The latest digital publishing developments from Brazil, Africa, the Arab World, India and China indicate change and challenges for the major global players.
Brazil’s Publishers Prep for Digital “D-Day” 2014
This week Brazil’s publishing industry gathered to discuss the opportunities and pitfalls of digital.
The Future of Publishing is “Anywhere, Anytime, Anyhow”
By Daniel Kalder NEW YORK: Founded seven years ago, MarkLogic is the maker of a database for “unstructured data” — which these days consists of 80% of the information on the Internet, including documents, emails, social media posts, tweets, pictures, video, blogs, and research data. Currently growing at an exponential rate, managing this type of information can be time-intensive and …
Digital to Represent 20 to 28% of Publishing’s Profits, says Forum d’Avignon/Bain & Co. Report
By Edward Nawotka A new study, “Publishing in the Digital Era,” commissioned by the Forum d’Avignon and compiled by Bain & Co. states that e-readers, tablets other digital reading devices “could be in the hands of 15 to 20% of the developed world’s population by 2015,” and offers an unprecedented opportunity for publishers and authors. The “redistribution of value among …
A Little Bit of Brazil in Frankfurt
By Ricardo Costa In 2013, Brazil will be the Guest of Honour at the Frankfurt Book Fair, and it’s not too early to consider what the country has to offer. With 220 million people and $2.5 billion in book sales for 2009, Brazil, has a book industry that is booming, one producing more titles –- with more efficiency –- and …
Cape Town Book Fair Strives, Struggles to Nurture “Africa’s Book Garden”
By Kelvin Smith Now in its fifth year, the Cape Town Book Fair (CTBF) — which starts this Friday, July 30, and runs through Monday, August 2 — is making progress to becoming an event for the whole African publishing world. “This year’s fair is positioning itself as an African affair,” CTBF Director Claudia Kaiser told LitNet. Since the demise …
Catching up with Ramy Habeeb, the World’s First Arabic E-book Publisher
By Edward Nawotka Last year at this time on Publishing Perspectives profiled Ramy Habeeb, founder of Kotobarabia, the world’s first publisher of Arabic-language e-books. In “Kotobarabia’s Arabic E-Books Extend Borders” Habeeb describes a situation where censorship mean many books never saw the light of day and book distribution for 80% of the publishers in the Arabic-speaking world didn’t extend more …
Do Books Need a Warning Label to Ward Off Pirates?
By Edward Nawotka In our lead story today about the IPA Copyright Symposium held in Abu Dhabi this past Sunday and Monday, Marybeth Peters, register of copyrights, Library of Congress in the United States said that public perception of copyright is eroding and that publishers need to “engage” readers so that “copyright is seen as a good thing” and “not …
Strengthening Copyright Protections in the Middle East
By Edward Nawotka ABU DHABI: “Copyright is the legal principle that expresses society’s respect for authors and publishers, and protects the commercial interest in their creation,” said, Herman P. Spruijt, President of the International Publishers Association (IPA), at the IPA Copyright Symposium which took place this past Sunday and Monday in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. “It is at the …
Are Phones More Important than E-Readers to the Future of Publishing?
By Edward Nawotka In today’s headline story Hannah Johnson reports back from this year’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain where a variety of new devices and display technologies were introduced. For publishers in the United States, the focus for the future of e-reading has been primarily on the larger format, dedicated e-readers such as the Amazon Kindle and Apple …