Technology and art are blending in two exciting new contests, hosted by Booktrack with sponsorship from Wattpad, Writer's Digest, and Indaba Music. Booktrack, a music overlay platform that engages readers by allowing creators to add ambiance-style music of their choosing over the text so that music plays as they read, is holding two contests around Hugh Howey's work, Half Way … [Read more...] about The Hugh Howey Booktrack Competition Open to Entries
Digital Education News
Chinese Cubes Innovates in Language Instruction through eBooks
In this year's Digital Startup Alley at BookExpo America, nineteen different companies featured their new products, some of which are live and others which are still in beta. The companies ran the gamut from new approaches to reading subscriptions, new ways to share and review content, even a charitable organization that brings ebooks to readers in areas with limited access to … [Read more...] about Chinese Cubes Innovates in Language Instruction through eBooks
FarFaria to Give Away 10,000 Subscriptions to Teachers
Children's ebook subscription platform FarFaria exhibited at this year's BookExpo event to demonstrate the powerful effects of their product, but also to ensure that attendees know about the company's pro-teacher initiative. As of last week, FarFaria instituted a summer giveaway which will offer 10,000 teachers a free one-year subscription to their service, allowing those … [Read more...] about FarFaria to Give Away 10,000 Subscriptions to Teachers
Library For All Brings eBooks to Low-Bandwidth Regions
Good e-Reader has interviewed a number of non-profit and charitable organizations that are committed to increasing global literacy rates and building access to reading content in areas of the world that still seem pretty cutoff from this type of engagement. Some of those factors are geographical, in which publishers simply cannot get content in the hands of readers, but it's … [Read more...] about Library For All Brings eBooks to Low-Bandwidth Regions
The eBook Subscription Model is Here to Stay
At an IDPF and BISG panel today as part of its Making Information Pay event, speakers addressed one of the key changes the publishing industry is undergoing: ebook subscriptions. When 24Symbols launched in 2010 as a Netflix-style model for ebook consumption, publishers weren't quick to jump on board, at least not in the US. One reason may have been that the company was simply … [Read more...] about The eBook Subscription Model is Here to Stay
OverDrive to Showcase EPUB3, HTML5 Books at BEA
The International Digital Publishing Forum works at the forefront of digital publishing technology; the stand-alone Digital Book event, hosted in conjunction with BookExpo America, has now grown into a two-day event with a full slate of keynotes and breakout sessions on where technology is headed in the publishing industry.When the IDPF was formed, OverDrive was there to … [Read more...] about OverDrive to Showcase EPUB3, HTML5 Books at BEA
Self-e Plans to Curate Self-Published Titles for Library Inclusion
With exciting new announcements like the one this week from Smashwords, who's now partnered with OverDrive to add an additional 200,000 self-published titles to the 22,000 partner libraries' ebook catalogs, one concern does come up: who will read and approve of all of those titles? While self-published books have always had a bad reputation for low quality, even the fact that … [Read more...] about Self-e Plans to Curate Self-Published Titles for Library Inclusion
More Backlist Titles Make Their Way to Subscription eBook Services
This week, Simon&Schuster made a huge portion of its backlist titles available to ebook subscription platforms Oyster and Scribd, and today HarperCollins followed suit with about 1,000 children's titles for ebook subscription platform Epic! The site, which aims for the ages five through twelve readership.Unlike typical library lending through companies like OverDrive … [Read more...] about More Backlist Titles Make Their Way to Subscription eBook Services
Ingram Adds New Publisher Content to MyiLibrary
A number of pertinent announcements were made this week, many of which concerned reader access to lending or subscription-based reading. Smashwords joined up with OverDrive to make indie authors' titles available in libraries around the world, and Simon&Schuster provided access to a massive backlist of ebooks to two of the top subscription-based reading platforms. Now, … [Read more...] about Ingram Adds New Publisher Content to MyiLibrary
Summer Reading Programs Kick Off as School Years End
Schools around the country are getting ready to dismiss for the summer months, but parents don't have to let the gains their children made during the year slip away. The dreaded phenomenon known as "summer slide" can be thwarted with just a few minutes a day of focused reading. To help parents offer the students reading content that won't seem like a chore, Barnes and Noble has … [Read more...] about Summer Reading Programs Kick Off as School Years End
Webinar: Digital Textbooks in the K12 Sector
With schools around the US starting to gather materials and stock their costly print textbooks back in the closet until the fall, it begs the question as to why more schools haven't adopted digital textbooks, especially in light of Bring Your Own Device initiatives and the popularity that movement has experienced. With students in even the lower elementary grades now authorized … [Read more...] about Webinar: Digital Textbooks in the K12 Sector
Debate Continues over Books in Prisons
In light of two pieces of polar opposite legislation concerning books in prisons, it would seem like ebooks have found a whole new purpose. One UK ruling has banned books from being sent to inmates, while legislation was just approved in one region of Italy that would allow inmates to earn days off their sentences for reading books.The UK ban came about following the … [Read more...] about Debate Continues over Books in Prisons
OverDrive, MediaDo Partner to Bring Japanese eBooks to Libraries
An announcement today from the world's leading provider of digital content to libraries just made foreign language texts more accessible to US readers. Through a partnership with Japanese publishing aggregator MediaDo, OverDrive announced the launch of OverDrive Japan, which will put 9,000 Japanese book and manga titles into the OverDrive catalog.In addition to the ability … [Read more...] about OverDrive, MediaDo Partner to Bring Japanese eBooks to Libraries