Waterstones In New Alliance With Amazon
Waterstones has today announced that it will be selling Amazon’s Kindle e-book reader as well as launching other digital services. In the deal which will go hand in hand with their current large-scale refurbishment scheme will create new, dedicated areas for digital books and wireless internet access in new coffee shops across the nation.
Waterstone’s is the biggest bookseller in the UK with over 300 stores, but has seen a noticeable decline in the number of sales of traditional print publishing over the last few years. This new move, which sees them allying themselves with their biggest competitor Amazon, comes as Microsoft recently announced substantial investment in the production of a new Barnes and Noble e-book read the Nook.
James Daunt, managing director of Waterstone’s commented; “The best digital readers, the Kindle family, will be married to the singular pleasures of browsing a curated bookshop.” To which Amazon founder Jeff Bezos added; “Waterstones is the premier High Street bookseller and is passionate about books and readers – a dedication that we share deeply”
Customers will now be able to browse wireless content in-store, and take advantage of bookshop offers whilst still being able to ask the expert advice of trained booksellers.
Quote Of The Day
“Beauty must be broken daily to remain beautiful.”
- Virginia Woolf
To Buy Or Not To Buy
I have to admit, when E-Readers first became available on the market I was sceptical, largely because I love my books. Each and every time I move it is my books that I am always most reluctant to get rid of – even anthologies and text books, compulsory purchases I don’t think I will ever be able to throw out. There is something intensely personal about every one, each represents a different time in my life, a different phase of my personal development…My books, as cheesy as it sounds, are part of me.
So then the ebook came out, and I was dead against them, I hated the idea of not having something to scrawl all over, not having battered books scattered all over my house. But then something changed. I moved home three times in the space of a year, each time trying to shed my books and never being able to let them go. I was bought a Sony e-reader for my birthday and instantly I was enamoured.My nerdy side was captured instantly by the fact that there was an in-built dictionary, and my studious side by the fact that you could make notes that could all be found in one place. Never again would I have to flick through endless pages to find the quote I was looking for. Ok, so it will never replace the real thing, and to be honest, if I really love a book I will always buy a hard copy, but I was harsh in the past. I would actually now recommend purchasing an e-reader to all my friends, but let’s keep print going to. I’m not ready to give up on them just yet.
Impact Of Digital Publishing
Interesting article on the impact of digital publishing:
http://www.bosonbooks.com/boson/freebies/istas02/ISTAS02.pdf
UK Students Taking Advantage Of E-Resources
According to new studies from ebrary’s Global Student survey, students in the UK are more likely to use ebooks for their studies than those in other countries. The survey found that 58% of UK students claimed that they would “very often” choose the digital version if it was available, whereas only 48% of other global respondents would.
Over 85% of these students also said that they used ebooks for up to 10 hours a week where under half of global participants answered that they never used ebooks at all.
The study which surveyed over 6,300 students from universities all over the world was created by librarians in order to further understand the impact of ebook publishing and the wealth of content now freely available over the internet and through university libraries.
Many students are coming out in praise of electronic formats of academic materials, which can traditionally be very expensive and in some cases particularly rare or out of print. They argued that it improves the availability of materials which are vital to their courses. One student commented;
“Looking for print versions of some books can be quite difficult at times, especially if it happens to be on a popular subject. There can be huge waiting lists for certain materials and many more that can’t be taken out of the library building. Using ebooks has made it a lot easier to get what you want, when you need it. There’s no late fees either, so you don’t need to worry about renewals when working on something time consuming and in-depth, like a dissertation or thesis”
E-learning has certainly gained popularity over the last few years, and there have been a number of proponents of the method. An increase in free and cheap resources have made it much easier for people to access information, stream-lining libraries and making learning a more convenient and efficient process.
Maurice Sendak Dies At 83
Maurice Sendak, author of the infamous children’s book Where the Wild Things Are has died today following complications after suffering a stroke. The author, who was 83, made his name internationally following the publication of Where the Wild Things Are in 1963, which went on to sell over 17m copies.
Born in 1928 to Jewish-Polish immigrant parents, Sendak’s life was affected by the holocaust in which much of his family were killed and the events of World War II – leading to the inspiration for and honesty of much of his work. In an interview in The Guardian in 2011, he commented, “I refuse to lie to children…I refuse to cater to the bullshit of innocence”
Throughout his career, Sendak illustrated over 100 books and wrote more than 20, and in 2009 Where The Wild Things Are was adapted for the big screen by Spike Jonze. There have also been a number of other adaptations too, including several TV adaptations and an opera.
Sometimes controversial, and enduringly popular, Sendak went on to win a number of esteemed prizes for his fiction, and in 1996 was awarded a National Medal of the Arts by Bill Clinton.
Sendak was someone whose honesty and proliferation has set him apart from other children’s authors and is a character who will be much missed by the literary world, and by all those who grew up with him. We’re sure that he will continue to inspire for many more years to come.
Ebook Sales Up 366% – But What Does This Mean For The Publishing Industry?
There has been much debate surrounding the benefits of ebooks and the impact they will have on the publishing industry. Many hail them as the saviour of literature, whilst others remain dubious about how they will affect the writer in terms of pay and royalties. With so much material widely available, and piracy on the rise, many believe that they will kill rather than cure an already ailing industry.
According to the Publishers Association, the sale of ebooks was up a massive 366% last year, and has put the value of consumer ebook sales at £92m, helping to offset the decline in sales of printed books. However, these strong sales figures come at the expense of traditional print which was down by around 7%, putting revenue at £1.579bn, a decline that has continued throughout the first quarter of this year now being valued at 313.6m – the lowest figure since 2003.
Richard Mollet, Chief Executive of the Publishers Association said; “The story of 2011 is a decline in physical sales being almost compensated for by a strong performance in digital…that said, physical books remain the format of choice for the vast majority of British readers, underlying the continued importance of a strong high street sector”
Combining print and digital figures, the Publishers Association revealed that overall book sales were down on the previous year by 2%. Mollet commented; “For many years now publishers have invested in innovation in figital products and services and this is being reflected in the increasingly mixed economy for books in the Uk…However, online copyright infringement is increasingly making its presence felt for authors and publishers and that is why we continue to call on government and other stakeholders in the digital economy to work with us to do more to tackle it”
Book piracy has been a contentious issue in the publishing world for a while now. Although the majority are dead against making reading material freely available over sites such as Pirate Bay, there are others who welcome the idea, arguing that piracy can raise an authors profile and actually increase sales. Paulo Coelho, best selling author of The Alchemist has called on users of Pirate Bay to distribute his books:
“The good old days, when each idea had an owner, are gone forever. First, because all anyone ever does is recycle the same four themes: a love story between two people, a love triangle, the struggle for power and the story of a journey. Second, because all writers want what they write to be read, whether in a newspaper, blog, pamphlet or on a wall…The more often we heard a song on the radio, the keener we are to buy the CD. It’s the same with literature. The more people ‘pirate’ a book, the better. If they like the beginning, they’ll buy the whole book the next day, because there’s nothing more tiring than reading long screeds of text on a computer screen.”
And he is not alone in these views, certainly, many new authors have been utilising blogs, piracy sites and social media in order to make a name for themselves, and publishers now will rarely touch someone who hasn’t done at least half of the leg work in terms of marketing themselves.
Clearly, it is an industry that is still in its infant years, and what will happen in the future is anyone’s guess. Personally, we hope that traditional and digital print will learn to live side-by-side, mutually complementing each other.
Cap Care Costs Or Risk Library Closures LGA Warns
The library has been one of the biggest victims of George Osborne’s austerity measures since the election of the coalition, and announcements today have led to even more uncertainty surrounding the library’s future.
In today’s announcement, the Local Government Association has stated that elderly care funding will need to be capped to ensure that public services like libraries and leisure centres can keep their doors open to the public.
In a letter to the three main party members, the LGA have warned that through delaying the implementation of changes calling for reform to elderly care, non-essential services will once again come under threat of closure. Sir Merrick Cockell, chairman of the LGA writes:
“We are clear that any such loss of momentum on exactly how care is funded is dangerous. First it will exacerbate the problems of an already overstretched care system. Second, and as a consequence, it will increasingly limit the availability of valuable local discretionary services as resources are drawn away to plug the gap in care funding. And third, it will fundamentally threaten the broad consensus that has built up around the Dilnot proposals from all quarters. The potential damage caused by one of these dangers, let alone all three, could set the care reform debate back years”
With the UK facing massive problems in terms of how elderly care is managed, this is just the latest in a long line of criticisms directed at the government regarding how the country will handle the increasingly burdensome issue of the UK’s ageing population.
Cameron’s plea for a “Big Society” in which services like libraries would be staffed by members of the public have also been subject to fierce criticisms, and pressure groups have continued to lobby the government to ensure that supposedly “non-essential” services continue to be maintained by local councils such as Speak Up for Libraries, a “coalition” of a number of different unions and charities such as Campaign for the Book, The National Federation of Women’s Institutes, the Library Campaign and UNISON.
Although many are reluctant to take services away from the elderly, it is becoming an increasingly divisive issue, with a number of critics claiming that the younger generation are already paying for the mistakes of the generations before, also stating that library closures could have a negative impact on social mobility.
Electronic Books
A new trend in this changing world of technology has been the development of the electronic book. E-book or digital book as it is also known as, are quickly replacing the traditional hardback and paperback books that we previously used. Basically, our books are changing from a physical object into an electronic version that can be read on dedicated reading devices, your own personal computer or any other electronic devise that is intended for this purpose. Technology is even allowing books to be read on mobile telephones. With a growing popularity of electronic books, one wonders if there will come a day when regular books become obsolete, and that the only way you can read a book is through an electronic device.
There are pros and cons to electronic books. One of the biggest advantages is the ability of easy access to an unlimited number of books. You have the capability to have a number of books at your finger tips without have to carry all of the books. And you will not have to worry about a book going out of print or if it’s not in stock at your local bookstore. Downloading of your favourite book is available through a designated website. However, a disadvantage can be availability as well. Not every book ever made is obtainable in the electronic book format. And there are concerns about the changing technology as well. But with this growing trend, more and more books will surely become available in electronic form.
Libraries
Libraries provide a wealth of information to both the public and students. There are some libraries, such as public libraries, that have a variety of different subjects, whereas others specialise on one particular subject. This could be a law library or medical library that contains books specifically to a certain profession or theme. This is particularly true for universities that will have dedicated libraries to fit with the courses that they offer. Libraries can also be owned by an institution, a public organisation or even a private individual. For example, a library owned by an institution can be a university library. A public organisation would be your local public library, funded by taxes. And an example of a private individual would be a library at a hospital or any corporation. All of these types of libraries provide books and other materials free of charge for those who may not be able to afford to purchase lots of reading material.
Traditionally, libraries have only been associated with books. But it has now changed meaning as new technology has been developed. Libraries can offer anything from DVDs, CDs and even video games. Libraries can also give you access to the internet if you are not able to have the internet at home. Other digital tools that libraries are offering are that of electronic databases online. You can have access to a variety of scholarly research tools that you would not be able to retrieve from your home computer.