still do not take advantage of their own digital natives’ abilities by incorporating more technology into the instruction. The most important aspect of the deal may be that Inkling’s team will build the content schools needs while still making it compatible with any device or PC. Where public schools initially experimented with budgets and grant funding sources to purchases school-owned devices for student use, the financial limitations actually became a hindrance to digital adoption. Schools that have instituted a Bring Your Own Device policy actually found a higher rate of tech penetration, but were limited by the constraints of digital licenses. Inkling’s compatibility will enable schools to opt for the McGraw-Hill resources while not footing the bill for as much as the technology. In an interview with Good e-Reader, Inkling’s CEO Matt MacInnis cautioned schools against purchasing multi-year digital textbook licenses, which locks them into using whatever digital content the license issuer creates. Instead, schools should explore the possibilities of a seamless learning platform that allows them to use the specific content they need. “The big incumbent publishers are all trying to transform themselves into software companies,” MacInnis explained, “and the notion of the print book is not going to be around for a while. The flat-fee book is probably a bridge technology. We think we’re fast becoming the standard for how a lot of this next-generation content is being built.”
Inkling Signs On As McGraw-Hill Education’s Digital Publishing Provider is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Scholastic Summer Reading Challenge Kicks Off for 2014
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Scholastic announced this week that its 2014 challenge is now open to students, parents, librarians, and educators to sign up, with the theme–cosponsored by battery-maker Eveready–”Reading Under The Stars.” As is expected, this year’s challenge includes teacher materials, a parents’ guide and summer calendar app, reading minute tracking, and much more. "We know that the more children read, the more they succeed and time spent with books is especially important during the summer months so students return to school ready to tackle more challenging texts," said Francie Alexander, Chief Academic Officer at Scholastic, in a press release. "In the summer, we want our kids finding books that fit their personal interests because those are the books that will make them fall in love with reading. Being part of the Scholastic Summer Reading Challenge motivates kids to build up their reading minutes and earn rewards, while parents and teachers can monitor progress. Everybody wins!" In keeping with this year’s theme, there are also live events at various museums and planetariums around the country, and Eveready is offering free books to participants with the purchase of two of its products in order to encourage families to read together in atypical settings. For complete details on the program and its support materials or to register a reader, visit Scholastic.com/summer.
Scholastic Summer Reading Challenge Kicks Off for 2014 is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Raspberry Pi spinning wheel
| Cyndi Minister runs The Twisted Purl, a yarn company in Arkansas. She’s also a bit of a geek, and when her ankles became sore from too much work at the treadle, she hit on the idea of making a Raspberry Pi powered spinning wheel for her hand-made yarn.  Raspberry sPIn If you’re spinning, you need to be able to do three things: turn the wheel in one direction to spin, in the opposite direction to ply, and halt. Cyndi went from a standing start (“It’s the first time I’ve ever done anything electronically; ever coded; ever worked with computers”), to building the perfect electronic spinning wheel. The machine incorporates a camera so she can blog what she’s spinning; she’s planning to get it hooked up to the Twitter API to live-tweet whatever she’s working on too.  First yarn from the Raspberry sPIn, knitted up. Cyndi decided to enter Raspberry sPIn in the Raspberry Pi Bake-Off competition hosted by Hendrix College in Conway, Arkansas; and we are completely unsurprised to learn that she carried away the first prize. Here’s video from David J Hinson of the event: Cyndi’s segment starts at 2.42. You can read more about Cyndi’s yarn-tacular adventures with the Raspberry Pi on her website. Congratulations on your win, Cyndi! |
Monday, May 5, 2014
HarperCollins Buys Olive Tree Bible Study
| Olive Tree is a Christian company, best known for their Bible Study app for Android. It has been downloaded almost 4 million times from Google Play and the Good e-Reader App Store. Olive also has 7 paid apps that act as audiobook players or virtual study guides for various editions of the Bible, such as King James. Today, HarperCollins Christian Publishing has announced it has purchased Olive Tree. Rachel Barach, currently the general manager of HCCP's Bible Gateway, will oversee Olive Tree's operations. "I am thrilled to lead these two groups," stated Barach. "Olive Tree's focus on high quality, educational Bible experiences will complement Bible Gateway's mission to provide easy access to Scripture. Together, they will help grow biblical knowledge and engagement worldwide." She continued with, "We are committed to upholding the integrity of Olive Tree with its operating partners, publishers, and consumers. We believe that these relationships are, and will continue to be, an integral part of our strategy moving forward." Olive Tree currently employs 30 people, who will remain in Spokane Washington. The vast majority of the staff are tech savvy and mainly focus on maintaining their fleet of apps and adding in new features. Founder Drew Haninger has taken on an advisory role during the transition period to HarperCollins. Have you ever used Olive Trees Free Bible Software before? Try downloading it for Android or Blackberry. HarperCollins Buys Olive Tree Bible Study is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Seven Years of Digital Publishing: What Have We Learned?
| The Digital Landscape Seven years after the launch of the iPod touch and the opportunities for interactivity it brought to digital publishers, what have magazine publishers learned? We know that app consumption is continuing to rise and that time spent with mobile apps now exceeds desktop web access. According to Gartner, 800 million tablets will be sold in 2015. It's not unlikely that emerging countries will go directly to tablets, bypassing desktop computers and even laptops entirely. Making content available on tablets has become as important as having a website. That need is increasing worldwide. Tablets' and smartphones' market share is not the only important factor: technology adoption is a key point, too. Some countries show a widespread use of smartphones but not a lot of app downloads. When choosing the platform they want to distribute on, publishers have to determine where consumers are the most active and if they buy content or only access what is available for free. That's why Apple represents an important platform: iTunes is one of the first places to distribute digital content. If it's not necessarily the distribution platform with the most important or largest volume, it is the most profitable one. And for media publishers, this is a key point – but not the only one to take into consideration. Digital is a fast-changing market, and publishers have to accelerate their process. New versions of tablets and smartphones appear every six months, so publishers need to be up-to-date and ready to evolve to the next important platform. The adoption rate of digital reading is growing so as the benefits from additional platforms such as Android, Kobo and Amazon. That's why it's necessary for publishers to go multi-platform. But how can you go digital and multi-platform amongst the challenges many magazine publishers now face, and without increasing costs? Lessons From Successful Publishers As a technology provider for digital publishing since the beginning, we, at Aquafadas, have seen successful magazine publishers that are leading the way. They start by analyzing their market as well as the general public. They want to know who their target audience is, when they are connected, what kind of information they are looking for, what level of enrichments they enjoy. Based on that information, they plan a digital strategy, taking into account not only year one, but also year two. That means that they don't publish one single amazing and super-expensive app – they develop a plan to publish on an industrial scale. These publishers keep cost recovery in mind; they want to build a wealthy digital market for themselves. Because digital publishing is less expensive than print, this part is not as tricky as it may sound. Some publishers were able to recover their costs simply by offering the digital version for one more dollar to their current print subscribers or by sourcing one single sponsor. Because those publishers want to sell their digital content and therefore benefit from it, they are attentive to the reading experience and to how they can add enrichments and further enhance the app in the future. The marketing of the app is the other important part of many publishers' success. Communication around the launch of the app is key. Building a digital community is also a factor of longevity. The most successful publishers make community development a big part of their digital publishing strategy. They leverage digital publishing technology to interact with the community on a regular basis and in a clever way. Features like account creation, push notifications, profiling and more allow them to understand digital readers'habits and form better relationships by delivering the right content when and where they want it. What's next? As technology progresses, we can see boundaries between the various media blur even further; it's vital that we are ready for these changes. TV, radio, mobile and web will eventually converge, and asset-centric tools will leverage associated metadata (content, video, audio, still image) to create incredible user experiences with no limits. At Aquafadas, we are witnessing an exciting change in our market, and it's thrilling to be part of it. Seven Years of Digital Publishing: What Have We Learned? is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Reinventing the Graphic Novel for All Readers
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Unfortunately, those great works are out of print and are prohibitively costly when they can be found for sale by a dealer or collector. But an existing comic publisher has expanded its business to include graphical representations of books for older readers. Toon Books, who has produced award-winning titles for younger readers, announced the growth of Toon Graphics, which will launch with adaptations of novels by Neil Gaiman, Yvan Pommaux, and others. According to an interview by Brigid Alverson with Toon Book’s co-founder Françoise Mouly, the titles will speak to a larger audience while still offering everything that makes graphic novels enticing. Possibly the most exciting news about Toon Graphics is its focused on education. Where the pocket editions of literary comics were considered a nice diversion in their day, they were certainly not expected to be a classroom reading tool by bibliopurists. But Toon Graphics will not only be aligned with the Common Core standards just as their titles for young readers were, many will also incorporate teacher material and additional information features to make them an excellent classroom resource. This educational focus of the titles, while still not impeding the enjoyment level of the works, makes the books a great investment for classrooms of a variety of age levels. As more schools receive funding for technology, especially through literacy initiatives that help provide ebooks and devices, and as new platforms for digital comics and digital graphic novels open up, this medium stands to make a tremendous impact. This effect can not only reach literacy ability levels (especially in reluctant readers and at-risk students), but can also stand to improve readers’ attitudes towards reading for pleasure. By removing the “chore” aspect to reading instruction, graphic novels may give rise to a renaissance in reading.
Reinventing the Graphic Novel for All Readers is a post from: Good e-Reader |
BookBaby Adds New Sales Outlet, Faster Royalty Payments
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One of the rare companies who does not operate that way is BookBaby, who charges a minimal fee for services and connects authors to qualified, vetted professionals for services they do not provide in-house. But what makes BookBaby even more exciting is the announcement today that is completely upending the publishing industry status quo where royalty payments are concerned. When Amazon Publishing, the book giant’s retail arm, announced over a year ago that they would pay their traditionally published authors monthly instead of quarterly, a number of critics scoffed at the idea that this upstart company would change a four hundred-year-old system. But today, BookBaby announced that it will pay its authors for sales made in its new BookShop weekly…yes, every single Monday. “We’ve been talking to our authors a lot,” explained Steven Spatz, Chief Marketing Officer for BookBaby, in an interview with Good e-Reader, “we’ve been listening to them. This whole industry has evolved. It’s not enough just to give distribution and conversion, they really want help in promoting and selling their books.” BookBaby’s announcement today includes details of a new retail platform for authors’ works. In addition to the usual platforms that authors have come to expect for their books, the new BookShop will not only offer authors a new distribution outlet, but will also offer them the opportunity to receive payment weekly. While titles sold through major retailers will still fall under a monthly royalty system, authors who direct their readers to the BookShop can stand to benefit even faster. "It used to be that writers were thrilled just to have their manuscripts turned into an eBook and listed for sale on Amazon,” said Spatz. "But for today’s independent author, literary success requires a lot more than just great file conversion and retail distribution.” BookShop is just the latest tool that BookBaby provides for authors. Last year, the company debuted its free BookPromo platform that helps authors share the news about their titles, garner reviews, take advantage of press release distribution, and more. The company has a long history of connecting fans to content, as BookBaby grew out of the original indie music platform, CDBaby.
BookBaby Adds New Sales Outlet, Faster Royalty Payments is a post from: Good e-Reader |
New and popular content for schools
| Happy May, everyone! While April did fly by, don't let the great new content that was added for purchase in Marketplace fly by as well. We have created lists for the newest and most popular content that was added this past month that your students and users are sure to enjoy. Check out these new and exciting titles and hopefully you'll find some that you’d like to add to your OverDrive collection. When you click the link below, it will show up as a Marketplace search result and you'll be able to easily add them to a cart. New Adult – High School Appropriate  If you would like more suggestions, your Collection Development Specialist is available to help create recommended lists. Email collectionteam@overdrive.com for more information today! *Some titles may have limited regional or platform availability.
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Coming soon: OverDrive Challenge
| What does it take to make your digital library a success? A recent Pew Research study showed that about 76% of Americans read a book last year, but only about 28% of those read an eBook. Only half of eBook readers know they can check out an eBook from their local library. Let’s work together to increase that number and get the word out about your library’s digital collection in your community. To help your library succeed, we’re launching an OverDrive Challenge this June. The OverDrive Challenge is a promotion to help raise awareness of library eBook lending across the world and boost your circulation. Your mission during June is to grow your checkouts to beat your best month on record for circulation. What is your library’s best month on record? It’s easy to find your highest circulating month in OverDrive Marketplace Reports. Click Circulation Activity, then select Checkouts by Month for all users and formats from the first month of your launch with OverDrive to today’s date.
Now, are you ready for the real OverDrive Challenge? During the month of June, if you increase circulation by 25% from your best month, you will automatically receive your choice of either:
If you increase your circulation in June by 50% from your best month, you will automatically receive:
And best yet, the library with the highest percentage circulation increase during the month of June over their previous highest monthly circulation will receive the Gadget Jackpot: $1,000 content credit, a Google Nexus tablet, a Roku and an OverDrive Media Station. We will also recognize and congratulate the Contest winners who meet the 25%, 50% and Gadget Jackpot levels in the OverDrive Library Blog. Eligible libraries include public library partners that have been live with the OverDrive service since at least January 1, 2014 (eligibility is subject to the official OverDrive Challenge rules). Libraries in a consortium will enter and be evaluated at a consortium level. If your library is up for the OverDrive Challenge, sign up now! You will be asked for your name, email address, library name, digital collection URL and state/province/country. The deadline for entry is Saturday, May 31st. Once you’ve entered, get promoting! To help you get started, please visit OverDrive’s Partner Portal where you can access dozens of marketing and outreach ideas and resources, as well as on-demand training sessions to prepare your staff. Stay tuned to OverDrive’s Library Blog for more ideas to prepare for June. For official OverDrive Challenge rules and details, please click here.  |
Happy second birthday to The MagPi!
| We were amazed to learn that this month’s edition represents The MagPi’s second anniversary. The MagPi is the Raspberry Pi magazine, produced by the community for the community; it has no association with us at the Foundation (besides the fact that we love it and think it’s the best thing since sliced maltloaf).  Click to read or download The MagPi Ian McAlpine, one of the group of volunteers who produce the magazine every month, had this to say.
This month being a birthday month, there are a few special items in May’s issue, including a competition to win £2000 of kit. Thanks to all of you at The MagPi from all of us at the Raspberry Pi Foundation: we’re incredibly grateful for your support, and we’re always amazed at what you achieve every month. |
The Past, Present and Future of Harlequin
| News Corp announced the purchase of Canadian based Harlequin from Torstar on May 2nd, 2014. The entire deal was a cash purchase of $455 million dollars and the romance publisher will be a division of HarperCollins. What does the future hold for readers of their beloved brand? Why was Harlequin even available to purchase in the first place? What is the future of digital and softcover titles? Harlequin was originally purchased by TorStar in 1975 and saw massive success in their affordable softcover books that were a staple in bookstores, grocery stores and supermarkets all over North America. When you envision the quintessential title from Harlequin, often shirtless hunks abound. In the 1980s and early 1990′s Fabio was a household name. What made Harlequin an attractive acquisition target? It was one of the most profitable aspects of TorStar Corp, a Canadian media company. It currently publishes 110 physical and digital books every single month. The books are translated into 30 different languages and available all over the world. They have 1300 authors signed to publishing contracts and over 1,000 employees worldwide. Obviously the romance genre is still very popular with 24 of the top 100 bestsellers in April belonging to Harlequin. Why is Torstor selling the largest Romance company in the world? TorStar is seeing a decline in their entire portfolio, primarily due to the newspapers. It owns popular brands such as the Toronto Star, Canada’s largest newspaper, and a equity stake in The Canadian Press as part of a joint agreement with the parent companies of the Globe and Mail and Montreal La Presse. TorStar was seeing decreased revenue from their newspapers and will use 158.5 million to pay off their current debt. “We think we did the right thing in exiting,” David Holland, president and CEO of Torstar, said during a conference call to discuss the sale. “While making the decision to sell was difficult, we are confident that this transaction represents excellent value for Torstar shareholders and importantly further strengthens Torstar’s financial position and capital base as we continue in our evolution as a company,” Holland told financial analysts. Harlequin's chief executive, Craig Swinwood, said that the publisher would remain based in Toronto, and that it would continue to operate as a "distinct and successful brand" within HarperCollins. Brian Murray Chief-Executive at HC echoed those sentiments, saying that the "Harlequin rich name and heritage will be preserved independently." Harlequin as a company was stagnating under the ownership of Torstar. In 2009 they saw $493 million in revenue, $468 million in 2010, $459 million in 2011, and $426 million in 2012. One of the reasons the company was losing money was the decline of the softcover book and the rise of the eBook. In 2007 the big decline started when paperback sales took a 2% dip, bringing in a staggering $1.1 billion dollars. The landslide of decreased revenue continued, plummeting 68% from 2007 until 2013. Now, the entire softcover industry worldwide is $373.1 million. One of the bright spots of Harlequin was the early adoption of eBooks. They were one of the first companies to digitize their new titles in 2007 and their backlist in 2011. Their cade of Authors were kept happy with some of the highest royalty rates in the industry, around 30% of each book sold. They also started one of the first digital first imprints, Carina Press. This program allowed authors to forgo book advances to get a higher revenue earned on their books. The saved money helped Harlequin remain profitable and still give authors marketing attention. HarperCollins intends on leveraging Harlequins team of translators and tap into their international distribution pipeline. 95% of all HC books are English only, which limits their market penetration. Romance readers are also voracious readers, with the average reader consuming almost 100 books a year. It is important to note that Harlequin will be a division of HarperCollins and will be able to conduct business autonomously. Unlike the Penguin/Random House deal where the two sides actually merged together to now publish 1/4 of all books in the world. The Past, Present and Future of Harlequin is a post from: Good e-Reader |
