How Minecraft has bewitched 40 million of us

The worldwide domination of Markus Persson's building-blocks game is a triumph for the power of human imaginationA funny thing happened on the way to this column. Browsing idly through the Publishers Weekly site, I came on the list of the Nielsen bestselling books of 2014 (so far) in the US. The Top 20 list was dominated by "young adult" fiction, books such as Divergent by Veronica Roth and John Green's The Fault in Our Stars, plus the usual movie tie-ins. At No 9 ,there's a religious book, Jesus Calling: Enjoying Peace in His Presence by missionary Sarah Young. At No 11 is Heaven is for Real ("A little boy's astounding story of his trip to Heaven and back").Two slots further down there's a "junior novelisation" of the Disney film, Frozen. At No 15 is an "activity book", complete with 50 stickers, based on the same film. Continue reading... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'

[ The Guardian | 2014-08-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
News tagged with: #young adult #veronica roth #john green #jesus calling #activity book

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E-book Publishers Reach $69 Million Settlement With States

Three book publishers will pay more than US$69 million to U.S. states to settle charges they collaborated to fix prices of ebooks. Continue reading at PC World

[ PC World | 2012-08-30 00:00:00 UTC ]
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HoZ buys Kindle million-seller

Head of Zeus has acquired eight novels in the Donovan Creed series by Kindle millionaire John... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2012-08-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Erotic book passes million mark

Erotic book Fifty Shades of Grey has become the fastest adult paperback novel to sell one million print copies, smashing previous records. Continue reading at BBC News

[ BBC News | 2012-06-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Fifty Shades fastest to a million, obliterates records

All three books in E L James' Fifty Shades trilogy (Arrow) last week surpassed the single... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2012-06-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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EL James hits one million mark on Kindle in UK

EL James has been revealed as Amazon.co.uk’s bestselling ebook author ever, with her debut... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2012-06-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Unified Scores $10 Million from Conde Nast Parent Advance Publications

It looks to be a good time for tech investments, with enterprise marketing company Unified receiving $10 million from Conde Nast parent company Advance Publications. Continue reading at Folio Magazine

[ Folio Magazine | 2012-06-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Future plc iPad App Sales Hit $5 Million Since Newsstand Debut

In its interim statement for its fiscal half-year ending March 2012, enthusiast publisher Future plc is reporting a quickly growing digital operation. Continue reading at Folio Magazine

[ Folio Magazine | 2012-05-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Daunt: 'tens of millions' going into Waterstones refit

The Waterstones decision to sell Amazon Kindles and ebooks has provoked widespread discussion in... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2012-05-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The Atavist Lands $1.5 Million in Funding

Long form digital journalism publisher and app developer The Atavist secured a round of funding worth $1.5 million. The first million was confirmed last week, while founder Evan Ratliff says the rest is committed and “will happen over the coming weeks.” Continue reading at Folio Magazine

[ Folio Magazine | 2012-05-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Microsoft Invests $300 Million in Upcoming Barnes & Noble Subsidiary

After announcing plans to possibly spin off its NOOK business in January, Barnes & Noble enters into a partnership with Microsoft. The tech company invested $300 million in the new subsidiary (currently under the working title NewCo), a post-money valuation of $1.7 billion, equating to a... Continue reading at Folio Magazine

[ Folio Magazine | 2012-05-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Vatican, Bodleian Libraries will publish millions of ancient texts online

Works that will be available for perusal will include Gutenberg's Bible, believed to be the first text ever printed. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor

[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2012-04-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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RR Donnelley Invests $2.5 Million in Catalog App

Continuing to diversify beyond its role as a printer, RR Donnelley made a reported $2.5 million investment in the catalog shopping app CoffeeTable, which allows tablet users to browse and purchase from multiple retailers’ catalogs directly w Continue reading at Folio Magazine

[ Folio Magazine | 2012-04-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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RR Donnelley Invests $2.5 Million in CoffeeTable

Continuing to diversify beyond its role as a printer, RR Donnelley made a reported $2.5 million investment in the catalog shopping app CoffeeTable, which allows tablet users to browse and purchase from multiple retailers’ catalogs directly w Continue reading at Folio Magazine

[ Folio Magazine | 2012-04-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Stora Enso Restructures to Drop $63.6 Million in Costs

Stora Enso has announced a restructuring plan that aims to cut costs in its annual magazine paper operation by about $63.6 million by third quarter 2013, with the goal of improving efficiency and productivity. Continue reading at Folio Magazine

[ Folio Magazine | 2012-02-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Indigo and Books-a-Million join boycott of Amazon print titles

Canadian bookselling chain Indigo Books and Music and Books-a-Million have joined ranks with... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2012-02-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Polar Mobile Raises $6 Million For HTML5-Based Publishing Platform, MediaEverywhere

Polar Mobile, a digital media platform provider that builds apps for some of the biggest media companies, today announced it has secured an additional $6 million in funding. The new round, led by growth equity firm Georgian Partners, joins more than ... Continue reading at Editor & Publisher

[ Editor & Publisher | 2012-01-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Bloomsbury ebook sales up nearly 40% in final quarter of 2011

Bloomsbury had a "strong" final three months of 2011, with ebook sales growing "... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2012-01-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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24 Million Secondary Characters: a Q&A with Adam Johnson

The Tip Sheet asked the author of The Orphan Master's Son: A Novel of North Korea what kind of impact the death of “dear leader” Kim Jong-il will have on the nation’s oppressed citizenry. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2012-01-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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1 in 40 people now have e-readers

Over 90% of the e-readers bought over Christmas were Kindles, according to research released... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2012-01-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Kindles Sell by the Millions

Analysis: Amazon's admission of selling a million Kindles per week is good news for the ebook market in general. Continue reading at PC World

[ PC World | 2011-12-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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