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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Barnes & Noble shares under pressure as company explores Nook ebook business options Continue reading at MarketWatch.com
[ MarketWatch.com | 2012-01-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Daily Kobo ebook sales in the UK increased seven times in December as the company revealed one... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-01-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Hachette has reported a "blockbuster Christmas for ebooks", selling more than 100,000... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-01-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
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HarperCollins US is suing digital publisher Open Road for copyright infringement after it... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-12-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The UK government has reiterated its view that it cannot bring down value added tax on ebooks... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-12-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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China's biggest online book retailer Dangdang has launched its ebook platform in China, with... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-12-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The Friday Project's Confessions of a GP has been crowned the top-selling UK ebook of the... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-12-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Pan Macmillan has launched its first ebook bundles, collections of two or three titles in a... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-12-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Gallimard reduced the prices of its 1,500 ebooks on Monday (19th December), two weeks ahead of... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-12-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Random House has released two more Nigella Lawson cookbooks as ebooks today (20th December),... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-12-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Since its launch last December in partnership with the American Booksellers Association, Google eBooks has yet to capture significant market share. According to the Codex Groups recent Showrooming study, while the number of people who read both print books and ebooks has grown from 25% in... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2011-12-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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HarperCollins has acquired an account of this year's Libyan conflict by Sky News reporter... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-12-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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China's biggest online book retailer E-Commerce China Dangdang plans to begin selling ebooks... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-12-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The five publishers being investigated over ebook pricing could face fines of many millions of... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-12-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The BBC's award for short fiction is to turn international for one year to celebrate the... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-12-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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I love reading, and I love books. I don't care much about the medium--paper or digital, it's all the same to me, for the most part. Continue reading at PC World
[ PC World | 2011-12-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The European Commission has announced it has opened formal antitrust proceedings to investigate... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-12-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The European Commission has announced it has opened formal antitrust proceedings to investigate... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-12-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Former Waterstone's m.d. Tim Coates is to launch Bilbary (www.bilbary.com), an international... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-12-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
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HarperCollins Children's Books has produced a new app for classic picturebook Paddington,... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-12-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
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