Audible has created a $5 million dollar fund for emerging playwrights to create original content to create a series of audiobooks. A dozen plays will be commissioned this year and they will be voiced by one or two narrators.Audible founder and CEO Donald Katz explained the plan to The New York Times, saying that Audible will be able to bring new, young playwrights to bigger … [Read more...] about Audible Unveils $5 million dollar fund for original plays
Archives for May 2017
Tablet and Smartphone Resolution will triple in the near future
Researchers at the University of Central Florida has developed a new surface that allows the fine tuning of individual subpixels on a display. This breakthrough will result in the resolution in your smartphone, tablet and television to triple.The current generation of screen technology are made up of hundreds of thousands of pixels that display different colors to form the … [Read more...] about Tablet and Smartphone Resolution will triple in the near future
Epic! Raises 8 Million to expand their platform
Epic! is an unlimited subscription platform that focuses on kids. More than 160 million books have been read on their service since launch and over 24 million e-books have been read in the last 30 days. Epic has just raised 8 million dollars from TransLink Capital, Rakuten Ventures, Menlo Ventures, WI Harper, Brighteye Ventures and Innovation Endeavors. The company will use the … [Read more...] about Epic! Raises 8 Million to expand their platform
Who Cares about the Indie Authors?
A new article about the current blockbuster novels has spurred some intriguing discussion. Coupled with the general air of resentment aimed at remakes of iconic films--looking at you, horrific and unnecessary nightmare of a Dirty Dancing remake--has people asking the question, "Books are published literally every single day...why are only a handful of titles getting the star … [Read more...] about Who Cares about the Indie Authors?
Amazon ceases to do business with book distributors
Amazon has decided to cut out the middleman and wants to do business with publishers directly. They notified major publishing companies in writing last Friday that it will stop asking Nippon Shuppan Hanbai at the end of June to secure relatively older books if they are out of stock at the time of order. The email stated “Please consider a switch to direct deals” as it will … [Read more...] about Amazon ceases to do business with book distributors
The Handmaid’s Tale: Book to Movie and Back to Book?
Margaret Atwood's frighteningly realistic dystopian novel The Handmaid's Tale is generating a lot of buzz these days. Admittedly, that's largely due to the widely popular Hulu original series based on the book, and perhaps some clever marketing from the studio; teams of eerie fully-decked out Handmaids have cropped up everywhere from SXSW to state legislature buildings. But … [Read more...] about The Handmaid’s Tale: Book to Movie and Back to Book?
Legendary Sportswriter and Novelist Frank Deford Dies, Age 78
Perhaps a lot of the more "literary" readers wouldn't spend much time on the passing of a sportswriter, but that's because the term itself is completely misleading. The job of a sportswriter is to make the reader feel as though he was at the event, too, but without boring those readers who actually were there. No one did that better than iconic and multi-award winning author … [Read more...] about Legendary Sportswriter and Novelist Frank Deford Dies, Age 78
Digital Public Library of America to Pilot eBook Lending in Fall
It's taken nearly four years, but the time has finally come for the Digital Public Library of America--a nonprofit, grassroots organization aimed at better access to ebooks for all readers--to launch its pilot program. Planned for this fall, DPLA will be lending ebooks in what it hopes is a streamlined, non-proprietary and vendorless platform.While ebook lending has grown … [Read more...] about Digital Public Library of America to Pilot eBook Lending in Fall
Waterfi – Waterproof Kindle Paperwhite Unboxing Video
Amazon has never released a waterproof Kindle and this has encouraged people to switch over to the Nook or Kobo to read in the bathtub or bring to the beach. Waterfi is a company that sells a waterproof Kindle Paperwhite for $230 and fills it with an insulating barrier around all of the sensitive electronics. This barrier guards the device from exposure to threatening elements … [Read more...] about Waterfi – Waterproof Kindle Paperwhite Unboxing Video
Asus Zenphone 3 Zoom Unboxing Video
The Asus ZenPhone 3 Zoom is competing against the iPhone 7 Plus for the best dual-camera system. The Zoom features a 12MP system, one lens is a f/1,7 aperture 25mm wide-angle lens, while the second is a 59mm second with 2.3X optical zoom. The system can magnify up to 12X with digital zoom. One of the most compelling factors is that you have full control over the aperture, ISO, … [Read more...] about Asus Zenphone 3 Zoom Unboxing Video
Are you going to buy the new Sony DPT-RP1?
Sony is going to be releasing their second generation Digital Paper on June 20th and many people are thinking about purchasing one because of its ability to read and edit PDF documents. Digital Paper is a singular purpose e-reader, it does one specific task really well, just don't expect it to read your e-book collection. This device has more memory than the DPT-S1 and also has … [Read more...] about Are you going to buy the new Sony DPT-RP1?
China Publishes More Books Per Year Than the United States
The Chinese publishing industry publishes close to 440,000 books per year, which makes it the largest bookselling market in the world. The United States is a close second with 304,000 titles produced on an annual basis and Russia is third with 120,000. It is currently estimated that 2.2 million books were produced in 2016.According to World Culture Score Index, India is … [Read more...] about China Publishes More Books Per Year Than the United States
The Power of a Book Tweet
Self-published authors have resorted to "buy my book" tweets for so long that social media is a minefield of useless book commercials. But one purposeful--albeit off the cuff--tweet from an independent bookstore led to an exponential increase in sales.According to Book Web, Carmichael’s Bookstore in Louisville, Kentucky, reached out to author Shea Serrano after he directed … [Read more...] about The Power of a Book Tweet