Digital Pubbing

Exploring the ins and outs of the publishing industry

EBooks

Reading E-Books, for Beginners

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E-books are wonderful. It took me a few years after they became popular to make the transition from print to digital (though I still have many, many print books), but now that I've gotten used to digital, I prefer reading e-books. Granted, there are still some issues (since I make e-books, I own a few different devices, so I'm not a big fan of DRM), but I think overall there … [Read more...] about Reading E-Books, for Beginners

A Brief Overview of Subscription Services

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I really think that 2013 (or at least the latter half) is the year for subscription e-books. Several high-profile services have launched recently, many of them touted as the "Netflix for e-books" or the "Spotify for e-books." I decided to do a little digging to see what other services where out there, and was surprised to find at least 29 e-book subscription services offered … [Read more...] about A Brief Overview of Subscription Services

Webinar: Unlocking The Power of HTML5, CSS, and Javascript

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  I really like webinars, especially when they're free. They're usually taught by knowledgeable people who can show/give a lot of useful information in a relatively short amount of time. And oftentimes, if you can't connect to the Internet at the time of the webinar, the host will send you a link where you can watch the recording. One of the more recent webinars I … [Read more...] about Webinar: Unlocking The Power of HTML5, CSS, and Javascript

Google Play Updates

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  Google Play may become a bigger part of the e-book marketshare this year. Some people estimate it's currently 5% or lower of the U.S. market, but Play is expanding globally, and adding new features that may make it more popular in the future. Late last year, Google Play released a new feature that made it easier to zoom in and out on an Android, as well as a "read … [Read more...] about Google Play Updates

BookVibe: A Natural Recommendation System

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I love how in the past year or two, more and more book related startups have popped up. Last week I had the pleasure of speaking with the co-founder of Parakweet, Ramesh Haridas. Parakweet is a company that extracts valuable information from different social media streams and makes that data accessible and understandable. One way to do this is through BookVibe, a site that … [Read more...] about BookVibe: A Natural Recommendation System

Bundling E-Books

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The concept of bundling books is not new. Many trilogies or series are bundled and sold as packages. But, bundling e-books is fairly new. Humble Bundle was the first one to do it, as far as I know, and they started with a package that offered books from Cory Doctorow, Neil Gaiman, and more. The interesting facet of Humble Bundle is that it allows consumers to choose how much … [Read more...] about Bundling E-Books

Building the Next Generation of YA Stars (Webinar)

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Last month I attended a webinar hosted by Publisher's Weekly, called "Building the Next Generation of YA Stars." The speakers included the editorial director of Disney-Hyperion and the executive editor of Harlequin Teen. Together they covered new marketing strategies for YA novels, trends, and what they look for when acquiring books.  Marketing According to them, YA books … [Read more...] about Building the Next Generation of YA Stars (Webinar)

What’s Going on With Readers Today?

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What's Going On With Readers Today from Goodreads A while back, Goodreads asked publishers what questions they would like to ask readers. The results of the Goodreads survey from December 2012 are now up, and there are some interesting finds. I do wonder, however, how accurate these findings are. Yes, Goodreads has a huge base of readers, but the ones who decided to answer … [Read more...] about What’s Going on With Readers Today?

WordPivot: Boosting Vocabulary One eBook at a Time

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Digital publishing has leveled the playing field for startups. One new company, that I’m excited to blog about, is called WordPivot. Launched a few weeks ago, WordPivot is, according to the press release, “a research‐based reading app that creates personalized quizzes inside the pages of your favorite eBooks to help you turbocharge your vocabulary.” … [Read more...] about WordPivot: Boosting Vocabulary One eBook at a Time

Thoughts on Tools of Change

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I had the pleasure of attending the first day of the O'Reilly Tools of Change (TOC) conference this year. It's an annual conference that mainly covers digital publishing, and it's nearly as good as Books in Browsers. There were a lot of great talks and some interesting startups and companies on exhibit, but I'm going to focus this post on data. It's a little technical, but … [Read more...] about Thoughts on Tools of Change

Trends and Startups in Book Publishing

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The last couple years have been a time of change for the publishing industry, and I expect this year to be the same. Every few weeks I've been hearing about new startups and ventures that expect to--and probably will--disrupt publishing. I think it's worth sharing some of them here, and what their success could mean for publishing, both traditional and indie. … [Read more...] about Trends and Startups in Book Publishing

The Coming of Age of E-Textbooks?

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I'm not as familiar with what's going on with e-textbooks, but there seems to have been a lot of exciting developments recently. One thing I often hear about e-textbooks is that, despite the expectation that young people, particularly college students, would be the first to eagerly adopt all things digital, most students don't like e-textbooks as much as physical books. The … [Read more...] about The Coming of Age of E-Textbooks?