Oyster, a fledgling mobile service for Spotify-style on-demand books, has raised $3 million in funding led by Peter Thiel's Founders Fund. Oyster, which is still a work in progress, will let users of its mobile app access, discover, and read an ever-growing range of titles and genres, all on your smartphone and all for a flat monthly fee, which it hasn't yet disclosed. In a blog post, the founders emphasize they'll focus a lot of their attention on the discovery aspect of Oyster to help readers finding new titles to read by considering all your existing sources of book recommendations: your friends, TV shows, role models, and algorithms. "When everyone has access to the same library, you can share and curate with confidence," they write. "Friends can read the same book in one-click, without having to make an additional purchase or hunt for a link to buy it." There are a handful of subscription-based models floating around, but their focus is usually on a niche selection of titles. Yesterday, Harper Collins announced it will start offering subscription-based business and leadership titles through e-learning company Skillsoft's on-demand training library. The TED Books app charges $14.99 for a three-month, six-mini-books plan that delivers short titles written by its conference speakers. But because so much of Oyster's mission is about helping its users discover new titles, it's naturally looking to offer as wide a range of genres, publishers, and authors as possible. That... Continue reading at 'Fast Company'
[ Fast Company | 2012-10-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
Amazon UK has extended Prime Now, which allows customers to receive goods within one hour of purchasing, to Birmingham and the surrounding areas. From today (6th August), shoppers in Birmingham, and towns such as Lichfield, Cannock and Tamworth, can benefit from the super-fast delivery times if... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-08-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The Book Doctor goes right back to beginnings of YA and teen fiction in the 1950s and 1960s to investigate whether author age has anything to do with reader experienceI saw several really young writers at the Young Adult Literature Convention (Yalc) who seem to know just what their readers are... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2015-07-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) is looking for aspiring writers of children’s films and TV shows for its new writing forum. The competition is part of the BAFTA Rocliffe New Writing Forum, a long-running initiative which was created to give a platform to undiscovered... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-06-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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It wasn't terribly long ago when credible food photographers and chefs really only wanted to be found in magazines like Bon Appétit and Food & Wine. But thanks to the explosion of mobile photography over the past few years, more and more culinary pros are showing off their best pics every... Continue reading at AdWeek
[ AdWeek | 2015-06-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Wal-Mart Stores' planned competitor to the Amazon Prime service will have a price advantage, but catching up with its e-commerce rival won't be easy.Wal-Mart announced plans yesterday to give online customers unlimited free shipping for $50 a year, half the cost of Prime. What it lacks is... Continue reading at Advertising Age
[ Advertising Age | 2015-05-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Facebook's tentacles are reaching deeper into the publishing ecosystem. One of its newest tools, interest targeting, lets publishers target their content on Facebook to fans of niche communities like sports or TV shows. The tool is showing results for publishers like The New York Times, which is... Continue reading at Digiday
[ Digiday | 2015-04-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Specs Age 28 Claim to fame Stars as Ezra Fitz on ABC Family's Pretty Little Liars; five-time Teen Choice Awards winner Base Los Angeles Twitter @IANMHARDING What's the first information you consume in the morning? I wake up, I'll meditate, and then I'll read something. I try to wake up 45... Continue reading at AdWeek
[ AdWeek | 2015-03-31 00:00:00 UTC ]
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BitTorrent today announced a partnership with Rapid Eye Studios to launch BitTorrent Originals. Together, the pair will create original video content and distribute it exclusively on BitTorrent Bundle, the company’s publishing platform. The post BitTorrent Will Soon Produce Its Own TV Shows... Continue reading at Wired
[ Wired | 2015-02-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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A story about three animals in a hot air balloon has won The Big Idea Competition, which launched earlier this year to find multi-platform story ideas. The competition was announced in June by Chicken House publisher and m.d. Barry Cunningham and agent Neil Blair. The pair wanted to find... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2014-11-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The subscription service is adding 30,000 recorded books to the half-million ebooks it already offers.Thirteen months ago, San Francisco startup Scribd launched a service which aims to do for books what Netflix does for movies and TV shows. It offers a large-but-not-utterly-comprehensive... Continue reading at Fast Company
[ Fast Company | 2014-11-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Sales bumps after books are adapted as movies or TV shows are nothing new, but 'Gone Girl' author Flynn and 'Outlander' writer Gabaldon are seeing their older books reappear and hold steady on bestseller lists as well. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2014-10-30 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Harry Potter, The Gruffalo, and Horrid Henry are the top book brands for children, according to a report commissioned by the Licensing Industry Merchandisers’ Association (LIMA). The report—released at the Brand Licensing Europe (BLE) exhibition, held in London last week—found that books were... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2014-10-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Publisher promises it will arm you with enough vocabulary and grammar to have a complete conversation in DothrakiLanguages created for TV shows can have a powerful fascination for fans: just look at Star Treks Klingon language for proof of that. Game of Thrones Dothraki language also fits into... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2014-10-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Whether or not Starbucks' actual coffee gets you buzzing, the retailer's marketing efforts always seem like a pretty good wake-up call to the competition. The Seattle-based brand has shown rare ability with Facebook ads, Tumblr promos and mobile marketing. Now add Instagram videos to the mix. ... Continue reading at AdWeek
[ AdWeek | 2014-10-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The traditional kickoff night for Comic-Con attracted the usual mob of fans looking to get their first glimpse of a show floor full of comics, games, TV shows and more. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-07-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Specs Who Chris Colfer Age 24 Accomplishments Star of Fox’s Glee; screenwriter; author of The Land of Stories book series (his latest, A Grimm Warning, was just released) Base Los Angeles What’s the first information you consume in the morning? I immediately turn to my cellphone and look to... Continue reading at AdWeek
[ AdWeek | 2014-07-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Facebook is to release a new feature on its mobile app that will listen to and identify your music and TV shows before publishing them in a status update. Continue reading at BBC World
[ BBC World | 2014-05-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Analysts say the $20 bump, from $79 to $99, could add up to $1 billion to the company's revenue.Amazon Prime is a great deal. You get free two-day shipping on most of your packages, unlimited access to Amazon's growing trove of streaming movies and TV shows, and the ability to rent ebooks from... Continue reading at Fast Company
[ Fast Company | 2014-03-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Any job a man can do, so can a woman. Sure, there are physical differences between the sexes, but that does not have to impede success. One industry that has primarily been a men's club is IT. Historically, being a computer nerd has been a guy thing. However, over the years, women have been... Continue reading at Betanews
[ Betanews | 2014-02-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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How women are portrayed in photography has been a hot-button issue in publishing during the last several months. One could argue the spirited dialogue goes back a year to Dove's "Real Beauty Sketches" effort, which went viral. At any rate, whether you find BuzzFeed Video's "Photoshopping Real... Continue reading at AdWeek
[ AdWeek | 2014-02-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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