Inkling is releasing an update of their reader apps that expands the interactive textbook and multimedia book platform to support iPhones and iPod touches. (Up until now, Inkling has worked on the iPad only.) Among the phone-optimized features, users can choose to download just a chapter at a time to their smaller screens. With their Inkling Habitat service for publishing by third parties, ceo Matt MacInnis claims in the release, “We’re now the world’s only publishing platform for interactive content on phones, tablets and the web.” He adds, “This is the first time anyone has shrunk complex content like textbooks […]
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People, Etc.
At S&S Children’s, Hannah Buchsbaum has joined Little Simon as associate editor. Previously she was at Disney Press. Michael Rediker is joining Books-a-Million as corporate development analyst, responsible for identifying, analyzing and implementing strategic corporate initiatives within the organization, including new business growth opportunities. He will report to evp James Turner. He was most recently with the investment banking firm Paces Battle Group. Author Maeve Binchy, 72, died after what was reported as a short illness. Ireland’s RTE says she sold over 40 million books in 42 languages. Ireland’s president Michael Higgins called her “an outstanding novelist, short story writer and columnist” and […]
Trying Again to Dismiss Scanning Suit, Google Reasons No Harm, No Foul
Though Google failed in their recent attempt to block fresh certification of the author class in the long-running lawsuit over the library book scanning project, the search giant continues to try to bring the legal battle to an end. In a series of submissions last Friday, Google asked the court for summary judgment (or adjudication). The filing is perhaps best as a marking post of how much the online publishing world has changed–and its fundamental business models have not–in the 8 years since Google started scanning books in libraries. Google’s motion includes an extensive list of what they call “uncontested […]
People: Jones Takes Over at Bookseller
At the UK’s The Bookseller, deputy editor Philip Jones has been promoted to be editor, taking over from editor-in-chief Neill Denny who “is leaving to follow new opportunities but will remain an integral part” of the magazine’s editorial team, including writing a new column starting in September. To file under “etc.” or enews, Weinstein Books has a promotional twist for an ebook giveaway. Their ebook of You Changed My Life: A Memoir, by Abdel Sellou, the man whose life story is the basis of the Weinstein movie The Intouchables, is available free between July 27 and August 3. Moviegoers will receive a […]
From the Cloud, Hachette Announces Three Services for Other Publishers
At today’s Publishers Launch Conference on Book Publishing In the Cloud, Hachette Book Group chief operating officer Ken Michaels announced three software-as-a-service offerings that the publisher developed for their own use and will now make available for license by other publishers, “allowing the industry to take advantage of our innovations.” BookRadar, developed with and now marketed by CoEnterprise, lets publishers automatically monitor how their digital titles are displayed on key retailer sites. It highlights discrepancies (or compliance) in pricing as well on sale availability and release dates–compared to the publisher’s own ONIX data–and creates vendor performance scorecards. Separately, it also […]
A Closer Look at What BookStats Says About the Trade (It’s Still Flat)
Now that BookStats has released some additional data to their paying subscribers, we’re allowed to provide deeper coverage of our own of their “extrapolations” of revenue shifts across trade publishing. (Our first story is here.) As a standing reminder, we subtract religious book sales of roughly $1.5 billion from the BookStats “trade” data. So all of the data you see below is our own modification and analysis of tables generously provided by BookStats. And this all derives from two relatively simple spreadsheets; the BookStats full annual report and electronic digital dashboard provide a wealth of additional, highly granular data across […]