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 ]
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Ebooks will bring Cuba's isolated publishing industry and authors to a wider audience across the Spanish-speaking world, but also the US, under the radar of the trade embargo. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2012-12-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Ben Horslen has been appointed as editorial director of Puffin Fiction. Horslen is currently... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-12-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
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HarperCollins Canada has started testing a digital and print geo-targeted marketing campaign that will reach consumers in cities and small towns across Canada with messages specific to their location. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2012-12-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Former soldier Kevin Powers has won the £10,000 Guardian First Book Award for novel The... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-11-30 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Author Kevin Powers wins the Guardian First Book Award for his 'unforgettable first novel' The Yellow Birds Continue reading at BBC News
[ BBC News | 2012-11-30 00:00:00 UTC ]
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HarperCollins is creating a new digital imprint—HarperTeen Impulse—focusing on young adult short stories and novellas, which sell for .99 cents to $2.99. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2012-11-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Johnston Press, the regional newspaper publisher of The Scotsman and the Yorkshire Post, has appointed BBC digital marketer Lucy Sinclair to the new role of group audience development and marketing director. Continue reading at Media Week
[ Media Week | 2012-11-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Tablets and other digital reading devices are expected to be big sellers this holiday season due in part to the growing number of devices available from a host of manufacturers. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2012-11-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Zoe Lofgren wants Netizens to help craft laws that protect the future of the Net itself. Zoe Lofgren, Chair of the House Ethics Committee, has published a thought-provoking article about the legal tactic of seizing of domain names when the owners are accused of copyright infringement. She... Continue reading at Fast Company
[ Fast Company | 2012-11-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Penguin will refresh its ebook lending system later today, according to a report from the New York Times. The publisher will start lending out its titles in Los Angeles and Cleveland, mimicking the program that trialled (despite some DRM issues) in New York. Public library users can even expect... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2012-11-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Sainsbury’s has grown pre-tax profit by 2.5% in its half-year results as the retailer said... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-11-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The rise of easy-to-use ebook publishing platforms that distribute globally, the inherent speed of digital publishing, and the low cost and ever-rising demand for ebooks in both the developing world, as well as from developed but remote economies like Australia, offer the potential of vibrant... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2012-11-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Mumbai's slums, the Iraq war and the fall of Colonel Gaddafi are among the subjects covered by the five titles up for the 2012 Guardian First Book Award. Continue reading at BBC News
[ BBC News | 2012-11-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Kerry Hudson's debut for Chatto has scored a second prize shortlisting in a week, with a... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-11-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Sales of children's books soared last week as schools broke for the first holiday of the new... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-11-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Publishers and library suppliers say the UK academic library market is faring better than... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-11-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Evidence suggests that the most successful ebook retailers build on the mistakes of the predecessors and being first-to-market isn't a key to success. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2012-11-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Addressing the differences between the various international book markets is one of the missions we have here at Publishing Perspectives. It's perhaps the key reason we exist. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2012-11-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Overlooked in the much of the discussion of the Penguin Random House merger is just how important Latin America, China and India are to the deal. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2012-11-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
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At Frankfurt's annual Rights Directors Meeting, Wuping Zhao told the audience that Chinese publishers acquired rights to 15,592 foreign titles in 2011, up from just 1,664 in 1995. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2012-10-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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