Goodreads Announces the Best Books of 2018

Just in time for holiday gift giving, Goodreads has released its list…

The Biggest Scam in Publishing?

The digital publishing revolution is so old that a great many reading consumers might not be able to envision a time when they couldn’t simply pop online to order a book, download a new title from their favorite author, or use an app or PDF for supplemental book material. eBooks and digital publishing have simply become a part of everyday life for many people. But there’s one branch of the publishing family tree that has still not caught up with the times: educational publishing. Nearly every facet of education has been left in the dust when it comes to access, price, and readily available updates to texts. When this digital publishing took off in a major way, educational publishers were supposedly going to insert e-textbooks into every classroom from preschool through grad school. What’s the holdup? There are a lot of factors stopping the widespread switch to files instead of paper, but that’s only one factor in educational publishing. The other is the way new concepts are discovered, researched, and published to begin with. Scientific research is carefully horded by academic publishers, keeping anyone without deep pockets from accessing the findings. What’s even more concerning is that many research projects are funded by the taxpayers before going straight to the publisher’s paywall.

Image Comics is no longer offering DRM-Free Editions

Image Comics was an early adopter of offering most of their comics without any digital rights management. Since 2013 they allowed users to shop directly on their website and download comics to their computer and easily load them on their smartphone, tablet or e-reader. A few weeks ago the comics publisher decided to no longer offer DRM-Free comics on their website and gave users until February 3rd, 2019 to back them up. The news came from an email sent to customers from the Walking Dead and Monstress publisher. It states, “This is an email alert to inform you that ImageComics.com is discontinuing the sale of DRM-free titles through our site. Beginning on November 5th, 2018, DRM-free versions of our books will no longer be available for purchase and all sales of DRM-free versions through ImageComics.com will be discontinued.”

Hardcover and Paperback book sales increase at the expense of ebooks

In the first nine months of the year ebook sales have declined…

The best websites to find daily deals and free ebooks

The average reader simply visits the Amazon bestseller list or checks out…

Scribd unveils premium tier subscription package for the New York Times

Scribd has just unveiled a new premium subscription tier that includes full…

Amazon (Supposedly) to Pay Workers Higher Wages

The “Fight for 15” has been an ongoing battle in the US,…

EU Removes VAT on eBooks

In a decision that has been years in the making, the EU…

PA Prisons Stop Donations of Print Books for Inmates, switch to ebooks

The Pennsylvania Department of Corrections is drawing criticism for a recent regulation…

After Milo Fiasco, S&S Hits It Out of the Park With ‘Fear’

You’d think Simon & Schuster might have thought twice about trying to…

Amazon Employees Accepting Bribes to Take Down Bad Reviews

Ah, the good old Amazon review saga… no, it’s not authors buying…

Ebook sales fall 4.8% in the first six months of 2018

Digital book sales have decreased 4.8% in the first six months of…

Seven-Figure Advance for Biz Book by Netflix CEO

“Netflix and chill” just took on a new–and clean–meaning thanks to a book deal for its CEO Reed Hastings.

Is Digital Reading Changing Our Brains?

Neuroscience researchers have conducted studies that point to a change in humans brains due to the lower interaction rate we are slowly developing with reading.

Kids These Days… Have They Stopped Reading?

For years, critics have bemoaned the decline of reading among both children and adults, but new data actually presents hard numbers on how this behavior has actually declined. A new report states that kids these days have all but stopped reading.

Keanu Reeves Launches Book Imprint but It’s Not Erotic Lit

Reeves and his business partner have launched a publishing imprint that is anything but vapid or even pop culture-centric.

Crown Publishing Recalls Cookbook Due to Poisonous Recipes

Never trust a skinny cook, as the old saying goes, and at…

Audiobook and ebook sales account for 19% of HarperCollins revenue

HarperCollins has just announced that they have generated over $490 million dollars…

Firefox is going to get rid of RSS and Atom Feeds

Firefox has announced that they are going to discontinue support for RSS…

Canadian authors can now submit their ebooks to Barnes and Noble

Barnes and Noble Nook Press is a self-publishing system that allows authors…

Authors can now easily gift Kindle Books with Buy For Others

Amazon has just unveiled a new system today for authors called Buy…

Quartz has been sold to Japanese company Uzabase

Atlantic Media has sold the popular website Quartz to Japanese financial publisher…

Automattic purchases digital publishing company Atavist

Automattic is the company responsible for developing and maintaining WordPress and they…