Nigel Roby, managing director and owner of The Bookseller, made an interesting statement in his welcome remarks to this year's FutureBook event: "About six months ago, we stopped thinking of this as a digital publishing conference."He's very right. The entire concept of a "future book" must include all aspects of where the publishing industry as a whole is headed, and where … [Read more...] about What Does a Literary Agent Do Anymore?
E-Book News
Lonely Planet and Niche Specific eBooks
Dominic Rowell, Managing Director Digital of Lonely Planet, gave a dynamic presentation at FutureBook about the business of interactive ebooks. Lonely Planet, started in 1972 and later growing into an entire brand to include an online community, pocket guides, city-by-city guides, and more."Travel is a good thing if we can learn to interact with people, share stories, share … [Read more...] about Lonely Planet and Niche Specific eBooks
Kindle FreeTime Unlimited Gives Access to Thousands of Kids eBooks
Amazon has just introduced Kindle FreeTime Unlimited! It gives parents and kids access to ebooks, games, educational apps, movies, and TV shows all in one simple, unlimited, easy-to-use service for kids ages 3-8. For a special monthly price of just $2.99 per child or $6.99 for the whole family, Prime members get unlimited access to thousands of popular kids titles. Customers … [Read more...] about Kindle FreeTime Unlimited Gives Access to Thousands of Kids eBooks
Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award Starts Next Month
Amazon's Breakthrough Novel Award starts next month and this will be the sixth year it has been running. There is a huge increase in prize money and new categories to reflect the changing tides of digital publishing. Beginning in 2013, the grand prize winner will receive a $50,000 advance and a shiny new publishing contract with Amazon Publishing. There will also be finalists … [Read more...] about Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award Starts Next Month
Barnes and Noble: Taking the Nook to Foreign Markets
It's been five weeks since Nook's launch in the UK, and according to Patrick Rouvoillois, International Director for Barnes and Noble, it went very well. Part of the strategy when introducing the device to a new audience was to work directly with the department store retailers—specifically John Lewis, Foyles, Blackwell’s, Argos, Waitrose and Sainsbury’s—and the booksellers. It … [Read more...] about Barnes and Noble: Taking the Nook to Foreign Markets
Pottermore CEO Explains the DRM-Free Decision
Charlie Redmayne spoke on two panels today in London at the FutureBook conference, the third annual conference put on by The Bookseller. Aside from the morning presentation in which he spoke on the importance of establishing a global brand for an author or a book series, Redmayne spoke quite vehemently in the later panel about how the practice of DRM-free ebooks can be better … [Read more...] about Pottermore CEO Explains the DRM-Free Decision
Bilbary Launches eBook Rentals
Digital bookseller Bilbary launched last year with an ebook sales platform, making over 800,000 titles available for sale to customers across the UK and other markets. Now, Bilbary has announced that its ebook rental service will hopefully launch before the end of the year. Unlike rental platforms that tried with limited success to create a Netflix-like subscription based … [Read more...] about Bilbary Launches eBook Rentals
Readmill’s CEO Henrik Berggren at FutureBook
Over the course of the past several years, social reading platforms have sprung up almost as fast as digital ebook distribution platforms. While each platform has its standard features, newcomer Readmill offers an unique insight into what the possibilities for social reading are.With so much focus this year at FutureBook on the emerging ebook markets in foreign locations, … [Read more...] about Readmill’s CEO Henrik Berggren at FutureBook
Flipkart Jumps into the eBook Segment in India
With Flipkart now venturing into the hot ebook segment, avid readers in India now have a whole new destination to source their ebooks from. Flipkart is India’s leading e-commerce platform and has built a considerable reputation in the fast maturing online shopping scene in the country. The online retailer is selling ebook svia its digital store Flyte, which as of now has about … [Read more...] about Flipkart Jumps into the eBook Segment in India
Transforming the Digital Textbook
Any parent who has witnessed his child struggle under the weight of an oversized school bag has probably wondered when those digital textbooks we keep hearing about are finally going to get here. Moreover, plenty of parents have bought their children the technology needed to run the ebooks--the tablets, the iPads, even the dedicated e-readers--so, where are the books? When will … [Read more...] about Transforming the Digital Textbook
How Much Should an eBook Cost?
This morning's panel discussion on the importance of ebook pricing was polite but heated as the different panelists disagreed on the inherent built-in factors that affect ebooks and their price points.To begin with, there was some discussion about how the Department of Justice anti-trust violation investigation into the Big Six publishers can have an impact on the future of … [Read more...] about How Much Should an eBook Cost?
The Future Publisher
One of the panels presented at this year's FutureBook conference addressed the concerns of the future for publishers. Essentially, the presenters asked the question, "Are we telling readers what they will read, or are we creating content that they want to read?"Stephen Page, CEO of Faber&Faber, addressed how some of the business models happening in publishing today are … [Read more...] about The Future Publisher
YUDU and the Future of Books
Richard Stephenson, CEO of YUDU, spoke to GoodeReader this morning about the importance of events like FutureBook in terms of bringing together industry professionals to move alongside the changing concept of books. One dynamic of events such as this one includes the recognition that all facets of the publishing industry still have important contributions to make, despite the … [Read more...] about YUDU and the Future of Books
FutureBook 2012 Kicks Off in London
The third annual FutureBook conference, put on by The Bookseller and sponsored by Ingram, Kobo, Nielsen, YUDU, and Atwood Tate, starts in only a few minutes, but already some of the most well-known names in publishing innovations are on location and speaking about the future of books, both in the immediate and in the long term.Nigel Roby, managing director and owner of The … [Read more...] about FutureBook 2012 Kicks Off in London