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If this week’s news column were an episode of The Simpsons it would consist entirely of Bart, standing at the board, endlessly repeating the line “Ebook sales are not in crisis.” I want to devote most of the column this week to this one topic. That might sound excessive. After all, every month or so I dutifully report on the Association of American Publishers’ figures and I add the same caveats each time, and carry on as before. But this time is different. Because this time the mainstream media has got in on the act in a big way. And that has been brought home to me by the fact that several of my friends from outside the indie community have been sharing stories with me. In other words, the disinformation has breached the indie walls – and that means it could be doing real damage to people’s writing plans. OK, let’s get back to the news. This week, following similar figures from the Association of American, the UK Publishers Association announced a 17% fall in ebook sales in 2017. The media leapt on it. The Guardian called it “screen fatigue”. They even ran a piece about how e-readers had become “clunky and unhip”. The national broadcaster had a slightly different take, but even they simply took the figures on board. Even CNN picked it up in the USA. But is it true? Many of us have been querying the “downfall of ebooks” narrative for a long time now. The thing is it may or may not be happening, but these figures don’t tell us – these are figures from selected big publishers for books with ISBNs. That leaves a *massive* hiatus, a mass of ebooks that just aren’t being counted. We *can* be fairly sure that the positive things we are hearing about paper book sales are near the mark. But when it comes to the negatives on ebooks, the same isn’t true. And the prevailing narrative, that one format’s success is another’s failure, is certainly not clear. I will leave the last word to the ever-brilliant Nate Hoffelder, who takes down the “ebooks are failing” narrative coruscatingly...
It’s 2016. We are landing rockets on floating platforms in the ocean. Engineers are developing high-speed transportation systems in which pressured capsules ride on air cushions facilitated by linear induction motors. A network of high-altitude Wi-Fi balloons is being designed to float on the edge of space so that everyone on the planet can connect to the Internet.
And ebooks turn pages.
What happened to the exciting digital future of ebooks?
As the leader in the digital book space, Amazon is doing very little to innovate around ebooks. Last week, ZDNet ran a series of articles titled “Why Amazon is the king of innovation.” As it pertains to Prime, drone delivery, and Amazon Web Services, Amazon is exceptionally innovative. Arguably the best. But finding one ebook in a vast digital store and reading it on an e-ink device is archaic compared to Amazon’s other initiatives. “It reads in the sunlight” is about as innovative as “It’s called a fax machine.”
Why are our friends in Seattle so slow when it comes to the future of reading?...
Each year I write an annual Smashwords year in review and then preview what's coming for the new year. Welcome to the 2015/2016 edition!
The short version of this post is that amid a general slowdown in the ebook market, characterized by a glut of high-quality low-cost ebooks and flat or declining sales industry-wide, Smashwords is focused on the long term.
Although we've been in business for almost eight years, we still feel like we've only begun to scratch the surface of what's possible. We're looking ten years ahead and laying the groundwork today to enable a better long term future for the constituencies we serve - authors, publishers, retailers, libraries, readers, and book culture. A quick introduction for thet thousands of authors and publishers who are new to Smashwords this year: I founded the company in 2008 to make it fast, free and easy for any writer, anywhere in the world, to self-publish an ebook. In 2009 we began distributing our books to major retailers starting with Barnes & Noble.
Today we've grown to become the world's largest distributor of self-published ebooks. Over the years we've opened up exciting new sales channels for indie authors and small indie publishers that were previously inaccessible or didn't exist....
In a one-to-one school district, teachers have the freedom to create, curate, and share content like never before. Read more to find out how Google Slides can give you such liberty!
Via Ana Cristina Pratas
Amazon’s new Kindle Unlimited e-book reader subscription program caused a real commotion in the publishing industry last month. But how will this “Netflix for books” model affect the self-publishing industry? Is Kindle Unlimited the best, or should self-publishers join the Scribd or Oyster programs instead? How do you get in? Read on for a comparison of these top three reader subscription programs and best recommendations for self-publishers who are looking to add these channels to their revenue streams....
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But making an ebook can be overwhelming. Not only do you have to write the content, but you also need to design and format it into a professional-looking document that people will want to download and read. But with lead generation as the top goal for content marketing, ebooks are an essential part of any successful inbound marketing program.
So in this post, we'll walk you through the ins and outs of creating an ebook by ... well ... creating an ebook. And if you're worried about your lacking design skills? Fret not ...
Download 5 pre-designed, customizable ebook templates for free here. For even more options, download 13 more ebook templates here.
Got your free templates? Ready to create an ebook? Great -- let's get to it....
UP UNTIL A few years ago, most books in the public domain were lacking. Not lacking in words, which hadn’t changed, but lacking in style, lacking in design, lacking, mostly, in the emotional bond many readers forge when (sorry!) they judge a book by its cover. Most of the classics found on Project Gutenberg didn’t have a cover, and those that did tended to have a scanned, grainy image from a long time ago. “It might technically be available, but if it is, it’s ugly and poor quality,” Jennifer 8. Lee, a co-founder of digital literary studio Plympton, says of the covers on many public domain texts.
It feels wrong to complain about something that’s free, but without a cover, a book, though certainly still a book, is just a bit less gripping. Two years ago, Lee and her collaborators at Plympton were redesigning the website for DailyLit, which aims to get people to read small chunks of fiction daily. They figured they’d use books from Project Gutenberg, the volunteer effort to digitize and archive classic works in the public domain. Then they saw what they were working with. Lee considered commissioning new covers. “It was prohibitively expensive,” she says. Then she recalled a conversation she had with Creative Action Network, a startup aimed at crowdsourcing artwork to support artists and social causes. (Remember Design for Obama? That was them.)...
Working in a one-to-one school district, where every student is provided with a device such as an iPad or Chromebook, can be a great opportunity of freedom for teachers and students. The device serves as an efficient tool to create and curate information, as well as, a flexible environment to share content.
No longer does an individual need to negotiate with textbook publishers and be locked into the confines of the perception of the authors of a company when it comes to the content and methods that should be used to teach a specific skill or understanding. The digital world allows for educators to create e-books, or electronic versions of a book that may contain interactive elements, that can be produced, shared, and modified quickly and with little expense to a school district....
Via Ana Cristina Pratas
Or, to use another analogy, it's kind of like a display of orange slices at the grocery store, giving shoppers an opportunity to taste a sample before committing to a purchase. After all, it's awfully disappointing to arrive home with a bag of oranges that appeared juicy and delicious, but are actually dry and tasteless.
Similarly, most of us have been burned by purchasing something online that didn't quite deliver on its promise. People want to see what they're getting themselves into, and you can facilitate that with an ebook. Remember, just because it’s got “book” in the name, it doesn’t need to be a novel. You can make an ebook with a collection of testimonials, case studies and examples of your work, or a basic introduction to your offerings that will leave your readers wanting more....
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ALLi's self-publishing news looks at allegedly falling ebook sales, a good week for Amazon, and a controversial week for box sets