When is a book not a book? When it is performed by a starry cast of hundreds. Except it has always been more complicated than thatNews this week of a 17% hike in the UK’s audiobook sales might seem like a niche business story, but it raises an existential question. What exactly is an audiobook today? Is it a book? Is it a play? Or is it becoming something else entirely? What is clear is that a jostle for market dominance is driving it into new dimensions. The streaming platform Spotify followed its move into podcasting two years ago with the launch of an audiobooks business. Though it has yet to start making its own recordings, last autumn it made a deal for 200,000 audiobooks to be available to its premium users.Not to be outdone, Amazon-owned Audible – accustomed to being the market leader – upped its game, hiring the Oscar-winning director Sam Mendes to record multi-voice versions of the Dickens novels Oliver Twist and David Copperfield, and announcing last month that it had reached an agreement for a recording of JK Rowling’s Harry Potter series, voiced by more than 100 actors and featuring a “groundbreaking new soundscape”. The new Potter audiobooks, it said, would not usurp but “sit alongside and complement” conventional recordings by Stephen Fry and Jim Dale, which Audible also hosts. Continue reading... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2024-05-10 17:25:03 UTC ]
News tagged with:
#17% hike
#audiobook sales
#existential question
#audiobook today
#market dominance
#start making
#premium users
#market leader
#david copperfield
#jk rowling
#sit alongside
#stephen fry
#jim dale
#harry potter
#audiobook
Children's and YA already account for 22% of the Argentine book market and innovation and increased professionalization is helping the segment to grow. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2013-08-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this |
Apparently Apple isn't the only company thinking the US Department of Justice's recently imposed remedies against it were "draconian." US publishers HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster, Penguin and others have also ganged up on the DOJ with a legal brief opposing the punitive restrictions. In... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2013-08-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#simon schuster
#publishing industry
#amazon link
#online stores
#potential harm
This afternoon, I start Grendel, John Gardner’s 1971 novel telling the story of Beowulf’s first great opponent from the monster’s point of view. The version I’ve got is identical to the one I read in Modern Literature my junior year in high school, where Ms. Martin, her hair in a severe bun but... Continue reading at Slate
[ Slate | 2013-08-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#modern literature
#high school
This may sound obvious, but data is now at the heart of just about every action publishers and advertisers make. There appears to be no end to the data sources and the appetite publishers and brands have for it. Data drives every decision, from the content we produce to the viability and... Continue reading at Folio Magazine
[ Folio Magazine | 2013-07-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#data sources
#marketing campaign
The Kindle Singles store, according to its editor David Blum, is “like a bookstore where the manager also edits the books.” Blum is that manager-editor, and under his guidance the store has grown to feature nearly 400 works since launching in January 2011. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2013-07-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#kindle singles
The FTSE 100 falls, but shares in publishing group Pearson jump 9% after its latest results. Continue reading at BBC News
[ BBC News | 2013-07-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#latest results
BookExpo America's 2014 Global Market Forum will be have an exciting new focus, Books in Translation: Wanderlust for the Written Word. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2013-07-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#bookexpo america
#written word
Movable Type literary agents Jason Allen Ashlock and Adam Chromy write of their experiences assisting The Rogue Reader authors in self-publishing their work. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2013-07-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#case study
#agent-assisted publishing
Glenn Greenwald, the journalist who first reported on a trove of classified documents leaked by Edward J. Snowden, will write a book about National Security Agency surveillance, his publisher announced on Wednesday. Mr. Greenwald’s articles ... Continue reading at Editor & Publisher
[ Editor & Publisher | 2013-07-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#write book
#guardian journalist
#publisher announced
Google has added images of the Diagon Alley set from the 'Harry Potter' movies to its Street View function, allowing users to virtually walk through the magical shopping center. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2013-07-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#harry potter
#diagon alley
#allowing users
Just a few days after Google and Twitter pushed for the government to reveal the number of security-related requests, the Obama administration and Congress have just received another salvo backed by even more tech heavyweights -- 63, to be exact. A letter signed by many of the giants covered by... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2013-07-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#american people
#international users
#full text
Influential technology companies and groups want the U.S. government to lift restrictions on publicizing secret requests for user data as the fallout continues over the scale of government surveillance.Google, Facebook and Reddit are among the many signatories to a letter dated Thursday asking... Continue reading at PC World
[ PC World | 2013-07-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#government surveillance
#basic information
#user data
#fallout continues
#criminal investigations
#seek permission
Recorded books are now a billion-dollar business, which Amazon dominates perhaps like none other. Continue reading at The Atlantic
[ The Atlantic | 2013-07-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#recorded books
If you rely on a Kindle (or Kindle app) for reading, you probably know that it supports not only ebooks, but also PDFs. In fact, if you've done your homework, you also know that your Kindle (or Kindle app) has its own email address, meaning you can send any PDF straight to your device just by... Continue reading at PC World
[ PC World | 2013-07-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#kindle app
#static images
Nailing a Facebook news feed, working with Amazon’s algorithm, and building anticipation... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-07-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this |
Porter Anderson takes in recent discussions about metadata and book marketing, a live, crowdsourced writing experiment, book recommendation culture, and more. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2013-07-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#book marketing
Penguin UK has declined to comment on reports that author Vikram Seth has been asked to return a... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-07-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#7m advance
#penguin uk
Puffin's campaign for Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Third Wheel by Jeff Kinney [pictured] was... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-07-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#wimpy kid
Kobo has appointed Colin Bettam, formerly vice-president of marketing at LG Electronics, to... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-07-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this |
At the Tokyo International Book Fair the focus finally shifted away from devices to actual ebooks, but hype of their immediately transforming the business was toned down. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2013-07-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#ebook market