Are you a good listener? More and more people consider themselves to be, and the evidence is impressive: according to the Audio Publishers Association (APA), audiobook sales grew 22.7% with over 46,000 audiobooks published in 2017, and podcasts now total more than 500,000, up from 150,000 last year. According to eMarketer, 73 million people in the…Continue Reading
A recent article in The Telegraph calls 2015 “the year Amazon delivered on its founder’s vision.” The reporter James Titcomb explains that in 2015 Amazon grew to double its share price, finally became profitable, and is now “almost untouchable as an online retailer” due to its streamlined delivery service. While it’s been a good year…Continue Reading
With audiobook sales numbers on the rise over the past two years, retailers have been searching for new ways to appeal to wider audiences. So far, the most common trends have been straight-to-audio publications, library digital downloads, abridged audiobooks, and an increase in subscription services. However, speculation has begun to spread as to whether publishers…Continue Reading
As dead as August is on the rest of the world’s cultural calendar, there might well be no more important month in Scotland. In addition to the Fringe Theater Festival, every August brings the Edinburgh International Book Festival (EIBF), this year running August 11-27. With over 800 authors and around a quarter of a million…Continue Reading
Hard on the heels of the AAUP (covered below) came the biannual National Museum Publishing Seminar (June 21-23), which also took place in Chicago, bringing with it questions of how effective museum publishers’ efforts have been in the digital space. Every two years, museums and other arts and university presses gather for programs addressing publishing concerns…Continue Reading
As authors venture further into inking separate e-book or multimedia deals with publishers like Open Road, the threat of lawsuits from their print publishers looms. The legal tug-of-war has only just begun with the 2001 judgment in the Random House v. Rosetta Books case, said speakers at the “Rethinking Author Contracts for the Digital World” panel during last month’s Publishing Business Conference in New York.
Differentiation and budgeting are key to successfully entering the booming mobile app marketplace, said panelists last month at the Publishing Business Conference’s “Making the Most out of Your Mobile Opportunity.”
Though hardly the “Jesus tablet” it was purported to be, the new Apple iPad offers game-changing, possibly industry-saving opportunities in paginated media, according to Tuesday’s mediaIDEAS webinar “Blowing Away the Hype: What Is Your Future, iPad or E-readers?”
Though we’ve recently noticed a few more Kindles on the subway, mobile phones are infinitely more common. As more consumers choose to read e-books on their smartphones rather than purchase standalone e-reading devices, publishers are working to create apps and other iPhone-ready content. Flurry, a company that provides analytics to mobile phone application developers, found…Continue Reading
