Morning Coffee – 1 July 2015

Here are nine stories to read this morning. 5 Things I Wish I Knew Before Self-publishing (Word Nerds) Apple's mistake was getting into bed with the book-publishing cartel (Fortune) Does Amazon’s New Payment Scheme Require Literary Surveillance? (The Passive Voice) Google Expands Its Educational...

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Scribd is Culling Romance Titles From Its Catalog Because You’re Reading Too Damn Much

Scribd has just run up against one of the known problems with subscription ebook services. Mark Coker has announced over on the Smashwords blog that Scribd is thinning out its catalog. More specifically, Scribd is now pulling titles from what is probably its most read genre: romance. Effective...

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Multi-touch iBooks on the iPhone: Like a PDF, Only From Apple

Pundits have been hoping for a couple years now that Apple would give the iPhone support for ebooks made with iBooks Author, and now that it has arrived I do not think it lives up to the anticipation. The iOS 8.4 update was released today, bringing with it Apple Music,  bug fixes, and new features...

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iOS 8.4 Arrives, Brings Apple Music, Changes to iBooks

Apple's latest update to its mobile OS arrived on schedule on Tuesday. Along with the usual bug fixes, the update adds the new Apple Music app and makes changes to iBooks. Its launch coincides with the new Beats One webradio station. iOS 8.4 is available for the iPad 2 and newer, the...

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Apple Loses Appeal in eBook Antitrust Case

We've been waiting over 6 months for the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals to render a verdict on Apple's latest bid to overturn the 2013 judgment that it had violated US antitrust laws, and the day of jubilee has arrived. A divided federal appeals court on Tuesday said Apple orchestrated a conspiracy...

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eBook Sales Grew by 35% in Japan in 2014, Tops $1 Billion for the First Time

The Impress Research Institute announced a new report yesterday with estimates for the Japanese ebook market. The full report won't be released until the end of next month, but the highlights released today tell us that the Japanese ebook market reached 126.6 billion yen last year (up from an...

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Dasung’s 13.3″ E-ink Monitor is Now Shipping

Over the past couple weeks many readers have asked for a status update on the Paperlike E-ink monitor I bought back in April. It has finally shipped, and FedEx says that it will arrive next week. The Paperlike is a one of a kind USB-powered monitor based around a 13.3" Fina E-ink display. It first...

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Sigil Can Now Make Epub3 Files

For the longest time this blogger has liked and recommended Sigil as an open-source Epub creation app. It's free, easy to use, and can be used to make a standard Epub ebook. And now I found a new reason to like it. I was catching up on conversations on Twitter when I came across an... Read More...

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How Ad Blocking Apps Will Work on iOS 9 (video)

Ad blocking apps are few and far between on iOS right now. According to user reports they don't work very well, but both of those details are bound to change when Apple releases iOS 9. The next version of Apple's mobile OS is going to feature system level support for the blocking of adverts and......

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eBooks Now Make up 6.4% of France’s Book Market

The French publishing trade group SNE held its general assembly last week. Mixed in with the Amazon cursing and laments for the good old days, SNE president Vincent Montagne shared the latest stats on France's publishing industry. Book sales in France totaled 2,652 million euros on 422 million...

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Comixology to Launch “All You Can Read” Subscription Plan?

There's an unsubstantiated, unverified,  and unsupported (but almost certainly true) rumor going around today that Comixology is about to offer a Kindle Unlimited type of subscription service for digital comics. We know literally nothing about the service, but the current speculation is that: At...

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Parody News Site Squats on NY Times Domain, Proves Power of Branding Over Common Sense

The hot news story on Twitter this Monday morning comes courtesy of the NY Times, which reported on Saturday that WI Governor Scott Walker has challenged  US Supreme Court justices to a fist fight. Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker (R) isn’t having any of it. “I believe this Supreme Court decision is...

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Infographic: The History of Science Fiction

If you like to get lost in impossibly large charts like the Stephen King Universe then I have a treat for you. I've just come across a drawing/infographic/chart by Ward Shelley which plots the history of science fiction from its earliest precursors, the epic myths lost to time, through the...

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Morning Coffee – 29 June 2015

Here are five stories for your reading enjoyment this Monday morning. A Book Buyer’s Lament (The New Yorker) BookDrop: Email ebooks to your Kindle from Dropbox-even ePubs and other formats not normally supported (TeleRead) The crisis in non-fiction publishing (The Passive Voice) For Indie Writers:...

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iOS 9 Adds Save to PDF “Sharing Option”

iOS has long supported many ways for you to share the content you're browsing, and iOS 9 is going to add a new one. iDownload blog has noticed that the latest beta release of iOS 9 includes an option to save a webpage in Safari as a PDF and transfer it to iBooks. iBooks (and not... Read More » The...

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Google Updates its Distraction-Free Reading Mode for Chrome, And It’s FinallyUseful

When Google first showed us the reader mode they were developing for Chrome, it worked about as well as an ostrich can fly and looked like it would get at least an honorable mention at the world's ugliest dog contest. The latest version of the reader mode is not available to the average user, but...

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Opera for iOS v10.2.0 Adds Night Reading Mode, Blue Light Filter

A new version of Opera Mini for iPad and iPhone has hit iTunes today, bringing with it a new solution to your late night porn watching problems. Opera for iOS v10.2.0 doesn't have a very long changelog, but the relatively minor changes are going to be appreciated. The new version of the browser has...

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The Better Way to Read at Night on Your Tablet, iPad or Smartphone

Researchers have been saying for years and years that reading an on LCD screen late at night will disrupt your sleep, and techies have been working nearly as long to come up with fixes for that problem. There are two general solutions to the problem (three, if you count not using your device within...

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On Judging Whether Subscription eBooks Work

Last week's news about Amazon changing the payment terms offered to the authors who sign up for Amazon's subscription ebook service has sparked a wave of dissent. First came the authors who hated the terms Amazon was offering (but were never going to sign up for it in the first place), and now one...

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Original Kindle Paperwhite (2012) Update v5.6.1.1 Adds Wordwise, Goodreads

With the new Kindle Paperwhite due to ship next week, Amazon has turned its attention to the older models. Amazon is currently rolling out an update for the three-year-old original Paperwhite. The v5.6.1.1 update doesn't add the features that will ship on the new Paperwhite next week but it does...

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iTunes U v3.0 Adds Support for PDF Annotation

iBooks may be the app that gets all of the buzz when the media talks about Apple in the classroom but as we were reminded today there's more to classwork than just textbooks. Apple has rolled out a new update for its digital classroom app for the iPad and iPhone today which adds support for PDF...

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Kindle Storyteller is a New Literary Contest for German Indie Authors

Amazon may devote most of its publishing efforts on English-language titles in the US but that is not the whole of their operations. Amazon also publishes books in Europe, and over the past 6 months they've expanded their efforts there. Amazon has hired Clement Monjou as an editor in France, and...

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JK Rowling Reveals Why the Dursleys Hated the Potters

We've all known since the first Harry Potter book was published in 1997 that the Dursleys, Harry's foster family and closest living relatives, hated him, but it wasn't until this week that we knew why. To mark what would be the 35th birthday of Dudley Dursley, Harry's wit-deprived cousin, JK...

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Morning Coffee – 26 June 2015

Here are nine stories to read this Friday morning. Circa news app shuts down after failing to secure more funding (GeekWire) eReader Review: New Kindle Paperwhite (PW3) With 300 ppi Resolution (TeleRead) How To Tell If You're In a Truman Capote Story (The Toast) Joanna crawls back into her Nook...

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How to Opt Out of KDP Select (Kindle Unlimited) Without Penalty

With authors protesting right and left, the new payment terms for KDP Select are probably proving less popular than Amazon would like. Amazon's decision to shift from paying authors each time an ebook is loaned in Kindle Unlimited to paying by the number of pages read by Kindle Unlimited subscriber...

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Amazon Adds New Sharing Feature, Makes Subtle Play to Recruit New Readers

Amazon's just come up with a response to the Instant Preview feature that Kobo launched last week, only Amazon figured out how to do it right. Where Kobo came up with a way to attract  readers by letting them read excerpt in Kobo's iOS apps, Amazon is enabling Kindle readers to share quotes with...

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New Conspiracy Theory: Amazon to Expand Pay-Per-Page to Entire Kindle Store

I hope you have had your tin foil hat ready because I have a whopper of a conspiracy theory for you today. Katie Foley is misinterpreting the recent news about changes to KDP Select. Where a normal person would look at the available info and conclude that Amazon was modifying a single program,...

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B&N Reports Revenues Down Across the Board

Barnes & Noble released its annual report today for the fiscal year ending 2 May 2015. According to the press release (which was also filed with the SEC as the 10-K report), the company saw a net loss was $19.4 million in the 4th quarter, compared to $36.7 million in the same period last year....

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Google Just Sent Me Five Invites for Contributor by Google – Want one?

Google's experiment in replacing advertising with reader sponsorship is still in an invite-only beta but the number of test subjects is about grow. I just got an email from Google with an offer of free invites for the program.  I have the option of letting up to five people skip the waiting list so...

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Soundcloud to Get Hit by Massive Piracy Lawsuits?

There's a story going around this week that the music hosting service Soundcloud is about to be the target of multiple copyright infringement lawsuits. DMN and MusicSnake are independently reporting that: The rumors are true, and indie music producers are bracing for the worst. Several executives...

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ReadThisNext Wants to Help Authors Help You Find Your Next Great Read

In addition to being the font of book ambrosia, authors are also often the source of other nifty info (I follow one author for his posts on gun miscellany). ReadThisNext want to capitalize on this connecting readers with authors who can suggest their next read. An underfunded Kickstarter campaign...

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Scribd Acquires Librify

I just got an email from the book club slash ebookstore Librify with the news that it is shutting down. Librify has been acquired by Scribd, lock, stock, and barrel, and over the next few weeks it will start transitioning its few customers over to its larger competitor's service. According to the...

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Draft2Digital Adds Oyster to Its Distribution Network

The ebook distributor Draft2Digital already covers most of the major ebookstores, and today it expanded its service further into the subscription ebook market. Draft2Digital announced on Wednesday that it had signed a deal to distribute its catalog of 50,000 self-published titles Oyster....

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Playster Partners With Findaway World, Adds 50,000 Audiobooks to Its Subscription Platform

Toronto-based Playster announced on Wednesday that it was expanding its catalog. This subscription entertainment service has inked a deal with Findaway World to add 50,000 audiobook titles to Playster's service. Currently in beta, Playster offers a monthly subscription service that offers unlimited...

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Scalzi Says That KDP Select Payment Terms Suck, but He’s Missed Half of the Point

Amazon's announcement last week that it was changing the payment terms for KDP Select, the program used to supply books to Kindle Unlimited and Kindle Owner's Lending Library, has caused any number of traditionally published authors and legacy industry pundits to decry the change. John Scalzi, for...

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eBooks Won’t Actually Be Getting a Curfew in Germany

This blog broke the news late last week that German regulators were tightening the sales restrictions on adult ebooks. My two local sources had said that German ebook retailers would have to apply age verification and enact a curfew which restricted the sale of adult ebooks to between 10 pm and 6...

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Morning Coffee – 24 June 2015

Here are ten stories to read this Thursday morning. 4 sucky things about this $19 piece of junk that make it AMAZING for writing (kadavy.net) Apple tweaks iBooks rules for publishers, submitting pre-orders without assets now allowed (Talking New Media) Here’s How Amazon Could Fix Kindle Unlimited...

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The Bookseller Hopes For a Swiftian Response to Amazon, But That’s Really Just a Distraction From the More Serious Issues

Taylor Swift is making headlines again this week, and her influence is causing some to pine for a similar champion in the publishing  industry. As you may recall, Swift posted an open letter to Apple which she protested the three-month free trial period for the upcoming Apple Music service. Apple...

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Apple, Smashwords Now Let Authors Offer eBook Pre-Orders Sans eBook

Offering pre-orders on new releases is widely regarded as a useful marketing tool, so much so that indie authors were thrilled last fall when Amazon started letting all authors use it in KDP. Now Smashwords and Apple have gone one better. Last week Apple and Smashwords independently announced that...

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The UK’s Society of Authors Takes Aim at Unfair Contracts, Treatment of Authors

The Authors Guild has been getting a lot of press for its Fair Contract Initiative, but it's not the only pro authors group agitating for better treatment. Over in the UK The Society of Authors has announced that they're going to be pushing for better treatment of authors not just in terms of the...

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Apple iWatch Hacked to run Mac OS 7.5.5

Thanks to smartwatches basically being a complete computer on your wrist, we've seen them run everything from Tizen to full Android to Windows 95. And now you can add Mac OS to that list. Software developer Nick Lee has hacked an iWatch running watchOS 2 to run a port of the nineteen-year-old Mac...

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Why You (Still) Can’t Believe What You Read in the Papers

Dylann Roof has been described in the media as mass murderer, racist, and white supremacist, and if you read the NY Times last Saturday, he was also a brony (an adult fan of My Little Pony). Benjamin Wareing, a blogger in Britain, said the writings are nearly identical to blog posts that Mr. Roof...

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Morning Coffee – 23 June 2015

Here are 5 stories to read this morning. Apple receives Helen Keller Award for its pioneering VoiceOver feature (Cult of Mac) Bookstores Won’t Go the Way of Video Stores (Electric Literature) ComiXology 3.7: New app makes the best of the Amazon/Apple situation  (Six Colors) Fair Contract Terms...

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B&N to Release Yuzu App for OSX, Windows 10 in July

Barnes & Noble isn't going to let their train wreck of a digital textbook platform die the death it deserves; instead they're expanding support. I just got an email today with the news that B&N Education is about to release new versions of Yuzu and radically update the platform. When Yuzu...

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On Bookstores Going the Way of Video Stores

Electric Literature has joined the "it's just a flesh wound" crowd of bookstore boosters last week. Ex-video store clerk Jeremy Hawkins wrote a post last week in which he recounts the demise of video stores and argue that bookstores would not be going down the same path because: But then there are...

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DuckDuckGo May Be Growing By Leaps and Bounds, But 600% Growth from Nothing is Still Nothing

DuckDuckGo was in the press last week, touting its epic growth rate, but I think there's more hype here than substance. Fast Company covered the seven-year-old search engine, writing that: Over the last two years, DuckDuckGo's daily search queries have grown 600%, CEO Gabriel Weinberg told CNBC...

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This Typeface Simulates Reading with Dyslexia

Ever wondered what it's like to have dyslexia? Daniel Britton doesn't have to wonder; he's had the condition all his life, and now he's found a way to communicate it to others. Last week this UK-based graphic designer announced that he was working on a new typeface which is designed to show those...

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Morning Coffee – 22 June 2015

Your reading list this Monday morning kicks off with a critique of The Authors Guild's fair contract initiative, ends with a smart collection of quotes about women in books,  and has 6 stories in between. The Authors Guild has a fair contract initiative (Write on the River) The Entire Copyright...

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Penguin Random House Now Selling Book (Singular) on Twitter

There's a story going around today that the world's biggest trade publisher has set up shop and is now selling books on Twitter. I am not sure that is actually the case. While it is true that Random Penguin tweeted a link on Friday which led to a collection of what looks like sale pages, only......

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You Might Not Be Able to Afford Gardner Dozois’ 1,200 Title SF Library, But You Can Still Make Use of It

BoingBoing reports that Gardner Dozois has put his SF library up for sale. He's assembled the collection over the course of decades as a magazine editor and anthologist, and is hoping to sell it intact. All 1,200 plus titles - and that's just the spreadsheet listing the highlights; the actual...

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First Look at the Boyue Shine (T63) – Android, 300PPI Screen

For the past week or so I've been tracking hints of a new ereader from the Chinese company Boyue, and today I finally have something to report. First discovered by MR member hob last Monday, the Boyue Shine is Boyue's next-gen ereader. The product renders suggested that this device would sport a...

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It’s Now Illegal to Sell Adult eBooks Before 10 PM in Germany

Germany has just given us a graphic example of what can go wrong when one unthinkingly applies decades old legal concepts to modern web tech. Heise.de and Boersenblatt reported on Friday and Thursday that the Jugendschutzbehörde (Youth Protection Authority) has handed down a new ruling which...

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Web Publishers Escalate Arms Race With Ad Blockers

If there's one thing that some web publishers hate more than trolls, it's people who use ad blocking plugins. These plugins may be legal but web publishers aren't happy. Some are suing or threatening to sue, while others are taking a more direct approach. Remember a few years ago when Ars Technica...

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Comparison Video: Old Paperwhite, Kindle Voyage, & New Paperwhite

First-hand reports of Amazon's newest Kindle Paperwhite are still few and far between, but I have a treat for you. Len Edgerly of The Kindle Chronicles podcast is one of a lucky handful of bloggers to get an early review unit, and yesterday he posted a video which shows the differences between the...

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Is the Booq Cervantes the First Open-Source eReader ?

A reader has tipped me to the news that Booq, the Spanish ereader importer, is now promoting one of its ereaders as an open-source device. Booq has been selling ereaders bearing the Cervantes name since at least 2010, but the latest model is a little different. This 6" ereader has relatively...

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Amazon Bumps No-Rush Shipping Credit to Two Dollars

You're not using the Amazon's slow shipping option, are you? Amazon surely thinks that too many customers are too eager to get their items, because they've increased the mañana incentive. Over the past few weeks I've been getting pings from search bots about Amazon's No-Rush Shipping credit. The...

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Morning Coffee – 19 June 2015

This morning's reading list ranges from Kris Rusch's musings on gaming the system, a belated review of the Kobo Glo HD, to a debate on Pronoun's latest funding round. Author's Guild Proposing Contract Challenges (TeleRead) Business Musings: Gaming the System (Kristine Kathryn Rusch) Have We Come...

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Marvel Renews Comixology Deal, Expands Exclusive Digital Comic Deal to Include Kindle Store

Amazon's purchase of Comixology last year started paying the expected dividends this week. Marvel and Comixology announced on Thursday that they had signed a deal to extend their exclusive relationship on single issue comics. Marvel's digital floppies will continue to be exclusively available...

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Instapaper Opens Its API, Gives Free Users More App Options

If you have a 3rd-party Instapaper app you've always wanted to try, now is your chance. Instapaper announced on its blog yesterday that it was loosening a restriction on the Instapaper API, finally making it possible for free Instapaper users to use any 3rd-party app which supports Instapaper. When...

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The Authors Guild Takes Aim at Boilerplate Author Contracts

The Authors Guild has followed through on their promise to critique the boilerplate clauses in author-publisher contracts. Yesterday TAG published the first in what they say will be a series of posts on the topic. I'm still waiting for the lawyer who runs The Passive Voice blog to post his opinion,...

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Oh, No! A Single Blogger is Complaining About the Publisher Terms for Apple News

Do you want to hear the latest nonsense involving Apple? There's a story going around the blogosphere that "publishers" are upset over the terms of Apple's newest service. It seems Apple has sent out an email to select online  publishers and informed them that they were being included in Apple News...

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Morning Coffee – 18 June 2015

Must read stories include a hands-on report for the new Paperwhite,  more piracy in Google Play, a new platform for serial fiction, and more. Founder of The Pigeonhole on the serialized future of books (Talking New Media) LinkedIn Publishing Platform Provides Outlet for Blogs (Indies Unlimited)...

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Five for Five – Amazon Inks Deal With Random Penguin

Reports of Amazon's negotiations with Penguin Random House were not greatly exaggerated: Amazon has signed new long-term sales agreements with Penguin Random House in both the U.S and U.K. PRH was the last of the American “Big Five” publishers to reach a deal over sales terms for print and e-books....

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Bonnier to Go DRM-Free in Germany

When it comes to the major publishers of the world, most insist on DRM, but Bonnier is breaking ranks. This Sweden-based media conglomerate is going to be dropping DRM from the ebooks published by several of its German subsidiaries. Lesen.net reports that Bonnier Media Deutschland will be going...

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eBook Subscription Services Are Legal in France

If you've been following digital publishing news over the past 6 months then you probably know that in late December French regulators expressed doubts that subscription ebook services were legal under France's fixed price book laws. Those doubts solidified into a legal opinion in February 2015...

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Oyster for iOS, Android Updated With New Color Filter Option

Many reading apps on mobile devices can control the screen brightness setting, but few can match the feature that Oyster just added to its mobile apps. Oyster rolled out a new version of its reading app for iPad and iPhone which adds a couple reading themes (Ace and Highline) as well as Lumin, a...

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New Kindle Paperwhite Ships This Month, Will Cost $139 and have a 300ppi Screen

When Kobo announced the new Kobo Glo HD a couple months back, I suggested that Amazon was going to have to respond by making the Kindle Paperwhite a lot cheaper. Amazon disagreed, and today they revealed that they took a different path. Amazon sent out press releases on Wednesday announcing a new...

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The Recent Tintin Ruling Offers a Valuable Reminder that Creators Need to Understand the Contracts They Sign

How well do you know the contracts you've sign? In the case of the Belgian cartoonist Herge (or rather his estate), the answer is not very well. The Comics Reporter and Artnet reported last week that the Herge estate has lost an important copyright lawsuit over Tintin, the famous Belgian cartoon...

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Morning Coffee – 17 June 2015

The reading list is short this morning. Android on Kobo Touch E-book reader (Instructables) The Blending Puppies (Spacefaring, Extradimensional Happy Kittens) Keep those rejection slips coming, authors: Scottish prize goes to book rejected 44 times (TeleRead) The Devil’s Experiment or How...

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Aspiring Author Blames Publishing Cabal for Closure of All Self-Pub Platforms

Every time I start to think that Porter Andersen might have a point when he tells indie authors that there's no need to proselytize any more, a post like the following crosses my desk. Iain S Thomas wrote for The Huffington Post today about his struggles to get his first book published. Tell me if...

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HTC Says Adverts Are Coming To BlinkFeed (You’ll Be Able To Opt Out)

HTC's response to Flipboard never made its way to other devices like we were promised in March of last year, and after today's news I am glad of that fact. HTC announced on their blog today that they were adding a fun new update to their news reader app. According to Android Police, HTC is going......

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Hands On With Netronix 13.3″ Android eReader (video)

Destined to be the perennial show floor exhibit but never the product, Netronix's 13.3" Android powered writing slate made another appearance this week in Taipei. Charbax caught up with Netronix at Computex a few days ago and shot a video of the latest pre-production model. Like the one I saw at...

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The US Army is Adopting Epub

For reasons that escape me, the world's largest military force is adopting Epub (as well as a proprietary format called E2Book). This crossed my desk today: The Army is pushing knowledge to the point of need by making e-Publications available for download to Soldiers’ mobile devices. Doctrinal...

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Kobo Adds Instant Book Previews to its iOS App

Kobo released a new version of its iOS app yesterday. Update v7.7 is a relatively minor update which adds only a single feature (besides the usual bug fixes), and that would be instant book previews. When Amazon added the sampler section to the Kindle iOS app in December it was clear that they had...

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Amazon’s First Retail Store Gets Robbed, Cash Stolen

Amazon may know all there is to know about online retail but there are still a few details about brick and mortar retail which escapes them. For the past four months Amazon has been running a virtual bookstore, or unstore as I call it, on the campus of Purdue University. That unstore is more of a...

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Morning Coffee – 16 June 2015

Must read stories this Tuesday morning include Amazon's staff problems at the unstore at Purdue, the end of Discworld, how shorter is better when it comes to nonfiction, more nonsense about all authors having a hybrid future, and more. 7 Signs You Might Be a Special Snowflake (Rogue Editors) How to...

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Apple is Hiring an Editor for Apple News

Apple has decided to add a human element to back up the algorithms of its not yet launched Apple News app. 9to5Mac and TNM reported on Tuesday that Apple is looking to recruit a journalist to serve as Editor, Apple News. Applicants need to have a bachelor's degree and 5 plus year's experience....

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Baen Books Reveals Amazon’s Byzantine Policies on Kindle Email Delivery

When I first reported a few weeks ago that Baen Books was one of the publishers which was no longer going to deliver the ebooks you buy to your Kindle, I was the one and only news site to report the strange news that Amazon was blocking publishers but not retailers. While it was puzzling... Read...

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Amazon Changes Terms for KDP Select, Will Now Pay Authors Based on Pages Read

Over the weekend I explained how Amazon was using the payment terms in KDP Select to manipulate the supply of ebooks in Kindle Unlimited, and damned if they didn't just do it again. Amazon has just announced that starting 1 July, they will no longer be paying authors based on the number of times...

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Tom Kabinet Opens a Membership-Supported eBookstore

With Kindle Unlimited, Oyster, Scribd, Blloon, and other services toiling away, ebook subscription services are quite common today. However, Tom Kabinet has found a way to turn the model on its head. Last week Tom Kabinet launched a new ebook service. I'm still not quite sure how to classify this...

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Arta Tech Partners With Boyue, Releases the Inkbook Onyx Android eReader

Rarely do new product launches signal a shift in the market, but I think there's more to this next device than meets the eye. I just got an email from Arta Tech, an ereader seller in Poland. They're announcing the release of their newest model, the Inkbook Onyx, a 6" ereader that runs Android on a...

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Aldi Launches a 79 Euro eReader in Belgium

Aldi is now carrying a budget ereader in its stores in Belgium. It doesn't look like much, and frankly we don't know much about it, but it does offer a new option for readers. The Billow BK6031L has a 6" E-ink screen with touchscreen (frontlight?). It packs in 4GB internal storage and a microSD...

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Morning Coffee – 15 June 2015

Here are seven stories to read this morning. Another startup is trying to provide context around the news (Nieman Journalism Lab) Disruption in Publishing (The Passive Voice) INFOGRAPHIC: A world of languages - and how many speak them (South China Morning Post) iOS 9 content blocking extensions are...

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Introducing the Oblivion Principle: If You Have to Ask Whether Something Will Save Publishing, the Answer is No

Publishing is in love with the idea of being saved by some external factor or new fad. If it's not Pottermore (direct sales), it's Apple. If it's not Bookish, it's Google. (Even Amazon was viewed at one time as a savior rescuing publishing from the bookstore chains.) The latest saviors of the...

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Ask Google About What Happened to the Dinosaurs, And It Will Cite the Bible

If you have a few minutes today, go ask Google what happened to the dinosaurs. It will bring a smile to your face. If you go search right now, chances are you will see that the Google-approved explanation is drawn from a creationist website:   Google has been endorsing that source for going on...

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YOLO Juliet Improves on Shakespeare By Adding TextSpeak

Over the past 400 years Shakespeare's works have been staged innumerable times, with each new performance making subtle alterations to the original. Few of those productions, however, have made changes quite as extreme as what Penguin Random House has pulled off. This otherwise respectable...

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The Best-Sellers Lists Explained (video)

Did you ever wonder why certain titles got on to the various best sellers lists? If you suspected that there was an evil cabal secretly manipulating the list then you would be correct. As Studio C explains, books are added to the list not due to merit or sales but by a committee that is acting......

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How Le Guin Got It Right (Accidentally): Amazon is Manipulating the eBook Market

When Ursula K Le Guin posted her Amazon rant a couple weeks ago she was roundly derided by the indie publishing community, but it turns out her arguments may have accidentally hit the mark. Le Guin blamed Amazon for destroying for destroying the legacy publishing industry through...

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