James Robertson's daily 365-word stories are a promising idea let down by poor digital designNew Year's Day saw the launch of 365, a collaboration between Scottish writer James Robertson and Hamish Hamilton, a Penguin imprint. It sounded promising: one 365-word story to be published online every day, with a print collection at the end of the year.I was disappointed to find out Robertson wrote them all last year. The best thing about digital publishing is its immediacy, so it would have been nice to publish the stories as soon as they were written. That way, 365 could have been a gripping feat of endurance, as well as an experiment in form.Robertson's stories are published on fivedials.com, the home of Hamish Hamilton's literary journal. I read Day 13, about a government minister who discovers the "five a day" initiative is poisoning the public. It's wry and imaginative, not bad for 365 words, but leaves me wanting more. I look for the stories from the last two weeks but can't find them. The website only displays the latest one.There are no links to the previous stories. The only way of reading them is by scrolling down @fivedials's Twitter feed or manually adding /day12 or /day3 to the URL.Navigation and usability are so fundamental to design it seems strange that they have been overlooked. If the Five Dials site was unable to cope with an archive of posts, why not build a microsite? And how about a daily mailing list so the stories get delivered direct to your... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2014-01-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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It is widely acknowledged that the e-textbook market is yet to fulfill its promise and potential. Why do adoption levels remain so low? Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2013-01-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Looking back on this week's Digital Book World conference, we distill the event into three key ideas: price innovation, discoverability and authenticity. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2013-01-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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From corporate consolidation to book discoverability, to how books are produced and bought, to the proliferation of new devices to read them on, this year’s Digital Book World was a whirlwind tour of the industry’s changing landscape. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2013-01-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Newspaper and magazine publishing company Advance Publications Inc. has acquired Seattle-based digital advertising agency Pop, the companies announced this week. Pop will operate as an independent division of Advance Publications. Continue reading at Editor & Publisher
[ Editor & Publisher | 2013-01-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Harlequin UK is launching a new digital-only imprint called Carina UK, which will encompass all... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-01-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Forrester Research and DBW presented the findings of their Executive Publishing Survey on ebooks, devices and digital publishing predictions for 2013. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2013-01-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Hardbound books, apparently, are soooo 20th century -- at least for the upcoming BiblioTech library in San Antonio, Texas' south side. When the shiny, new public library opens its doors to bookworms this fall, visitors will notice something important missing: actual books. Instead, the facility... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2013-01-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Fresh from apparently wrangling online content fees from Google last month, Belgian newspaper websites will, in 2013, launch an industry-wide platform to take back their readers. Major Flemish- and French-language newspaper publishers, magazine publ ... Continue reading at Editor & Publisher
[ Editor & Publisher | 2013-01-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Publishers often want to work closely with ebook outlets -- possibly a little too closely -- but it's rare that they involve themselves directly. Pearson is taking that uncommon step by making a 5 percent, $89.5 million investment in Nook Media, the joint venture between Barnes & Noble and... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2012-12-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Nearly a quarter of Americans have read ebooks in the past year, with the number of... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-12-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Hachette UK saw 250,000 ebook sales between Christmas Day and Boxing Day, The Bookseller can... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-12-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Bloomsbury, with its new Just Great Reads promotion, is running what it is calling the "first ever" global marketing campaign targeted expressly at readers who favor devices. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2012-12-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Piatkus has acquired two debut UK authors, with their works to be published on their digital-... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-12-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Children's publishers' digital Christmas strategies are already being unwrapped, with... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-12-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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It's been quite a year for Newsweek. As the magazine plans for its transition to a digital-only future, you can count the remaining print editions of the storied publication on one hand. It's without question that this fall has been a tough one for the 80 year old magazine, capped by the... Continue reading at AdWeek
[ AdWeek | 2012-12-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The online comics marketplace has exploded over the past year. Here, from innovative indies to blockbuster franchise extensions, some of the best from the emerging world of digital comics. 2012 was the year digital-direct comics went mainstream. Entirely bypassing the tried-and-true supply... Continue reading at Fast Company
[ Fast Company | 2012-12-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The Daily will publish its final issue this month after News Corporation bigwigs decided to pull the plug on the original iPad-only newspaper, proving it’s not easy to sell subscriptions to enhanced print-style media to a digital audience. ... Continue reading at Editor & Publisher
[ Editor & Publisher | 2012-12-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Eric Schmidt, executive chairman of Google, and Jared Cohen, director of Google Ideas, will address the promises and pitfalls of a digitally connected world in a book titled “The New Digital Age: Reshaping the Future of People, Nations and Business,” due out on April 23 from Knopf. Continue reading at AllThingsD
[ AllThingsD | 2012-12-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Agency Curtis Brown has launched a digital self-publishing programme through Kindle Direct... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-12-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Barnes & Noble has grown Nook digital content sales by 38% year-on-year in its second quarter... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-11-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
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