By Edward Nawotka The PEN World Voices Festivals has an extraordinary line up of writers this year. In case you weren’t able to make it to New York, the Festival organizers are offering free e-books summarizing some of the writing from each day’s participants and tailored to that day’s programming. Instructions: click on the version you want to download. Open …
Royal Wedding App Attack
By Roger Tagholm and Edward Nawotka HarperCollins has developed a Kings and Queens app for British historian David Starkey’s forthcoming Crown and Country that will include live TV coverage of the Royal wedding between Prince William and Kate Middleton on April 29. The development, in conjunction with TradeMobile, is yet another example of the possibilities afforded by the digital space and …
Publishing In The Digital Devices Boom: The Importance of APIs
The number of digital reading devices are multiplying. Publishers can best handle this distribution opportunity by developing an API. By Oren Michels, CEO, Mashery.com Let me begin by saying something curiously unpopular: Publishing has never been in a better position. That may be difficult to believe, with bookstores closing, prices under continual pressure, and pundits bemoaning the death –- thank …
Is Publishing’s Obsession with the Kindle and iPad Elitist?
Several digital publishers across Latin America and South East Asia argue that the ongoing obsession with Kindle and iPad is shortsighted at best, and elitist at worst. By Edward Nawotka Today’s feature story looks at the importance of developing an API as part of an effective digital distribution strategy. An API allows a publisher to efficiently deliver a multitude of devices. That …
“Publishers Are Right to Be Afraid,” says Publishing Technology’s Randy Petway
A leading publishing technology service provider believes too many publishers may have their “head in the sand” when it comes to the impact of technology on the future of the industry. By Daniel Kalder As Executive Vice President, Strategy and Business Development at Publishing Technology, a digital publishing services company, Randy Petway leads the firm in its strategic development to ensure continued …
Editing Enters the Digital Age in Germany
This article originally appeared in Über:blick — German Book Industry Insight, a publication produced by the Frankfurt Book Fair. DOWNLOAD: the complete Über:blick issue (PDF). By Jörg Sundermeier A survey of ten German editors looks at how the responsibilities of editors have changed, how e-books are influencing the editorial process, and how the very concept of the book is evolving. …
E-Publishing in the UK: The Known Knowns, Known Unknowns and Unknown Knowns
Despite the digital wave sweeping over publishing, some publishers are surprised at how seldom e-books are talked about at this year’s London Book Fair LONDON: As former US defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld once said (and I paraphrase) “there are known knowns, known unknowns and there are unknown unknowns.” London has been rife with news about e-publishing, oddly, much of it …
Enhancing E-book Purchases: Consumer Driven Models From the Text Book Industry
By John Konczal, Global Industry Executive, Sterling Commerce, an IBM Company When the mere act of delivering content digitally isn’t enough, textbook publishers are coming up with new sales models for digital content. Thanks to the emergence of the Kindle and other electronic reading devices, today’s consumer can choose from a multitude of ways to consume content with multiple delivery …
Could E-book Rentals Ever Be Viable for Trade Publishers?
By Edward Nawotka Today’s feature story looks at some of the consumer driven e-book models being implemented by text book publishers. One of those is book rental, where a student can rent a textbook at the fraction of the cost of buying the book. In textbook publishing, where books can run to the hundreds of dollars for a single specialized …
Is Pamphleteering and “Long Form” Publishing the Hot New Trend?
By Edward Nawotka Today’s feature discusses Stéphane Hessel, France’s 93-year old publishing phenomenon and the success of his 14-page political essay, Indignez vous! (Time for Outrage!). The book is just one example of a larger trends toward publishing short — in fact much shorter — works and selling them online. You might call it the resurrection of pamphleteering. Ironically, online, …