It’s hard to believe that the boy wizard made his US debut fifteen years ago, but in honor of the occasion, Scholastic has a special prize for public libraries. As part of the commemoration of the event, libraries are invited to submit their plans for the ideal Harry Potter celebration; winning entries will be selected by Scholastic, and the fifteen favorite ideas will be … [Read more...] about Libraries Compete in Harry Potter Anniversary
Digital Publishing News
Barnes and Noble Suspends Support for Nook for PC and MAC
Barnes and Noble has confirmed in a written statement to Good e-Reader, that the company has officially suspended support for its dedicated Nook for PC and Nook for Mac. This will prevent any new downloads of the software from their main website, but current versions can still be used.Nook for PC and Mac have proven to be fairly popular for readers who want to buy ebooks … [Read more...] about Barnes and Noble Suspends Support for Nook for PC and MAC
Apple iBooks Available for MAC OS this Fall
Apple has announced today that their seminal iBooks ecosystem will be coming soon for the MAC. Their is a new operating system update that will occur in the fall, dubbed OS X 10.9 Mavericks. When this new firmware update happens, iBooks will be available to download within the app store.Apple is heavily invested in their own ecosystem for electronic books. There is … [Read more...] about Apple iBooks Available for MAC OS this Fall
ReadingRoom’s Best Books of Summer List
Book review and discovery site TheReadingRoom is a comprehensive portal for readers to discover, share, and buy new titles. This growing site already boasts a catalog of over seven million book records, and through the connectivity of the incorporated social media tools, opportunities to find new titles within selected genres is even greater.One of the more interesting … [Read more...] about ReadingRoom’s Best Books of Summer List
Paywalls Being Considered by Thousands of Newspapers
Readers don’t mind paying for online news and many popular newspapers in North America are all abiding by this principle via Paywalls. The New York Times currently has over 640,000 digital subscribers and is growing by double digits every quarter. The essence of a paywall is giving 5-10 online articles away a month, for free, and then prompting them to subscribe digitally to … [Read more...] about Paywalls Being Considered by Thousands of Newspapers
E Ink Unveils New e-Paper Display Screen for Watches
E Ink has experimented with watches in the past with Seiko, a Japan based company. Pebble has really captured the mainstream imagination with their watches that sync with most major phones on the market. This has prompted the emerging display screen industry to all work on solutions. Today, E Ink has announced a new business deal with Sonostar to release a new line of watches … [Read more...] about E Ink Unveils New e-Paper Display Screen for Watches
Hachette Makes Audiobook Catalog Available to Disabled Readers
At this year’s BookExpo America event, OverDrive CEO Steve Potash had some high praise for Hachette’s recent embracing of library lending, making 100% of its catalog available to all public and school libraries who partner for digital content. While other major publishers have been adopters of ebook lending on some scale, Potash’s admiration was for a publisher to look at the … [Read more...] about Hachette Makes Audiobook Catalog Available to Disabled Readers
Danish Mofibo eBook Subscription Service Launch Expected this Summer
The Copenhagen Post published an article this week about an ebook startup idea that seems to have already come and gone in the minds of other consumer markets. Again, being compared to Netflix and Spotify, Mofibo plans to be an ebook subscription service to serve the needs of Denmark’s reading customers. And just like other models that never really took off, the same promises … [Read more...] about Danish Mofibo eBook Subscription Service Launch Expected this Summer
Red Shelf, Story Sticker Start Ups Showcasing their Companies at BEA
BookExpo America is still one of the premier publishing events in the world, and it has many facets. Authors will be on hand to autograph their books, publishers will display advanced copies of their upcoming titles, and even very real business meetings will take place between publishers and booksellers or librarians. It’s an all-encompassing showcase for everything book … [Read more...] about Red Shelf, Story Sticker Start Ups Showcasing their Companies at BEA
Penguin and Random House Merger to Complete in July
Penguin and Random House have cleared the last hurdle with their proposed merger; China gave the final blessing today. These two companies will officially join forces in July and will account for 1/4 of all books to be published globally.The new publishing merger will have 53% controlling interest by Bertelsmann and 47% by Pearson. When the merger is complete, it will … [Read more...] about Penguin and Random House Merger to Complete in July
New Ingram Spark Publishing Program Revealed
Ingram Spark is a new digital publishing solution aimed at small and boutique publishers. This new service is primarily aimed at publishers who expressed dissatisfaction with Ingram Lightning Source. Spark has a very simple user interface that can convert your word document or PDF file into a proper ebook and then distribute your work to Kobo, Amazon, Apple, and Barnes and … [Read more...] about New Ingram Spark Publishing Program Revealed
The Big Library Read and Its Initial Success
GoodEReader sat down with Steve Potash, CEO of OverDrive, and Dominique Raccah, CEO of Sourcebooks, at this week’s BookExpo America event to talk about the early results of their joint experiment in ebook lending, the Big Library Read. This experiment made one Sourcebooks title, The Four Corners of the Sky by Michael Malone, available simultaneously to all patrons of over 3,500 … [Read more...] about The Big Library Read and Its Initial Success
Amazon Hosts BEA Roundtable to Get KDP Feedback
Several industry experts were invited to a closed event at BookExpo to meet with Amazon executives about the state of self-publishing. Three notable self-published authors were there, including Stephanie Bond, CJ Lyons, and Hugh Howey. Along with GoodEReader, several other well-known contributors to digital publishing participated: Jane Friedman from Writer’s Digest, … [Read more...] about Amazon Hosts BEA Roundtable to Get KDP Feedback
Barnes and Noble Kicks Off Summer Program for Young Readers
Public libraries and bookstores around the country are rolling out their summer reading programs in an effort to help students retain the progress they've made throughout the school year. While educators are all too familiar with the so-called "summer slide," programs that encourage reading comprehension and exploration can have a valuable impact on students' ability levels … [Read more...] about Barnes and Noble Kicks Off Summer Program for Young Readers