ePublishing Week in Brief – July 15th to 19th, 2013
ePublishing Week in Brief – July 15th to 19th, 2013
Inkling picks up powerful publishing partners
FORTUNE — Just five months after digital book publisher Inkling launched Habitat, a set of cloud-based tools that let users create interactive books, the startup has picked up two powerful new partners. Publishing giants Pearson and Elsevier have announced multi-million dollar deals to use Inkling to build digital versions of the textbooks, scientific and technical journals they publish. The news comes on the heels of a new $16 million round of funding led by Sequoia, a bet that Inkling can help book publishers reinvent the medium for the digital age.
digital age.
Since the launch of the iPad, magazines have published digital editions with videos and interactive elements you couldn’t see in print. Books, however, have been slower to transform their charts, photos, and graphics because software offered by Apple (AAPL) and Amazon (AMZN) doesn’t allow the same degree of interactivity. (Have you ever tried to read a graphic-heavy cookbook on a Kindle?) And building a custom app for every book is laborious both technically and time-wise, particularly for textbooks that must meet rigorous standards.
http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2013/07/17/inkling-picks-up-powerful-publishing-partners/
More firepower in the startup’s bid to transform interactive books.
FORTUNE — Just five months after digital book publisher Inkling launched Habitat, a set of cloud-based tools that let users create interactive books, the startup has picked up two powerful new partners. Publishing giants Pearson and Elsevier have announced multi-million dollar deals to use Inkling to build digital versions of the textbooks, scientific and technical journals they publish. The news comes on the heels of a new $16 million round of funding led by Sequoia, a bet that Inkling can help book publishers reinvent the medium for the digital age.
Since the launch of the iPad, magazines have published digital editions with videos and interactive elements you couldn’t see in print. Books, however, have been slower to transform their charts, photos, and graphics because software offered by Apple (AAPL) and Amazon (AMZN) doesn’t allow the same degree of interactivity. (Have you ever tried to read a graphic-heavy cookbook on a Kindle?) And building a custom app for every book is laborious both technically and time-wise, particularly for textbooks that must meet rigorous standards.
Madefire and Key Publishers Team Up to Bring Motion Book Experience to Popular Titles
SAN FRANCISCO, CA–(Marketwired – Jul 16, 2013) – Groundbreaking. Innovative. Original. All these terms could be used to describe either the cutting-edge digital studio Madefire or their new partners: IDW, Top Cow, Boom! Studios, and ITV Studios America. In signing a new partnership, these trailblazing companies are going to be setting a new standard for digital storytelling in the 21st century.
“Madefire has created some amazing original motion books and animation tools,” shared Jeff Webber, IDW’s VP of Digital Publishing. “They’ve taken everything they’ve learned and developed over the past year and applied it to creating new experiences with some of our top comic brands. The motion book versions of Star Trek, My Little Pony and Transformerscomics will reach a whole new audience.”
The deal consists of IDW, Top Cow, and Boom! Studios bringing the trademark Motion Book experience to a select group of their most popular print titles — including Boom!’s Next Testament and 2 Guns and Top Cow’s The Darkness — and releasing them through the acclaimed Madefire iOS app and on the web exclusively through deviantART. Taking existing print titles and creating a new, immersive digital reading experience will be a first for Madefire but it’s a treatment they think fans will enjoy.
Every Aspiring Author Should Be Depressed By J.K. Rowling’s Pseudonymous Publishing Stunt
However, it’s hard to believe that Rowling, perhaps the most financially successful author ever, could really need the publicity for a book.
It’s far more logical to trust Rowling’s own explanation — that it was an experiment designed to offer Rowling a chance to “publish without hype or expectation” and allow her the “pure pleasure to get feedback from publishers and readers under a different name.”
Zimmerman juror changes mind — no book after outrage
A member of the jury that acquitted George Zimmerman in the shooting of Trayvon Martin has reversed her plans to write a book about the experience of being in the courtroom for the high-profile trial. Juror B37, a mother of two adult children, had announced her intention of authoring a book that “would focus on what it is like to be sequestered and why [she] felt she had no choice but to acquit Zimmerman.”
Paula Deen Comic Book and Magazine: Publishers Stand by the Celebrity Chef
http://blogs.miaminewtimes.com/shortorder/2013/07/yes_there_is_really_a_paula_de.php