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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Written By: Barbara Casassus Publication Date: Thu, 05/05/2011 - 09:14 France is bracing for battle with the European Commission with its government on the verge of adopting a bill allowing publishers to fix prices for all ebooks sold in France. The bill, which was approved unanimously by an... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-05-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Philip Jones Publication Date: Tue, 03/05/2011 - 09:22 The digital publishing market is now worth 6% of UK publishers' sales, the Publishers Association has revealed, with consumer digital sales up more than 300% in 2010 to £16mthe third year of treble digit growth. The PA... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-05-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The Publishers Association have released new figures which explain how much damage ebooks are doing to their paper based alternatives. Continue reading at BBC News
[ BBC News | 2011-05-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Thu, 28/04/2011 - 15:24 Penguin's ebook sales have doubled in the first quarter of 2011 compared to the same period in 2010, its parent company Pearson revealed in a statement today (28th April). In its interim management statement covering the... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-04-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Benedicte Page Publication Date: Thu, 28/04/2011 - 15:39 UK publishers are locked in discussions with librarians over ground rules for ebook lending, with librarians continuing to press publishers to allow institutions to loan ebooks under the one ebook, one loan, model pioneered... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-04-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Tue, 26/04/2011 - 08:48 Agents are anticipating escalators in ebook contracts to become "the norm rather than the exception", as they reported already having negotiated the clause with UK publishers in some cases. An escalator clause means the... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-04-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Lisa Campbell Publication Date: Wed, 20/04/2011 - 12:08 Amazon.com has announced a new service allowing Kindle books to be borrowed from US libraries. read more Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-04-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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By Nick Peers Calibre is a must-have tool. It exists to organize, convert and even transfer your ebook collection to and from your ebook reader. Continue reading at Betanews
[ Betanews | 2011-04-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Philip Jones Publication Date: Mon, 11/04/2011 - 11:02 Kobo has embarked on a European push with the launch of local content stores in Germany and Spain starting in May 2011, with local stores for France, Italy and the Netherlands following shortly after. read more Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-04-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Mon, 11/04/2011 - 15:45 Sphere believes it has a smashing winner with the acquisition of the autobiography of Rafael Nadal, the Spanish tennis ace and current world number one. Non-fiction publishing director Adam Strange bought UK and... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-04-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Philip Jones Publication Date: Sun, 10/04/2011 - 16:03 Enhanced ebooks are dead, discoverability is the most important issue facing ebook vendors, while pricing strategies should be measured against other digital content, not physical books. These were the key themes that emerged... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-04-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Wed, 06/04/2011 - 09:16 Independent publisher Continuum has launched an ebook store, featuring a selection of titles across Continuum's humanities, education and religion lists. Around 2,000 titles will be available for download in Adobe PDF and... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-04-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Barbara Casassus Publication Date: Tue, 29/03/2011 - 15:29 French culture minister Frédéric Mitterrand has called for the European Union to regulate ebook prices as soon as possible, and to introduce a reduced rate of VAT on all cultural goods and services, whether they are sold... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-03-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Interest in ebooks has jumped since Borders and Angus & Robertson slipped into voluntary administration. Continue reading at The Sydney Morning Herald
[ The Sydney Morning Herald | 2011-03-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Bookseller staff Publication Date: Mon, 28/03/2011 - 08:53 Catherine Cookson's estate has signed a deal to release 100 of her novels as ebooks directly through Amazon, cutting out her publishers Transworld and Simon & Schuster. read more Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-03-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Lisa Campbell Publication Date: Thu, 24/03/2011 - 09:36 Sampling free content is inspiring customers to buy ebooks, with a fifth of UK readers citing it as the primary reason for purchase, according to new research. Surveys by Book Marketing Limited (BML) and Bowker Publishing... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-03-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Philip Jones Publication Date: Wed, 23/03/2011 - 11:58 A third of UK trade publishers think that over 10% of their total book revenue will come from ebooks by 2012, according to new research released by Publishing Technology at BMLs annual Books & Consumers Conference. The... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-03-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Philip Jones Publication Date: Wed, 23/03/2011 - 07:10 Lendle, the US-based tool that allows Kindle users to lend their ebooks, has been reinstated after Amazon said that its concern related to its "Book Sync tool". The news that Amazon had locked the services out of its API caused... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-03-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Barbara Casassus Publication Date: Mon, 21/03/2011 - 11:26 E-book sales by Hachette Livre in the United States are in line with the national average, according to the group's chairman and c.e.o. Arnaud Nourry. He told the Buzz Média service of the French daily Le Figaro that ebooks... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-03-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Thu, 17/03/2011 - 09:23 The Society of Chief Librarians and the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council have signed a joint position on ebook lending in libraries, saying the Publisher Association's baseline position has "limited practical use"... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-03-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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