Falling into Infinity

Blimunda n.º 13

2013-06-19T14:01:00.001+01:00

A Blimunda comemora neste mês de Junho o seu primeiro aniversário!

E se Junho é mês de Festas de Lisboa, as sardinhas que desde há dez anos lhe servem de imagem não podiam deixar de marcar presença nas páginas da revista.

Neste número, destaque para o humor com uma entrevista de Sara Figueiredo Costa a Ricardo Araújo Pereira, humorista, cronista, recentemente distinguido com o Grande Prémio de Crónica, da Associação Portuguesa de Escritores. Também no mesmo dossier um retrato do colectivo Mongolia, responsável por uma edição regular de um jornal de humor em que as notícias ditas sérias não deixam de ter o seu espaço.

No infantil e juvenil, uma viagem de Andreia Brites pelo trabalho que Miguel Horta, mediador de leitura, escritor, pintor, contador de histórias, realiza nas prisões portuguesas desde há vários anos, com uma paragem obrigatória no Estabelecimento Prisional de Guimarães, palco das Novas Memórias do Cárcere.
Ainda nesta secção, destaque para o livro Irmão Lobo, de Carla Maia de Almeida, para a coleção Pássaro Livre (Livros Horizonte) e para uma selecção de novidades que viram a luz do dia na última edição da Feira do Livro de Lisboa.

A fechar o número do primeiro aniversário da Blimunda, damos voz a José Saramago e a Eduardo Lourenço em dois textos sobre este nome que a revista da Fundação José Saramago escolheu como seu. E como Junho é mês de viagens, uma visita ao projeto que o ACERT tem em mãos, o da adaptação teatral do romance de José Saramago, A Viagem do Elefante.

No fim deste primeiro ano de publicações regulares da Blimunda, uma palavra de agradecimento a todos os que com ela têm colaborado, afirmando esta publicação como um espaço vivo, um espaço de cultura abrangente, atento à realidade dos nossos dias.

A todos, o nosso obrigado!

Disponível para download no site da Fundação José Saramago, ou no Scribd.

Blimunda N.º 13 - junho 13 by Fundação José Saramago

Leituras Digitais (2 a 15 de Junho)

2013-06-16T13:31:00.000+01:00

Rubrica quinzenal de notícias e artigos relacionados com a edição de livros digitais.

Denmark’s “Spotify for eBooks” Mofibo to Launch This Summer

A new ebook subscription service is expected to launch in Denmark in the next few months.Mofibo is the latest project of serial entrepreneur Morten Strunge, and he is out to change reading habits in Denmark. This service will follow in the footsteps of 24Symbols, Skoobe, and others in offering an all you can read type of ebook subscription service.

E Ink Unveils New e-Paper Display Screen for Watches

E Ink has experimented with watches in the past with Seiko, a Japan based company. Pebble has really captured the mainstream imagination with their watches that sync with most major phones on the market. This has prompted the emerging display screen industry to all work on solutions. Today, E Ink has announced a new business deal with Sonostar to release a new line of watches using a 1.73 inch display.

Preparados para o digital?

Enquanto por cá não sabemos mais adivinhamos, em Espanha fazem-se Estudos e descobre-se que não, que não estão nada preparados para o digital.
O estudo realizado pela Laboratorio del Livro, da Anatomía de la Edición, procurava responder a algumas questões básicas descortinadas no documento La gran transformación. Panorama del sector del libro en España 2012-2015. Para isso recorreram ao método de inquérito qualitativo (a agentes do setor do livro: editores, livreiros, bibliotecários, autores, distribuidores, especialistas de digital e de direitos de autor e investigadores), contando com mais de 100 respostas.

Kindle DX back from the dead

Amazon’s making all sorts of strange Kindle moves recently. Kindle Keyboard disappeared. Kindle DX is back.

Why Book Publishers Are Still Dragging Their Heels on Selling You E-Books

The truth is, book publishers still aren’t sure what to make of digital publishing. BEA 2013 boasted a “Digital Discovery Zone,” but for every business aimed at revolutionizing delivery to consumers, there were two whose purpose boiled down to making the digital landscape less frightening for hidebound publishers.

A rare-book bonanza in the digital age? 'Common Sense' says yes

The digital era has been good for old books, an expert in rare books said earlier this week.Matthew Haley, head of rare books and manuscripts at the Bonhams auction house in London, said that news of rare books moves faster and wider than ever before and that this is driving up prices at the high end of the book market, while Internet shopping was helping the lower end.

No futuro, como será o livro?

A História fala pela importância do livro, das três grandes religiões abraâmicas, também ditas “do livro”, às constituições por que se regem os países. Na forma como o entendemos até muito recentemente, o livro é um objecto de papel a que associamos a disseminação, preservação e legitimação do conhecimento por uma prática de edição que remonta à impressora de Gutenberg. Mas este estatuto não impediu que o livro se juntasse à lista de espécies em vias de extinção, pelo menos a acreditar nos relatos em que a rádio, a televisão ou a internet foram sendo vistas como ameaças à hegemonia do livro enquanto guardião do conhecimento. Hoje, a ameaça parece ser o livro digital. É mesmo assim? O destino do livro de papel será como raridade de coleccionador ou luxo ao alcance de poucos? E será o futuro do livro de papel mais relevante do que o futuro da leitura?

Amazon Begins Selling e-Readers and Tablets in China

Amazon opened up its Kindle store in China last December and also updated its popular reading apps to support complex Chinese characters at the same time. Amazon really wanted to put its e-readers and tablets on sale around the same time, but various regulatory bodies put the kibosh on it. The online giant has worked with the government of China and is now officially selling the Kindle Fire HD and Kindle Paperwhite on its main Chinese website.

iPad app enables long distance bedtime storytelling for families

Kindoma combines e-books with video calls to allow family members who live apart to take part in collaborative bedtime reading for kids.

DRM’s , ou como se poderia dizer, Digital Restelo Men’s

Se há algo que temos a certeza é que a ganância é muita e faz parte do negócio.
Se ela serve para garantir que conseguem rentabilizar um investimento muito avultado e cheio de risco, ou um futuro de milhões na conta bancária e adversários falidos, pouco importa, o que sabemos é que as estratégias de desenvolvimento de ereaders/ebooks por parte dos principais retalhistas internacionais assentam em ecossistemas fechados e fortemente protegidos, que impedem em larga medida a importação e exportação (ou a leitura) de ficheiros de outros ecossistemas nos seus, ou dos seus noutros ecossistemas.

eBooks Reached 2.4% of the German Book Market in 2012

The market research firm GfK has a new report out this morning with a new estimate of the German ebook market, and depending on how you look at it the report is either good news or bad news.Gfk now believes that ebook sales accounted for 2.4% of the German book market in 2012. That is a significant increase over the estimated 1% market share in 2011, but it still falls far short of the growth seen in other markets.

União entre games e e-books estimula aprendizado, diz executivo da Microsoft

A Microsoft ainda não tem um aparelho específico para a leitura de livros digitais (o Surface permite o consumo de e-books, mas trata-se na verdade de um dispositivo com com funções típicas de um tablet). Isso não quer dizer, contudo, que o gigante do software esteja alheio às evoluções do setor de e-books. A empresa vem auxiliando editoras de livros didáticos a transpor suas obras para o mundo digital, fornecendo software e inteligência. O responsável pela tarefa é o inglês David Langridge, executivo de parcerias da Microsoft. Em visita ao Brasil, Langridge participará do 4º Congresso Internacional do Livro Digital, que acontece nesta quinta e sexta-feira na Federação do Comércio de Bens (Fecomércio), em São Paulo. Lá, ele realizará uma palestra sobre o assunto. Na entrevista a seguir, ele fala sobre o presente e o futuro das obras virtuais — que devem, na visão dele, coexistir com livros de papel por muito tempo — sobre como os games podem ajudar na educação e também acerca do desafio do novo formato: "As obras em papel não deveriam ser simplesmente transpostas ao formato digital." Confira a seguir a entrevista que ele concedeu a VEJA.com.

New York Times E-Book Best Sellers

A version of this list appears in the June 23, 2013 issue of The New York Times Book Review. Rankings reflect sales for the week ending June 8, 2013.

E-Book Fiction

1. ENTWINED WITH YOU, by Sylvia Day

2. INFERNO, by Dan Brown

3. AND THE MOUNTAINS ECHOED, by Khaled Hosseini

4. BEAUTY FROM SURRENDER, by Georgia Cates

5. REVENGE WEARS PRADA, by Lauren Weisberger

Complete List »

E-Book Nonfiction

1. THE DOG LIVED (AND SO WILL I), by Teresa J. Rhyne

2. PROOF OF HEAVEN, by Eben Alexander

3. LEAN IN, by Sheryl Sandberg with Nell Scovell

4. LET'S EXPLORE DIABETES WITH OWLS, by David Sedaris

5. HAPPY, HAPPY, HAPPY, by Phil Robertson with Mark Schlabach

Complete List »

Wall Street Journal E-Book Best Sellers (Week Ended June 9)

Nonfiction E-Books

TITLE AUTHOR / PUBLISHER	THIS WEEK	LAST WEEK
The Dog Lived (and So Will I)	1	—
Teresa J. Rhyne/Sourcebooks
Almost a Miracle	2	—
John Ferling/Oxford University Press USA
Proof of Heaven	3	1
Eben Alexander/Simon & Schuster
Lean In	4	4
Sheryl Sandberg/Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Let's Explore Diabetes With Owls	5	2
David Sedaris/Little, Brown
Eat to Live	6	—
Joel Fuhrman/Little, Brown
The Disappearing Spoon	7	—
Sam Kean/Little, Brown
Happy, Happy, Happy	8	3
Phil Robertson with Mark Schlabach/Howard Books
Choose Yourself!	9	New
James Altucher/James Altucher
The Unwinding	10	—
George Packer/Farrar, Straus & Giroux

Fiction E-Books

TITLE AUTHOR / PUBLISHER	THIS WEEK	LAST WEEK
Entwined With You	1	New
Sylvia Day/Penguin Group
Inferno	2	1
Dan Brown/Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
And the Mountains Echoed	3	2
Khaled Hosseini/Penguin Group
Beauty From Surrender	4	6
Georgia Cates/Georgia Cates
The Hit	5	4
David Baldacci/Grand Central Publishing
Revenge Wears Prada	6	New
Lauren Weisberger/Simon & Schuster
The Kill Room	7	New
Jeffery Deaver/Grand Central Publishing
The Great Gatsby	8	5
F. Scott Fitzgerald/Scribner
Whiskey Beach	9	—
Nora Roberts/Penguin Group
Silken Prey	10	10
John Sandford/Penguin Group

A Confissão de Lúcio - Mário de Sá-Carneiro

2013-06-06T10:30:00.000+01:00

Novo eBook disponível no Projecto Adamastor.

Já nas bancas: LER, Junho 2013

2013-06-05T14:00:00.000+01:00

Clubes de Leitura Bertrand do Fantástico - Junho 2013

2013-06-03T15:00:00.000+01:00

Lisboa

Orientação: Rogério Ribeiro.

Data: 14 de Junho de 2013, pelas 18.30h.

Local: Bertrand do Picoas Plaza.

Entrada: Inscrição prévia.

Obras em discussão: A Noite e o Sobressalto, com a presença do autor Pedro Medina Ribeiro.

Porto

Orientação: Rui Baptista.

Data: 8 de Junho de 2013, pelas 15h30.

Local: Bertrand do Porto Gran Plaza.

Entrada: Inscrição prévia.

Obra em discussão: Atlas das Nuvens, de David Mitchell.

Leituras Digitais (19 de Maio a 1 de Junho)

2013-06-03T10:30:00.000+01:00

Rubrica quinzenal de notícias e artigos relacionados com a edição de livros digitais.

Why Your Library May Not Have the E-Book You Want

While most small presses sell all their books freely and happily to libraries, the “Big Five” publishers continue to be terrified by the idea of letting public libraries have their e-books, and to punish libraries for even trying to get their e-books to customers.The corporations’ confused and panic-driven search for an “acceptable business model” for the library e-book has led to some truly grotesque solutions.

What You Need to Know About Book Piracy

Okay, we all know about this. Piracy, the great and terrifying force that’s destroying authors’ means to make a living on one hand, and getting their work in front of thousands of new readers on the other. There’s plenty of conflicting information out there.Let’s get down to business, shall we? Here’s what you need to know, my dear author friends, in a handy bullet point list.

Unesco vai disponibilizar livremente todas as suas publicações digitais

Na sequência de uma de uma decisão do seu comité executivo, a Unesco vai disponibilizar gratuitamente todas as suas publicações digitais, numa iniciativa que visa incentivar o Open Access.
Na sequência desta decisão, qualquer pessoa pode descarregar, traduzir, adaptar e distribuir gratuitamente as publicações da Unesco.

E-ink Debuts Spectra 3 Color Display – Not Ready For eReaders

E-ink has managed to be the most exciting and biggest letdown at SID Display Week this year.They’ve just unveiled a new screen tech that promises to offer the sharp color that the Triton 2 color E-ink lacks in no less than 3 colors, but unfortunately it is also limited to exactly 3 colors.The Spectra 3 Color Display is the second new shelf label tech that E-ink is showing off this year. It’s based in part on Sipix screen tech that E-ink bought last year, a detail which the following chart made clear and which was confirmed by E-ink’s reps.

Ten challenges to innovation in publishing

Ahead of last year’s FutureBook Innovation Workshop, we published our ‘ten challenges to innovation in publishing’. Nearly one year on, what are the new challenges to publishers when it comes to digital innovation? At the FutureBook Innovation Workshop in Association with The Literary Platform speakers will be demonstrating how they are currently dealing with some of these challenges – but here are some outline thoughts ahead of the event.

Has the school library a future in the digital age?

The concept of a school library in a digital age is challenging. With the capacity to download books onto a range of digital devices there is every possibility the library could look superfluous to youngsters growing up today. Why would you want to visit a room which is essentially about storage and distribution?

REVIEW: Kobo Aura HD eBook Reader

Over the course of the past few years, I’ve warmed up quite a bit to eBook reading. Part of this was because it seems that eBooks have finally, after years of missteps, finally found a foothold as a viable product. Another reason is because eBook readers have come a long way and, well, I’m a bit of a gadget hound. So when kobo offered to send along the new Kobo Aura HD eBook Reader for review purposes, I jumped at the chance.

Kobo Reports Revenues Doubled in the First Quarter of 2013

BEA 2013 kicks off tomorrow, so Kobo sent out a press release today reminding us how great they are doing.Kobo is following up a record 143% growth in revenue in 2012 with a still impressive 98% increase in the first quarter of this year. They’re also reporting that they now have 14.5 million registered users, an increase of 2.5 million in only 3 months, with 15 percent of the new user base coming from the US, as well as a sizeable increase in hardware sales – 145%, in fact.

Tech-savvy parents prefer print over e-books for kids, PEW reports

You want your kids to learn and you know reading books is undeniably good for them. Electronic screens are, generally speaking, bad. Game consoles, television sets: You feel your kids' brains dying with each hour they spend in front of them. But what about those cool-looking tablets? And that iPad commercial with kids reading from apps?The overwhelming majority of parents (94%) still think reading printed books to their kids is important, according to a new survey out Tuesday from the Pew Research Center. And they believe this even though parents as a group actually tend to be more tech-savvy, own more tablet computers and read more e-books than non-parents do.

Two thoughts: what was one book business may divide by format and backlist may be the neglected marketing opportunity

It’s a busy week for us this week, with BookExpo America in town. We have our all-day Publishers Launch conference on Wednesday, May 29, and a solid two days of appointments on Thursday and Friday. I have the time today to present two ideas we’ll be touching upon at the conference and that I’ll be asking about in those meetings and it seems worthwhile to do so.

Os editores e a auto-edição

Há uns meses, no seu blogue «Horas Extraordinárias», a editora Maria do Rosário Pedreira questionava-se sobre a auto-edição e o aparente desinteresse de alguns escritores em tentarem publicar a sua obra através de uma editora tradicional capaz de reconhecer ou não a qualidade da sua escrita. No fim concluía que talvez isso acontecesse porque, na auto-edição, recebiam uma percentagem maior das vendas e que, por isso, mais do que o reconhecimento de um editor, preferiam o dinheiro.
No fundo, todos aqueles que gostam de escrever e até aqueles que gostavam de escrever, mas sentem que não têm talento suficiente, sonham em publicar um livro através de uma editora reputada. Contudo, como é natural, esse sonho não está ao alcance de todos, seja porque não tiveram a sorte de encontrar um editor que tomasse a decisão de arriscar neles, seja por, apesar de terem técnica, lhes faltar originalidade, seja porque simplesmente não têm qualquer talento.

Recovering the Classics: DailyLit Gives a Facelift to Public Domain Titles

DailyLit is happy to announce that through a partnership with Harvard Bookstore and the team behind Design for Obama, artists have been asked to reimagine covers for books like The Wizard of Oz, Pride and Prejudice, Moby Dick, and Sherlock Holmes.

HarperCollins Launches eInsider Program for Free eBooks

The eInsider program is a new initiative by HarperCollins that will allow authors to send out either samples or the full edition of the book. Authors belonging to the publishing label will get a set of unique codes that can be redeemed for the entire ebook and can only be used once before they expire. This puts a bit more power into the authors hands to share their digital editions with whomever they want. The ebook they share is fully encrypted with Digital-Rights-Management, which prevents other users from being able to view the book.

EPUB3 Still Not Ready for the Prime Time

Every year, as a precursor to Book Expo America, the IDPF holds its annual two day conference. It brings all of the movers and shakers of the digital world to hold panels and talk about the current state of affairs of digital ebooks and future formats. The Daisy Consortium, IDPF, and W3C all talked extensively about how EPUB 3 was doing and the speakers were all trying hard to convince publishers to gravitate towards this format. Although progress has been made, the format is not ready to be deployed in earnest.Almost every publisher we talked to expressed reservations about getting involved in the next generation of the EPUB3 ebook format. If you are unfamiliar with this format, it borrows heavy elements from HTML5, and allows for audio, video, and the ability to change the language on the fly. It is certainly appealing on a fundamental level for anyone wanting to do interactive content, kids books, cook books, and other media-centric activities.

Gigantes e anões

Para quem gosta de livros, viver no meio deles é um privilégio, seja como escritor, editor, livreiro, leitor, etc. Não me queixo da minha sorte, faço exactamente o que gosto. Todavia, já desfrutei mais com o que faço, ou melhor, já gostei mais do negócio dos livros. Num passado recente a relação que existia entre os vários agentes do livro era mais equilibrada, o mercado era mais distribuído, homogéneo, não importava tanto ser grande ou pequeno, mais forte ou mais fraco. Eu acreditava que no mercado ninguém se considerava acima da lei, e que ninguém fora dele podia impor leis que o mercado fosse forçado a reconhecer, pois seja qual for a constituição de um mercado, se houver uma só empresa que não esteja submetida à lei, todas as outras estarão necessariamente à mercê dessa empresa.
O nosso mercado do livro não é hoje muito diferente ao de outros países, o que aconteceu lá fora, aconteceu cá dentro mas para pior, isto é, transformou-se praticamente num oligopólio, tanto a nível do retalho como a nível editorial, onde a maior parte das médias e familiares editoras passaram a ser meras chancelas editoriais. Existem actualmente em Portugal duas grandes empresas editoriais, a Porto Editora e a Leya. No retalho a realidade não é muito diferente, existem os hipermercados – de onde se destaca a Sonae –, a enorme cadeia de livrarias Bertrand – pertencente ao grupo da Porto Editora – e um gigante chamado FNAC. Tudo o resto são duas ou três médias empresas, outras tantas pequenas e um punhado de micro empresas que vivem sob as regras e o jugo das grandes. E o resultado é este: quando um gigante e um anão caminham na mesma estrada, em cada passada que dão o gigante ganha nova vantagem.

New York Times E-Book Best Sellers

A version of this list appears in the June 9, 2013 issue of The New York Times Book Review. Rankings reflect sales for the week ending May 25, 2013.

E-Book Fiction

1. INFERNO, by Dan Brown

2. AND THE MOUNTAINS ECHOED, by Khaled Hosseini

3. DON'T SAY A WORD, by Barbara Freethy

4. THE HIT, by David Baldacci

5. 12TH OF NEVER, by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro

Complete List »

E-Book Nonfiction

1. PROOF OF HEAVEN, by Eben Alexander

2. ELEVEN RINGS, by Phil Jackson and Hugh Delehanty

3. LET'S EXPLORE DIABETES WITH OWLS, by David Sedaris

4. HAPPY, HAPPY, HAPPY, by Phil Robertson with Mark Schlabach

5. LEAN IN, by Sheryl Sandberg with Nell Scovell

Complete List »

Wall Street Journal E-Book Best Sellers (Week Ended May 26)

Nonfiction E-Books

Nonfiction E-Books

TITLE AUTHOR / PUBLISHER	THIS WEEK	LAST WEEK
I'll See You Again	1	10
Jackie Hance with Janice Kaplan/Gallery Books
Eleven Rings	2	New
Phil Jackson, Hugh Delehanty/Penguin Group (USA)
Let's Explore Diabetes With Owls	3	3
David Sedaris/Little, Brown
Happy, Happy, Happy	4	4
Phil Robertson with Mark Schlabach/Howard Books
Lean In	5	6
Sheryl Sandberg/Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee	6	--
Dee Alexander Brown/Open Road Media
Sh— My Dad Says	7	8
Justin Halpern/HarperCollins
Bossypants	8	--
Tina Fey/Little,Brown
The Eighty-Dollar Champion	9	1
Elizabeth Letts/Random House
The 100	10	New
Jorge Cruise/HarperCollins

Fiction E-Books

Fiction E-Books

TITLE AUTHOR / PUBLISHER	THIS WEEK	LAST WEEK
Inferno	1	1
Dan Brown/Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
And the Mountains Echoed	2	New
Khaled Hosseini/Penguin Group (USA)
The Great Gatsby	3	2
F. Scott Fitzgerald/Scribner
The Hit	4	4
David Baldacci/Grand Central Publishing
Don't Say a Word	5	6
Barbara Freethy/Barbara Freethy
12th of Never	6	5
James Patterson, Maxine Paetro/Little, Brown
Binding Agreement: Just One Night	7	New
Kyra Davis/Pocket Star
Silken Prey	8	7
John Sandford/Penguin Group
Whiskey Beach	9	9
Nora Roberts/Penguin Group
Ricochet	10	--
Sandra Brown/Simon & Schuster

Vídeos

Hands on with the Sony 13.3 inch e-Reader

Blimunda n.º 12

2013-05-22T19:24:00.000+01:00

Maio na Blimunda é mês de Gabo.

No dossier central da revista, textos de Raquel Ribeiro, Germán Santamaría, Embaixador da Colômbia em Portugal, Pilar del Río e Tomás Eloy Martínez, com a primeira crítica a Cem Anos de Solidão, publicada em 1967, quatro abordagens à vida e obra de Gabriel García Márquez.

A FILBo, Feira Internacional do Livro de Bogotá, que acolheu Portugal como país convidado, e o Festival Literário da Madeira ocupam também lugar de destaque nesta edição, através de textos de Sara Figueiredo Costa. Na secção infantil e juvenil, uma visita à exposição Clarice Lispector – A hora da estrela, que a Fundação Gulbenkian acolheu no último mês. Partindo desta exposição, Andreia Brites, lê os quatro livros infantis da grande autora brasileira, editados pela Relógio d’Água.

A fechar a Blimunda de Maio, a Saramaguiana publica dois documentos documentos fundamentais para um percurso pelo universo literário e intelectual do Prémio Nobel português. Dois textos de autoria de Carlos Reis e Fernando Gómez Aguilera, lidos na apresentação de A Estátua e a Pedra, inédito de José Saramago, agora publicado pela Fundação que leva o seu nome.

Boas leituras!

Disponível para download no site da Fundação José Saramago, ou no Scribd.

Blimunda N.º 12 - maio 13 by Fundação José Saramago

Leituras Digitais (5 a 18 de Maio)

2013-05-19T11:26:00.000+01:00

Rubrica quinzenal de notícias e artigos relacionados com a edição de livros digitais.

Amazon is Quietly Working to Explode the Audiobook Market

Amazon is widely recognized as having ignited the ebook market with the launch of the Kindle Store in 2007, and today I realized that they might be trying to repeat that success with audiobooks.

If eBook DRM dies, would it help or hurt Amazon?

The new Gatekeepers of the New World of Publishing have just these new levers – Friction and Discoverability and DRM and Social Proof and Perceptions. These levers aren’t half as strong and powerful as the Real Impenetrable Gates the Old Gatekeepers had. Fortunately, for the New Gatekeepers, there is one very powerful lever amongst these. One that, if used correctly, becomes a real barrier.DRM.DRM is, for most readers (who are not technically savvy), a REAL barrier to freedom of movement.

Kobo Experiments With Experiential Game

Kobo has ventured into new territory, creating an alternate reality game called The Descent for a three-week contest to help promote the launch of Dan Brown’s new novel Inferno.

Library eBooks: The Role of Libraries in the Book Discovery Process

Sourcebooks and OverDrive are partnering on a pilot program that will allow library patrons worldwide the opportunity to read New York Times bestselling author Michael Malone’s acclaimed novel “The Four Corners of the Sky” in ebook format. The Big Library Read is a no cost program in which libraries worldwide promote from their lending catalog a single ebook to their patrons. In addition to creating a global “library book club,” it’s designed to generate data about the positive exposure and sales influence library ebook catalogs provide to authors and publishers.

Google Framed As Book Stealer Bent On Data Domination In New Documentary

“Google And The World Brain” is a new documentary about Google’s plan to scan all of the world’s books, which triggered an ongoing lawsuit being heard today. The hair-raising film sees Google import millions of copyrighted works, get sued, lose, but almost get a literature monopoly in the process. It’s scary, informative, and worth watching if you recognize its biased portrayal of Google as evil.
The film is getting wider release as Google continues to fight the Author’s Guild in court today. The organization is demanding $3 billion in damages from Google for scanning and reproducing copyrighted books. Google is asking the court to prevent the group from filing a class-action suit.

New Smashwords Survey Helps Authors Sell More eBooks

For the study this year, we analyzed over $12 million in sales for a collection of 120,000 Smashwords ebooks from May 1, 2012 through March 31, 2013. We aggregated our sales data from across our retail distribution network, which includes the Apple iBookstore, Barnes & Noble, Sony, Kobo and Amazon (only about 200 of our 200,000 titles are at Amazon). As the world's largest indie ebook distributor, I think our study represents the most comprehensive analysis ever of how ebooks from self-published authors and small independent presses are behaving in the marketplace.

Conservação digital

A linguagem que está sendo gerada pelos escritores virtuais está longe de alcançar a dimensão e a riqueza do estilo de grandes autores celebrizados por livros impressos.

Confirmed: Amazon Bought Liquavista – Color Kindle to Follow?

We are always looking for new technologies we may be able to incorporate into our products over the long term. The Liquavista team shares our passion for invention and is creating exciting new technologies with a lot of potential. It’s still early days, but we’re excited about the possibilities and we look forward to working with Liquavista to develop these displays.

Online Retailers, E-books Gained in 2012

At Publishers Weekly’s May 8 discussion series on trends in consumer book-buying, held at the offices of Random House in New York City, Carl Kulo, U.S. director of Bowker Market Research, highlighted the major shifts that took place in 2012 in such key areas as sales by format and by channel.

Pottermore Wins Digital Strategy of the Year Award

The Bookseller Industry awards has just occurred in the United Kingdom and Pottermore came away with a huge victory. The Harry Potter focused digital company beat out some hefty competition by Random House, Harlequin, Kobo, Penguin, and Bloomsbury.The Pottermore strategy as a gateway to sell ebooks has been a bit of a case study on how to start an e-commerce site and maintain control over the entire experience. Normally, books are sold and distributed by the publisher and seldom does the author maintain any control over the companies that send the books to libraries and bookstores, let alone international rights and sales.

E-ink Introduces Mobius, a New Flexible Display Technology

They’re calling the new screen tech Mobius. Instead of the glass panel used in many ereaders today, the Mobius screen uses a plastic backplane that is flexible and as a result is more resistant to impact.

Total Number of Portuguese Brazilian Ebook Titles Reaches 25,000

Brazilian ebook and education firm Simplissimo has been surveying Brazilian ebooks since 2011, well before the launch of Amazon, Kobo and Google stores. Earlier this week Revolução eBook [eBook Revolution], the Brazilian version of the Digital Book World portal, published the latest Simplissimo survey, which showed that there currently 25,000 Brazilian Portuguese titles in the digital format in Brazil, a jump from 16,000 in August 2012 (before the arrival of big international players in the end of 2013).

Sony's 13.3-inch e-ink paper prototype shown off at education expo in Japan

Earlier this week, we learned of Sony's plans for a 13.3-inch e-ink slate with stylus support pitched at students, and now Diginfo has caught up with the prototype device at the Educational IT Solutions Expo in Japan. The A4-sized tablet is said to be the first piece of hardware with an E Ink Mobius display that's flexible and light due to its new plastic construction. Co-developed by Sony and E Ink, the display only contributes 60g to the overall weight, which is apparently 50 percent lighter than similar screens built with glass.

New York Times E-Book Best Sellers

A version of this list appears in the May 26, 2013 issue of The New York Times Book Review. Rankings reflect sales for the week ending May 11, 2013.

E-Book Fiction

1. DEAD EVER AFTER, by Charlaine Harris

2. THE HIT, by David Baldacci

3. SILKEN PREY, by John Sandford

4. 12TH OF NEVER, by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro

5. WHISKEY BEACH, by Nora Roberts

Complete List »

E-Book Nonfiction

1. HAPPY, HAPPY, HAPPY, by Phil Robertson with Mark Schlabach

2. LET'S EXPLORE DIABETES WITH OWLS, by David Sedaris

3. WAITING TO BE HEARD, by Amanda Knox

4. LEAN IN, by Sheryl Sandberg with Nell Scovell

5. A STOLEN LIFE, by Jaycee Dugard

Complete List »

Wall Street Journal E-Book Best Sellers (Week Ended April 28)

Nonfiction E-Books

TITLE AUTHOR / PUBLISHER	THIS WEEK	LAST WEEK
Happy, Happy, Happy	1	New
Phil Robertson with Mark Schlabach/Howard Books
Let's Explore Diabetes With Owls	2	4
David Sedaris/Little, Brown
Waiting to Be Heard	3	1
Amanda Knox/HarperCollins
Lean In	4	5
Sheryl Sandberg/Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Captive in Iran	5	—
Maryam Rostampour, Marziyeh Amirizadeh/Tyndale House
A Stolen Life	6	—
Jaycee Dugard/Simon & Schuster
Obsessed	7	—
Mika Brzezinski/Weinstein Publishing
Dad Is Fat	8	New
Jim Gaffigan/Crown Publishing Group
Proof of Heaven	9	7
Eben Alexander/Simon & Schuster
I'll See You Again	10	—
Jackie Hance with Janice Kaplan/Gallery Books

Fiction E-Books

TITLE AUTHOR / PUBLISHER	THIS WEEK	LAST WEEK
The Great Gatsby	1	3
F. Scott Fitzgerald/Scribner
Dead Ever After	2	New
Charlaine Harris/Penguin Group
The Hit	3	2
David Baldacci/Grand Central Publishing
Silken Prey	4	New
John Sandford/Penguin Group
12th of Never	5	1
James Patterson, Maxine Paetro/Little, Brown
Whiskey Beach	6	5
Nora Roberts/Penguin Group
The Bet	7	8
Rachel Van Dyken/Rachel Van Dyken
The Oracle Glass	8	—
Judith Merkle Riley/Sourcebooks
The Sisterhood	9	—
Helen Bryan/AmazonEncore
Don't Say a Word	10	—
Barbara Freethy/Barbara Freethy

Vídeos

Out of Print Documentary Film

A Reader's Passion: Kobo Commercial

Sony A4-sized digital paper notepad is light, durable and responsive

Mensagem - Fernando Pessoa

2013-05-14T18:00:00.000+01:00

Novo eBook disponível no Projecto Adamastor.

Ler no Chiado: Clarice Lispector

2013-05-14T14:25:00.000+01:00