E-Book News

Amazon Alexa has added some new functionality to discover new ebooks. Now, customers can simply say “Alexa, what should I read next?” to get a book recommendation based on personalized, top-selling or trending books from over 20 million Audible, Kindle or print titles. The conversational experience allows customers to ask for specific genres or authors, listen to book summaries, learn about ratings, editorial reviews and more. The feature is another example of the many ways Alexa is becoming more conversational and natural to interact with. And, it’s particularly useful for consumers who are now reading more while at home due to COVID-19.

Google Play Books is changing their commission structure for publishers and self-published…

Scribd is bullish on the Mexican market, since they launched a localized…

Inspiration to create can come from various places and mediums, but books are one of the most powerful ones. There is nothing like being compelled by a storyline with relatable characters. And even if it is a non-fiction, it still can be an inspiring read. And some novels are designed to make you think, “maybe I should start writing myself.” Whether you want to be a fiction writer, journalist, blogger, or academic writer – some texts will motivate you to start. Of course, creating a horror story and helping students that ask, “can you write a research paper for me?” is different in detail, but the passion for language is the same. The popularization and market growth of ebooks makes it even easier. Here is a list of amazing and exciting reads that inspire one to start writing.

Ever since ebooks became popular in 2007, with the release of the 1st generation Amazon Kindle, major publishers have been actively digitizing their front and backlist titles. When the Barnes and Noble Nook and Kobo e-readers came around a few years later, they had massive bookstores on their e-readers, that allowed customers to buy them in their pajamas. Various companies have experimented with giving an ebook away for a very low cost or even for free, if you bought a print edition. Everyone has virtually scaled back or discontinued these programs, the dream of a bundled print/ebook will never be a reality.

Readmoo is the largest digital bookstore in Taiwan and they have just ended their relationship with Alipay, which is located in China. Alipay demanded the removal of politically sensitive books from the platform. Rather than capitulate, Readmoo decided to simply terminate the agreement.

In the modern era of technology, we can barely imagine our day-to-day activities without electronic devices. Devices with Internet access have become the source of information, entertainment, and even work, making remote jobs more and more popular. The latter is especially important now because of the governments’ preventive measures in the context of the COVID-19 outbreak: most people with office jobs can efficiently work from home using just their laptops. In our spare time, we make use of our screens as well as watching movies and TV-shows. The same trend of digitalization came to the book industry leading to the rise of electronic books, or shortly e-books. Whereas many people predict the extinction of printed books, book shops are still open, and their owners do not seem to plan closing businesses anytime soon. This question is complex, and both material and electronic books have plenty of pros and cons.

The Daily Mail and the Sunday edition are the most well read newspapers in the United Kingdom, with a circulation of over a million people. They have just opened an online bookstore, that is selling all sorts of bestsellers from major publishers, with an obvious emphasis on the UK market, so they have a big section on the royals. The new bookstore is powered by Monwell, who also provides bookstores for the Guardian, Times Literary Supplement and Archant Community Media. The overall design of the store is sleek and stylish, prices are on par with the listings on Amazon.

Andy Weir’s most famous book is the Martian, which sold a copious amount of copies and spawned a movie. His second novel came out in 2017 and was titled Artemis, which was a near-future thriller–a heist story set on the moon. His third novel is going to come out in Spring 2021 and is titled Project Hail Mary. Project Hail Mary will be published by Penguin Random House and according to Ballantine, the novel is about “a lone astronaut who awakens to find himself on a ship deep in space, his crewmates dead and his memories missing. All he knows is that he alone must now complete a desperate, last-chance mission to save the Earth from disaster.”

The Association of American Publishers has announced that in 2019 ebook sales declined 4.9% and generated $1.94 billion. Overall sales are down 30.8% for the five-year period of 2015-2019. Digital audiobooks remains the fastest growing digital revenue segment in the industry, generating $1.31 billion in revenue in 2019, a 15.9% increase over 2018. In the five-year period from 2015-2019, downloaded audio grew a total of 143.8%.

Year-over-year e-book sales in the United States declined by 5%, with 55 million units sold through April 2020. However, unit sales in April 2020—the first full month of COVID quarantine—rose by nearly one-third, 31% compared to March 2020. All major categories experienced ebook growth in April 2020, compared to previous month, with adult fiction posting the largest unit gain of 1.8 million units, according to The NPD Group.

The Authors Guild, Amazon and Penguin Random House are all targeting a…