Sales have doubled in the past five years, with commuters and men aged 25 to 44 accounting for the bulk of purchases. But many of us are unable to finish them – so here are a few you won’t give up onNo longer just the greatest invention for bathtub readers, the audiobook is, according to new data, the surprise saviour for solving one of the world’s greatest problems: getting non-readers to read. Sales of audiobooks have doubled in the past five years, according to Nielsen Bookscan figures revealed at the London Book Fair this week, with commuters and men aged 25 to 44 accounting for the bulk of that rise.But presumably factors other than fidgety, word-averse men are also at play. Perhaps the astronomic rise of the podcast over the last decade has made everyone more audio-friendly. Since Amazon bought Audible in 2008 for $300m, the retail giant has also been flinging cash at the form with wild abandon, as free and ambitious as Stephen Fry’s reading of Harry Potter (don’t worry if you’ve only started, his slightly ropey Hermione gets better). Continue reading... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2018-04-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
Actor and writer Stephen Fry has decried the deteriorating state of the public library service, saying that libraries need to be protected as they "save lives". Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2016-05-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Stephen Fry will voice two classic detective stories exclusively for Audible. Fry, who voiced all seven of J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter books, will voice The Coin of Dionysius and The Game Played in the Dark by Ernest Bramah, which features the blind detective Max Carrados who was first... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-12-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Ranjit Bolt has won plaudits with A Lion Was Learning to SkiIn the summer of 2014, the spectacle of a middle-aged playwright selling limericks about “comedic giraffes” and “Spanish cicadas” was a regular one at Cambridge market. But as more followed – elephants, sharks and “a young lady from... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2015-11-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Tech start-up GivingTales has developed a children’s fairy tale app with actor Roger Moore to raise money for Unicef. The app includes stories by Hans Christian Anderson read by actors such as Stephen Fry, Ewan McGregor and Joan Collins The GivingTales app launches today and is free to download... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-06-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Pan Macmillan has acquired the first standalone thriller from crime writer Mari Hannah. Publishing director Wayne Brookes bought UK and Commonwealth rights including Canada to The Silent Room from Oli Munson at A M Heath. Hannah is the author of a series of novels, published by Pan Macmillan,... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-04-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Tesco, the U.K. retail giant and parent company of ebook retailer Blinkbox Books, has reached an agreement that will keep the digital operation in business. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-01-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Three projects from the UK and one from the Ukraine have been named as winners in the YourFry competition. YourFry was launched by Penguin in partnership with file transfer site WeTransfer in 2014 and challenged people to use technology to develop the stories in Stephen Fry’s autobiographies... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-01-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The Authors Guild met with Justice Department officials to ask the agency to launch an investigation into Amazon, expressing concern that the retail giant might be violating antitrust law in its fight with Hachette over ebook terms. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2014-10-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The newer, flatter design puts Kindle, Fire, and Prime categories front and center.Amazon has unveiled a new homepage design to select users, placing a new emphasis on the retail giant's biggest brands: the Kindle ebook platform, its Fire lineup of tablets and smartphones, and the Prime... Continue reading at Fast Company
[ Fast Company | 2014-07-30 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Amazon already gives Prime customers access to a Kindle lending library, allowing the user to "borrow" books each month. But for some of the more voracious types, this may not provide enough material for a month's worth of entertainment. For those customers, the retail giant has unveiled Kindle... Continue reading at Betanews
[ Betanews | 2014-07-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The cost of Amazon Prime is going up. The retail giant has announced that its membership program—which gives users free two-day shipping on most popular items as well as access to Amazon’s digital library of ebooks, movies, and TV shows—will now cost $99 per year, up from $79. Considering how... Continue reading at Slate
[ Slate | 2014-03-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Olivia Colman and Jodie Whittaker hailed for ITV crime drama, while Channel 4 receives more nods than any other broadcasterITV's murder mystery drama Broadchurch is leading the field in the Royal Television Society Programme Awards nominations with a quartet of nods.With 19 nominations, Channel... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2014-03-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Time Inc.'s All You is broadening its distribution, moving beyond the exclusive newsstand deal it had with retail giant, Walmart. The April issue of the smart-shopping magazine will be available at major retailers across the country, including Target, CVS, Walgreens and Barn Continue reading at Folio Magazine
[ Folio Magazine | 2014-02-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Wikipedia. It's one of the cornerstones of the internet. It's a global resource which has quite a reputation and has spawned numerous copycats and offshoots; the latest addition to the wiki canon is the Wikipedia Voice Intro Project (or WikiVIP). As you may have guessed from the name, this is a... Continue reading at Betanews
[ Betanews | 2014-01-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Sprout Pictures, the independent film and TV company run by Stephen Fry, has optioned James... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-11-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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With both models of the new Kindle Fire HDX tablets now out in the wild, Amazon can concentrate on tweaking the system to add features and fix bugs. The device, while considered to be a competitor to the Nexus 7, is really more about media, specifically that from the retail giant's ecosystem.... Continue reading at Betanews
[ Betanews | 2013-11-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Believe it or not, but that whole ebook price fixing fiasco is still an ongoing issue for the Justice Department. New York's senior senator, Chuck Schumer wishes it wasn't however, he simply wants the DOJ to drop the case and walk away. In a lengthy (factually questionable) op-ed in the Wall... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2012-07-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The Duchess of Cornwall, Stephen Fry and actor William Rycroft are among those gearing up to hand... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-04-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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