Peter James's Host, published on two disks, was an early example – but exactly where the medium started life is surprisingly tricky to identifyWhat was the first ebook? Debate rages … When Peter James published his thriller Host on two floppy disks, in 1993, it was billed as the "world's first electronic novel", and attacked as a harbinger of the apocalypse which would destroy literature as we knew it. Now it has been accepted into the Science Museum's collection as one of the earliest examples of the form, as the spotlight of academia begins to shine on the history of digital publishing."I got absolutely pilloried," says James. "I was on Today accused of killing the novel, I was a front-page headline on papers in Italy – 99% of the press was negative … one journalist even took his computer on a wheelbarrow to the beach, along with a generator, to read Host in his deckchair."The digital version of the novel (it was also published physically) went on to sell 12,000 copies, according to James, and two years later, he was speaking on a panel on the future of the novel at the University of Southern California, together with Apple founder Steve Jobs. "I said ebooks would catch on when they became more convenient to read than the printed novel," said James. "It was astonishing the amount of outrage it caused."And Host – about a scientist who downloads his brain into a computer and has his body frozen – has now become a historical artefact, accepted into the Science Museum's... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2014-03-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Romance specialist Mills & Boon is to resissue 12 backlist titles as digital shorts with new... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-07-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Angry Robot has set up an ebook initiative to support independent bookshops, with the scheme... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-07-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Five of the six parties under investigation by the European Commission over ebook prices... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-07-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The vice-president of the European Commission, Neelie Kroes, has backed a call by European... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-06-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Richard Russo says his new work is a "tribute to the printed book" and will not be sold online. Continue reading at BBC News
[ BBC News | 2012-06-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The chiefs of Europe's publishing houses will meet today (26th June) in Brussels at a round-... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-06-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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A US judge on Friday set a 2013 trial date for a lawsuit from the US government accusing Apple and book publishers of conspiring to fix the prices of electronic books. Continue reading at Stuff
[ Stuff | 2012-06-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Sci-fi imprint Tor/Forge leads publishing industry's quest to loosen the grip of Amazon. Continue reading at Crains New York
[ Crains New York | 2012-06-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
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According to a new study by the Pew Research Center, 62 percent of respondents didn't know whether or not their local library had ebooks. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2012-06-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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You might say Penguin has had a rocky relationship with libraries. That looks to be on the tentative mend, as the publisher and 3M have together cut deals with the Brooklyn Public Library and New York Public Library to bring Penguin's ebook catalog back as part of a test program. Under the terms... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2012-06-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
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After yanking their ebook titles from libraries last year, Penguin is launching an ebook pilot program for libraries in New York. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2012-06-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Independent bookshops are to have access to Kobo ebook devices, a Hive-sourced ebook tablet and... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-06-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The intensely private Thomas Pynchon has resisted the electronic format for his books – until now. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2012-06-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Sainsbury's enters the digital books marketplace by buying HMV's stake in Anobii, an online retailer of ebooks, for just £1. Continue reading at BBC News
[ BBC News | 2012-06-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Japanese online booksellers are planning to circumvent sales tax collection by selling digital... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-06-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Ebook-maker Inkling, which had previously confined its books to the iPad, is moving to the Web - a move the company has been promising for some time. The move means Inkling's books should be available on most laptops, though the company says it will work best on Google's Chrome and Apple's... Continue reading at AllThingsD
[ AllThingsD | 2012-05-30 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Distributor Georgetown Terminal Warehouses in Ontario begins POD publishing in Canada in a partnership with Illinois-based Publishers' Graphics. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2012-05-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The latest story from a Pulitzer Prize-winning writer will appear in 140-character chunks. The New Yorker is publishing Jennifer Egan's "Black Box" in installments on Twitter, the New York Observer reports. The tweets, which began yesterd ... Continue reading at Editor & Publisher
[ Editor & Publisher | 2012-05-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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E-books accounted for 9% of Bloomsbury's adult trade sales overall across the 12 months to... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-05-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Plain, ordinary text files aren’t normally the most interesting ways to convey information, but if you’d like to change that then Toolwiz FlipBook may be able to help. Just point the program at a particular TXT file, and in a click it’ll be converted into an executable file. And launching this... Continue reading at Betanews
[ Betanews | 2012-05-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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