Penelope Lively's recent short ebook for Penguin drew criticism for its brevity – but readers should not be put off the genre as a whole"Overpriced", "ridiculous", I feel cheated". Amazon reviewers haven't been wholly positive about a digital short Penelope Lively has written for Penguin Specials. On the evidence of the story itself, it's not Lively's fault. Abroad is about a pair of art students who travel to 1950s Spain in search of picturesque peasants and are disappointed when they don't live up to expectations. It's funny and evocative of a time when rural Europe was still exotic.It also peters out after just 4,000 words, so I sympathise with anyone who felt ripped off by its £1.99 price tag. These days you can buy two whole novels for that. The sad fact is, publishers don't make any money if an ebook costs less than £1.99. Amazon does, because singles are the literary equivalent of a gateway drug.This was brought home to me on finishing Susan Hill's latest effort, Printer's Devil Court (99p), a haunting tale about pre-second world war medical students who experiment with resurrection. More substantial than Lively's, it's a great, old-fashioned ghost story, whose chilling impact was somewhat undermined by turning the final page to find Amazon ordering me to rate, review, tweet, Facebook and buy more books by Susan Hill. Was the ebook I'd enjoyed little more than a trailer?Singles are a clever marketing tool. But it would be a shame if readers short-changed by one... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2013-11-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
Written By: Caroline Horn Publication Date: Tue, 20/09/2011 - 08:30 Macmillan Children's Books has created an animated cover for the ebook of Frank Cottrell Boyce's Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Flies Again, which it hopes will attract the interest of bloggers. The covers can be seen at... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-09-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Tue, 20/09/2011 - 08:17 The Natural History Museum has launched its first ebook for the iPad, created from the most expensive book ever sold. The ebook of The Birds of America by John James Audubon features all 435 illustration plates of the... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-09-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Benedicte Page and Lisa Campbell Publication Date: Thu, 15/09/2011 - 09:51 Publishers are being kept waiting for the conclusion of the Office of Fair Trading's investigation into ebook prices, begun at the start of this year, with the OFT now in the process of assessing all the... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-09-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Benedicte Page Publication Date: Wed, 14/09/2011 - 08:55 Authors including Neil Gaiman and Ian Rankin will collaborate with the public in a short story "Tweetathon" organised by the Society of Authors. read more Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-09-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Graeme Neill Publication Date: Wed, 14/09/2011 - 09:54 Google is close to launching an Australian version of its ebookstore, the first time the digital company has expanded the service outside the United States. The move raises speculation that a UK launch could be imminent.... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-09-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Publication Date: Mon, 12/09/2011 - 08:45 Stories from Jon McGregor and M J Hyland have been shortlisted for the sixth BBC National Short Story Award, announced on Friday evening (9th September) on BBC Radio 4's "Front Row". read more Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-09-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Publication Date: Fri, 09/09/2011 - 19:30 Stories from Jon McGregor and M J Hyland have been shortlisted for the sixth BBC National Short Story Award, announced this evening (9th September) on BBC Radios Front Row. read more Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-09-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Bookseller Staff Publication Date: Thu, 08/09/2011 - 08:43 The Huffington Post has turned digital publisher, releasing its first ebook, A People's History of the Great Recession by reporter Arthur Delaney, yesterday (7th September). The title is available on the UK Kindle store... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-09-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Graeme Neill Publication Date: Wed, 24/08/2011 - 15:06 The Royal Society is holding its first literary festival in its 350-year history, with the likes of Sebastian Faulks, China Miéville and John Banville taking part. read more Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-08-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Smiths News, the newspaper and magazine wholesaler, has completed the purchase of the remaining assets of Dawson Holdings, which include its ebook unit and its newspaper and magazine airline distribution business. Continue reading at Media Week
[ Media Week | 2011-08-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Bookseller Staff Publication Date: Tue, 23/08/2011 - 09:10 Several US law firms have now filed lawsuits against Apple and major US publishers alleging what one described as a "horizontal conspiracy" to fix and increase the price of ebooks in the US. One firm also now moved for the... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-08-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Michael Fitzpatrick Publication Date: Tue, 23/08/2011 - 08:26 A confusing maze of ebook stores, a difficulty in rendering text and high costs of purchase are dissuading Japanese customers from buying into ebooks. The chaotic melee now taking place in Japan, as publishing makes room... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-08-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Graeme Neill Publication Date: Mon, 22/08/2011 - 15:00 Simon & Schuster US has signed a deal to publish the physical editions of John Locke's Donovan Creed novels in North America. In June, Locke became the first self-published author to sell more than one million ebooks... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-08-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Lisa Campbell Publication Date: Fri, 19/08/2011 - 08:50 High street stalwart Argos is planning to launch ebooks on its website in a bid to grow its recently launched book offer. read more Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-08-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Thu, 18/08/2011 - 15:01 Hodder has today (18th August) released an enhanced film tie-in ebook of David Nicholls' One Day, titled One Day Plus. The ebook is priced £5.49 and features footage from Nicholls' appearance at the iTunes Festival this... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-08-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Booker Prize winning author Graham Swift believes digital publishing could threaten the livelihood of authors in the future because they are being paid too little. Continue reading at BBC News
[ BBC News | 2011-08-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Graeme Neill Publication Date: Thu, 11/08/2011 - 09:10 HarperCollins ebook sales now comprise 11% of its total revenue, the company has said following parent NewsCorp's latest results. As has now become customary, figures for HarperCollins were not stripped out. There was no... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-08-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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In my biography of Rupert Murdoch, I referred to News Corporation as Mafia-like, provoking the annoyance of my publishers libel lawyers. I explained to them that I did not mean to suggest this was an organized crime family, but instead was using mafia as a metaphor to imply that News Corp.... Continue reading at AdWeek
[ AdWeek | 2011-08-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Thu, 04/08/2011 - 09:20 The Society of Authors, the Writers' Guild of Great Britain and actors' union Equity have jointly sent letters to both BBC Trust chairman Lord Patten and director general Mark Thompson, asking them to stop the BBC Radio 4... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-08-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Philip Jones Publication Date: Wed, 03/08/2011 - 09:14 Facebook has bought the innovative ebook publisher Push Pop Press but will not use the company to publish ebooks. The giant social networking website will instead use PPP's platform and technology to give "people even richer... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-08-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
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