Thursday 30 December 2010

Apple iBooks App Now A Free Download For UK iPhone & iPod Touch

If you've been itching to have a go on the iBookstore but don't have an iPad you'll be pleased to hear that Apple have now issued the free iPhone iBooks App.

You do need the latest versions for it to work, though (compatible with iPhone, iPod touch and iPad, requires iOS 3.2 or later). Download here.


iTunes' 12 Days of Christmas free download today is the great Life of Pi by Yann Martel. But you have to be quick - it's only available for 24 hours on 30 December.

Happy New Year!

Friday 24 December 2010

How Literary Agents View The Ebook Explosion

Preliminary results of a survey of 135 US literary agents on ebooks and epublishing have just been released by New York-based Publishing Trends.

"A new business model needs to be invented", commented one agent. "Almost everything in a contract is negotiable, including royalty rates," said another. On the question of agents becoming ebook publishers, one agent said that in 25 years' time that's what literary agencies would be and that "publishers" as the term is now understood wouldn't exist.

Carried out by the Idea Logical Company and Market Partners International, the survey will be discussed by a panel chaired by Mike Shatzkin and Constance Sayre at Digital Book World, New York, on 26 January.

Read the full article here

Thursday 23 December 2010

Kindle Sales Figures For 2010 Set To Become 60% More Than Predicted

Bloomberg Businessweek reports that total sales of Amazon Kindle in 2010 are likely to reach 8 million (as against appx 2.4 million in 2009) - 60% more than predicted. As Amazon doesn't release Kindle sales figures, their source within the company has asked to remain anonymous.

From its launch in April until September 2010, Apple have sold 7.46 million iPads.

Read the full article here

Sunday 12 December 2010

The Educational Ebook Boom in China, India and South Korea

UniversityWorldNews has just produced a report on the academic digital publishing boom in the Far East. China alone's output in 2009 was worth  US $12 billion. Propelled by the availability and choice of e-readers (there are currently over 40 manufacturers in China alone, all making ereaders with similar functionality), China and India are set to take the lead in the digital publishing of academic books and papers.


Read the full article here

Thursday 9 December 2010

Thursday 2 December 2010

12% of UK Population Will Soon Own Ebook Reader Says YouGov

Feedback from the FutureBook conference, held in the UK earlier this week, is now coming in. With some interesting twists. Henry Volans, Head of Digital Publishing at Faber & Faber, showcased the most innovative story of the day - a preview of their complete guide to the solar system, made in collaboration with Whitby and Touch Press.  Though the App will be coming out on Faber Digital which is independent of its print and epublishing departments, Faber is traditionally the UK's most literary publisher of all.  "The demo was incredible" said Publishing Perspectives.